Oh, to curl up on the sofa with a nice glass of wine and a good book.

These everyday yearnings to find time to relax are now becoming even more illusory. You are probably only too aware that Borders has gone into administration along with First Quench (who own Threshers, amongst others) squeezing wine and words out of the High Street.

Personally I will not miss the buy one book and get two you will never read offers, or the bleak battery farm shelves of unhappy books prostituted by the bored scribbles of invisible staff.

Threshers also had cheap offers like three bottles of plonk for two, keeping village tombolas very busy circulating unwanted wine for years on end. Their famous 40% off voucher was always an option before throwing a party. For that and the shear convenience of adding to the past proliferation of off licences, they will be missed.

I imagine that there will be lots of house parties that will suffer a temporary booze drought.

One minute people are in uproar about 'globalisation' and the homogeneity of the High Street, the next they are fretting about the demise. You cannot have your cake and eat it.

So maybe independents will thrive with the market opening up again? Will we just be left with less shops and further to walk for our creature comforts, or will we walk at all?

It is so tempting to detach yourself from tactile shopping and deny your senses from really exploring before purchasing, the 'armchair and laptop' is all too easy. But if I wanted to be fed life intravenously, I would plug myself into Second Life, buy a Sony Reader, join the Sunday Times Wine Club, look out for the Ocado van, and have done with it....gosh that almost seems the norm now.

Physically getting out and choosing a book or a bottle of wine, holding the item in your hands and letting your neurones fire a bit evaluating millions of imperceptible nuances is just as important as the reading and drinking part. We can deny it all we like but we need to satisfy that active foraging instinct.

Before you can say 'left click' we may find we have evolved as part man, part soft furnishing.

I know, you are thinking all these fluffy idealistic thoughts are really not practical in our modern full thrust world. You are right in a sense. There is no denying that buying wine online does seem to present a great choice at a competitive price, and certainly has its place. My problem is that I normally want to order a case of wine say made up of bottles from about three different online retailers. In my ideal world there would be a sort of wine broker that can make this possible to save the cost and hassle of three separate deliveries.

A bit like having each course of a curry in a different restaurant and hence avoiding an overdose of the 'house sauce'.

The true reason for the demise of these high street giants is probably not due to the online attraction of Amazon and Virgin Wines for example....more likely the Supermarkets a short drive away. The massive price crunching powers and accessibility is too much of a draw.

Who needs War and Peace with a bottle of Chateau Petrus, when you can chance upon Katie Price's autobiography and some Blue Nun whilst buying your weekly Pampers supply.

It is all about balance and therefore important to continue to support your High Street independent wine merchant. Do not just use it on the way to a dinner party as a convenient drop in, but take some time out to enjoy the experience of examining the wine, maybe even tasting some before you buy.

So where am I going with all of this?

Basically, use it or lose it.

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