Shopping Adventures and Ordeals

Yesterday I went to the station in Hook to catch a train to Basingstoke to do some shopping (10 minutes away by train). I missed the train so I wandered over to the grocery store to grab something for lunch. Since I had about an hour to waste, I figured I'd wander around the store to see what kinds of quirky things I could find.

There were some items where the name simply changed – whole wheat bread is called whole meal bread. There were odd storage methods – eggs are stored on the shelf instead of in a cooler. The ice cream section has a sign reading, “Ice Cream and Lollies”. There's an aisle with one entire side dedicated to wine and the other side has a small area with bottled water and the rest is beer. The pop aisle only gets half an aisle. Reveals the priorities over here as if it weren't already obvious! Most of the honey packaged in soft bottles instead of jars have the words, “Squeesy Honey” on the labels... I don't know why, but I found that comical.

My friend Lindsay told me that there are weird chip (known as “crisps” over here) flavours in other countries so I figured I should check out their flavours... strangest one was “Cheshire Cheese and Chutney”. A few had chutney listed... how do you put chutney in potato chips? Isn't that a chunky sauce type of thing? Hmmm... might have to buy a bag of crisps sometime and give it a try. The thing I find most impressive is the variety of pre-packaged sandwiches. I counted over 60 different labels for the sandwiches and wraps! And they don't taste half bad! Some of the flavour combinations sound intriguing and others just sound a little sketchy.

Folding Fork.

Okay, I know this is weird, but I was impressed by this folding fork and had to share it. I bought a little cup of fruit and inside was this folding fork in a little packet. In the photo it's partially opened. The little bump on the handle clicks into a hole near the tines to keep it folded flat. Just below the tines you can see a little hinged flap on the back with two holes in it for clicking the top and bottom parts of the fork into place. It's a brilliant design and creates a rather sturdy fork. I know... nobody cares... but I loved it!

I eventually made it to Basingstoke for shopping. First thing was to check for a cell phone. Certainly a new world over here with countless companies and options to choose from! I'm still trying to decide.

Once I had collected several brochures and peppered the cell phone shops with questions I decided to start looking for clothes. You know those girls who always look so put together with cute tops, high heeled shoes, chunky jewelry, the layered look and everything? Yeah... that's normal here. I'm discovering that those of us used to t.shirts and jeans with the occasional cute top or jacket apparently belong on farms or at campgrounds. Shopping just got a lot more complicated.

I tried on a couple of things but decided to just look through the shops and try to figure out average prices, good shops vs. the cheap shops, and just try not to get too overwhelmed. What do these girls wear for going on long walks and hikes? I only found one or two shops with t.shirts but they all had some kind of frilly detail like sequins or a plunging neckline or were just cheap cotton.

And another thing! The salespeople are just gathered in clusters chattering away and I only had two salespeople in the entire mall greet me. I happen to be one of those crazy people who likes to use the style and stock knowledge of salespeople but nobody seemed to want to help me spend my money... until I hit the last shop – French Connection – and the girl was so helpful! She's from the northern part of England so I could barley understand her at times but we had a good laugh about it.

We chatted for over half an hour and she answered my questions about how the girls put their outfits together, which shops are worth going into and which should be avoided, and what the key trends are right now. I asked her why the stores seem to have 6 or 8 as the lowest size when back in Canada they go down to 0. She pulled out a sizing chart... turns out back in Canada I was about a size 6 for tops but over here I'm a 10 or 12. I told her it's like I gained 20 or 30 pounds just getting on the flight and she laughed and told me I need to gain that much just to stay warm in the winter.

When she told me that skinny jeans tucked into boots is “on-trend” right now my response was that it may look fine with boots, but all but the skinniest girls look like ice cream cones when they take the boots off. She laughed so hard she had to wipe tears away... seems the girls over here are oblivious to those concerns and just think about the fads. Another style is what she called “boyfriend cardis” (oversize cardigans that look like you just pulled them from your boyfriend's closet) and I just don't get it... who looks good in that? I mean, if you're just hanging out at home, okay; but to spend $130 CAD on an ill-fitting cardigan... I don't get it! I think I'll go back sometime and have salespeople at a couple of the high end shops put together an outfit or two for me so I can try it on and see what this stuff would look like all put together. I'm sure I'll get used to it soon.

I'd say shopping was my first taste of culture shock.