Where are you Christmas? Why can't I find you?

So most of you will notice I haven’t been posting as often as I really should and I want to apologise for that. Unfortunately working in retail means long days around Christmas and currently I am 40 hours down in my 60 hour week so as you can imagine I am currently working, getting in eating and going to bed.

Unfortunately working in retail seems to have another downside... I’ve lost my Christmas spirit! Well actually I can’t really say I have lost the spirit because this year I haven’t even had it in the first place. By this time I’m normally getting excited and being a bit like a kid in a candy shop about Christmas, counting down the days and singing Christmas carols however this year seems to be the opposite.

Unfortunately with Christmas preparations beginning in November for me I think to be honest Christmas is running pretty thin. Not to mention the fact that Christmas seems to make people go mental. I guess the expense of Christmas and the stress of trying to organise just one day gets to people but I honestly cannot count how many times I have been smacked into with shopping trolleys, moaned at and abused for merely doing my job. I understand the stress but this however does not put me in the finest mood when I’m tired and grouchy from not spending time with my own family.

I even thought that wrapping my presents would put me in a good mood as normally with a bit of Christmas music on I would begin to feel Christmassy however there was nothing...nada. It just seemed like another chore.

I’m guessing that as I get older, Christmas is losing its magic, and that instead this is how Christmas is going to feel all I can say is I really hope not and that instead I am going to go into work tomorrow or Christmas Eve and suddenly the moaning and depression won’t matter and I will once again be excited for Christmas.

30 Day Disney Challenge: Day 12: Your favourite love song

After watching the film last night with my little sister- as I hadn't watched it in ages and my little sister had never seen it I think this is defo my favourite love song currently

"Manners are like the shadows of virtues, they are the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love and respect." Sydney Smith

Right I’m going to have a bit of a rant today about something that has been bothering me for a while now...manners.

I’ve always been brought up with some what I consider basic manners. You know the kind of thing, treat others like you wish to be treated, always say please thank you and excuse me and to always respect your elders. In fact I’d consider them more common courtesy than manners but it seems to me today that some people are severely lacking.

Take the other day for example I was getting on the bus to work and because it was a quite busy time of day the bus was as expected really packed. Anyway an elderly gentleman in front of me who had two walking sticks for support and struggled with basic walking got on the bus before me. As I said it was busy and the bus seats were all full but there were a group of about 4 boys aged about 15 sat in the priority disabled seats, now in my eyes I think the elderly gentleman who could barely stand on his own let alone on a moving bus qualified for the seat but these boys just sat there laughing and staring at him whilst he struggled. If that was me I would have given up my seat straight away, it was obvious he was struggling and I’m sure those boys were more than capable of standing for a few minutes. I’ll admit I had to really  bite my tongue to prevent me shouting at them to give up their seat and were they dragged up (although luckily another passenger got in there before me and insisted the boys moved to let the poor gentleman sit down. Anyway it got me thinking, have manners really gone so far to the dogs?

Another example is saying please and thank you and treating others like you would wish to be treated but I have noticed especially now I’m back working full time in a shop just how many people seem to forget little things like saying please. Like people that come up to you and go “oi where’s the cream?” or some other request. Is it really hard to ask “Excuse me could you tell me where the cream is please?”?! And it’s just an observation but its normally younger people who seem to behave like this... I feel like an old woman going on like this but it’s really one of my pet hates.

Maybe as society progresses and the younger generation grow up there will begin to be no place for manners, in fact at the moment this certainly is the case, however I don’t think I want to live in a world where a bit of common courtesy is given to others.

What are your thoughts? Do you think some people nowadays are severely lacking in manners or do you think manners have no place in society anymore?