Friday, August 12, 2005

Early Christmas shopping

I do not celebrate Christmas. The whole concept of Christmas is too complicated and mind-boggling for my tiny brain to comprehend. And I am not a Christian. But some of my mates do celebrate Christmas (and they are not Christians!) and they will probably demand the 'traditional' exchange of gifts. Crap.

I chanced upon the local Oxfam high street store the other day and noticed they had some pretty darn cheap stuff. Most were used but one did catch my eyes. The "2-disx X-treme Edition of the original film X-Men 1.5". For £1.99. And all of them were factory sealed. DVDs costs around £10-£15 here and giving what looks like a £15 gift is better than presenting a cheap keyring.

So today I returned to the store and bought two of these:



Neat huh? This is a bargain. You can't get crap pirated DVDs of b-listed films for £1.99. Okay it isn't that a big-deal film but it does have the oh so hot Famke Janssen in it and the special effects is wonderful. I know some here might even lust for Hugh Jackman. Hell, I might be tempted to keep one for myself and just give the other one away come the depressing season.

From a fiver came £1.02 in change. Because I happened to be cheerful and the cashiers were extremely friendly bunch I donated the change into the Oxfam change tub. Friendly bunch they were, they forced me this:



Gasp! I am really a nice bloke (ed: yeah right) but what did they expect me to do with this? Wear it? I fully support the MakePovertyHistory campaign since almost the beginning but I would never ever wear that, especially when we have companies like McDonalds taking advantage of the current charitable trend to make a quick buck. But I am a nice bloke so I accepted it nonchalantly.

After all that I went to visit my grand aunt in Kingsbury. While on the bus in Wembley some six police cars (3 unmarked, 2 police sedans and 1 police van) with the sirens blaring overtook us. I knew the police were doing raids across London today so no panic.

A hearty meal later, I tried to coax my aunt into sponsoring me. Actually it wasn't like that. I just needed to lift to Amersham at 4am in the morning for the Tube Relief challenge. It was difficult because she is pretty old and some old people will never understand the 'ridiculous stuff young people do these days'. Like an attempt to visit as many, if possible all, Tube stations in one day.

Surprise surprise she was helpful. While she declined to send me over to Amersham (Are you mad!??? Do you know how far that is?) she brought out her London map and a Tube map and we went over it plotting the lines together. She gave me some handy tips on which platforms to avoid and which stations I should disembark to get the next connection. With almost fourty years of Tube experience behind her she should know.



But it got me thinking. Shit, Tube Relief is almost here and I have yet to prepare a single damn thing. My online campaign isn't doing so well but the traditional way (paper sponsorship) is running on just fine (I even managed to recruit my landlady to do some paperwork). But apart from that. Nowt. I haven't even properly looked at the Tube map and plan the route we will be taking that day. I am so fucked.

On the way back I scurried to Ealing Common station and got me a couple of Tube map (June 2005). I knew I would need a couple but what I am after are those huge underground maps (A3 size) as well as a new bus map. I will be going down to Victoria tomorrow so that wouldn't be a problem. As you can see, I did picked up a couple of London Bombing Relief Charitable Fund leaflets by the Red Cross to give out to commuters on the day.

3 comments:

Jay said...

OMG Jon, you have to tell me where I can get that! I bought the 2-disc X-Men 2 set just the other day from Blockbuster (clearance because the slipcase was a bit chan already) for £5.99.

Now, even though I never liked it that much, I need to get the first one for my collection.

I'm anal like that.

Jon Choo said...

Oxfam Ealing Broadway (The Green) although I suspect other Oxfam brances would have stock too.

I know...Hugh Jackman eh?

HardiJ said...

Talking about police raid, I was having a lovely dinner in Lewes with Sybille at her patio when we heard police with a megaphone saying loudly to someone "stand facing the wall!" We were shock but excited as well, so running back into the house gathering our shoes, we get back outside and running along the small walkway out to the main road, but too late, no trace of any police nor a single human being! all deserted! Am still wondering what happened..