~Always Writing About Shopping
2004-01-23 - 3:50 p.m.

So, I got some stuff done today. Firstly, I now have a VISA debit card - well, I will within the week, when it arrives - so I can pay for things online! Wheeee. I also opened a savings account (as opposed to my normal transaction account), so that anyone who gets hold of my VISA can't access the majority of my money. I'll just transfer money from the savings into the transaction account as I need them.

After I left the bank, I did some shopping along the busy shopping strip that's nearby. I went to Book City and got five teaching books (worksheets and activities), a (very) basic grammar & punctuation book and, Amber will be pleased to note, The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. This was all really relieving because I was seriously feeling a lack of resources for grades 2 & 3. I'm sure the Primary School will have some resources available, but DPW had sets of great numeracy resources (with worksheets, blackline masters and accompanying lesson plans - woo for lesson plans!) for each planning team, and a few for each classroom. APS, my new primary school, doesn't seem to have those sets allocated, so it will possibly be first-in-best-dressed at the library for resources. It was nice to know I now have some numeracy and literacy books of my very own, and also that there are a few more at a nearby normal bookshop if those aren't adequate. I won't really know how good they are until I actually get into the nitty gritty of what I need to teach and if they're useful, but the resources that I know are fantastic are around $40-$80 per book and need to either be mail ordered or bought from a head office on the other side of town. The dearest book I got today was $14.

I had decided that I was sick of shopping at the "good" stores for t-shirts. Even Sussan, which is one of my favourite shops, as it has very nice, fashionable clothes in proper, normal sizes has t-shirts which have become annoying. So I made the first step and went to one of the stores with the more "matronly" reputation - Rockmans. Although it's not the first time I'd ever shopped there, I was surprised by how many things I liked and thought I might actually wear - and might actually fit! So I tried on lots of things and ended up with lots! I got two t-shirts of different shapes & colours and a plain black ribbed slightly woolly top with 3/4 length sleeves. I got a similar non-ribbed black top with fake-shirt cuffs and collar in a black with white pinstripe pattern (for the fake-shirt, not the actual top). I got a cute tracksuit hooded jacket that came with some nice tracksuit pants, so I've got an outfit! Hehe. I also got two more frilly tops. Both dark red, although one is lighter and more cherry, the other is a tad darker and more plummy. The plum one has long sleeves that kinda droop prettly around the cuff area and a frill around the neckline. The cherry is sleeveless and kinda gathered to about the bra-underwire-line, with the bottom bit just normal, with the top of the shoulders having some droopy pretty bits hanging down. Hehe I need a digital camer so I can just SHOW you! It was pretty amazing to get that many things that I liked - let alone actually fit from the one shop. I didn't even try on any trousers there, which are my biggest hassle! I think I'll do that at the local store. I felt silly leaving a pile of 7 things I wanted to buy on the counter and going back into the change room for a third time today! I also got their rewards card, which almost all the shops seem to be having these days. I figured it was worth it just for that one purchase, hehe! I'm not so hopeful about their trousers, however. I'm just a funny shape, with a naturally sticky-out bottom, weird hips that go out then in then out again, and I have put on weight around my tummy these holidays so it's extra hard to find trousers that are comfortable, not too loose and don't stick out even more than my tummy.

Finally I went to the $2 shop. I love these kinds of shops and the danger is always that I'll either buy a lot of things I don't need, or be deceived by everything being $1-$3 on average and actually buy a lot of things that really aren't that good value at $2. I bought a $10 little black backpack that may be useful at times, something cute for Amber and Laura, lots of stickers for school and some things for Eva: a caramel-coloured woven/lacey scarf, an adoooorable little teddy and a bath pack in the shape of a turtle, with turtle soap, a turtle sponge and body gel. Finally I think I can send her stuff over. :o) Oh, and a diary, which was the main reason I went there! Last year DPW provided us all with 2003, A4 week-to-a-view diaries, but at APS we had to have ordered them at the end of the previous year. I got a nice A5 sized week-to-a-view diary that's black and slightly textured for only $3, so it's all turned out nifty anyway.

I got home and people were talking and I realised that Jillian's 21st is tomorrow! I mean, I knew what day it was on, it just didn't click that it's tomorrow! I planned to go out a bit tomorrow anyway, and I'm not very worried about finding her a present, I've lots of very decent 21st present ideas. It's just a bit of a realisation that I'll be busier tomorrow than I realised. My uncle Steve will be over sometime in the afternoon and staying the night before he returns to Western Australia on Sunday, so it'll be a busybusy day with the shopping, too.