Saturday 5th September 2009 - An Attempt at Retail Therapy

          My idea of shopping is to sit down at the computer and surf a few 'review' sites, focus in on the subset from which I'm going to buy, then trawl a few retail sites till I see a combination of best product and best price.  Then I get them to send it to me.

          Of course, I can't do that now.  I have to go to actual shops, speak to actual shop assistants, go to other shops if they haven't got want I want. 

          I am presently a few miles from the biggest shopping mall on this spiral arm of the galaxy, so I thought I would indulge in some exploration.  A chap has to learn new skills from time-to-time.

          The purpose of the trip was to find a cheap pocket camera.  It turns out I don't want to look like a tourist when I'm out in my Glasgows, so I can't bear to carry my fancy digital SLR camera.  Inevitably, this means I don't get some pictures I want, or I get phone pictures, which are no more than an aide-memoire, and only really viewable on the phone.

          Of course, I still started with the on-line reviews.  Then I went to the local Walmart, just to calibrate.  Then I went off to the mall.  The Mall of America, it's called.  I think the developers must have had ambitions to replace all the shops in America.  Certainly, people fly in to the local airport for shopping sprees.  It's so big, I have to note down where I parked the car.

          But I got what I wanted, and it was a good bit cheaper than Walmart.  And I had lunch in a Japanese restaurant.  There were lots of groups of young girls mopping about, practicing being ladies.

 

         Then I went to the cinema to see "District 9".  It is a science fiction, boys' 'crash-bang-wham' picture, painted over a thinly-disguised criticism of the South African Apartheid regimes.  Essentially, the story is a great big build up to a sequel (I'm guessing "District 10"), with considerable use of 'deus ex machina' as a plot device.  But most films are like that.  Perhaps it's the only way they can cut them down to size in the time available ("with one mighty leap, Jack was free"). 

          There were some very charitable grown-up ladies in the audience, indulging their menfolk: I hope they were well-rewarded later.