Financial & Travel Musings

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Isn’t it amazing just how quickly Christmas comes around each year?

If you were really organized last year you’d have picked up a whole bunch of Christmas cards at knock-down prices but few of us are that organized usually. However, if you’ve not got a stash from last year, that gives you the opportunity to look into photo holiday cards instead of the cookie cutter cards that we’re all so used to these days.

If you are considering one of these cards, it’s best if you have thought ahead and taken an appropriate photo earlier in the year but if not you can always take a special one now. That’s usually what we end up doing ourselves though we did manage a lovely scene from the Swiss holiday late last year which was very appropriate for Christmas. Haven’t got anything similar this year as yet though we’re off to Venice soon so there’s still time to get that organized.

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Probably one of the very first things that you’ll think of buying any new baby is a pram in that you figure that you’ll want to take them walks and generally show them around. However, it’s about the most useless piece of gear that you’ll get them.

For a start, babies are pretty small when they start out and rather than cart a massive lump of a pram around with you (and they’re all massive things), I found it a good deal more practical and pleasurable to carry juniors 1 and 2 around. Now, you’ll often be told that you just have to have a pram for their first three months or so (basically until their back is strong enough to allow them to sit up by themselves) and it’s certainly true that you can’t use one of the strollers until they can sit up by themselves but then, as I say, they’re pretty light for the first few months.

In fact, we hardly used the pram at all for the second little guy. The stroller though saw use for years after the first little guy got into it as, of course, babies get pretty heavy before they can walk sensible distances by themselves.

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Although these days we’re all used to buying books and booking our flights online, there’s a massive amount of other stuff that you can also get online which often surprises.

Garden and household furniture is one of the most surprising that I’ve come across lately which are a whole class of item that I’d never have thought would have been economic to ship any kind of distance (which goes to show that we’re getting ripped off by the house movers!). At the other end of the scale there are Christmas cookies which sound like they’d be that little bit fragile to arrive in one piece but then again my last backup drive arrived in just that way with minimal packaging so either stuff is a lot more sturdy these days or the mailmen don’t handle the packages nearly so roughly as the joke assume.

Anyway, whatever you’re looking for at the moment, it’s worth having a look online. Large, heavy and fragile no longer seem to be showstoppers for shipping.

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