Last week for me was tax week.

Tax week for me means finding all my officeworks receipts, my movie tickets, my half-torn theatre stubs and my dvd receipts and promising myself that next year I'm going to be more organised.

Anyway, so next year I'm going to be heaps more organised.

In the meantime though, I'm going to pause and reflect on HOW MUCH STUFF I see, read, eat (sadly not tax deductable) and do not throw out like a sensible person would (including boxes from dvd players that i no longer own, notes from people I can't remember in classes I swear I never went to, wrapping paper - seas of the stuff - and of course theatre programmes).

I don't think I have ever EVER had a moment where, pausing in the middle of something very important, I have thought to myself, "Now. Where is that theatre programme from that play I saw in 1998 at the Malthouse. I simply must find that programme immediately, for there is no possible way I can continue on into the future without it".

I don't think that has ever happened. Now that I have discarded several of these programmes during my tax time tidy up, however, I have no doubt that over the next few weeks I will in fact undergo the above experience and find my programme collection wanting.

Nevetheless. All this purchasing got me to thinking. I thought:

1. I have a lot of stuff.
2. A lot of people don't have any stuff.
3. I should give a whole lot of my stuff to people who need it (for instance, the two giant stuffed toys that someone-whose-name-most-people-will-guess won in a country fair and decided to bestow upon me by way of the beginnings of a collection).
4. I should drive my car less. I pay too much money in petrol and I am not helping the environment, despite the carbon offset thing where there are trees planted for me every time I drive anywhere (also purchased for me by person-whose-name-most-people-will-guess).
5. THEREFORE perhaps on the way to the brotherhood of st lawrence in order to give away stuff, I should purchase more stuff, in the shape of a bike.
6. Perhaps I should purchase a very excellent bike from my truly most favourite shop in the world (here), from one of my favourite people, who makes me laugh and updates me on campus news.
7. Perhaps I should then ride it around like a child with a new toy.
8. Perhaps this renders my "I should own less" mentality somewhat redundant.
9. Perhaps it is even more so if I am too lazy to ride home from my parents' place and I put the bike in the back of the carbon-offset car and drive it home to mine.
10. Perhaps these things can be over analysed and I should be simply grateful that I now have an excellent excuse to wear all my glow in the dark clothing again (it's been too long).

So yay for riding your bike!

In terms of consumption by way of books and cinema THIS financial year, I am currently reading DBC Pierre's book Vernon God Little, about twelve centuries after it was cool to do so. It is, as most people have already said, a very good read. I am, however, NOT seeing the Transformers movie, despite the legion of nerds who surround me, trembling with excitement at the prospect.

So far, that's one mark in the "CONSUMER ADDICTION" column (consumption of book) and one mark in the ABSTAINING FROM PURCHASING UNNECESSARY THINGS" column. Of course, as with all record-keeping, this is not a true reflection of the way things work. The truth is, abstaining from the Transformers movie is hardly a sacrifice, since I am bored to death at the very thought of it, and the book, although living in my bookshelf, technically belongs to someone else.

This is why tax time is confusing. Reality plays a very small and self-conscious role, and I end up with an empty wallet, a slightly more organised office, and a brand spanking new bike. How on earth did that happen?