You men just don't understand. It must be the buzz, the heightening of endorphins which makes the majority of women simply adore one experience. Shopping.

It forms the one sole activity involving exercise which us women just can't refuse. Dilly-dallying around the shops on a Saturday, I could stay all day.

Whether its shopping for clothes, presents or even food, I, along with a hefty portion of the female population, love a good wander around the aisles. Trudging reluctantly behind me, my boyfriend moans: "Surely that's enough for today!", "No", I reply. "Still a few more to go yet."

It seems that the male population of the country just doesn't seem to understand the critical role that shopping plays in the economic status of the country.

We keep the tills rolling, profits rising and the cobblers smiling as we wear away the soles of our shoes. My boyfriend, I admit is a better shopper than me.

In a typical female fashion, I prefer to wander in circles all day, only to eventually return back to the first item I saw. He, instead, chooses to find the thing he wants, buy it and then get home, all in the space of an hour.

However, the point has to be raised by us ladies that men are as bad with sport as we are with shopping. Thinking about it, perhaps football was scheduled on a Saturday for a good reason after all.

As two separate species, we thrive on our different activities, and perhaps it is this which brings us together. They can moan about shopping, and in turn we can moan about football. Secretly though, everybody knows that men love a little shopping, and we love a little football (and not because of the players, obviously!).

I guess that without our different activities and interests, we would all simply become mortally similar. Although whether these activities should be the things which segregate our relationships and lifestyles, is simply another matter to be discussed.

For a while at least, it seems that life will continue in this way. For me certainly, there will be plenty more shopping Saturdays' to fill, plenty more bargains to be found and hundreds of blisters to be suffered.

But, as a woman, I cant help thinking its all worth it. Give me a shopping trip around Trafford Centre over a football match any day. But I guess, as usual, its all about compromise. As a supportive girlfriend to a keen footballer, I'm sure there'll be plenty more days on the sidelines with frozen toes and sniffly noses.

It is fair to say that, in the same way that everything in life is about balance, so are relationships. And although I refuse to grumble, I can't help thinking that I may find a couple more shops on the next spending spree, that we simply have to go in...