sneaker saturday with a side of crazy

that new shoe smell
Today has been a little bit about shoes and a little bit about the crazy.

Fortunately the crazy mostly existed in other people, there just seemed to be a lot of it about.

I either stayed in bed a little too long or was trying to do too many things this morning (okay, a little of column A and B), but then I was trying to change my bedding while uploading a new blog template and getting ready... it was all a bit hectic.

If I haven't already said it, even with a gimpy hand, it's still about a billion times easier to make the bed in my new place then it was in the old place... no more throwing myself across the bed to try and tuck the last corner of the fitted sheet in...

Anyway, once I got ready I figured I would go downstairs and wait for Ma since she was pretty much due any minute... only to find that she was downstairs in the car, pfaffing about and thinking about texting me to get me to come downstairs... great minds and all that.

The supermarket portion of the morning was all fine... although the only problem with regularly buying the same things is that sometimes you forget either that you already bought some the week before or that you never got around to using them. So I'll be eating a lot of plums this week.

Maybe I need to make stewed plums or something...

When we got back here I unpacked things and then we dithered about a bit, so it was after 11 before we headed back out into the world again.

Number One on the To Do list this week was new sneakers for me... I definitely needed some new ones before we go to Sydney since I've very nearly worn though the soles. Although they haven't had a bad run, what with one thing and another (back injuries, a lack of daily walks, etc) I've had the current pair since 2011...

However this was perhaps a more complicated, but at the end of the day, better shoe shopping experience than I've had the last several times.

There's a place called Paul's Warehouse opened up in what used to be the old city Freedom store (which means that it's a little bit enormous) and they sell shoes and sports gear and the like. But the bonus with Paul's is that they have a "buy one, get one free" deal on the majority of their shoes.

What's not to love.

Well, the fact that the place is overwhelmingly enormous and there didn't seem to be any staff around to ask or whatnot. Plus the fact that I can never remember what shoe size I am... not to mention the fact that I have wider than normal feet.

So shoe shopping (and the resulting shoe wearing) can occasionally be problematic.

Had there been a free staff member within arm's length the day may have gone slightly differently, but there wasn't, so we decided to head into the store I usually buy shoes from, get my feet measured, suss out what shoes they had in stock that would fit my feet and be right for my purposes and the come back to Paul's. Cheeky I know... but a bargain is a bargain.

Town wasn't as chaotic as I thought that it may have been what with the Fringe, the Festival, Clipsal 500 and Soundwave all on this weekend... it does make for something of a noisy suburb at times though.

I think the woman at the shoe store knew what I was doing, or else she thought I was going to then go and buy shoes online... although we may have gotten away from it if Ma hadn't asked her to write the model numbers down (which she did really badly, I must admit).

Then we swung past Espionage to have a chat with Josh and to take another look at the toy exhibition before heading back to the car and back to Paul's Warehouse.

new balance mr670rd2 and m770sl2
And now that I had a better idea of what my shoe size actually is, it was a lot easier to actually find appropriate shoes... although because the aforementioned shoe shop woman didn't write down enough of the codes for the shoes I couldn't find the ones she'd recommended.

But that was okay, because I found some that were red... mmmm red shoes.

Whether they're the most idea shoes for walking, I don't know, but the red ones are specifically running shoes, so they should be fine. Plus they had a whole bucketload more shoes in the necessary width and size, and very few of them were spectacularly ugly.

I very nearly went with a completely different second pair, but it turns out they only had a couple of pairs left of that design, so I want with the lime ones instead which will do nicely for my daily walk, while I need the red ones for other occasions.

From there we took the slightly scenic (read: not the most direct) route down to Arndale just to have a bit of a wander. I did end up picking up some bits and pieces (chrome numbers to stick on the wall outside to make it easier to find the apartment, some sticky corners for the rugs I do have and some other geegaws and doohickeys)... as well as a cute yet cheap little stuffed bunny to give to Tink Jr at Easter (which I just realised is much later this year, so I'll need to store the bunny safely so it doesn't get all dusty).

Arndale is somewhat where the other people's crazy kicked in, although there had already been some of that in the shoe store... lots of it being dads seemingly not being prepared to put up with their particular child's bullshit while shopping hehe.

No matter where we went in Arndale there seemed to be some crazy person or persons not that far away, usually in front of us in the queue to be honest.

Once we managed to escape Arndale, Ma suggested stopping off at Rite Price which is only a minor detour on the way, so we did... my inner bargain hunter does tend to go a little into overdrive in places like that though... and all sorts of weird and wonderful things start to look good when the price tag reads 3 for $2.97. We didn't go too crazy, but came away with a few choice bits and pieces... again while trying to avoid all the crazy that places like that attract.

Then we came back here, both dithered about some more, had a look at the menu for the place we were planning on going for dinner, watched the jet planes do their fly-by thing over the Clipsal racetrack from the comfort of my bedroom window and then settled down for a nice game of Phase 10. It's the card game that Marc taught me a few years ago... and I bought a deck at the time which I think only got used the once. But I've been playing the iOS version on my phone for a couple of years and introduced Ma to it a while back when she was looking for some new games for her phone.

But this is the first time we've played it against each other and for real... and it was fun... Ma beat me in the end, but it was fun nevertheless.

Once we were done we got changed and headed off to the city to get some dinner before our Fringe show.

We'd decided on British India which was very nice... we got a bunch of entrees to share and that was pretty much enough. The wait staff were very pleasant, although a little bit over eager on occasion... and I have had nicer naan bread. But all in all it was very pleasant, especially the Pineapple Kulfi with it's sweet and spicy sauce.

Then we wandered down to The Bunker to see the last of the trilogy, Macbeth.

I did have a brief fanboy moment that I'm actually glad that I had... Jethro Compton is the director of the trilogy, but he was also the star of The Boy James a few years ago,and it's a play that I still, to this day, can't describe to people in any kind of detail without getting emotional. And before the doors opened he kept coming out to the ticket desk and talking to the woman behind the counter. I kept watching him, and eventually saw my moment and went over to speak to him briefly...

I told him how amazing the play had been and how emotional it still made me (and that much was obvious because I started welling up just telling him) and the fact that I'd been one of the people who read out the letter for him and a whole bunch of other stuff that I'd wanted to say and thanked him. And he asked my name and shook my hand and thanked me in return and seemed touched that the play had meant that much to me.

So, yeah, total fanboy moment, but I would have been kicking myself repeatedly if I'd had the opportunity and not taken it.

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