I don't know about you, but I can waste hours of my day trawling
through the internet shopping sites. Often enough, I start a search on
Ebay with something very particular in mind ... and, yet, somehow, end
up buying shedloads of useless unrelated junk instead.
How
does it even happen? One moment I'm looking - very specifically - for a
chiffon dress... and then suddenly I've jumped into some parallel
universe and landed on a bunch of items for hen-do parties (as a single
girl, there are no words for the terror that some of those items brought
me).
Definitely a girl with too much time on her
hands, I hear you say. Based on the events of today, I am inclined to
agree with you.
I know I'm addicted to shopping for
items. In the last month alone, I have spent a good £300 on items
(although that's partly because I decided it would be a good idea to
invest in a mobile photography studio). In the past, I've bought
everything from rose petals to ballet shoes (I'm not a ballerina). The
trouble is, everything is made to look so enticing.
I
am the type of person who is always interested in hunting for something
new and exciting to fill up my spare time. Within the last year, I've
taken on directorships for theatre companies, started to teach myself
how to play the violin, begun to develop ballet skills and started to
advance my skills as a photographer. I know it's good to be proactive,
and I'm enjoying every moment of it, but I wish that all these hobbies
involved spending less. Money is so quickly frittered away on ballet
shoes, violins, music books, acting scripts, cameras and the like. Why
does it have to be so expensive to have a hobby and do the things you
enjoy?
Maybe I'm doing it wrong.
Speaking
honestly, I can say that there's at least one hobby which has never
failed me. A hobby, incidentally, which costs me very little. It's
something which I will always love doing and pride above all else -
because it's always been so much more than a hobby for me. It's a way of
life. A love which has been etched into my brain since I first learned
how to clasp a pencil in my hand. That 'hobby' is, of course, my
writing.
Not a day goes by without some idea being
scrawled on the back of an envelope or jotted on a note pad. Wherever I
am, whatever I'm doing, it is the one thing that I always make time for
in the day.
So perhaps, on balance, it may be wise if I
try to curb the endless hobby shopping. I love the hobbies I have and
don't want to split my focus. Besides, I'm quickly running out of enough
hours in the day to do everything anyway - especially when you throw
my love for yoga and walking into the mixing bowl.
How
did all this even start? I just wanted to find a turquoise dipped hem
chiffon dress to wear but somehow I lost myself in the moment along the
way. I still don't own the dress... but I do have a rather nifty pair of
pink split sole ballet shoes.
