big fat shopping saturday

Huzzah! The last full-on Big Fat Shopping Saturday before Christmas...

Yeah, yeah, I know there's another weekend to go before the big day, but next week looks like it's highly likely to be Shopping Lite followed by a Chocolate Coated Sunday.

And this is the last BFSS because I think finally today we got the very last thing we needed to get (and while I feel like I've said that about three or four times over this festive season, but I think this time it's really really true)! All the little boxes on the list are ticked, and barring me seeing anything else too cute for words that I have to give Ma, I'd call it a wrap.

This morning was a little strange... it's the first time in like three weeks that I've done the Supermarket Safari with Ma, so that just felt weird. Not for very long mind you because it's only been two weeks without her compared to however many consecutive weeks shopping WITH her... but brief strangeness...

Le Safari went much the same as usual... only two supermarkets this week though, and like last week I picked up a couple of extra things (another packet of Weetbix and a big tin of sliced peaches) to add to the Foodbank donation box. Honestly I'm halfway between feeling proud of myself for "doing my bit" and thinking that it's not really enough (I feel like there's a movie or teevee show reference to that particular thought... somebody who flips out because they can't do enough... I dunno).

I also stopped off at the Post Office and picked up something to go in the "for later" present bag... a Bon Voyage present for Rockchick when she goes on her "world tour" at the end of March (it's the least I can do since I get her job while she's away!)... and for a punk rock girl who just happens to be obsessed with Barbie, what could be better than a Faerie Barbie journal and pen!

After the Ritual Unpacking we decided to head into town... there were a few bits and pieces we wanted to look at, and possibly buy. And just for a minute there I was having a slight brainfreeze about what it was we actually DID buy...

We wandered around Raw Space for a little bit... and ended up having something of a guided tour from the woman who owns the store... she's very groovy and very sweet, although the first question I wanted an answer to once we walked out of the store was "why the hell is she wearing a slightly questionable wig?"... I don't think Ma had picked it, but it was so obviously not her own hair...

Given the wild and woolly weather we've been having for the past few days I wanted to grab a second umbrella, one that will actually go in my Crumpler bag (my sturdy and slightly expensive yet managable umbrella is just too big)... and we were looking for something else in Myer when I discovered a cute little Dangerfield umbrella with skulls and stars on it for $10... woohoo! Sure it will probably last about five minutes and it'll probably turn inside out at the first strong breeze, but woohoo anyway.

I've decided that to make my life slightly easier (and yet more complicated at the same time) I'm going to give Princess T and Miss Oh a "voucher" for Christmas giving them each a solo trip to a movie of their choice (which could be dangerous seeing that they're 16 and 11 year old girls... god only know what I'll end up having to sit through) with me at some point in the next twelve months. And while I got them both something little to attach the "voucher" to (Little Miss figurines), I half wanted something else for them. That turned out to be the thing we were looking for in Myer... which kinda required a bit of a run up, storywise...

After Ma's last trip to Melbourne she suggested that when Princess T turns 17 (which is this coming year) that we take her on a trip to Sydney for her birthday... so she's getting the big Angel piggy bank I bought back at the beginning of November (from Ma) and we're going to tell her she has to save a certain amount (I can't remember off the top of my head whether that's just her spending money or some contribution to everything else... Ma did say, but it's gone clean out of my brain)... anyway they had these cute and very, very girly luggage tags in Myer... leather, or at least a high quality leather substitute... so I got her a pussycat head one. So of course once I had that I had to find something for Miss Oh of an equal or close enough value... which was kinda easier said than done... and took the rest of the shopping day before I found it...

Ma had wanted to get a big (well, medium sized actually) chocolate frog from Haighs for her friend at work who likes frogs (I made her a frog calendar the year before last) and make a donation to The Amphbian Ark for threatened frog species... so we went into the store at the end of the mall and spoke to the cute (partially?) deaf boy who works in there. Turns out the collection tins in both the Rundle Mall store and the Adelaide Arcade store got stolen (and they were reasonably full according to him)... rudeness! Although you have to wonder HOW somebody was able to just pick up what I assume was a fairly heavy and not small tin and walk out without being noticed by anybody... and unless it happened on the same day, you would have thought that after one store got "hit", the other one would have taken precautions. Anyway I'm just going to put out in the Universe that I hope some form of karmic retribution is in the offing... one of the classics would be nice... either a plague of frogs or some form of frog related rain...

That was about all we did in the city, other than some slightly aimless wandering about... so once we were done with that we headed back to the car and tootled over to the Haighs factory outlet (mmmm cute stock related boys with access to chocolate... be still my heart and other related organs) where the tin HADN'T been stolen. Yaaaay!

Then we headed over to Kmart, mostly so that I could buy the Work Charity Secret Santa thing... we decided that we were going to give half of the money to the Kmart Wishing Tree and the other half to World Vision's Smiles... coz, you know, you can give chickens and pigs and goats and stuff (for some reason I got fixated on the chickens, so we're donating $30 worth of chickens... which works out to be 5 of the feathery little bastards). I still need to find a World Vision stall thing... I know there was one last week at the Rundle Street Markets, so I might wander over there tomorrow... failing that I think their Adelaide office is across the road from work. International Chickens, here I come!

Ma then wanted to make a stop off at this random store in what felt like the middle of nowhere (okay, it was just in the middle of somewhere we never really go)... which was okay... it's basically a furniture store but the front section of the store has a whole bunch of homewares and tchotchka as well... slightly interesting, but not somewhere I would be rushing back to.

After that we detoured over to Arndale to see if we could see anything for Miss Oh... and as we headed through the mall Ma and I had the same idea at the same time (there was some brief high-fiving, but the less said about that the better)... one of those "old school" style alarm clocks with her name on the face! Perfect... pink as pink can be, and the slightly loud ticking notwithstanding, it's not bad (although I'm just now realising that Princess T's present has a very specific purpose and she won't be able to use it very often, whereas Miss Oh's present is an everyday thing... oh well, fuckit).

And you know what's really dangerous? Looking through a bunch of stuffed animals that are marked down to almost stupid amounts when Ma says "awwwww isn't that cute" and it's a week and a half away from Christmas... add one plush zebra to her Christmas list... *sigh* hehehe...

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