It is fairly normal for people to have weaknesses,  and I’m no different. I’m not sure if it’s a weakness as such, but I am  known to be a bit of a perfectionist, and I do get quite anxious quickly about the most mundane of things. But the mother of all my weaknesses surely must be the fact that I, am, a, born, SHOPPERHOLIC! I shop, a lot!!! I shop when I am bored, when I’m sad, when I’m happy, when I have nothing to shop for, when I am broke, when other people shop... I even shop when I don’t feel like shopping; and that my friends is a rare situation (you see my problem?) I just shop whenever or wherever I can let it be at — Marks n Spencer in London, or pavement shopping in Nugegoda!

It’s amazing at what I find to waste my money on. And it’s not rare for me to get home after a sizzling shopping spree only to find out that I already have half the items I just bought. And then there’s the ever present issue of my expanding waistline! Why do I always seem to be expanding sideways? (watermelon diet, here I come, again..). So I store it up and keep it in my wardrobe in the hope that someday, maybe even in 10 years from now I will be able to fit into in.

Wait a minute. Let’s break that down. In 10 years I’ll be 10 years older, and probably (God forbid) bigger in size, have maybe seven kids and possibly be a housewife with no where to wear my pink mini dress to! But still, I look at my hot pink mini dress and I just can’t seem to part with it. One thing about us shopperholics is we will never part with anything we have, EVER! ‘I will wear it someday’ is the oath we tell ourselves.

As some of you may already know, I am an airline stewardess (i you didn’t, I suggest you read my last column where I went into great lengths to establish the fact!). Travelling the world is what I do for a living and I just love it. But STEWARDESS combined with SHOPPERHOLIC equals DISASTER!  Not only do I over do it  in the shopping department at home, but I over do it wherever I go. And that is NOT a good thing for someone who travels to London, Bangkok or Singapore every few months.

You tell me where your going to and I will tell you what to buy! Or you tell me what you want to buy and I will tell you where to go to! I know it all when its comes to shopping and as sad as it is, there is nothing I can do to stop this. It defines me.

You know you have a problem when you go to a shop and you say to your self ‘Ok. Lets just buy one top today and you end up buying nine. Can I help being a person whose heart skips a beat when I see that four-letter word — SALE! I mean buying 50 birthday cards because they were on a promotion where you buy 25 and get 25 free, or buying winter boots in summer, or buying every handbag in style, buying yourself a netbook computer because its cute and not to mention pink in colour, or buying those jeans just because your neighbour has it, and buying that new anti-wrinkle cream that was advertised in the magazine you had read a few weeks ago (but don’t actually have any wrinkles), or buying a set of note books because Scooby Doo is on the cover.

You see what I mean..? Pretty normal for me. It only gets abnormal when you find yourself in denial, or find that you’re embarrassed about your little problem. Not to mention when you get your credit card bill at the end of the month and you almost go into cardiac arrest seeing the sum at the end of it.    

As I recall it was a weekend, and I was bored. So I decided to do what I do best. GO SHOPPING with my friend Sara. As I walk around the shop in complete awe I saw my friend trying on a dress, WOW!  I said to her ‘where did u get this from? I did not see it, that is just gorgeous!’ She then says to my utter dismay, ‘oh this is the last one they have in this colour, doesn’t it look cute on me?’ I am frozen! Wow, that is just gorgeous! What? Last top in this colour? No way. I want it too.

So I ask the assistant for one of the same and when she confirms that is indeed the last, it’s as though my heart stopped. It was at that moment, that I start to plot! I need that dress.. I need it like a flower needs the rain, like a bird needs the wind; I  have to have it, I need to have it. It was meant for me. Only problem was my friend is now wearing it and admiring herself in the mirror. Houston, we have a PROBLEM!

I smile weakly as she asks me my opinion on the dress she has on… MY DRESS that SHE HAS ON! Oh I say… ‘ I don’t know that colour really doesn’t seem to suit you all that much, and the shape of that dress just does not flatter your figure either.’ I say feeling as guilty as guilty could be. Sara looked confused, she stared at me looking quite bemused. ‘Plus its way too short anyway’ I say. ‘Oh ok,  maybe I should not buy it then and look for something better,’ says Sara. I agree with her and tell her that would be the best thing to do. And as she puts back the dress on the rack where she found, step two in my plot begins to take shape…  

And then I hear it in the nick of time, ‘WILL THE OWNER OF THE CAR NUMBER XX-XXXX PLEASE BE KIND ENOUGH TO MOVE YOUR VEHICLE FROM THE PLACE IT’S NOW PARKED! ‘Sara is confused.. ‘that’s my car number’ she says, ‘I wonder why I have to move it.’ I shrug my shoulders unable to look into her eyes. As she leaves the shop I run towards the rack where my dress waits for me. And as I take it into my arms, I am ecstatic. As I am about to run to the cashier to pay for my dress, I see the same dress, only in the most gorgeous shade of blue I have never seen.

So I quickly decide to buy that one too. As I run towards the cashier I now see Sara just about to enter the shop. I run to the cashier as fast as my feet could take me, thank the cashier who is also my friend for the little announcement he had made for me... ‘You really wanted that dress didn’t you ma’am? Well it’s the least we can do for one of our most frequent shoppers,’ he says to me with a wink. I then found Sara and left the shopping mall one very happy customer.

It was two weeks after this incident occurred, and I had completely forgotten about it. As I met Sara for lunch she said that she wanted to give me something as a token of our friendship. I was thrilled. I mean how sweet can one be, as she handed over to me a gift box. I tear it open unable to contain my excitement and as I opened the box I wish I never had. As tears fill my eyes I felt a lump in my throat. There I was staring at the dress I had bought two weeks ago, only this one is purple in colour. Speechless.

‘I saw how much you liked this dress the minute you saw it the other day that I decided that I wanted to get it for you, so I went to the shop the very next day and got it. But they did not have the one you wanted. They said that it was purchased the day before unfortunately! Instead they had the purple colour which I know is your favourite colour… I hope you like it…!

I thank her for her thoughtfulness, but I can’t bring myself to tell her what I did. I am embarrassed, I am guilty and most of all I am sad. I realised that material things come but relationships last a life time. Don’t get me wrong, I still luuurve shopping, but instead of spending all of my spare time shopping, I now try and spend it with my friends and family. And that’s a true confession of an ex-shopperholic.