Monday, July 21, 2008

What a Weekend! (Rant)

RANT BEGINS So, on Saturday we planned to go to the Designer Outlet to hunt for some new suitcases. The old ones didn’t really cope with the journey to Florida last summer and we didn’t think they would make it to France on Ryanair. So, the plan was to get up early and go see what the outlet had to offer.
After a quick breakfast, wash and dressed, we went out to the car. OH unlocked his door and it appeared the central locking wasn’t working. How odd. So we figured, it’s an old car, the central locking could have failed – not to worry, right? Wrong. The car wouldn’t start. To make matters worse, we just ended our old insurance with homestart inluded and the new policy we bought didn’t have it. Bother.
Well, we called the RAC about this, and they quoted us £70 to upgrade, including a £20 charge since we were “in an emergency situation”. So we told them to bog off.
Rowanspun We went to the post office to pick up my parcels (yummy yarn! – Rowanspun 4ply in Squirrel, destined to be the Apres Surf Hoodie) and post some stuff. Then we wandered into town to buy one of those battery chargy thingumys.
The thing said we had to charge it for 12 hours, so we went for a walk instead, putting off the shopping til Sunday. Actually, the walk was lovely. I did take my knitting but we didn’t find anywhere quiet to sit down out of the wind.
A night in with a movie (Juno: funny but a bit odd.) later and the thingy was charged. So on Sunday morning, bright and early (ish) we tried the booster thingy. Nope. Still no good. “Fine!” says I to whoever is listening. We called the RAC again. This time they quoted us only £45 for the additional cover. (If they’d said that on Saturday we’d probably have taken it then!) So we upgraded and called out the man.
The RAC man came, and as always was very nice. He started the car, and told us that although he had a battery Kwik Fit would be cheaper, oh and we did need a new battery. So, we drove off to Kwik Fit. Now, the advert used to say “You can’t get quicker than a Kwik Fit fitter” and by Jove, they’re right! I only had time to do two rows on the Monkey socks before they’d fitted the new battery. They weren’t actually cheaper, but when we told the man what the RAC man hat said, he knocked us a fiver off. Not much, but goodwill. I liked that.

So, then finally we got to go shopping.!

We didn’t find any luggage at the Outlet though. I did buy two new shirts, a frock and some shorts for £15 in the next sale (woo) and some new jogging bottoms for the gym. The frock needs a little adjustment, since it has pockets in (why?) which ruin the silhouette of my already large enough hips. I might think about taking out the darts too – I’ll post some pics of the process later as it happens, if I manage to charge the camera.

We finally went to BHS at Monks Cross to pick up some cases. There we found some reduced luggage, £15 per case. Purple. I don’t believe that black luggage is ever a good idea, but the purple should stand out enough. And they’re lightweight, which is important when we have a baggage limit as small as it is on Ryanair.

I looked for a strapless, or convertible strapless bra for my size. Not a sausage. It’s like thin people can’t have boobs or something. I mean, even a DD+ isn’t that big on a back size of 32 or smaller, so why so hard to find? I can tell you why so many women in the UK are wearing the wrong sized bra – because it’s easier than finding the right size! I used to wear a 34C, and they are everywhere, but when I got measured and re-sized to a 32DD (or 32E, depending on brand and shape), well at first I didn’t believe it, but the right size is so much more comfortable and also allows me not to have chronic back ache! So, I can not buy bras from New Look, Next, or really many high street stores. I can buy from M&S and La Senza, but neither of these have strapless bras in a DD or above anyway. So I’m going to have to buy online to get the scaffolding for strapless tops! How irritating.
RANT ENDS

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