Boxing Day

P'raps you remember last year on this day when I explained all about what Boxing Day is. It is not about feats of pugilism or the square circle. There is no hitting people on Boxing Day. But I have to admit that when Marshall and I were talking this morning about Boxing Day, we suddenly realized we had no boxes!

So we popped out into the hotel hallway and went up and down, door by door, knocking and asking people if they had any boxes they could spare. Most everyone was pretty short with us; I guess they wanted to keep their boxes for themselves. We were just about to despair that we had no boxes for Boxing Day when the hotel manager came up the lift and told us we must stop knocking on people's doors as it was only 4:30 in the morning again. But when Marshall started crying that we didn't have any boxes he was very kind enough to take us down into the hotel office and fetched us both some boxes. Now we are sitting here waiting for John to wake up so we can show him our boxes. I have one that Weetabix cartons were packed in and Marshall's is a box that held wine bottles from the hotel bar. She likes popping in and out of all the little compartments.

Boxes are essential on Boxing Day because it is one of the biggest sales days in British stores all year 'round, and you will definitely need the boxes to cart home all your bargains! As we were walking home late on Christmas Eve we saw many poor shop clerks still working long after the shops had closed just to mark down merchandise for the post-Christmas sales. I s'pose they are looking for everything that they bought waaaaaay too much of and need to get rid of. I guess that means lots of stores will have Jamie Oliver's new cookbook for half price. Or maybe more. Enough with the school lunches, Jamie: we all liked it better when you were making fry-ups for your birds.

If you look closely at this arty montage of shop window photos I took yesterday, you may note a certain pattern to the sales discounts this year:


And some are going that traditional half-off Boxing Day sales even better:


And then there are those shops...the ones that clearly don't understand the general rules of seasonal supply and demand:


So wherever you are shopping today for your Boxing Day, I hope you find some fantastic bargains. And please keep Boxing Day safe: remember you're not actually supposed to hit anyone.