The Tribe, St Andrews Student Magazine

Life enhancing versus cash depleting; can impulse buying ever be good?  Discuss. 

Case Study; the bicycle of revelations...      

The opportunity to impulse buy in St Andrews is generally (and thankfully) limited; unfortunately it’s not impossible.  My latest impulse buy? A bicycle.  I told myself I needed one, and I did, but there are problems with the bike, my bank balance and the implications.  However, there are several upsides.  Unexpected purchases have led to unexpected revelations about the Bubble, the precariousness of my bank balance and life in general.  The question is, was it worth it?      

Things are never as they seem; initial cost, plus helmet (yet to buy ... dilemma of helmet hair versus concussion) plus lights, locks and general shiny things so motorists can avoid (or target) me.  I feel, though, that this is a somewhat symbolic embodiment of pretty much all of my decisions so far this semester; a series of unfortunate decisions based on lack of thought / knowledge about what I was getting myself into.      

St. Andrews one way system makes absolutely no sense; buying a bicycle not only goes against my cash flow, it also brings me into conflict with traffic flow around town.  This is an unexpected and very unwelcome discovery.  I get the impression that the police force in St. Andrews really doesn’t have anything better to do (unless it’s Raisin Weekend) than a) tag bikes that are left in one place for too long and b) catch cyclists breaking the law.  All routes/shortcuts/timings are therefore currently being reconsidered.        

Being the proud owner of a not-so-shiny-and-new bicycle has added several new layers of complication to getting around, including, but not limited to: how do I get to X making the least number of left turns possible?      

There is also the additional and unforeseen problem of parking.  And then remembering where exactly I put it.  Unlike a car I can’t walk around clicking my key fob till I see the headlights flashing ... and I can’t for the life of me remember what the thing actually looks like in detail (am considering taking a photo of it just in case ...)      

On the plus side this particular impulse purchase has solved the problem of moving faster than walking pace whilst still sitting down (absolute genius!) and going downhill has never been so fun...      

So, several revelations about me, the bubble and life in general later, I have to say that the bicycle is in the end only a means to an end.  Conclusion ... living impulsively is the only way to live, and at the end of the day if your semester is going rapidly downhill, you might as well have fun...

New year, same awkward social situations – introductions. But now yet  another layer has been added to my repertoire of introductory questions I
use to fill that awkward silence. Fresh into second year and with entirely new seminar groups, society meetings, and sports, I find myself repeating the dogged introductions I thought I’d escaped. What’s your name? What are you studying? Which halls were you in? Where do you live now?

The final question provokes a reaction which gives quite an insight into the socio-economic situation of the other person and the unique situation in St. Andrews in general. My answer? Lamond Drive. There are sympathetic looks, looks of solidarity and finally the slightly confused looks. The widespread confusion emanates from those who rarely venture into that other place, where rents, bills and booze combined come in at less than £120 (an acceptable rent in certain areas of town). Slowly the confused looks become concerned. Why on earth would I live there? It must be terrible – the walk, the housing, the lack of cobbles...

The problem is that St. Andrews is not part of the real world. In Nottingham, for example, Lamond Drive would be considered very close and very expensive – perhaps we should get some perspective on the housing here.
Though, it’s been suggested, this plea for sensible attitudes to housing
may be a cynical attempt on my part to lower competition for houses in town
next year and make them accessible to me.

Returning to the awkward social situation ... life in the badlands really
isn’t all that bad ... The walk? Exercise. The housing? Double glazed. The
hills? Interesting scenery. The lack of other students nearby? Not true.
The lack of Tesco Metro? Spar, Aldi, and Morrison’s are all ridiculously close. The
fact that I now get to see more than the normal four streets will also, I
hope, keep the bubble-induced cabin fever at bay for at least another few
weeks. And as a final note, I blame the cold I currently have on the fresher’s
flu, not on the fact that I was caught on the trek back to the badlands
without a coat or umbrella....

 I doubt that I’m alone in wishing that everything was more straightforward.  And I think I’ve found a solution: simplification.  What if everything we learnt from Disney when we were growing up was true and was put into practice?  Given that becoming a cartoon is probably not possible, at the very least if we can’t go to Disney maybe we can bring Disney to real life?   

      Arguably Disney is nothing more than a cartoonized, generic, juvenile version of the trashy novels that clog the shelves of airport bookshops.  But if there’s demand then there’s success and therefore they’re meeting an innate need felt by most people to have a simple, uncomplicated, unadulterated world free from depression, complications and decisions. 

      Does Disney oversimplify? Yes.  But maybe it’s just us overcomplicating things?  If you’re looking for darker Disney films then go back to the pre Robin Hood days of The Jungle Book and Mary Poppin (just think what she would have taught the bankers ... and the recession that would have been avoided; would Mr. Banks have allowed Iceland to go broke?).   

      I’m not suggesting that elephants should suddenly begin to fly (I am well aware that it may well take scientists years to get that genetic modification perfected), but rather a reality where Prince Charming exists and there’s no depression, stress, break ups, missed deadlines... After all, why shouldn’t Disney teach us how to live our lives?  Think about the work ethic encouraged by “Let’s get down to business”, just one of the (not so) subtle messages about life, the universe and everything. If Disney ‘borrows’ its ideas from ancient fables and fairytales, whose primary purpose was to instruct us morally and define our ethics, then perhaps we should listen up. Bankers and politicians would do well to have some training seminars based around Disney. From Fantasia to Mulan I feel that they can teach us something, even if it is that Hippos CAN do ballet and Huns CAN survive avalanches.   

      Admittedly there are several problems with this utopian view of things that would need to be worked through, e.g. the position of women, lack of magic, what to do after the Happily Ever After ...  but these are minor points.  Like most Utopias, surely it would at least be a good thing to work towards? 

      Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that the world has never been so clear cut, just varying shades of grey.  At least Disney is colourful, it makes moral dilemmas a lot more interesting, at least to look at. But, if those warm feelings of happiness, content, in the post film haze were to become normal, then what?  Is Disney, or happiness, like a drug?  Perhaps we need the depressing realities that permeate the BBC News pages in order to feel the love of Disney.  Isn’t that a depressing thought ...