And the answer? She who must be obeyed has obtained a credit card.
For some weeks she has been collecting brochures and scanning the wide wide world of web for information on credit card offerings. A spreadsheet was constructed showing the aspects of each card. It was not clear whether she was trying to identify the card with the best financial offerings, or the most gullible bank, likely to provide her with a card with which to raid the new Central Mall with little thought to the repayment consequences.
Anyway, one of the banks took pity, and her shiny piece of plastic is on the way. This is good news because it will take the weight off the load on the credit card I gave her “for emergencies”, emergencies which transpired to be mainly handbags bought from eBay. To be fair to her, she has always reimbursed me for such items; but having her own card will make the whole process of bag acquisition easier.
So, crisis over. She who must be obeyed will be boosting sales figures at major outlets across the Kingdom. Hope she can do something about the Sterling exchange rate too.