Yes, folks, the Christmas season is upon us, but in between Christmas parties, unfortunately, we still have to attend to purchasing our regular daily necessities.

So, lo, upon entering my local and very Chinese supermarket, I was greeted with a cheerful rendition of "Jingle Bells", just as if I was in my home country.

Actually, 'tis not more than 10 years ago that the few first Western orientated shops started to decorate their premises, rather hesitantly, with the odd Christmas tree and suspend a few coloured balls here and there.

These days, however, no holds are barred and even the most staid Chinese supermarket now features at least a few larger-than-life Santa Clauses, replete with motorized wriggling bellies or even entire snowy village displays with a full complement of reindeer and all that goes with Father Christmas and his lengthy journey from distant lands.

The particular Jingle Bell rendition, unfortunately, appeared to be a simple two-liner, and was probably from a bootleg CD to boot. Anyway, a repeat was rendered for all busy 500 shoppers and me and 50 staff. Still, "Jingle Bells" has quite a catchy tune and who minds a second helping during the silly season?

Half an hour later however, I was still shopping and "Jingle Bells" was still in repeat mode, an easy thing to programme with most modern CD players.

By now, to be sure, "Jingle Bells" was also starting to haunt me and get on my nerves to such an extent that I had to exercise maximum self control not to fall into an epileptic fit or worse, destroy some loudspeakers.

I postulated that there was bound to be a rich musical variety on that CD for sure and how nice it would be to have a change of tune.

In my frustration, I addressed my problem to one of the more intelligent looking salesladies and I was told that they had no idea where the store's central music station was located. But I was promised that a request would be put forward to replace "Jingle Bells" with "Panis Angelicus" or something similarly serene or Christmassy.

For reasons beyond my control, I was stuck in that blasted shop for over an hour with "Jingle Bells" repeating itself about five million times and at fully 130 decibels, by very conservative reckoning.

Yours truly had by now developed a solid aversion to "Jingle Bells".

With my blood reaching boiling point, I demanded to see the manager who, unfortunately was not on the premises. A second-in-command seemed to be non existent but while perfectly aware that I was talking to deaf ears if not addressing the highest authority, I vented my frustration and surmised that more than hour of "Jingle Bells" repeats amounted to nothing less than cruel and unusual punishment which, beyond reasonable doubt, would surely be prohibited under WTO rules and/or the Charter of Human Rights in Geneva.

Sure, sure, I was told, we will try and have some alternative music played for you and so sorry for the musical mess. And a musical mess it was.

Much to my chagrin, a full 30 minutes later, "Jingle Bells" was still jingling.

A little later, luckily, my mission looked about to be completed and I wanted to escape in great haste but not before getting an official tax invoice, which has to be applied for at a special counter, and it was there, as luck had it, that I spotted the stores' sound system.

Bingo!