Window shopping

To avoid going back to my flat to face my mum nagging about not studying when I should be studying (i.e. every waking moment), I went out for lunch after my psychiatrist follow-up, with some window shopping afterwards.

If you know me, I have to be considerably bored to contemplate window shopping as a way to pass the time. I despise window shopping, along with the Nazis, Dora Tai and bigotry. I just find the whole conept illogical and useless. Why waste hours looking at items you will not buy? Why do women adore window shopping, as men love playing video games? Don't ask me, I'm still bemused by the situation. Men will only shop when they have to. They will wear down their clothes and eat up all their food in their kitchens before venturing to restock their wardrobes and cupboards. Women on the other hand are an entirely different species. They will buy anything just because "it looks good" and perhaps only wear said clothing time just once.

I don't window shop for clothes like most ladies do. Most of my focus is directed towards books, DVDs, music and food. So most of my window shopping today was spent in Page One (a bookshop), HMV and Three-Sixty (an upclass supermarket). The only item I bought over two hours was some organic grape jam (jelly to the Americans/Canadians out there).

There were many more items I could have bought over the afternoon. At Page One in Central, where they are closing down and are having a massive sale, I could have bought Victor Hugo's "Les Miserable" for about HK$25.00 or a sushi recipe book for HK$30.00. At HMV there were many DVDs and CDs I contemplate buying along with the latest edition of "Nuts" magazine. In the supermarket, there were other food items I could have bought.

Yet at the back of my mind, there is that part of my brain that always screams out "Why?" Why do I need to buy this particular item? Will I have time to use it? I still have two novels I still haven't read gathering dust at home - "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Moby Dick". Adding another will just create another back log. I have a lot of recipe books at home already and most recipes I tend to look up on the internet nowadays. The same goes with DVDs and music. I still have too many DVDs I still haven't watched, some I bought two years ago. Even when I buy music, I don't tend to listen to them much. I tend to listen podcasts more nowadays.

You may think this shouldn't apply to the supermarket but it does. I tend not to buy groceries - my parents usually do that task. Most of the items I buy at the supermarket comes underneath the specialty range - caraway seeds, golden syrup, couscous, etc. I have to consider whether I will be using these ingredients over the next few weeks.

The most ultimate factor which causes me to put a particular item down back on its shelf and walk away is cost/worth. For some strange reason, DVDs, books and specialty food items are much more expensive in Hong Kong. I have to remember that I am still a student and none of the dollars are spending are mine, they are my parents. I still feel guilty when I pay for anything I buy for myself. It helps to curtail your spending, logic and guilt, and is not hard to see why women do so much spending when they tend to lack these two factors.

When I'm free of my parents and finally have a job, maybe I will go stark crazy and spend my money on something. Most likely comedy DVDs...