Make Sundays special

You may be surprised to learn this, but I'm a very traditional sort of person. I prefer baths to showers, wet shaves to electric and after shave to skin moisturisers. I like my bread to be buttered (not smeared with a chemical concoction of dubious origin) my tea brewed properly in a teapot and my milk whole.

I also like my Sundays special.

Now I know a lot of people my age will remember the days when Sundays were typically very quiet and shudder at the prospect of a return to such ideas. I know a lot of people thought that Sundays then were very boring, but I loved them - perhaps because I never got bored as a child. Even with no television for half the day, no computer games or consoles and very little money there was always something to do.

Sunday mornings were usually spent doing "essential" maintenance on my bike (a collection of old bits of bike I had recovered from scrap). This usually amounted to adjusting the one brake it had, pumping up the tyres and respraying the frame in the latest lurid colour. Alternatively I'd help my dad in the garden or my mum in the kitchen preparing Sunday lunch and baking.

We'd sit down to eat our Sunday lunch together while listening to Two Way Family Favourites on Radio 2 and then, after a suitable period of rest (usually spent watching The Big Match) I'd be off out for the afternoon. Hopping on my freshly painted (and hopefully dry) bike I'd be out onto the mercifully quiet streets and do a tour of all the local haunts where my friends would be hanging out.

As I've mentioned before, the part of Slough I lived in was semi-rural, so there were meadows, streams, ponds and such like to check out as well as the usual collection of waste ground and building sites. Even in the unlikely event that I didn't bump into any friends there were always places where you know you could find something to do - an informal kick-a-bout at the local recreation ground for instance (these games often consisted of around 20 a side!). Even if they weren't friends of mine they were usually always happy to let you join in - very different from today.

I'd then head home when it started to get dark or when I got hungry - whichever came first - and would sit down with the family once more for tea, a bit more telly, then a bath (school the next day, you see). There really wasn't any time to get bored.

I still try to keep my Sundays pretty much like they were. We have a rule in the Stan household that we do not go shopping on Sundays unless it is a quick walk down to the local corner shop for essentials such as milk, coffee or toilet rolls - I don't count the walk to the newsagents to get the Sunday papers as "shopping". Most of all I try to ensure that my kids grow up understanding that Sundays are for family and friends - and that is what makes them special.

I have no religious objections to Sunday shopping, although I do believe that there should be more restrictions on it - particularly the idea of restricting those shops that can open to only those which have a floor space less than 1000 sq ft. Other than that I believe we should all do what we can to make our own Sundays special however we can.

Sunday, bloody Sunday

Despite the title, Sunday remains one of my favourite days, but sometimes I still find it frustrating. Or rather, the modern version of it. I suspect that, like a lot of people, my Sundays are fairly traditional. Sometimes I start by going to church, though not as often as I'd like.

The truth is, I find the modern service too happy-clappy and the guitar led modern hymns abysmal. Give me a fire breathing vicar, stirring church organ and a rousing chorus of "For those in peril on the sea" anytime.

Anyway, church aside, I usually take a morning stroll to the local paper shop, buy the Sunday papers and then it's back to chez Stan for a quiet read before we all sit down for a Sunday roast. The simple pleasures, eh?

Except nothing is that simple anymore.

Once upon a time, the morning stroll was a pleasure even in poor weather. Now, with so many cars about and so many shops open, the roads are as busy and as noisy as they are on a Monday morning. Where I could once walk to the shop and enjoy the relative peace and quiet - even listen to the birdsong - it is now an unending assault on the ear drums from cars rushing by. A constant stream - even on a Sunday.

And what about at the shop? Once upon a time you'd find a small queue of three or four people waiting to buy their paper and a packet of B&H. It's pretty much the same now except ...... where the queue used to dissipate quickly as people handed over their cash, picked up their change and went on their way, we now have to wait while they hand over their card, punch in the PIN number, get it wrong, start all over again, wait for the transaction to process in some remote computer somewhere in Asia, wait for the receipt to print out and then remove their card and find the spot in their purse or wallet to put it before picking up their paper and packet of fags and going on their way

Good grief!!! They're buying a paper and a packet of fags and it takes them longer than it does to read the news and smoke a pipe! There were three people ahead of me this morning and I was waiting for nearly 15 minutes to buy a paper. FIFTEEN MINUTES! I even had the right money!

Why do people use their debit cards to pay for a couple of items costing less than a fiver? What is wrong with good old fashioned cash? What is wrong with these people? Apart from the fact it makes a simple transaction take forever, every time they use their card they are opening themselves up to fraud. Virtually the only time I use my debit card is to withdraw cash (and I am incredibly careful about doing that) and occasionally, but not often, for buying petrol.

The only other time I would consider using a card to buy something is a major transaction - buying a new washing machine or something like that - but even then I much prefer to use cash if I can. I don't even buy much from the internet due to the possibility of fraud (trust me, no matter how safe they tell you the transaction is, the reality is that every time you enter your card details onto a website you are leaving yourself wide open to being ripped off).

Apart from all that, it is simply faster and more convenient to use cash - especially for such small purchases. And they call this progress. Well, you know what you can do with it.

Ah well, that's my Sunday rant over. Nearly time for an aperitif before lunch. Enjoy your Sunday and have a good week.