Past His Sell by Date

The madness that is Edinburgh at New year.
A combination of the Store Sales and preparations for the Hogmanay revelries have turned the city into a madhouse, which for us living in the centre, is far removed from the peaceful interlude between Christmas and New Year that I used to embrace many years ago; a becalmed week when time seemed to stand still at the end of the old year before the uncertainties of the new one made an appearance.

No sooner has the shopping rush for Christmas passed, than a fresh more frantic one is under way with food shopping taking on an urgency as though in preparation for an imminent siege.
It is easy to get caught up in the maelstrom, when all I would really like is to be somewhere remote, preferably in this country, relaxed, with the radio, my book, my knitting and perhaps my camera...*

Now, don't I just sound like an old Lady past her sell by date?

* His Lordship wants to come too........