Theres something deeply unsettling about the commerce experience we subject ourselves to these days. The Hampton Harcourt shopping extravagansa is really just a big Tesco, but they’ve invited a whole bunch of chains to join them as consessions in their entrancehall. I was awaiting my companion for the day (having decamped from Peterborough city centre) but, having no idea where we were likely to meet I wandered inside to take a look at the commerce available.
By the entrance I found a young lady in a wheelchair with an entourage of petitioners, photographers, who were blocking my view of the map of the centre. Which, of course, gave them a cue to talk to me…normally I’m fairly unreceptive to these kinds of things since all too often people are just trying to get your money and will use whatever tricks they can. However, they seemed like they’d just arrived and probably hadn’t really gotten into the swing of things yet so I figured it was a little unfair to be too negative. They were just attempting to raise awareness of the condition that had afflicted their wheelchair-bound friend. It seemed like a reasonable cause, even if I can’t remember now what that condition is. Hope they don’t turn my address in to the government as a dissenter or anything…
Once escaped from Peterborough we had a lovely day in Stamford where there was a residual funfair, heretic church conversions (Vision Express, in a church? I know, lets just bash out this nice stone wall and drop some neon in instead…) and statues in a closed garden.
Back to HH where we’d left one of the cars, and a quick skim around the shops. Its obviously been a while since I’ve been to these kinds of places – everything has gone a bit gyaru, with earrings the size of football pitches and pseudo-greebo fashions.
Thankfully the mens formal clothes section hadn’t completely lost its sanity in the same way – there was, however, a huge selection of gay ties. When did that happen? What does it mean? That gay men buy a lot of ties? That lots of guys are showing their sensitive side by wearing ties that would be appropriate on gay men? Pink isn’t gay? Don’t get me wrong – this is great, having a much better range of ties available has got to be a good thing. Its just a little disconcerting.
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