Since the move to London I've had waaaaay too much time on my hands. The job situation is a lot worse than I had expected and finding one is nigh-on impossible. My first reaction was to be happy and go shopping a lot. Not shopping in the buying sense of the word. But not window shopping either. It's somewhere in between with added people watching, scrap booking, picture taking and the odd stop in a caff. I'm forever collecting flyers and free mags, taking pictures of the strangest things (I'm preparing a bit of an exhibit of London oddities, which should be coming soon), staring at people's clothes and hair styles. I also wander through the shops to see what's up in the world of retailing. I don't target particular places, mixing and matching Selfridges with the Roman Road Charity Shop and the designer boutiques in Mayfair with Kings Mall in Hammersmith (What a dump! But what a gem at the same time!). Occasionally I actually do buy something, mostly items that reflect my current state of headless experimenting... The other day I came home with a pair of shoes that go with none of my clothes, but are great, a bag of dried Oregano, a multipack of Monster Munch and some soap.
This seemingly random selection is actually a lot less random than it seems. What binds them all together is that they each made a contribution to making my life into what I would like it to be and in the process making me happier. It's as if life is constructed like an architectural plan arranged in concentric circles. The initial sketch in the middle, the core without which the rest would not be possible, was to move to London. Once that was worked out in detail, it was time to add the ideal place in a ring around it. Then to furnish and decorate our home. Other bits in the growing layers of rings are to get me into the mental state that I have wanted to be in, get me a job, focus and update my wardrobe tweak the details of our home and many more. (Not necessarily in that order!) This is where my shopping trip fit in. The shopping in the sun soothed my mind, shoes are a reflection of where my wardrobe is going, the soap was well needed to complete the cheesy Ikea-styled colour-themed bathroom, the Oregano was sorely lacking in my kitchen. And Monster Munch is just yummy.
I think a lot of people are carrying on like me at the moment and I'm surprised the press haven't come up with a snazzy name for the phenomenon yet. It is definitely a sign of the times to go back to basics, focus on who we are and define ourselves less through the money we spend. I must admit, I've never got into the non-crisis mode, so to me it's just a deepening of what I've always done. But even some of my friends who felt obliged to spend over the odds for a night out (and then tell everyone about it and about the fact that they didn't have the money they spent before going into a long declaration of their various depts, listing them like trophies of the successful conqueror of modernity) are coming back down to earth. I doubt that this attitude will really outlive the recession, people immensely enjoyed showing off the superlatives of the growth years and are seeing the new modesty as a restriction rather than a chance.
For me, the whole point of the excercise is not to pretend that I could afford things or to dream about times when I can. Nor is it about budget buying. Trading Liberty for Primark is daft. The difference is visible at first glance, so it isn't really a substitute. Unless, of course, you never saw the difference in the first place, in which case you should have been turned away from Liberty at the door. (Sorry, I have strong feelings about posers.) Rant over. Where was I? Ah, yes, why do I wander aimlessly between Tottenham Court Road and Cannary Wharf staring at skinny jeans and CCTV cameras? It's to fill my creative store with ideas and to get a general feel for the direction the world is heading in. It's essentially urban ethnography. Maybe I should try to make this a profession?!?...
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