Entry for May 06, 2007

Following yesterday's hangover, feelings of guilt have set in, and my home office has been a hive of activity today. I also managed a trip to The Fort which is a rather depressing monolithic shopping centre just along the motorway from me. The Fort has an almost magnetic attraction to me as it contains (a) the best book shop for miles, and (b) two extremely good coffee bars. This allows me to indulge two of my three vices simultaneously in one handy location. All they have to do now is to open a bestiality booth and I will be in Nirvana.
However, The Fort is otherwise depressing, because it speaks of so much which is wrong with the way we do things. The huge car park is always full to overflowing with enormous 4x4s, and the place is crawling with rather sad looking people laden with designer shopping bags (and yet looking for the most part as if their wardrobe is largely composed of items from the outsize section of Primark's Summer 2004 Season).
Shopping has become a pastime. A leisure activity. Something for the family to do together. Instead of a walk in the park, or a picnic, we feel the need to go and buy more unnecessary plastic objects to stuff into our 4x4s and then stuff into our ever growing houses.
Of course, I except shopping for books from my critique of our consumerist habits. That is a noble pursuit, and one worth wreaking havoc upon the planet for. After all, you can never have too many books, as the boxes in my garage bear testament.