how many cushions?

I was walking through Cambridge this morning on the way to my new course (yep, I'm being a student again for a few hours a week, but more on that later), and noticed a new shop about to open. It's just up the road from Habitat, which sells furniture, cushions, picture frames, all that kind of stuff (and lovely too - I bought my bed there); it's round the corner from Robert Sayle, where you can buy all of the above along with clothes and toys and perfume and electrical goods.And the new shop is directly opposite two fairly new shops that sell cushions, candles, furniture, dishes and the like. And what does the new shop sell?  you guessed it- cushions, candles, small items of furniture, picture frames...   I stood at the shop window for a couple of minutes thinking. How many curtains and candles and the like can one city really make use of in a year? How much of this stuff is being replaced while perfectly serviceable stuff is consigned to the bin?

Now don't mistake me for a complete curmudgeon when it comes to shopping. Only last month a friend's grown-up daughter pronounced me  "absolutely the BEST shopper" after I introduced her to the delights of Oxford Street and found her at least half a dozen items of clothing that she definitely couldn't live without. I know sometimes it's therapy, and that clothes and home stuff is good for you. But there's also this worrying trend - the kind of shopping-mall disease - where you shop because you are bored, or your life isn't full enough of other things.  There's a version of shopping which is about filling a big emotional hole;  where shopping is no longer a trip to get things you need, or a few seasonal treats, but a "leisure activity". It's a fine line, but one side of it is definitely a sad prospect. I think there are too many cushions and curtains on sale in Cambridge. We need to do more walking in the country and making our own jam.

Comments

[ash]

I might have said before, but I find cambridge bad for my soul. I go there occasionally to patron Galloway and Porter, but... i find the atmosphere quite oppressive. I think it's the lawns... I don't understand why we can't walk on them, or sit on them reading a book...

[Graham Stacey]

I was one of the many hoping to hear you at GB on Anglican cycle but didn't make it in time to get in. I’m hoping to find time this week to listen to the recording.

Anyway… Shopping as a leisure activity.

I am sure this is true. I also like Bauman's, and others, description of shopping as a 'peg-community'. Sharing space with people who are doing the same thing as you and as such are unlikely to challenge your presence or motivation for purchasing anything in partiular. This type of shared activity, of which shopping and watching the TV/Cinema are the bigges examplest, is what is left of the public arena and thus what has become of community. In such light perhaps shopping sprees are more like a desperate cry to belong rather than a leisure activity in the same way badminton is.

We also sometimes just ‘need’ to purchase items for our basic daily survival and I am sure that for some, mainly in Cambridge it seems, this may be cushions.

[Tom Allen]

It was Graham Cray I think who summed this up as
"Tesco ergo Sum
I shop therefore I am"

I have over the last two months dealt with two families under extremes of stress and marital disharmony about huge credit card bills run up on shopping trips - in both cases it was the man of the house who had run up the debts often buying what I would call "love" treats.

Still if we actually need cushions we all know where to come shopping - which is why these "satellite" shops spring up close to Habitat and the like.

[John]

"We need to do more walking in the country and making our own jam."

Absolutely. Indeed, if you're not making jam at this time of year, you're definitely missing out. Made a rather nice pear and ginger at the weekend, and still have a whole treeful of pears :-)

And I can't fathom why the Grafton Centre needs yet more cushion shops, either.

pax et bonum

[phil goodacre]

too right on the making more jam front.

i love autumn, there's so much that can be scavanged from the countryside, and patiently preparing fruit, and boiling it down really helps remind me where food comes from in the first place.

slow is good.

[DaveW]

Maggi, being rather ignorant I am not sure how you make jam from cushions. Is it easy? What flavours do you get?

[maggi]

jam from cushions! there's a thought. The cushions in my living room would certainly produce a deep, berry flavour if the colour is anything to go by.

I am now slightly ashamed - "make our own jam" was one of those throwaway comments; I never, EVER make my own jam (I don't eat much of it, which may have something to do with it) and now I find my commenters are all avid jam makers. I do make my own bread and my own breakfast cereal though...

[John]

Maggi,
Well, there's plenty of scope for chutneys and pickles, too... If you've ever wondered what good marrows are, I can heartily recommend turning them into chutney :-)

pax et bonum

[maggi]

john, I ate all available marrows last month, steamed and served in a cheese sauce. None left for chutney.

[Helen]

I agree with you about the dangers of "boredom shopping"; but at least I now know where to tell Luke to look for a cushion for his college room!

As for the lawns, hurrah for Robinson!

[Wheeliebnland]

Oi! I'm moving house soon and the old owner is taking their curtains with them. I can't put jam on the windows.

Cushions though, what are they for?

[sally]

join freecycle- shopping for free- and giving- it is so cool- and there is a Cambridge group
and yes you can pick up and give away candles and picture frames, beds and computer desks and in our case we gave a craavan and gained a sofa

Eco friendly, free and local!!!

[steve]

and quite believe i am joining in

... we just made chilli jam (for eating with cold meats) from our surplus crop of greenhouse chillis and it is very yummy

and steve's tip of the week - buy fruit when it is on sell by date and reduced and use your breadmaker to make jam ... recipes on t'internet ... easy cheap and yummier than any shop stuff and you know what has gone into it

[hopefulamphibian]

Suddenly feeling very, very virtuous having spent Sunday afternoon stewing plums and apples from our garden for the freezer. But isn't there a bible verse somewhere about not doing our acts of jam-making in front of other people (and thereby losing our reward) - so maybe I'm not so virtuous after all?