A dull trip to an empty London Pantheon.

The other day I had to go to Brent Cross. I felt pretty smug that I’d finally figured out a new (to me) parent and child parking area and I actually got a place in it.

On the way in a man with noticeable indicators of his religion came out and got in his car, no child in sight. At first I was thinking of tweeting something like ‘If you have clearly visible signs of your religion presented then parking in a parent and child parking bay doesn’t look good’ but on the other hand, perhaps he’d just dropped someone off, perhaps his child was in a wheelchair, had a debilitating disease etc. — or he may just have been an asshole. Charity, give the benefit of doubt, live and let live and all that. And honestly, I feel better for thinking on the positive side of things. Fuck it, I live as I live, you live as you live.

In the store we passed many, many shops and a smattering of people, it was midday, midweek so what would I expect.

I didn’t have the luxury of time so wasn’t interested in shopping. Although the thought did cross my mind to look at the iPhone 6 in the Apple store. Instead I headed straight in, picked up my parcel at the collection desk and Henry in tow, exited Marks and Spencer. Actually… that’s not entirely true, I looked at some watches on the way, I am allowed to buy another one come April 2015 you know!

After exiting Marks I got as far as Carphone Warehouse before I remembered I wanted to squiz the iPhone 6 out so I popped in there. Very nice but their security bracket completely negates finding out how the larger screen affects me when I try and hold it. And boy is it expensive! I really don’t use my phone enough to justify it to be honest.

Even though I had little time to shop and generally dislike crowds I haven’t had the desire to go to Brent Cross and shop for years. People I’ve noticed in such places have glassy, glazed eyes, lust gleaming from within dirty souls. Feeding my own ghost, I looked at some rather nice IWC watches but upwards of four thousand pounds! Even if I won the lottery I’d like to think I wouldn’t, although I could be kidding myself.

I coined the term Temple of Insatiable Desire when I walked in this time, in my head of-course. As I wandered deeper the concept of Hungry Ghosts came more and more to me.

Hungry Ghosts, as I understand them, are spirits that are cursed with a hunger that can never be satisfied. The first time I heard of Hungry Ghosts was a comparison between them and corporations in a blog post. I believe it’s a Japanese concept. If you’re familiar with Stephen King you might consider Thinner as something similar.

And that’s what shopping pantheons like this are, centres of infection, populated by Hungry Ghosts creeping into your soul. You might wander in there in your fresh as a daisy Nikes and end up wanting new ones. Or a shiny new watch while the one on your wrist will probably outlast you (me). We all have our own weakness.

Having said all that, next time I’m there I’ll be stopping in at Apple, possibly the King of Hungry Ghosts, and checking out the iPhone 6 and feeding my own ghost. He’s there, lurking but I can see him more clearly now. He doesn’t inhabit me like he used to, his poison is less effective now. Let’s hope I win!

How about you, can you recognise your Hungry Ghost?