Black Friday and vulgar fights.

Black Friday was a story of rare, pitiable fights in American retail just three years ago, when viewed from here in the UK.

Two years ago it remained an all American story.

A year ago it caught on a little in half a dozen British high streets, but was already strong and prevalent on line.

This year and today, it was in absolute full swing. Almost every retailer had some sort of offer, with 20, 30, 40 and even 50% off everything, right across the high street and into the coming weekend. Full-on POS and window posters too, and appropriate staffing levels, in this orgy before Christmas and coinciding with pay day for most.

I worked Black Friday in Cheltenham, hardly renowned for vulgarity, and yet the streets were full and the elbowing, grasping disposition was there. These well to do pictures are all within 100 yards of each other on The Promenade at Cheltenham, and even there the buying was forceful.

Elsewhere in the UK (north London and the north west), fighting, police intervention and vulgarity seemed present all day.

What is it all about?

Unboxing !

It is here!  For ages and ages I have reviewed, contemplated, tried-in-store and  considered an Iphone 6 plus. After many a pause in an Apple Store (at pretty much any city I have worked in that has one), today they were available to reserve and in good number. So I reserved one....

My Iphone 4s had not worked properly since the week before my brother's Stag do (June 2014) and it had a virtual home button only, meaning once the screen went to sleep I could only wake the phone up by plugging it in. That meant I had to switch off the sleep mode, and in turn that meant the battery lasted about as long as a suet ball once my resident crow has clocked it here in BS5.

So, off I went to the Apple shop at Cribbs Causeway on this merry Saturday off. I was pretty excited.

Now I am into Retail for work, and these fellas have it down. Service was flawless end to end; polite, knowledgeable, professional, courteous, fun, and in no hurry to move me on from the store until I was happy. Perfect in fact.  I also visited my phone provider to swap out to a sim only tariff. At Apple I took the massive plunge (largely the majority of my considered thought) and bought the phone outright, figuring that a much, much, much lower monthly tariff was a better deal in the long run.

Playing with it now, and here are some pictures from Store to home. 

I am not much of a one for design appreciation but each iteration of the Apple box is a keeper!

Happy chappy.

Dunster by Candlelight

This week I have worked at my store in Dunster.

Dunster is a wee little village in Somerset, just tucked in from the Bristol Channel. 817 people are registered as residents. It has a Yarn Mill in the high street where local yarns were traded from 1609. It is also the village where All Things Bright and Beautiful was penned, and the location of Dunster castle, built by the Luttrell family in the 17th C and given  by them to the National Trust just a few decades ago.

Each year Dunster has a festival, Dunster by Candlelight. I am working at my store for this year's event and we will trade 10-10, so I will work the whole day and stay overnight. I am really looking forward to it - store event days are often fun, fast and hard work. Customers are usually in a good mood, and all in all it is a pleasure rather than a chore.

I will take my own pics in a couple of weeks but here it is from a previous year, along with some village shots.

Shopping days, sprouts, car-jacking and country roads.

Man, I have not blogged in aaaaaages...

Three weeks is really the gap, but after a spurt of blogging delight this year, the mundanity of regular work has kicked in via my new job and I have been getting home zonk-out tired every day.

So here's a blog burst; a quick unloading of phrases as they occur to me tonight.

M&S Chocolate sprouts
Gambled spoons & games of cards
White roses
Home lilies
Dorset roads
Dry Requisite Trousers
Winchester ease
A zip pocket suit? FFS.
Shrewsbury pop up
A bit pissed in Cardiff
New TV!
Massive screen clarity
Comfort of Bath tobacco
Brother going to Spain
Bunny eighteen
Fixed vacuum cleaner
Feeling taller than I did three months ago (actual, not spiritual)
Nudging 12 stone again
Tractor theft in Los Santos
General theft in Los Santos
Earning immoral dollars in Los Santos
Sixteen bit Lolitas (Pete Tong)
Mac u'g to Mavericks
Apple TV
2:29:32
Yolanda 3800 miles already
Where to rest for Christmas?
Like using my fountain pen