The return from a trip overseas has again come with the three things it always does:

1. A cold;

2. The confirmation, once again, that I do not have enough space in my house for all my books, CDs, DVDs, or, most importantly, shoes and clothes.

3. Uncontrollable spending of the type I was allowed to do while overseas, but am not supposed to do when at home. Especially given that I�m meant to be saving for a house in order to overcome No. 2, above.

To begin, I feel like shit. My head is so entirely blocked up that I cannot hear properly or see straight and I feel like my nose may well break from the pressure of my sinuses. This does not lend itself to clear thinking, and only compounds the fact that my brain isn�t yet properly switched over from �holiday with some work� to �work�. I am solving this the only way I know how: drugs, complaints, and attending a (purely medicinal) wine tasting this evening. Oh, and spending most of the day hitting the �refresh� button to find out who won the Oscars (not that I couldn�t have just guessed, because surprises, there were none).

Then there�s the room issue. My current house only has two built-in cupboards outside the kitchen. Neither of them is in my room, and even if they were there still wouldn�t be enough room. So my shoes live in their boxes against the shoe wall, and my clothes live on an open clothes rack and in a ten year old Ikea tallboy with uneven drawers. Every time I come back from a trip I clear stuff out and take it to the Op Shop in an effort to streamline my wardrobe and make some more room. But there is not enough room, and I suspect there will never be enough room. I am a professional woman in my thirties, I have a lot of clothes. I like having a lot of clothes. It gives me options.

On Saturday, in doing the post-trip clear-out, I was forced to resort to stacking my jeans and casual pants on top of the tallboy as a permanent solution. There�s certainly no room in the tallboy � two of the drawers must remain permanently open because of the amount of sweaters I own � and no room on the clothes rack any more. Even though I sent my first grown-up overcoat to the Op Shop. Not that sending a late �80�s full length, wide skirted, giant shouldered (even with the shoulder pads ditched in about 1994), no brand name (and therefore no vintage value), black overcoat to the Op Shop is any kind of a tragedy.

Moving the jeans to the top of the tallboy meant moving the stereo to the top of the small bookshelf. Reminding me that there�s no room for CDs or books either. At least my DVDs are stored on the living room floor with Betty's, because there�s no way in hell they�ll fit into my (really extremely large) bedroom.

Which brings me to point three, uncontrollable spending. When I go overseas I set myself a budget, convert it into the currency of the country I�m visiting, and spend right up to my limit with no need to consider rent, bills, or any of those other things because the budget took all of that into account to begin with. The problem then being that I�m in full-on spending mode when I get home. Despite having to consider things like rent, bills and saving for a bigger wardrobe (i.e. a house).

This year I�ve banned myself from going near the shops. Having the cold has helped with that, killing my �try on clothes� gene at least temporarily. The same cannot be said for the spending gene though. Because there�s always the internet and adding to that DVD collection. In one free-spending burst yesterday I ordered the following:

Homicide Life on the Street Season 4, Sex and the City Season 5 and Season 6, Part 1, Gilmore Girls Season 1, Northern Exposure Season 1 (with free parka, apparently, which is scary), Six Feet Under Season 2 and Alias Season 3.

This definitely breaks the no spending rule. But it isn�t as bad as it sounds (I tell myself, loudly, so I can hear it over my blocked ears) because only the first SATC box is actually currently available. All the rest will be shipping to me, and hitting the credit card, between now and September. So it�s not really spending. Right? It�s not being unreasonable to buy 7 television series box sets over as many months. Right?

If worse comes to worse I�ll just blame the cold medication and use the 7 months to find room to store them all.

PS. Congratulations to Adam and Melanie for their Oscar for Harvie Krumpet!