I was GRUMPY.

They're becoming the best of buddies!

“BROWSING only, NO sales today.”

I SHOULD have put that darn sign up! I so wanted to NOT have ANY sales today so we could show HO that it wasn’t worthwhile being the ONLY shop in the mall OPEN on Boxing Day

 ... or any public holiday, for that matter.

Huge restless waves this morning .... and rain 

HO have this warped idea that EVERYONE goes shopping on a Public Holiday. That might work in the bigger retail centres but our little shop is in a pedestrian mall in the village. 

Our village DOESN’T do ‘Retail Therapy on Public Holidays’ 

..... or so I thought.

A CLOSED mall!

I was GRUMPY. I had to open up the shop at 9 and stay open till 6. There were NO other shops open in the mall ... the mall itself was locked and armed. We’re one of two shops at the entrance to the mall, on the outside of the security doors, so couldn’t even access the ablution facilities. I was stranded .... my only company being the Superette on the High Street and the Newsagent.

Even my usual coffee haunt WASN’T open ... HELP

.... how was I meant to survive without my daily caffeine fix?

A Christmas Hound .... and the caption on her bandanna reads
"Dear Santa ..... I can explain ..."

Why did I choose to work on Mondays and Wednesdays?

New Zealand has this strange policy of moving the majority of Public Holidays, with the exception of Christmas Day, New Year and Good Friday, to the Monday closest to the date of the Public Holiday. All well and good .... and when I first heard about this policy I thought it was a great idea .... until I started working at the shop!

The fur-ball likes my reindeer antlers!

MOST public holidays are celebrated on a MONDAY ..... dam!

Getting her Christmas present.

Our little village CLOSES down on Public Holidays. For some obscure reason it DIDN’T stop customers coming into the shop today .... BIGGER dam!

Sales were better than I expected them to be.

That might have had something to do with me being GRUMPY. All the customers coming into the shop expressed their amazement at the shop being open when EVERYONE else in the mall was closed .... I won’t tell you what my reply was. Suffice to say most of them had a good chuckle .... and spent money .... even though I didn’t want them too!

It was a fun day despite having to work. I had friends pop in and visit, the family pop in and visit .... even the flirtatious milk delivery chap popped in to chat even though he didn’t have any deliveries to make in the mall! Most of the customers were in the mood for a chat too so I wasn’t short of entertaining company. Facebook added to the mix with the saga of the seven dwarfs .... that was a lot of fun too!

So Christmas is done and dusted for ANOTHER year! We celebrate the youngest lemming’s birthday tomorrow .... he’ll be 17!! 

Boy, do I feel old!