Shopping and Me

Shopping and Me

My wife and I are at the huge outdoor market in Fuengirola again, but for the first time this trip. I have written about it elsewhere on this blog, but suffice it to say that many people believe it to be the largest in Europe and I cannot disagree. Not only because it is the largest I have ever seen, but because my experience is limited for the simple reason that I hate shopping.

I cannot abide shopping, which I realise is a curse because it is one of life’s most necessary tasks in the modern world.

However, I am balanced out by my wife who loves shopping. She would make a good professional shopper for the housebound, which is something I will put to her as a career move one day.

I have always found shopping tiresome, but six years ago, I hurt my back and now cannot stand for long. It is the perfect excuse for not spending hours wandering from shop to shop or stall to stall, although sometimes my wife thinks that she had tumbled me. However, I am admitting to nothing, and never will.

Don’t get me wrong, I love people-watching, and can happily watch them happily shopping for hours from the side-lines (preferably a bar), but I soon become irresistible if I am forced to participate.

Just to prove that to you that I do try to help with the shopping sometimes, I went with my wife to the supermarket yesterday and just spent an hour in the market.

Shopping in the market was Hell. Lots of old people shuffling along at a snail’s pace and just as many young women with prams blocking the isles discussing prices and chatting about their families.

This is the big difference between me and them, I think: to me shopping is a necessity, but to them, it is a social event. My wife falls into this category. In Thailand, she and her friends used to spend hours, if not much money, shopping, having a great time. It is different here in Spain. We know no-one, so she only has me to take with her, and shopping makes me miserable, so I spoil it for her. I wish I didn’t, but I do and have done every time for the thirteen years we’ve been together. It’s a shame, but I can’t see the situation changing in this lifetime.

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Shopping and Me