Mission Accomplished!

I woke up thinking of the moon again this morning. It had really lifted my spirits the night before, yet an emotionally draining morning yesterday, followed by a PPT session, topped off with a late night at the Thames Festival were conspiring against me in my quest to get ready for a hardcore shopping mission with Lou. I was almost on the point of calling the day off (rare for me as I hate messing people about) when happily a spirit lift happened upon me again in the form of the accidental 'running on' of iTunes into "And he shall purify" from Handel's Messiah. I've not listened to it for wee while now and had forgotten how fantastic it is, especially when you're actually performing it; but listening or performing it really does make the heart soar.  So about 40 bars into the it, the quest was back on and I was up and raring to go. Great stuff!  

A serious day's shopping followed with Lou. She turned up looking like she was going on an expedition! Now I had a rucksack with me, but apart from a book and my corkscrew (never leave home without one …) it was empty, the point being that the day’s purchases could be packed in there. Lou’s rucksack however was full of thermals, scarves, woolly hats, emergency provisions and a particularly beautiful new umbrella which now apparently creates a requirement for a new pair of pink leather gloves; that’s her excuse and she’s sticking to it!

Unusually for an Oxford Street trip my mission’s objectives were fully accomplished and with only one moment of shop rage; why do some of these shops have to play the damn music SO LOUD?? Making a decision through high volume R&B is impossible for me. Anyway, the Jane Norman changing room escape aside I actually managed to get everything I went out for. Result!

As usual I ended up with a few non essential items chucked in for good measure, plus had a cheeky flirtation with a pair of sophisticated Roland Cartier boots which were sadly well out of my league. So far out that I didn’t even try them on; I just stroked them and drank in their gorgeousness. Trying boots on that I can’t afford and don’t need is actually just the slippery slope to buying them, especially in light of my “footwear problem”.

I blame my Saturday job. I used to work in a shoe shop and even though I only worked one day per week the company remarkably awarded me the same discount deal as full time employees – 20% off all footwear and 50% of any shoes that were black or grey, as they were classed as “uniform”. You can imagine the temptation … My Dad became increasingly cross with the volume of shoes and boots which I brought home. One day in a fit of frustration he flung open my wardrobe doors and counted the shoe boxes – summary being “15! No-one needs 15 pairs of shoes! It must stop.”

Thoroughly chastised I consoled myself with the fact that while the telling off had been quite bad, imagine what it would have been like if he had realised that there were two pairs of shoes in each box …