Me Like To Give Money

For once I had money to spend, and what better way to spend it than to give it to Greedy Money Grabbing Multinationals? Exactly. So yesterday, I did what any self-respecting young slob in Newcastle with both time and money to waste would do - I headed into Charlestown square and did just that.
In the same spirit, I would like to take the opportunity to offer plenty of unsolicited advertising for those Greedy Money Grabbing Multinationals who made my day so pleasurable.
I arrived at 1.00pm at Charlestown Square and immediately headed up to the food court. There must have been 10-15 seperate food retailers on that floor alone (Charlestown square has three floors), including:



Well, of course they were. There was also:



I like these guys. They have a great 3.90 coffee and cake deal. The store in Charlestown square was set out in a particularly attractive manner, with all sorts of colourful cakes and special offers and bargains and deals. I gave them a pass and headed on to


I've been addicted to Oporto ever since University. My chess-playing buddy Jason and me used to go up to the Newtown Oportos every now and then and buy a burger for dinner. I ordered one of their meals (price, about $7.90) and got it immediately. Mind, I had to go up to the other end of the food court to find a seat, but it was still very satisfying.
Afterwards, I headed down to



where I quickly bought myself a copy of Peace Kills, by P.J. O'Rourke. I'm already halfway through it. Definitely not his best work, but still worth reading.
Speaking of killing, I had some more time to do that to. So, even though I had just had a meal, I thought it was high time for desert. I went back up to the Foodcourt and sat down in



The coffee was - mediocre; the caramel slice was the same. It was the first time I'd ever had something in Starbucks. Would I do it again? Shit, yeah!
By that time, it was about 2.30. I wanted to see a movie at 2.40. So I walked out of Charlestown Square shopping plaza and into these guys...




and saw this movie...



And, yeah, it was good. Not as good as the first, but not bad, for a sequel. It was good to get to know Shrek and Fiona again, good to be reaquainted with Eddie Murphy's hilarious Donkey, and hilarious to have the land of Far Far Away trashed by a gigantic Gingerbread man.

And that's as far as my day went. After seeing the movie I popped into Charlestown Square again - it was eerily quiet. All the shops had closed up for the Saturday afternoon. A few straggling shoppers drifted past, and I could hear Christian rock being played through the centre on the speakers. A shopping centre is a fine place to be in when other people are around; when they're not, it seems to metamorphose into a Salvador Dali landscape: bizarre, inhuman, but still strangely fascinating.