Helena Handbasket

By Tivoli

Last Xmas

I had saved up most of my annual leave allowance until the final moment on the off-chance that the former-spouse might deign to spend some time in negotiation. That didn't happen (why am I not surprised?) so I ended up taking all my remaining annual leave in the final two weeks of 2018.

My workplace does not permit us to carry-over any unspent annual leave into the following year and so I made it clear to my colleagues that they should take this Xmas off and I would hold the fort.
Agreed.
I had hoped to spend the Bank Holiday dates volunteering for local charities – particularly those who feed and shelter our vast local population of rough sleepers, but for one reason or another, that will not happen.
Therefore I needed to work out how to prevent loneliness from seeping under my own door.
Home cinema!
I found a DVD player online that plugs straight into my laptop - a stonking £8.79 direct from the manufacturer, including postage from China
I've bought myself ten feature films on DVD which I can watch on my titchy-screen laptop;
Xmas classics - Ben Hur, Great Escape, Italian Job
Light-hearted fun - 2 different Spiderman films plus Deadpool
Thrillers - Girls in the Spider's Web, Source Code
Tom Cruise - American Made
Tom Hanks - Saving Mr Banks
All ten together came to a whopping £14.50
And then, out of the bigness of my heart, I made a voluntary donation to the organisation from whom I downloaded the software to watch the movies - £3.56
Complete Home Cinema for £26.85 - With no involvement from Amazon

Ethically?
I have purchased my electronic gizmo direct from the manufacturer – is that bad?
I have downloaded the required software from a free-to-use site and paid their suggested donation.
I have purchased all of my viewing material from a source which is, to all intents and purposes, a local pawn shop (identifying itself as a recycling centre) and in so doing, saved it from landfill. I took my own shopping bag.

I really want to know what I am missing – where have I gone wrong? What have I misunderstood?

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