Being a Consumer

Today this is an unashamed lifestyle blog. Sometimes I think we’re put on this earth to consume. As you look around it does seem that way. Everyone is seemingly consuming food all the time. However I don’t mean to discuss the consumption of food, but the consumption of brands. Before I continue I want to make the point that I know things are just an assembly of atoms in a particular form, but that doesn’t render them any less desirable if you hanker after their particular shape or style, whatever the substance.

I am just as bad as anyone else. I find the latest brand irresistible. I look at my daughter’s IPhone and feel an incredible, almost unbearable compulsion to possess one myself. I don’t know the reason, since I already own a great mobile phone, my trusty BlackBerry, and it e mails better than the IPhone. But does it tell me the traffic conditions on the nearest freeway? No, it does not. Do I need to know these traffic conditions? No, of course not, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want the facility.

It has a screen that flips from the horizontal to the vertical, how have I lived without this? I am mystified. It is truly touch screen, not a bit but totally. I think I am falling in love, and it’s the real thing.

Mind you I was equally besotted when I purchased, at enormous expense my Sony Viega 42” plasma flat screen television a few years back. Since that time I bought, for much lesser prices, various makes of LCD flat screen televisions. I know the technical arguments why the plasma screen set should be superior, but the truth is, that to our eyes, the opposite is the truth. In this instance cheaper has proven to be better.

Unashamedly I drive a car that others will consider a gas guzzling car of enormous and conspicuous consumption. It is a top of the line Cadillac CTS Sports Luxury model that makes a wonderfully satisfactory growling noise when you stamp on the accelerator, and takes off like a big scalded cat, faster than almost any other big car. When you are stuck in traffic it makes almost no noise at all, and it’s a bit like sitting in your favorite leather armchair. Of course the computer system contains a TV, DVD player and sat navigation system and does everything else you can imagine except give you a rub down with the latest edition of your chosen girlie magazine. This isn’t a good car, it’s a great driving experience. Now, don’t for a second get this beauty confused with its smaller sister, the crappy Cadillac based on its European sister company car, the Saab. This might look like a slightly smaller version of the Detroit super car, but it’s a fake with a capital F. I drove one as a loan out when my car was being serviced and it’s a travesty that the two models have the same brand name of Cadillac. If you want to drive a Cadillac in Europe insist on the import or don’t bother.

But back to my compulsion to buy the new, the flash, the must have gizmo. I did the same when Bose made their more fitted ear phones for noise reduction or listening to my magnificently designed Apple iPod. This is surely one of the great combinations for enhanced and comfortable listening designed. You can wear and listen through this combination of kit for an entire London to Los Angeles air trip and feel no discomfort. Sometimes buying the desirable is also the wisest course.