Is there even a wagon any more?

I thought I was back on it, but following on from this week’s shopping spree (including one very lucrative trip to Asos, one purchase of a new iPhone 3GS from O2 and a short trip to Easons) I think I may have to redefine the word “wagon”. I’ve made myself a whole new wagon.

Anyway today I went into Warehouse – forgetting entirely that Warehouse, although full of beautiful things, is very expensive – and loaded myself up with merchandise. It’s odd that I’m getting quite used to sales assistants looking incredulously at my laden-down arms. “Do you want me to put any of those back? Oh – you’re getting them all? Oh. Oooooh.” I suspect they may think I’ve just gone through a bad break-up, or come into some money (the temptation to tell said sales assistant that I’d won the National Lottery was not small).

Warehouse’s current collection is something close to inspired – at least as far as the high street offerings go. It has significant smatterings of designer inspiration, innovative designs and young, fresh and well-wearing fabrics (although there are a few too many “dry-clean only” items for my liking). They have silks enough to impress the most seasoned eastern traveller; graffiti prints that channel Basso & Brooke and childhood paintings; exposed zips on fitted, almost corseted dresses in the style of Roland Mouret; and bodycon t-shirt dresses in the most forgiving of soft cottons that would be equally beautiful on Drew Barrymore as they would on Megan Fox (and don’t we all wish Drew would attempt to get back to her stylish roots for a while, rather than parading around town in sarongs and wedge heels?).

For now, check out the website for examples of their clothing; it offers free returns, I see, which is a welcome addition to the online retailing scene. I will attach images to this post in due course – for now I’m posting from Galway, so the resources to hand are somewhat limited.

The moment I realised my eyes were really far apart

© Rosemary Mac Cabe

I know this is the most random photograph – but I wanted to express how I was having a dark eye day, and blog it. What I ended up discovering was that my eyes are really far apart and I don’t really have that much eye make-up on at all, at all. Anyway. I feel like dark eyes today, I have parted my hair on what my mother would term “the boy’s side” and I am wearing a top that I haven’t worn in a year. So maybe I’m back on the non-consumption bandwagon?

On that note, I got a €10 voucher for Boots in the post yesterday from the lovely people at Irish Opinions. Free vouchers for doing surveys, hurrah! Going to head off there now for hairclips, a nail file and a miniature bottle of hairspray, all of which I am lacking.

And on non-consumption (quickly): I had been doing well, then I got bored and went out for way too many dinners. I have a new lease of life this week and am having my first non-packed lunch today, in Carluccio’s with the delectable Corina, and have eaten in every evening / been cooked for, like last night, by Ciara. I did have a serious topple off my “higher plane” (as I like to keep saying) in Marks & Spencer the other day, when I attempted to convince myself that six different underwear items were “necessities”, succeeded in said convincing, and spent over €200 on said undies. Still, at least I know I’ll wear them.

Day Six: Another manic Monday

Not quite. It was a miserable day but the mood in my mind was one of spring awakening. That’s inspired by Timothy Egan’s mind-blowing piece in the New York Times on how the Irish got themselves into such trouble. Ta, Timmy.

Anyway, compared to the weekend of avoiding shops in Arklow and unwittingly purchasing in Aldi, yesterday was a doddle. €3.60 on bus fare to and from town, €10 on miscellaneous personal goods (I’m sure me Ma’ll read this and think, “really you didn’t need to write that”) and €15.50 on lunch. The Science Gallery café is delicious, but slightly overpriced for the days that are in them. . .

Day Five

This post is slightly delayed because, as yet, I have no internet at home and spent yesterday in the house (probably a shame, seeing as it was nice weather) watching all three Lord of the Rings.

I did take a break to go to the shop, where I bought a bottle of Diet Coke (€3.50), a tupperware to store the bolognese S and I had just made (€4.99 – extortion!), the Sindo and the S’Times (€2.50 each or thereabouts) and a packet of Bacon Fries (price unknown) which, according to the packet, will be the making of any social occasion. Surely not though – the smell’d be enough to put off any gregarious house guest.

But I digress: not shopping was easy yesterday. I had company, I had DVDs and, by 12.30am, I had no desire to do anything more than sleep and stretch my couch-worn limbs.

Watching the trilogy ensemble, as it were, makes you wonder how we waited a year between installments. Surely the end of The Two Towers (which a friend of mine suggested, at the time, be renamed because of the 9/11 attacks. “It’s ridiculous to call a movie that now,” she pouted. She obviously hadn’t heard of Tolkein at the time) is the most frustrating ending in the world:

Gollum – No, we won’t kill the hobbitses, we’ll let HER do it…

Cue creepy music and a little more fond gazing from Sam and Frodo. Anyway, good times, no items bought except for entirely necessary tupperware. Success! Only 360 days to go. . .

Day One: Today it Begins

Today is the first day of a year-long project – personal and, I guess, not all that personal (more on that later) – I’m beginning, for which I will spend a year not accumulating a single item. In an anti-consumption move, “consumption begets consumption”, after all, I am going to spend a year not buying a single “item”.

By “item”, I mean things: clothing, books, CDs, household items – basically things that are unnecessary, that I don’t need, that I buy for the sake of buying, for the sake of consuming and accumulating items. So I can buy food, I mean; I can buy cinema tickets, gig tickets – I can accumulate experiences, rather than things.

I’ll be keeping daily updates on what I’m buying – while I’m not going to be too stringent as regards coffees, lunches and whatnot, it makes sense to attempt to cut down on those as well, to see what a life is like going against how Baudrillard views the world: a world based on what we consume, rather than what we produce.

What will it be like to attempt to turn the tables for a whole year? Watch this space.

• * * *

Update: I spent €3.90 on a latte early in the morning – I was in work early and needed to kill an hour. Not great, in hindsight I could have gone to work and made a coffee and read my book. Instead I sat in Starbucks (where they leave their taps running all day long!) and talked on my phone. What a cliché.

I then went for dinner to Milano with C; I ate a salad, given that my new plan is an overhaul for my whole life and will hopefully result in a healthier-eating me as well, but it cost me €25. My project is to do with consumption of goods, items, rather than food and enjoyment, so this wasn’t “wrong”, per se, but as a first day of non-buying goes, almost €30 isn’t great.

Verdict: Must try harder.