Christmas cash
Stainer's story just reminded me of my own. It seems that Kilburn High Street is perhaps the centre of financial miracles in the UK.

I was on the same said road a couple of years ago with my 'merkin flatmate. She'd had a pretty tough time of it back in the US before escaping to England to study. The result was that she'd never had a proper Christmas.

So - despite our combined poverty - we headed off to Poundland to buy all the tinsel we could for a tenner. On the way back we had to dodge our way through all the Christmas trees that had been hacked down from a local forest and put up for sale along the pavement.

There was one tree that seemed nicer than the rest. We both saw it and made mention... but there was no way we could afford a tree. Still, for some reason it drew me over, I think I just wanted to touch it and take in it's bathroom-fresh pine smell.

Anyway, as I touched I saw a note. Not the "Help, I'm being held captive in the forest" type. A crisp 20 pound note!

So I haggled down the pikey purveyor of pine and we had a tree (plus a bloody long way to carry the spiky fucker home).

'Twas truly a Christmas miracle

And why did I only have 5 pounds to my name and live in a flatshare despite having a 30k/year job and a house that I was renting out for a second income? 25k on credit cards is the answer. But that story would just be the same as all the others...
( DickieDoesDallas eshews witty slogans, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 4:16, Reply)