This week, a survey released by multimedia retail applications specialist Mood Media delivered the somewhat gloomy news that the majority (74 percent) of shoppers actively dislike hearing Christmas music before December, and 61 percent did not feel like buying presents when hearing such tunes piped through shops' speakers.
Last weekend, the sky above my house was dotted with hot-air balloons, drifting across Bristol from the 32nd annual Balloon Fiesta, one of the city's most popular events.