SHIFTY SHOPKEEPERS

For the past two days, I have gone into two of my local stores to buy milk and other bits and bobs and twice I have almost been fleeced by my local shopkeepers.

Damn them, the first time, the man had the cheek to ask for my coppers change. I actually laughed at him and told him to cough up. I didn't think much of it as I was also slightly three sheets to the wind but then last night, I headed in again for milk to the shop across the road from the greedy shopkeeper. Now I don't have a milk fetish but I do only buy a half pint at a time. I don't drink it the day after it's opened so buying a pint means that some of it may go to waste. Last night I ventured in and again the other shopkeeper tried to shortchange me. Now I know it's the season of goodwill but I refuse to line the coffers of my local establishments when they can't count. I simply grabbed the man's calculator and questioned the price he rang up for butter (well it was I Can't Believe It's Not Butter) but it was my butter substitute. Sure enough he added a full £1 on to the 69p it should have been.

This credit crunch has obviously hit home to Glasgow's corner shops.

On a brighter note, it's a few days til Xmas and I'm off work. I've been drinking for the past week so after Saturday night, I called an armistice on the booze until Xmas night at the earliest - which is only 5 days so not really a break but compared to what I was doing, Sue Ellen Ewing would have been proud. I'm sure I heard my liver actually squeal "Caress!!! I'm hurting!!" on Sunday morning so an intervention was required and it came in the form of not opening that next bottle of champagne and watching the scene where Sue Ellen goes stark staring bonkers after Bobby's funeral and ends up drinking meths (not crystal meth!) from a brown paper bag.

I've just switched on one of my favourite Xmas movies, "The Man Who Came To Dinner". It's not majorly Xmassy per se but it's got Bette Davis, a winter setting and is an almost sophisticated slapstick comedy. It's just perfect afternoon viewing for the holidays. I'm off home to the parents tomorrow for Xmas Eve and Xmas Day and return back here after the champagne at Jon's on Xmas night. I love the fact that when I go home I get the chance to get spoiled and not do any housework, which reminds me - I've got a washing to do and some hoovering to do and also to avoid some corner shops for my milk Ciao for now!!!