I'm not the sort of person who's easily persuaded to buy something just because the one I've already got has 'gone out of fashion'. For example, although I don't play as often as once was the case, I still use the same golf clubs that I bought when I started taking the game seriously. Admittedly, the grips have been replaced, from time to time, and I've recently invested in new shafts; however, the policy, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." is one with which I'm happy to be associated.
In a similar vein, I've only changed cars twice in the past twenty years. Furthermore, I imagined the last one really would be the last. However, modern medical techniques seem geared towards ensuring everyone in the country receives a 100th. birthday telegram from The Monarch; so, who's to say I won't need another one before my time's over?
Less morbidly, after several years of resisting encouragement from various quarters to replace a rather ancient television with a new one, the old set chose the middle of the World Snooker finals to start showing signs of an imminent demise; and, towards the end of last week, the colour function decided to call it a day. The white and pink balls became indistinguishable from each other; as did the green and the blue and I was left with little alternative to accepting that the time had come to buy a new one.
And so it was, accompanied by son #2 (a younger person is absolute essential for someone of my generation in these circumstancesl) we set off to investigate what's on offer - and there are many. Quite frankly, there seem to be so many bells and whistles available, nowadays, that making the right choice is almost impossible. Suffice to say, I ended up spending significantly more than I paid for the first new car I ever bought; however, I can't deny that the quality of the picture is a great improvement when compared with the old set. However, although there don't seem to be too many sets without it, I've yet to be persuaded that I want (or need) 3D; but I might look into the HD option.
Finally, one thing which did rather surprise me was how busy the two retails parks we visited seemed to be. I thought we were supposed to in a recession.