Thursday 5 July 2007

Pic of the day: The sims enjoy shopping, even if they don't need anything in particular. I guess I did too, in the past. These days, however, you can do it any workday.

Fate of Trade Day

Today was Trade Day in Kristiansand again. It is the first Thursday of July every year. I know I have written about it practically every year since I started this journal, if only to notice that I wasn't there. Or to reflect on the strange fact that women seem to have larger backsides on this day than the rest of the year.

This year I was in Kristiansand, but I did not take part in the shopping spree. Then again, neither did most other people, or so it seemed to me. Trade Day is dying. It is not dead yet, but that's the way things are moving. Another way of saying it is that every workday is Trade Day now. Thanks to ever cheaper imports, and ever rising income, there is no longer a need for frantic bargain-hunting. I suppose the tradition will continue for some more years, but it is no longer important.

On the flipside, which in this case is the backside, Norwegians are still growing chubbier with each passing year. So I guess there is also less need for a "big squishy backside day", as I have also referred to this day in the past. I still haven't figured out that connection, unless it be that the women in the countryside around Kristiansand are generally more heavyset than those in the city itself. Or it could be the tendency to bend over crates of goods placed on the pavement outside the shops. In any case, I haven't gone to watch them for some years, so it's not like I'll miss them.

Besides, I have the sims now. I can watch them shop, from the comfort of my home.