I have 2 confessions to make – firstly, I’ve got hooked on
Groupon. It’s true. I am a Groupon junkie. I must have comfort bras, coloured kitchen
knives or a Heston Blumenthal digital jug.
Life as I know it wouldn’t be complete without these things. The marketing men have won. Whatever magic formula they’ve used to
infiltrate the mass mentality has worked a treat and now I’m hooked along with
the other millions of customers who rush to their PCs every morning desperate
for their daily Groupon ‘fix’.
My addiction is in its infancy. So far, purchases include a night out for 6
people at the local Greyhound Stadium, (£26) a tour of Ringwood Brewery (£22
and lots of free beer), carpet cleaning (£24) and a 30 minute sports massage
(£10) for my gammy leg. Nothing wrong
with that, it’s only a mere £82 you say.
They’re all things I probably would have spent money on anyway is what
my inner voice tells me in order to justify this frivolous expenditure on
otherwise needless things.
I recently heard a story in the office of how Groupon
addictions can get wildly out of control. It sent shivers through my purse but
let’s get back to the story. A girl’s
mother, and compulsive shopper by the sounds of it, had slowly fallen under the
Groupon spell. She’d got to the stage
where she’d pretty much buy anything and everything and over time, her house turned
into one of those horror stories you see on TV Hoarders. You couldn’t move for Groupon clutter. It got so bad she tried to off load some of
the more useful items on Ebay but in the end had to donate the lot to a charity
shop. Happy ending – yes, she did
re-discover her lounge but sadly ended up several hundred pounds in debt. Take heed all you other Groupon junkies out
there as this could easily be you after a few months!
Good job Groupon doesn’t have more gardening related offers
otherwise by now I’d have a shed full of brightly coloured trowels, comfort
knee pads or an Alan Titchmarsh digital compost measuring jug – and all those
other relatively useless gardening items you just can’t live without. (I’m not saying that Alan’s a relatively
useless gardener as he’s the bee’s knees.
He’s more than welcome to swing by for a cup of tea and a spot of
dead-heading any time!)
Second confession – I forgot to tell the world via ‘el
bloggo’ that I’d picked our first raspberry.
We’ve planted ours in what was the original herb garden, one
of the smaller raised beds where they get plenty of sunshine and shelter from
winds. Important as raspberries don’t
like wind! Being a fairly organic
gardener, they’ve not been treated with anything other than a good helping of
fruit & veg compost before planting.
All they need is sunshine which sadly can’t be purchased online.
And remember novice gardeners, if someone asks to see your
hairy raspberry it’s not because they’ve got an interest in fruit growing!!
More about growing raspberries on the RHS web site
