Podcast-Shopping Overdose

 Confessions of A Shopaholic                   

                                           by 

Sophie Kinsella

Picture Taken from:
Google Images

The above podcast was read from the first section of Sophie Kinsella's book Confessions of A Shopaholic (pages 5 and 6).                                                                                                                        

Music Credits
The song used is entitled Birthday Cake by Jahzzar, taken from Free Music Archive
Birthday Cake (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 3.0
The podcast was recorded using an M-audio recorder

Taken from: Google Images

OK. DON'T PANIC. Don't panic. It's only a VISA bill. It's a piece of paper; a few numbers. I mean, just how scary can a few numbers be? I stare out of the office window at a bus driving down Oxford Street, willing myself to open the white envelope sitting on my cluttered desk. It's only a piece of paper, I tell myself for the thousandth time. And I'm not stupid, am I? I know exactly how much this VISA bill will be.
Sort of. Roughly. It'll be about...£200. Three hundred, maybe. Yes, maybe £300. Three-fifty, max.

Taken from: Google Images

I casually close my eyes and start to tot up. There was that suit in Jigsaw. And there was dinner with Suze at Quaglinos. And there was that gorgeous red and yellow rug. The rug was £200, come to think of it. But it was definitely worth every penny---everyone's admired it. Or, at least, Suze has.
And the Jigsaw suit was on sale---30 percent off. So that was actually saving money.
I open my eyes and reach for the bill. As my fingers hit the paper I remember new contacts lenses. Ninety-five pounds. Quite a lot.
But, I mean, I had to get those, didn't I? What am I supposed to do, walk around in a blur?
And I had to buy some new solutions and a cute case and some hypoallergenic eyeliner. So that takes it up to...£400?
At the desk next to mine, Clare Edwards looks up from her post. She's sorting all her letters into neat piles, just like she does every morning. She puts rubber bands round them and puts labels on them saying things like "Answer immediately" and "Not urgent but respond." I loathe Clare Edwards.
"OK, Becky?" she says.
"Fine," I say lightly. "Just reading a letter."                                                                             
I reach gaily into the envelope, but my fingers don't quite pull out the bill. They remain clutched around it while my mind is seized---as it is every month---by my secret dream.

Taken from: Google Images

Do you want to know about my secret dream? It's based on a story I once read in The Daily World about a mix-up at a bank. I loved this story so much, I cut it out and stuck it onto my wardrobe door. Two credit card bills were sent to the wrong people, and---get this---each person paid the wrong bill without realizing. They paid off each other's bills without even checking them.
And ever since I read that story, my secret fantasy has been that the same thing will happen to me. I mean, I know it sounds unlikely---but if it happened once, it can happen again, can't it? Some dotty old woman in Cornwall will be sent my humongous bill and will pay it without even looking at it. And I'll be sent her bill for three tins of cat food at fifty-nine pence each. Which, naturally, I'll pay without question. Fair's fair, after all.

Taken from:Google Images