It was a weekend of trivial cruelties.

First, I headed into the city to pick up a birthday present for Kimberlance. It�s a testament both to how busy I�ve been at work, and how good I�ve been in terms of staying away from the shops post-mortgage (lord knows I can do enough damage online without heading into the stores myself), that the taking shape of two new shopping destinations in the centre of the city had passed without my noticing until I ventured into the shopping part of town to acquire the present.

Melbourne has always been a pretty good shopping destination. Second to Sydney, I would have had to reluctantly agree, in terms of the range of high end brands, but streets ahead of the rest of the country. But over the last twelve months, we�ve clearly decided to give Sydney a run for its money across the board. We�ve had two new shopping centres � I hesitate over using that word because they�re not malls, but are internal clusters � open, and the complete refurbishment of a third with an all new layout and glossy new stores.

I had had the opportunity to wander through the first of the new centres in pre-mortgage days, and now head there very occasionally to hit the Big W and skirt around the Christian Louboutins upstairs. But the other two, in particular the re-development of the GPO building, I hadn�t been anywhere near. And now I know I have to stay away. It�s not a big centre, but it contains, among new stores for a couple of the medium range chains, a Costume National store, and the first Melbourne outpost of Sydney�s over-priced mecca Belinda. I had known this was coming, but had managed to block it out.

The only place in the country to stock a wide range of Missoni, Marc Jacobs shoes (the first line, not the diffusion), and the place where I once seriously considered laying out $1,300 for a pair of Jimmy Choo boots. Ankle boots. Pretty pretty boots. Which thankfully were not in sight anywhere when I did a quick wander through on Saturday, quite glad in the end that I was wearing my daggiest outfit, smelly sneakers and sweating a little so that even if I were tempted to stop and try on the pretty shoes, I really couldn�t.

So I kept moving, which lead on the second and more dominant of the weekend cruelties. The presence of a warm Spring wind. Blowing pollen and dust everywhere. I was only in town an hour or so in the end. I picked up Kimberlance�s present, and for myself two books, two candles, a plug for the second kitchen sink, sinus tablets and a CD (most of which were paid for with cash, so they don�t count as �spending� until I can�t afford food at the end of the pay fortnight). It felt like a nice mix of spending on myself and being restrained. But by the time I got home I was such an allergic disaster that I could barely see or breathe. And I was out of hay-fever tablets, which meant I had to leave the house again to go to the chemist.

I learned my lesson. Yesterday morning I went across the road to pick up some milk from the shop on the corner, testing the wind and the pollen as I went. Upon my return, nose dripping, I took a tablet and made an executive decision. Despite the sunshine and the warm weather, I was not leaving the apartment. It just wasn�t worth it. I closed all the blinds, threw on some music and curled up on the couch in the study with a book. Over the course of the weekend I read two entire books, plus the second half of the one I�d been reading during the week and the first half of the next one on my list.

Of course the book I�m now halfway through is Maggie Alderson�s new novel, Handbags and Gladrags, which I am enjoying but brings me around full circle to the problems of having so many great new stores on my doorstep � it�s set, as her books usually are, in the fashion world - and so I spent the evening reading about Louboutins and Alexander McQueen jackets, which leaves me grumpy, and snotty.

On the up side, tomorrow is a public holiday, today is a slack day in the office and I�ve got a lunch on with Kimberlance and then a barbeque at Betty's tonight (and it might rain during the afternoon to dampen down all that pollen), and you never know, I might win the lottery one of these days.