"An' I got up special, too!"

You have to feel sorry for some folks, at times, like the poor old gent who got on my bus at the mid-point bus station earlier today.

He was rather put out, to say the least. He'd made a special effort to get into the shopping centres in town, to find that they were, for the most part, closed up tighter than a bankers' wallet. What he was most annoyed about, though, was not that they were all shut. No, not at all.

He was annoyed because he'd turned down his wife's offer of kippers and toast for breakfast, in favour of getting ahead of the crowds for some early morning shopping!

I'll give him this: At least he was laughing about it!