Shop til you drop - but know when to stop!
It is said that the difference between a male and female shopper is that a man will give two Euro for something worth a Euro because he needs it, while a woman will buy something worth two Euro for one Euro which she doesn"t need!Whatever bit of truth is in this, the one certainty is that by and large, women enjoy shopping much more than men.The January sales start this week and recession or not, I guarantee that the nearest thing to a Calgary stampede will be through the doors of Dublin shops right through January.Young and old will turn out in force to take advantage of the bargains and there will be huge savings to be made. Sales and bargains are not confined to the capital of course and your nearest town can have reductions of anything up to 70% on goods.I don"t like shopping: shopping for me means knowing exactly what I want, buying it and coming home. Not so with Mrs Youcantbeserious and at great personal risk to myself I have to state that I don"t enjoy a day"s shopping with her. It starts Ok with me being the essence of consideration, sweetness and light. The first hour is grand and then it starts to drag and I become perhaps a shade irritable! Why look at stuff we are not going to buy? Haven"t you got what we came for? I stand uncomfortably, fidgeting with my phone within a ten metre radius of the door of a ladies" fashion shop while one of us is taking 'only a minute' to fit something on. Not knowing where to look I take a ricochet glare from a mirror where some woman finds my eyes coming to rest on her. I decide to wait outside and get in trouble for not caring enough to give advice and this is why we buy nothing there!But it is shoes which really drive women wild, lads. Shopping for shoes can send a woman"s heart racing to 120 beats a minute, the same rate as a strenuous five-minute workout. No satisfaction of coming across any item of clothing can compare with the excitement generated by those twin objects of delight and desire called shoes. London Metropolitan University conducted a study for the Brantana footwear chain and found that not only does the purchaser get excited, but the study finds that when a thrilled woman comes across the pair of shoes, the pulse rate of everyone in the vicinity rises mysteriously; even those who have no links to the ecstatic purchaser! Are yiz taking all this in Lads? It makes you feel that all shoe makers deserve to be decorated for services not only to women"s feet, but to humanity! Just shows how misunderstood Imelda Marcos was with her thousands of pairs of shoes, when all she was trying to do was raise the spirits of the ordinary Philippine people!Women"s shoes can be a thing of beauty but not always. Sometimes they don"t resemble shoes at all - more like little torture implements. Once again, at high risk of mental or physical damage to my being, I report on a certain party with whom I go out to social functions. She will wear a comfortable pair of flat shoes to the hotel door, before producing two yokes from the handbag which will make me look a bad dancerâ¦. And on that note we"ll finish with 'heel-lust' as shoe craze is sometimes referred to.Shopping is one of Irish women"s favourite pastimes, with many taking short trips abroad solely to 'shop til they drop'. For most people, whether at home or abroad, shopping means new clothes, a few presents for family and friends, or just perusing the latest fashions, but like all enjoyable things in life, there has to be a limit. Shopping can become an addiction - a destructive addiction which can turn into financial disaster. Donald Black, professor of psychiatry at Iowa College of medicine warns of the dangers of being a victim of 'shopoholism'. 'Compulsive shopping and spending are defined as inappropriate excessive and out of control', he says. 'Like other addictions, it basically has to do with impulsiveness and lack of control over one"s impulses.' We all know that spending over budget, compulsive buying or hiding the number of items purchased is not healthy behaviour in an adult and is a warning to take stock. Like any other addiction it has nothing to do with how much a person shops and spends, but everything to do with the consequences. It is all about control and if a shopper is no longer in control of their shopping, but their shopping is in control of them, they have crossed the line. Even as a self-confessed addictive sort of person, I can safely say that shopping is one addiction I do not have!For the majority of you heading off to the January sales this week, it will be nothing more than an enjoyable day out, with the satisfaction of grabbing the odd bargain here and there, or finding something you always wanted, at the right price. A lovely day out - except for that guy hanging round the door, carrying a pile of bags! So, go ahead and 'shop til you drop' - but just know when to stop!!Don"t forgetStriking while the iron is hot may be all right, but don"t strike while the head is hot!