(not so grand) opening

This is slightly embarrassing. It's like buying some coveted state-of-the-art (or so you think) gadget when all your friends already own it or - heaven forbid! - a paperback with a Now-a-Major-Motion-Picture- cover. Well, this is what it feels like to start blogging when the rest of the world's at it already. Ah, well.

It was only at the beginning of this year that I found out there was this thing called blogs. I was talking to a friend at a work-related function when suddenly she spotted someone in the crowd and dashed off to talk to him for the rest of the evening. When I met her the following week, she told me the person she'd been talking to so animatedly was a blogger like herself. Right. Come again? She patiently explained it to dumb uninitiated me and duly mailed me the URL of her blog. When I clicked through her links I was fascinated - to think that there was this completely unknown parallel UNIVERSE out there and an internet-addict like me, self-appointed Queen of Idle Surfing, had no idea it even existed! In my initial euphoria I scoured the web and hopped from one blog to the next for a couple of days before I realised that it was more about quality than quantity and I wasn't actually that interested in just anybody's verbal diarrhoea and photos of their brats and fluffy pets, even if they happened to live in a glamorous place or knew a thing or two about web-design. I finally settled for a mere handful I still check on a daily basis. At the beginning, I was more than happy to be just a blog-reader but gradually decided I wanted to give it a try myself. Boring job and the urge to talk incessantly: lethal combination.

So. Welcome to my humble site. After a week of research in forums regarding how to customise the blogger-template I have bloodshot eyes but am also bloody proud of myself for managing to change the banner, etc. without the help of my tech-savvy better half. At least in IE it looks half-decent so I'm happy for the moment. Small step for mankind, giant leap for Html-illiterate yours truly!

As you might have guessed from the title of this blog, I'm not adverse to the odd bit of retail therapy. I'm also a culture vulture and bookworm and love travelling so expect these to be recurrent topics. Have I mentioned already that I like shopping? Hence the "purchase(s) of the day" footnote which I intend to make a regular feature. Then again, I might want to discontinue it soon. Who wants written proof of just how much money they waste in their lunch-breaks every day...

Welcome to the world of a veteran retail therapist.

Purchase(s) of the day: Just boring groceries. Mind you, I did try to splurge out by heading to one of the H&M stores in town that sell Stella MacCartney's limited edition collection. Nothing blew me off my feet enough to actually buy it, though.