That's great and..quite clearly is the name of our new blog but it's also a very supportive thing to say. We use it when we're thinking up ideas. In a group situation it's a good way to acknowledge what someone else has said, or at least pretend to, then add your own pearls of luminary wisdom.

It got me thinking about what people say and how they behave. In everyday life and how companies and brands (and us PR types) try to influence that behaviour.

People are fascinating. For good and bad reasons. As the psychology of human behaviour is something that interests me both personally and professionally, and it feels inappropriate in this blog to talk about my passion for naff 80s pop music, I am going to talk about it regularly.

I wanted to start with shopping. This week many retailers have released their impressive and encouraging results. London stores got a £100m boost due to the sales and the cold weather. New Look has reported a 5.9 % jump in like for like sales up to 2 January. Bagging the likes of fashion designer Giles Deacon, the most charming man in UK fashion, has certainly helped their cause. John Lewis and Next also had happy Christmases with bumper sales. I could go on. I like retail therapy as much as the next woman and I'm glad that things are looking up but I cannot understand the appeal of going shopping on Boxing Day. Whoever queued outside a Next store from 5am, to then be let in from the cold to peruse racks of quite random clothes deserves a lot more than the mustard tank top they undoubtedly ended up buying.  Why do we feel the need to shop, on that day in particular?  I'd like to know as I have yet to meet someone who did. If you buy talk of frugality fatigue that's one possible motivation, but I think it's more simple than that. We like doing what people 'like us' do.