summer shopping

Yes, it's officially Summer now, and don't we know it! I don't know what the temperature actually got up to today, but I know the forecast was for 37°C... and I wouldn't be surprised if it did hit that.

And I still say BOLLOCKS to the hot weather. Thank all appropriate deities we're getting a change on Monday.

Something weird I've noticed while I've been sick this time around... actually I think it's come up before, I've just noticed it more this time... and I don't know if it's the medication (ie Codral) or just the way my whole cold thing is working this time around or what... but suddenly I'm really, really sensitive to sounds. The few times I've caught myself whistling along to something over the past couple of days I've had to stop because it kinda hurts my ears... and some other random noises during our day of shopping (for example, the baker man clattering around with the trays at Baker's Delight) made me wince a little bit. So that should make for some interesting fun at the party tonight... *rolls eyes*... ah well, if it all gets too much I'll just either drag J off into another room or else claim the "sickie" card and come home early.

Ma thinks it might be a whole partially blocked sinus thing, leaving room for echoes and whatnot... and yes, she would know more about the whole sinus thing than me (since it's been an ongoing area of bother to varying degrees to her for as long as I can remember)... but who knows. Actually, thinking about it, it's almost as though the usual "buffers" I have to stop sounds being so loud aren't there, rather than there being some additional ones... I dunno. So long as it goes away when the rest of my "cold" goes away I don't much care WHAT is causing it.

Now, as for the whole Shopping Thing...

Initially we didn't intend to do a whole hell of a lot, since I'll be seeing Ma for pretty much the whole day tomorrow (due to the annual trimming of Tree de la Xmas) so we'd figured we didn't need to do much today. Alas, the plan didn't really work out that way.

The Food Shopping Adventures went along pretty much as normal... Olive Oil, check... Swiss Brown Mushrooms, check... Washing Up Liquid, check... Orange and Mango Juice, check...

Then we were off to Arndale to continue my vague and seemingly fruitless search for a fluffy cow for Showgirl (she's a Taurus you see)... which all came to nothing... they didn't even have the Winnie The Pooh stuffed toys that had been in the catalogue earlier this week (since I could have gone with Piglet, due not only to my soft spot for said character, but also because she was born in the Chinese Year of the Pig). I did however get a bag the size of a small country to put B's birthday painting in, since, as I mentioned earlier, the party is tonight. I guess that technically it's a "Christmas" bag, since it has the Disney Princesses on it (well, Snow W, Sleepy B and Belle anyway, which isn't all of them, but they do fall under the heading of "The Princesses") and they're all dolled up in "winter" gowns and there are snowflakes in the background (just what we need more of for an Australian Summer Christmas)... but nowhere does it actually SAY "Christmas" on it, so screw it (ahem... slight update... I now realise that it actually says "Merry Christmas" in GIANT fucking letters on the sides of the bag... as in the parts you can't see until you actually put stuff in the bag, stand it up and step back before going "ahhhhh fuck!"). But I needed a bag that was at least 45cm wide, and the only ones that were had the whole Christmas theme going on and were also about 70cm tall. You know, the kind of bag you could easily store at least two toddlers in if it weren't for the fact that it was made of flimsy, yet glossy, paper products.

After some additional aimless wandering which amounted to pretty much nothing, Ma and I had a brief sit down in those coin operated massage chairs that seem to have popped up in just about every shopping center known to man just recently... I don't know if it's just an Adelaide thing or if they're "everywhere everywhere", but we've been to just about every shopping center in the inner metro area of late, and I'm sure I've seen a set everywhere we've been. Anyway... at $2 a go, they're not bad... but man is that some scary and thorough massage chair action! I can't say I'm a big fan of the whole "grab your calves and squeeze them like crazy" action... but then I do have chunky calves, what with the walking and, well, the general leg chunky... or, for that matter, the seemingly very personal "buttcrack" massage roller thing that just seems to surface out of the chair at random intervals and get VERY personal all of a sudden. They're worth a go, just for shits and giggles though, but take a friend so you can laugh at each other.

Anyway, after that we decided to head down to West Lakes to take a wander and see if we could find anything in the Fluffy Cow Oeuvre down there... and then Ma suggested that we call into The Christmas Shop on the way, since the half of the overcrowded store that isn't full of Christmas related randomness is full of stuffed toy randomness. Which was a very good plan... except for one thing... The Christmas Shop isn't actually "on the way" from Arndale to West Lakes... if you were planning out the route it should have been My House, Arndale, West Lakes, Christmas Shop, My House... which is vaguely kinda sorta circular... but we ended up going a long way south and then had to come back and go north west... it's all highly technical and directional...

West Lakes was something of a good idea though... I ended up finding a quite cute fluffy cow in Kmart... granted it's possibly about as tall as Showgirl is (okay, maybe not quite, but it is about a foot tall), but it's nice and soft and has a pink bow, so it will do nicely. And although I could have gotten it anywhere, I also picked up the Diva gift card for Original Child Number 1 (aka RubbaJelly... don't ask), so now my shopping for the Family Sheba is complete (since I'm only planning on doing child related presents).

Then we came ALLLLLLL the way home again, put on our collective hats and went down the street and around the corner to the new Cold Rock that's opened near my place. And it's like a whole actual, real and complete shop! With chairs and tables and things! Who knew?! Mmmmm Milo ice cream with Maltesers and Rocky Road... *drool*

Now I get to have a bit of a sit down for a while... possibly watch the probably very tragic "Shrek The Halls" thing that's going to be on a little later, write the card for B, finish wrapping her painting, then grab a shower, get all prettied up (or, in this case "appropriately thematically attired" since there's a vague kind of dress requirement thing, but luckily I already own something somewhat appropriate, and if she don't like it she can lump it) and be on my way.

*sigh*

Current Mood: