SUNDAY RELAXATION

So, how do you spend Sunday afternoon?  Whoever would have thought when I was a youngster that as likely as not I would want to go shopping.
Not that I necessarily wanted to go shopping today, but when my wife woke this morning and her first words were “I think I would like to go to the shops, today.” Well what else was I to do?
To be fair, most Sundays I will head out at some time during the day, possibly to buy a newspaper, and maybe a coffee.  Sometimes even to buy the joint for Sunday lunch or dinner.
But today it was decreed that we were going to the shops, so it was going to be more of a Sunday outing.
Yet the Sunday Trading Act came about only 20 years ago, so I was certainly not brought up in an age when this was to become a Sunday pastime.  The Sunday trading laws which gained force of law in 1994 allows all stores to open for six hours between the times of 10am and 6pm, although small shops like convenience stores which are less than 3,000 sq ft of floor space can open all day. There are no regulations covering what you can or cannot buy.
Hence you’ll find shopping malls, high streets and out of town centres crowded most Sundays. Yes, Sunday shopping has become a leisure pursuit.
I really needed no more than a Sunday newspaper and while I was there bought a magazine.  But the real purpose of the visit — clothes, and one or two food luxuries that we probably did not desperately need, and oh yes, perhaps simply the chance to look around.
Now, a few hours on, my wife has just said: “I’ve quite enjoyed today!”

Mission Accomplished.