Random Thoughts # 7 - a shopping frenzy

New boy's toys have been purchased this last week.  It was my birthday last weekend (65th if you really must know) and some pension lump sums fell due.  Most is already earmarked for work on the house and garden but there was some left over for fripperies.  Accordingly, I was treated to a new gas barbeque by Mrs E as a birthday present (it seems I have been a very good boy this year).  This has been a bit of a revelation in outdoor cooking terms.  So much less mess if using gas only, but with a dual fuel capability.  Which means I can use charcoal if the whim takes me.  I already have a shopping list of accessories I'd like to add including a cast iron griddle plate and a second charcoal tray.  It's time to extend my barbeque repertoire to extend beyond burgers, sausages and kebabs because this baby will do oven cooking too if I close the hood.

Of more interest to blog readers I also bought a new PC to replace the Windows 7 machine that currently falls over everytime I try to transfer a file between applications.  I opted for another Acer as the last one lasted so well.

This got me to thinking about the nature of shopping frenzies, that's the local term here at Elenderil Towers for engaging in comfort shopping for things you probably don't really need.  Its a hunter gatherer thing isn't it.  Set deep in the genes bequeathed to us by our early hominid ancestors is a need to grab and to hold on to things that seem to make us safer and more comfortable.  Many years ago I studied marketing and I recall Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, a theory describing the psychological basis of human motivation (Look it up it really is a thing).  Briefly it says that there are a set of ascending needs that drive us humans.  As we fulfill one set we then start to work on the next.  Those needs start with basic survival like food and water move onto security needs like shelter and become increasingly aspirational as the lower needs are meet.  Finally, we reach self-actualisation needs and before you ask, no I'm not really sure what those are either, but I'm pretty sure new computers and gas barbeques are right up there somewhere!

That said I liked Douglas Adams explanation of how those same drives works because it seems to describe how we really think.  The progression goes something like this:

• Will something eat me today?
• Will I eat something today?
• What do I want to eat today?
• Who shall I eat with today?
• Where shall we eat today?
• Where do I want to be seen eating today?

That seems to sum up a lot of the human experience, it made me smile and it kind of ties back to the gas barbeque.

In other news, here in the UK the lockdown relaxes a further stage in the morning.  Pubs and hairdressers reopen and social distancing is reduced to 1 metre.  To be fair neither one of those is really going to tempt me as I don't have much hair left and I can't drink alcohol at the moment!  But it does seem more important than ever to suggest that you all try to stay safe out there.