Christmas Shopping

Before the agoraphobic Peruvian returned to the land of her forefathers, she insisted on putting up a Christmas tree in the lounge. It's only a small tree. It's about three feet high and she decorated it with some tinsel and some lights and put some presents underneath it. There's even one for Yaxlich which he is excited about. Christmas is three weeks away and Yaxlich has not got any presents for anyone yet. Like most years he is going to leave it until Christmas Eve. He once heard the following saying: If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done This is especially true when it comes to Christmas shopping. If you make a list of presents to buy in advance, you are setting yourself up for a fall. What if the present isn't available? What if it's sold out? Suddenly all the pre-planning is useless and you need to start again from scratch and you begin to question your purchasing decisions anyway and before you know it you have picked up two presents for everyone just in case they don't like the first one. You then need to wrap the presents and find somewhere to hide them from prying eyes for the next few weeks. You manage to do this with a week to go and congratulate yourself for your forward thinking only you can't remember exactly what you got everyone and panic sets in and, before you know it, you're queuing to get into the car park again. The Yaxlich approach is the most efficient and cost effective way. The adrenaline rush of that last minute dash to the shops focuses the mind so that purchases are made using a combination of logic and availability. If all of the presents can be purchased from the first shop nearest the lift from the car park, all the better. Precision purchasing. That's the name of the game.