Ah! The Pleasures of Shopping

With Christmas around the corner, the shopping malls are choc a bloc full of a myriad variety of attractively packaged stuff just waiting to be bought off the shelves. Mind you, the bargains and discounts that are on offer are mind blowing. It is time to get started with thejoy of buying gifts for my loved ones this Christmas. Hey…and how about refurbishing the house too! Wouldn’t it be great to give the home a new make-over before the guests arrive for Christmas? Wicked thought isn’t it? Bet my husband will shudder at the prospect of the huge expenses that this venture would involve! Especially since he has already made bookings for that long promised holiday in sun-drenched Hawaii for the New Year.

Like all women, I love (or is it lust?) shopping, be it window shopping where I can spend hours trying on everything on display, feeling and touching without really buying anything (much to the dismay of the sales-assistant, I’m sure) or the real shopping when I really mean business. I don’t think I will ever get over this passion, for it is a primal desire which gushes forth right from within me, it is a real stress buster and infuses me with a warm glow inside. Something like ‘comfort food’ I guess.

Sales are something I just love. I’m oblivious to the crowds milling around me and I’m literally transported to another world as it were. I guess the thrill of shopping comes from spotting an interesting item, desiring it, finally buying it and then flaunting these objects of desire for the whole world to covet! ‘flaunting’? ‘covet’? …no, no…I’m just kidding. I’m actually not all that bad, you know.
The saddest thing that happened to me yesterday was that I sprained my ankle and the doc has rendered me immobile for at least three weeks. Drat, there goes my biggest shopping extravaganza of the season. I was so bugged.
Ever optimistic as I am, what’s a little sprain, I thought. Nothing is going to deter me from my all consuming desire to shop till I drop. If not on foot on a brick-and-mortar structure, why not online was what I gleefully decided.
Thus started my odyssey with cyber shopping and believe me, I’m hooked. It has opened a whole new universe for me. I went to many popular online shopping sites and browsed around for hours without tiring myself out at all. I previewed products, read reviews and recommendations, I spotted objects of interest, desired them after examining two-dimensional images of them, added them into my shopping cart after of course selecting suitable sizes/colours. I went on adding more and more stuff. No crowds, no walking, no aching feet, just moving and clicking my mouse. Boy, did I get crazy! Thought I’d get the carpal tunnel syndrome at the rate I was clicking.
The greatest thing about online shopping is that when you have a shopping cart full of stuff, and all of a sudden you lose the urge to buy anything, all you have to do is go do something else and come back to your cart later on. You can never do that at a real shopping mall. The harried sales assistant is not likely to forget you in a hurry
When you’re ready to part with your money (which you do not see) after your online selection, all you have to do is to click the ‘check out’ button in your shopping cart. You fill in your particulars, including your credit card number and your correct address (you don’t want the goodies delivered to some very lucky bloke). That’s basically it. However, online shopping doesn’t end here. It provides the convenience of the parcels being delivered home and I’m told you get the feeling of being pleasantly surprised as though somebody has sent you a gift. You momentarily forget that it is you who has dished out the money for them. Lovely feeling, that. Don’t you think?
Out of all the sites on the Web, eBay is my favourite place to surf for millions of exciting stuff from online vendors from around the world. It is easy to search for products, navigate pages and select online finds. The website’s buy-it-now or auction-style purchasing, numerous payment choices (including the simple and secure PayPal) and several shipping options is why I love clicking on this shopping wonder of the World Wide Web. CyberMonday, Fabmall, Rediff, Indiatimes and Sify are also other place worth visiting.

See you later. Got some more stuff to buy which I just remembered!