Boxing Day sales

Went to the city centre for Boxing Day sales! Was pleasantly surprised by a late-night sms from HN yesterday asking if I wanted to join him and his housemates. It's good I did, or I might have been quite put off by the crowds if I went alone. Shopping alone usually means that I walk into stores that are not too crowded, and run home as fast as I can right after I've bought whatever I wanted to buy.

And because his housemates have the Singaporean kiasu spirit (they're Malaysians), I was supposed to meet HN at 8.20am at their student accommodation. Was there only five minutes early but the girls were all not ready so I could have taken my time to walk there! We shared a cab since the trains are not running on Boxing Day.

It's quite amusing to note that the majority of early-arrivers were not British. But eventually, there was quite a crowd of British people waiting in front of River Island, even though other stores were already open. Can see that River Island is very popular here.

Got a pair of jeans from the first shop we went to, Gap, for £19.99:










That was before the large crowd in front of River Island formed. We also went to Zara, Miss Selfridges and Topshop, but I didn't buy things from there. Either not the kind of clothes I would normally wear, or really nice jeans at really nice non-discounted prices. T_T Ok lar, to be fair, there were many nice tops I could have gone crazy over, but... I dunno, just thought I'd rather not go through the hassle of trying and then in the end decide not to buy, or only buy one.

Because the girls took so long in Topshop, HN and I decided to go to River Island, which was just next door. And was probably one of the most crowded shops (didn't step into Monsoon though, and I saw quite a lot of people in there). Found a pair of shoes I liked, but also found out that the queue was hell of a long one snaking through the store. Queued for half an hour. Just to get a pair of simple-looking shoes. That wasn't exactly cheap either. Haha but better than HN by a bit, he did the same in the men's department, except that his pair of shoes costs twice of mine.

Shoes from River Island, for £24.99:










Found out when I got home that the shoes are too big! *Horrors* Before I saw this pair, I tried on another pair, and so stupidly thought that the size should be the same and decided to buy this one without trying it first. Oh well, at least the receipt says I can return it for refund or exchange, just not within 26-28 December. Hopefully they will still have my size after 28th... if not, then ok lor, refund. Not like I would wear such shoes in UK much (too pretty to spoil by walking on such muddy roads). Just that it would be nice for once to have a pair of black shoes to wear for concerts that does not also bleed my heels to death. Also, important to have comfy black shoes for my own performance assessment!

After River Island, HN and I were basically very much done with shopping. Went to Body Shop to meet up with the girls and everyone bought stuff together in order to use HN's card. And then we split up, since the girls were still not done shopping. HN and I had a good break, and a filling one too... Krispy Kremes! Getting bored of sitting and chatting, we decided to browse around again, and on our last stop at Music Junction, we got some really good steals of two-CD sets for £2.97 each. Since we couldn't decide which sets to get, we finally settled on four and each got two, and we can exchange them later.

Although I've known this for as long as I dunno, many years?, one little incident really reiterated it in my mind: HN was complaining that owning too many pairs of shoes is troublesome cos he has to decide which pair to wear everyday, and then he said he usually makes his decisions based on what he's wearing.
Me: Haha that's such a girly thing to do.
HN: Ya, I know! Maybe that's why I don't have a girlfriend.
Me: Oh, so it's the opposite for me? I don't have enough handbags and shoes so I don't have a boyfriend. (All of us were chatting while waiting for the shops to open, and it seems I have even lesser pairs of shoes than HN.)
HN: Ya! You don't even have ear holes! What happens if your boyfriend buys ear rings?
Me: ... I dunno... ???? Consider piercing? (Which boyfriend would buy ear rings when he knows the girl doesn't have ear holes?! Or maybe they would, I dunno?)
HN: Clip-ons... (haha previously when he found out I didn't have ear holes we were joking about how the mention of clip-ons just brings to mind 'old-fashioned')

Ya lar, ya lar, so I'm not very girly... nothing wrong lor. Not that I don't like to look nice, just that I prefer the not-too-dressed-up kind of nice mah. And my mother didn't bring me to pierce my ears when I was a kid, so I grew up without having the urge to wear pretty ear rings nor pierce my ears. Heck, I don't even bother wearing any accessories apart from the once-in-a-very-blue-moon necklaces. And I'm a sucker for jeans, but girls don't have to wear dresses to look nice ok. Also, one nice pair of shoes can be worn many times, so what's the point of buying so many pairs? Haiyah... but ya I know, I'm not a girly girl.