I'm a reluctant Woolworths shopper. I do admire their apparently genuine commitment to stocking sustainable and more ethical food, and certain items are definitely worth making a detour for — waxy potatoes, their bulk packs of spinach and asparagus, organic dark chocolate and maybe the occasional free range chicken. But I am not ready to be one of the aspirational, and it must be said, mostly miserable looking masses, buying my ready-chopped veg, ready-made meals, all blemish free and over-packaged.
Maybe I'm just too cheap to pay the premium. Maybe being brought up by cash strapped single mom means I will never get over my feeling that it's all just somehow immoral and wasteful. Or maybe it's just a desperate desire never to grow up. It really is so terribly grown up in there.
But now the buggers have found my weak spot. They've moved beyond the refined white Phalenopsis orchids displayed in every home with decor pretensions. There are Phalenopsis in shades of puce and shocking pink, huge indigenous epiphytic Ansellia leopard orchids, lurking spottily in the entrance, ready to pounce and tear my wallet from my hands and giant hybrid Cattleyas, sprays of buds just unfurling all orange and red.
If they start bringing in the delicate dwarf Phalenopsis already available all over the London, and so much prettier than their bigger sisters, or a few more of our local indigenous gems this could become an expensive habit. Still, at R100 or so on sale, and this Cattleya still going strong many weeks later, maybe I can just think of it as buying a bunch of flowers that will magically resurrect every year. I'll just ignore the almost insignificant cost of the greenhouse I'll need to house them.
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