Sitting around...on your own...with the flu...is a dangerous thing. You’re bored...you’re feeling sorry for yourself...and when an email arrives in your mailbox inviting you to view articles which have been reduced by an additional 90% you do so.

Up until this point I’d managed to view Yoox (the sender of the aforementioned email) as a “visit briefly but not stay long enough to do any damage” site...mainly because of the sheer volume on offer. I realize it’s churlish to complain of an excess of riches...and maybe it’s just me...but after I’ve clicked through 20 or 30 pages of items I get the kind of feeling usually associated with the consumption of an entire bag of candy (satiated but not in a good way).

However, brimming with boredom (and, I'll admit, a hefty amount of DayQuil) I kept clicking long after the point when I would normally have abandoned ship...and hit a non-boring-basics mother lode. Item number one, a pair of dark grey dress pants from Golden Goose. You may remember that I was casting covetous glances at a pair of their pants a while ago...but was deterred by the mind-boggling price tag ($510 for a pair of chinos)...$29 is a much nicer amount...especially for a pair of pants that manage to trail the ground on my 5’11” frame. Item number two, a flannel bubble skirt from Nicole Farhi...because I can’t resist a “bubble”. The final purchase satiated the desire for a pair of decks shoes which has been nibbling away at me for a while now...I’ve been trying to resist their “I’m off to the country club for a game of tennis with Buffy” overtones but succumbed to this black patent leather pair from Ralph Lauren (if you’re going to go preppy you might as well get them from the King of Prep).

Obviously, in addition to the "don't consume alcohol" warnings, something should be added to the side of the cold medicine along the lines of "using this drug and shopping online may be hazardous to your bank balance".