Shop and eat and think

Well, this weekend was the much hyped and anticipated visit of Music Girl. I meant to get a picture, but time slipped by too fast. I picked her up Friday night at her mom's place and we headed back to London Saturday morning.

We went to the market straight off, and bought a lot of cheese. There is a nice cheese shop in the market that sells very small portions of the cheeses. We really did well. I think the total list was: 10 year old Cheddar, Deux Peche from Quebec, Goat cheese with cranberry and maple, white gorgonzola with mango and ginger, colby with onion and parsley and a wodge of venison and duck pate. Along with some really good Cibatta buns and a bottle of juice this made for and excellent lunch. Some of those cheeses were so good, we had little "cheese-gasms"

We also went shopping and hit a yarn store, a chocolate place, Lens's Mill Store and a Xmas party. We also rented some movies and got some nice wine. The Husband got home to catch the end of Harry Potter and eat the bits of cheese we had saved for him.

It was the shopping that made me think. Music Girl is poor as a churchmouse, mostly because she is a student and trying to do this on her own. So this year she has made all of her Xmas presents for her family. I got a really cute scarf. We were talking in the car about consumerism and buying used CD's. I love used music shops and old bookstores and have no problem with used clothing. As long as it's clean, undamaged and it works, what's the problem? Mostly the discussion focused on her Mom. According to Music Girl, her Mom believes that the best way to show your love for someone is to buy them something. We tend to believe that actions are louder than gift certificates, and knitting a scarf and baking a pie is a perfectly acceptable way to say I love you.

We also talked about supporting small retailers as opposed to big box stores. They have cut down any number of trees just south of our house to build a giant shopping complex. Did we need another grocery store to add to the two that were already in place? Did that store need to cover more than two acres? What's wrong with the many empty retail location in the mall and surrounding area? Are we going to end up with a ring of abandoned stores around every city in North America when the Big Box shopping trend goes away?
Think where you spend your money. Who is it supporting? I don't shop at Wal-Mart, because they gave huge campaign donations to Bush, and I don't agree with his stance on Iraq. I am going to support local Canadian enterprise, because I can.

Sorry, my visit with Music Girl post turned into a rant. I apologise.