Consumerism is really crap.

Somebody please tell me what is good about shopping.

Am I getting older or am I just becoming infinitely more cynical about the society in which we live?
I had to go into Aberdeen today for a couple of reasons.

1. to buy some great African food from The Spice Shop
2. to put my wife's mobile in for repair
3. to get some kabanosi from Lidl
4. for my wife to get a ring she has been wanting from M&S

First reason was fine, 'cos I love eating plantains, halal lamb, carp etc which we can only get from the brilliant Spice Shop on George Street in Aberdeen.
Third reason was fine because Lidl is just ace. I know it from Germany and the quality of some of its stuff is great especially the Polish Kabanosi, which we put in Spag Bol, Chilli, or "petits porcs" (smoked bacon lardons in a tomato sauce).
It's the second reasons which **** me off. How on earth can a cracked screen on a mobile phone seriously cost £45 to repair/ replace. I bet the person who repairs it will spend 30 mins max on the job and he/she will be on max £8/hour. No way the part costs £37. Nice little earner for a certain mobile phone shop that sounds like a huge storage facility of in-vehicle communication systems.
Next and this is what I get really brassed off about. Into M&S racks and racks of similar looking stuff. Hordes of folk looking as miffed as me holding carrier bags full of crap. WHY? WHY? WHY? What purpose does spending your Saturday (beautiful weather as well) hidden away in mall spending cash that if you are like me you don't actually have. As you all know I was in Ethiopia recently and went to the market there. Still loads of people all still rushing around, 2 major differences:

1. you could chat to them (I did)
2. they were buying what they NEEDED

I think we here have a great tendency to buy what we want, thinking it will make us feel better. I do the same but thankfully not to the same extent I have in the past. Shopping can never be the way to a better life. The way forward for us is to start to think more about others again and what we can learn from other people's way of life. Our society is so stressed by the desire to have the latest stuff that it is forgetting how to enjoy the simple things...listening to your kids laughing, birds singing in the garden, going for a bike ride, eating simple no frills home cooked food AND NOT READING MY OWN AND OTHERS' BLOGS FOR 24 HOURS.

POSTSCRIPT: IDIDN'T THINK I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO THOUGHT THUS BUT READING JANET STREET-PORTER YESTERDAY REALLY MADE ME HAPPY. CHECK OUT THE ARTICLE.