[Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)]

......And the mall won!
I hate shopping malls. Even when its not Christmas, I hate these monuments to gluttony and superficiality. The tinned music, too loud and different in every shop. Glaring neon lighting. Being sprayed with malodorous "eaux de toilette" meant to entice something to something else, screaming infants, the insane, the belligerent, the indifferent, and worst of all the trogging. From A to B to C then back to A 'cuz I forgot item D. Any convenience that was originally the impetus behind these monstrosities, has long been superceded by their soul-sucking consumerism, their inconvenient infrastructure and the general malaise of being stuck in a giant telephone booth with 10,000 sweaty people.

While almost every shop assistant was perfectly pleasant, and one even dosed me up with free coffee, I can't get over the feeling that humans should not be doing this. I mean, I like bright, shiny, expensive stuff but I certainly don't need it. Quite frankly I'd rather have a pair of hand-knitted socks! We should all be ambling around our local shops buying artisinal whatsits and making presents out of hessian cloth.
Oh well, thats my Christmas whinge.
Yours?