Monday, August 22, 2005

The Impluse Buy

For those of you who know Loren and I well, you can probably attest to
the fact that we are not impulse buyers. About the only thing we buy
on impulse is lunch. For anything more significant, there's a lot of
hemming and hawing and discussions, and usually at least one day's
delay to think on it.

Saturday, however, we did something beautifully impulsive. We had
wandered into a neighbourhood that we were not all that familiar with,
a middle class, well established kind of place, with lots of little
boutiques, cafes, businesses and even a small souk. We had come to
buy stamps for our Carte de Séjour in our passport, but didn't find
them there. We did find a coffee shop and have a sip, and then we
wandered upstairs to look for someone who could burn a CD of pirate
software for reading DVDs for about 3 Dinars.

As we walked through the little shopping complex, I noticed a music
store with guitars hanging in the window. I pointed to it and
suggested we go in. So after we bought our DVD software, we did just
that.

There was a row of classical guitars hanging on the small side wall,
and we asked the store attendant, which one was the least expensive.
He pointed to an all black guitar and said 75 Dinars. He brought it
down for us, showed us the make. We handled it for all of about three
minutes, when I looked at Loren and said: "Want it?" He smiled a huge
smile. "I do!" We dug around in our wallets, and I had sixty, and
Loren had ten. That would give us just five dinars for the ride home,
which was more than enough. I pulled out my stash, handed it to
Loren, and watched as he happily paid and took the cardboard box with
the guitar.

I think it's the biggest impulse buy we've ever made, and Loren hasn't
stopped smiling since!