The Real Thing

The Real Thing ©

By Michael Casey

What you see is what you get, my old boss DW said that about me  back in1999, and it’s true, I never pretend, perhaps I’m too shallow to pretend, you can judge for yourself if ever you do meet me. Now as I was saying on G+ I had to visit Aldi, I’m sipping their version of Horlicks as I talk to you, as well as listening to Vangelis, from the other room my wife is half having  a conversation with me about Customer Service.

The Horlicks copy is watery and very sweet, so I won’t be buying it again. If I had liked it I would have bought 10, and it would have lasted me for months. I allow myself one treat drink a day, otherwise I follow a strict regime. Post my unplanned quadruple heart bypass, I had to do something, so that’s part of it. Now The Real Thing was how they advertised Coca Cola years ago, if you are as old as me you’ll remember the advert on tv.

Do you want the Real Thing or will anything do? You go down your local street market and you can get bargains galore, you are not expecting the real thing. A Rolex for 10quid, only 10 year olds believe that, or their big brothers whose IQ is 10. No what you see is what you get, we know it’s not the real thing, but it is in our price range, so we got away happy. You can get really good things cheaply, for example Alien Works watches on Amazon, automatic ones too. Go look for yourself.

My dad used to say “if you buy rubbish you buy twice” and he was right, especially furniture, you can go down your local high street and see rubbish galore. Pay a bit more and you’ll have at least 10 years of good use from your furniture. You may even conceive your children in that rocking armchair, see I’ve got you thinking now, 4am is a good time too……

Everything IS budget, and now thanks to the Internet we can all search high and low and get a bargain, sometimes in the most unexpected place, such as Argos for furniture. We got a three seater and a two seater for £440, so go hunting for value on their website. Or just go to John Lewis as they never sell rubbish whatever it is you are after, and they give 2 year and 5 year guarantees on various stuff.

Food is important, we are what we eat, and it’s always nice to have nice food. I’d rather have cheaper something else so that I can have nice food. Going back to Aldi generally their “copy” brands are good, they taste good and they are cheaper by far. Yes somethings are not as nice, but for us Aldi is the closest store. When we win the lottery, or I die and the insurance pays out, then the family would go to Sainsburys or Waitrose because they are so nice to shop in and the stuff is beautiful to eat. Though with my regime, I cannot or should I say shouldn’t eat lots of stuff, as its “naughty but nice” to use Salman Rushdie’s phrase from his fresh cream cakes days.

So we may want the real thing but life prevents us, that’s why Birthdays and Holidays and great, we can break our fast, we can come together as a family and share our joy and eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die, or we might if you have any fat people in your family who really should give a few things up, don’t have too much of the real thing but avoid that heart attack.