IT’S the week when panic sets in. The countdown to Christmas is in single figures now and suddenly you’re faced with the fact that everything is not as calm and organised as you’d hoped.

It can be a little thing which triggers panic mode. You’re wrapping the prezzies for the family and wondering why you ever thought that game/book/DVD/battery operated toy was a good idea?

You look at the set of wincyette pyjamas you’ve bought for Auntie Peggy and suddenly remember you gave her pjs last Christmas. You read your grandchild’s letter to Santa and see with a sinking heart that she’s changed her mind about the Frozen doll and now wants a Monster High doll instead.

Back to the shops again. The traffic is crazy. There’s not a parking space to be had anywhere. Your husband mutters “You said you were finished, Christmas was organised. So what are we doing here?”

Tis the season of goodwill – but not yet.

You’ve bought your two sisters-in-law red teapots with a knitted Xmas pud tea-cosy on top and suddenly this week they’ve been knocked down to half price and this puts you in a very bad mood.

You spot the perfect sparkly top for your daughter and decide she’d much rather have that than the sensible sweater that’s already wrapped up at home, so you buy it and just hope you’ve kept the receipt for the sweater.

You can’t find the receipt.

Random last minute shopping prevails. Visiting the hole-in-the-wall cash machine becomes almost a daily habit.

Your decision to keep Christmas simple this year is disappearing swiftly. Your fridge and freezer is groaning with food but suddenly in the middle of the night you remember cranberry sauce or tangerines for the stockings.

The needles have started to fall off the tree. Will it survive till the big day?

You KNOW you bought selection boxes for all the family, but where did you hide them?

Christmas cards arrive daily on the mat and you read the messages – we must try to get together again soon – from cousins you’ve not seen for years and you feel guilty about losing touch.

You run out of gift tags. You run out of stamps. You run out of wrapping paper. You run out of patience.

It irks that your husband’s contribution to Christmas is marking off the programmes on the TV guide which he plans to watch.

This week there is a tendency among women to mutter and bang about in the kitchen feeling frazzled and frantic.

You want a hot bath or a glass of chilled wine, an hour with a good book in a calm, organised house but when is that likely to happen? You suddenly remember you’ve forgotten to give your cheery paperboy a wee Xmas bonus. And you still can’t find those selection boxes.

Such is the stuff of Christmas craziness. The annual angst. You want everything to be perfect. You become obsessed with detail.

But of course come the day it will be fine. So as the countdown starts this week, go easy on yourself. Breathe. Listen to some carols on the radio. Try to remember what it’s all about…..

Train Rage

Trains have been making the news this week for all the wrong reasons. Strikes. Cancelled services. And train rage.

On Facebook there were more than 250,000 hits for an item about two women who had a spat in a First Class carriage on the Brighton service.

It came about because a woman with a baby sat down beside another woman in the overcrowded train who was outraged at the possibility of having her peace and quiet disrupted by a crying baby.

The argument, caught on camera by a fellow passenger, resulted in the young mum moving her seat – but before she went she said “My baby’s not screaming. He’s behaving better than you.”

I have to agree with her.

When you buy a ticket for the train it entitles you to one seat – but you can’t choose who shares the seat beside you.

I love travelling by train but it irks me the way some people set out their laptops, phones, briefcases on the table in front of them and take over all the available space, leaving the other passenger to make do with the small space left to them.

And on a long journey they often talk business loudly on their phones so I can’t read my book in peace. Very annoying.

We need to learn how to treat our fellow travellers with respect and courtesy.

A woman with a baby deserves a bit of support. It isn’t easy travelling with small children. Surely we can have the good manners to behave properly without making her feel that she’s a nuisance.

Powerful women

The Radio 4 programme Woman’s Hour published it’s Power List last week of those who ‘influenced the lives of women.’

But like all those lists, it leaves you thinking – really?

On the list were Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, singer Beyonce and the fictional character Bridget Jones.

Well maybe it’s just me, but I can’t honestly say that any of them made a huge impact on my life.

Give me Charlotte Bronte living in a quiet parsonage in Haworth who wrote my favourite novel ‘Jane Eyre’ any day over Bridget’s admittedly amusing antics.

And while it’s good to see a woman climb the greasy political pole and hold her own, having a female PM then or now doesn’t radically alter the lives of ordinary women greatly.

What about our 90-year-old Queen who despite huge changes in our society and umpteen family problems of her own, has steadfastly carried on with the day job and impressed every one of the Prime Minister’s who have served our country, with her grasp of political knowledge and common sense.

Or what about the American civil rights activist Rosa Parks? Or Mother Theresa who fed and nursed the starving and impoverished people of India? Or actress Katherine Hepburn whose beauty and acting skills lit up the screen?

And if it comes to singers give me Ella Fitzgerald any day over Beyonce.

All lists are open to interpretation of course.

For witty one liners – is there anyone to beat writer Dorothy Parker who doesn’t even get a mention on this year’s Power List.

I don’t think so. She’d make mincemeat of their suggestions.