slave to consumerism

i have, in my flat, every excuse not to ever leave it again. my broadband is fixed - i've been surfing happily for two weeks now - and i have a new TV. complete and total impulse buy that i feel really guilty about. but you know, every minute of mindless pulp i watch on every inch of that widescreen sees the guilt ebbing away, bit by bit by tiny bit. of course, because my bank balance has been dwindling, and my visa extension application ate away quite a chunk of that already miserable balance, i was left with close to nothing to live on over the week. all i had in my fridge, from Tuesday on, was cheese, onions, a tray of strawberry-vodka shots, mayo and ketchup. so i paid, dearly, for that TV.

i am proud of my ability to restrain from going out shopping, although i was tempted to many times. but then again i didn't really have much choice anyway, cos my card would've been declined at the shops.

this week saw me discovering the joys of eBay. all the time i doubted it, insisted that it wasn't all that, convinced that every single item on sale on eBay was phony; this week i swallowed all of that and browsed through item after item on the hallowed website. of course, since i was broke, i did no bidding. well, actually, i entered bids for two Sony Playstation 2's, but then prayed and prayed that someone would outbid me and sure enough, 5 mintues before the auction was over, i was outbid on both.

tomorrow i'll be getting some much-needed cash into my account. it feels like i've been good all this week, not spending any money (well, except for that tiny TV), and tomorrow, to reward myself a teensy bit, i might do some shopping. just a little bit.

last night was Bonfire Night. it rained all evening, but thankfully stopped just in time for the fireworks display. i headed down to the Albert Dock for the show, which was pretty cool. read what the celebration's all about here, and take a look at some pictures from the night here.