Shopping Mad!!

We went shopping in Dublin today, looking for presents and bits and bobs for an upcoming wedding what with the price of every thing down in this depression we are having. I was dragged along of course – for the simple reason I won’t allow the wife a credit card. She gets over this by bring me

I could not believe my eyes in what I was seeing in Grafton Street. Every store whether they were selling clothes, shoes or mobile phones had a sale on!
The streets were thronged with people, but the actual shops seemed to be barely busy. A lot of window shopping was going on but not much buying.
As the shops were so generous in offering massive discounts, we decided to check out a kitchen place recommended to us by a friend.
This place are the agents for a lot of the top European brands that manufacture kitchens and appliances.

Their show room is fantastic. I think my wife went into a sort of kitchen love trance when she entered their exquisite showrooms. They do the Siematic range of kitchens, a German brand that she has over years mentioned occasionally with awe.
Now here we were looking at the latest and most up to date of their range called the Siematic S1, which is about the equivalent of a Ferrari 599 when kitchen are compared to cars!
The damn thing nearly costs as much as well!

Whilst herself was lost in a world of her own taking in all the features of this wonder piece of work, I was clutching my wallet closer to my heart and hoping that the smooth talking salesman pointing out the merits to the gasps of my wife would go away and let sanity return.

That is the worst thing about these fancy showrooms. Everything is glistening and sparkling, smooth and stylish; all designed to turns the heads of potential punters. In places like these, reason abandons you.
Suddenly, you are piecing together the numbers and creating the most optimistic scenario, whereby you could actually see your way to paying for this kitchen!

The sales man proffers his card and promises a very generous finance deal arranged in house instead of us having to deal with pesky banks who will not now lend money for any reason.

We eventually get out of the place, my wife drunk with vivid imagery of this wonderful piece of engineering fitted into our humble home.
It takes a while for the dust to settle in situations like this. Reality sweeps over you like a cold shower after a sauna. As we journeyed home, our present buying complete, the silence of my wife was the indicator of reality setting in.

I am exactly the same walking out of a fancy car showroom, puffed up with possibilities but knowing that the dream of that Ferrari will never be realized. I empathised with her so I remained silent, letting logic take command of her thinking, which it inevitably did after about an hour.

We all have dreams of beautiful non-attainable material things in our life. Taking a look and stepping a little closer to that dream is no harm. For a little while, your life enters a fantasy place but at over €150,000, I think the Siematic SI is just that.
It offers to make your dreams come through but says nothing about the nightmares!

We are going to try IKEA next!

Well, you have to cut the cloth to the measure and all that!