compete

I can get quite competitive, even when I am not very good, so I mostly try to stay away from board games and team sports and debating.

Sometimes I wonder if I am missing out on incredible fun. But mainly I wonder if I am missing out on incredible winning (told you I was competitive).

A while ago I bought a new perfume and loved it so much that I went onto the website to look at the other scents on offer. A prize draw to win the whole limited edition scent range caught my eye and I entered. The closing date and several more weeks went by and I didn't hear from them. Newbie to 'comping' as I have learnt it is called, I e-mailed them asking if they had selected the winner. Surprisingly, this is what they got back to me with:

I apologise for the delay in our response. We were enquiring to find out if the winners email had been sent out to date.The email has not been sent out yet so you will be informed should you be the winner.

I didn't hear back. I wonder if they even chose a winner? I say this because around the same time I also entered a competition to get a free pair of Pretty Ballerinas if you submit an image of your own pair onto their Facebook fan page. If you submitted an image you were also supposed to get a 20 euro voucher. I never heard back about either.

So you can understand my scepticism.

This summer I was commuting on the train every day for work. Once a week, a free men's lifestyle magazine was given out which, of course, women read as well - ShortList. There was a competitions section at the back and there happened to be a couple of things I really wanted, male or not. You could enter free online so I entered into those competitions and never heard back from them. I could repeat that story for competitions I have noticed in magazines I paid for.

Maybe I am just unlucky. Maybe I am not dedicated enough to 'comping'. Maybe you have to enter every single competition or draw you come across if you want any chance of winning. As an experiment, I went onto a UK fashion magazine website and entered about fifteen competitions. I even entered ones for vouchers for shops I don't even like.

I'll let you know. Who knows, maybe in a couple of weeks I will be a proud new owner of an Alexander McQueen clutch or uncertain spender of £500 NEXT vouchers.