A Woman's Right To Shoes

I planned to stop by Oxford Street on my way home, to buy some nice new long-sleeved stretch tees from Primark (yeah, I spare no expense). I had offered to buy a couple for Mum, so I used this as the basis for justifying my impromptu shopping trip. It’s not for me, I am doing a favour for my beloved mother, therefore this can’t count as a proper shopping spree. Towards the end of the afternoon, Lolly emailed me, asking if I wanted to get a quick beverage before going home. I mentioned my planned trip for a spot of restrained shopping and asked if, before grabbing a beverage, she wanted to come along. It was a silly question, I should have already known the answer.

Lots of excitement later, I was getting off the tube and calling Lolly to find out where she was. We met outside Primark and had barely stepped in the door before picking up matching polka-dot umbrellas that opened up nearly as wide as our height. The only problem with this was that we then had to carry them around the store while we shopped, which wouldn’t have been quite so annoying if we didn’t keep getting hooked on to clothing displays and clothes racks as we passed. As I should have expected, the basic tops I had come to buy were a doddle for Mum’s size, but a needle in a haystack-type archaeological excavation for my size. I managed to salvage what I wanted from the increasingly messy pile of clothes on display (the poor shop assistants – that task is tantamount to hard labour). Being disciplined and sticking to the shopping ‘list’ I had in my mind, I accompanied Lolly upstairs for a quick peek at the shoe section. This is where is all went wrong.

We found cute pairs of pumps and I found a nice leopard-print pair that are a tiny bit sparkly and darker than my other pair (which therefore looks better for winter. I’ve thought this argument through, so don’t bother, lol). I tried on a few other things, but I didn’t fall in love with any of them, so decided to be restrained. Goodness knows what might have happened if I had seen more stuff I really liked. Lolly, on the other hand, like a true pro of the game, had gradually picked up five pairs of pumps in this time, in different colours and styles. Impressive. We were both starting to get claustrophobic and anxious in the way that only the flagship branch of Primark can induce, so we headed for the tills. That’s when the pair of boots caught Lolly’s eye. She tried them on. I encouraged her. They looked rather nice and she said they were comfortable. They were also a bargain. Into the basket they went.

We meandered over to some tills we hadn’t realised existed and were pleasantly surprised by the short queue (of about four people, which counts as ‘express’ relative to the queues of twenty-plus you usually get). Looking around us while waiting in the queue, we realised we were in the men’s section. Ahh, figures. Soon we had paid and had matching huge brown paper Primark bags, with matching polka dot umbrellas poking out of the top of them. Once we left, we popped over the road into Superdrug, where Lolly kept looking at things and saying “Mmm, stuff,” and “Mmm, things,” which kept making me giggle. We bought cold drinks (2 for 1 Purdey’s – mmm, vitaminalicious) and then left to go to Starbucks, so that Lolly could use her free drinks voucher from her coffee crush at her Starbucks near work. On the way, a man in a grey hoodie jogged past me who looked scarily similar to NY Guy. Despite the fact that the other looky-likey of him I saw the previous weekend was also jogging and wearing a grey hoodie, I started to wonder if I would be constantly migraging images of him until I knew he was no longer here. It freaked me out a little, but I know I’ll get over it. Eventually.

We stopped to get cash and then went to the coffee shop next door, Lolly ordering our drinks, while I played bag bitch, holding and guarding our goods until the drinks arrived. We went to get a table in the seating area downstairs, which was loads bigger than I had realised and sat nursing our drinks for ages, while chatting over out latest gripes and giggles. Before long, we realised it was after 8pm and I remembered I wanted to make a quick detour via Gap. I went in for a bra and came out, after trying on about 5 different things, with a bra, plus a pair of nice stripy pyjama bottoms. Oops.

We decided it was time for food and went with the naughty option of KFC. Lolly got a Loaded Zinger Meal, I got a Buffalo Toasted Twister meal (I have to eat them as much as possible before they go, they’re limited edition, ok?), then we both got a table and sat down for eating and more talking. We kept talking about “when we have our flat,” which was cracking us up, because we were thinking of exactly how much space would be required for our combined collection of accessories, shoes (now that there were seven more pairs between us) and beauty products. “Think of the money we’ll save!” I reasoned, explaining that we would need to buy less because we would be sharing lots of things. “We won’t need to go out for food to hang out,” said Lolly, “Think of the money we’ll save on dinners and Starbucks! Oh my goodness, think of the size of our combined DVD collection!” I suggested that we may very well need to get a pre-nup, to decide who would overtake ownership of any jointly-bought items if we ever 'broke up.' Aside from the fact that we’ll be both paying more rent than we currently are, I still reckon it will work out cheaper, lol. Not to mention the fact that we can bake cakes and make meatballs and pasta at home, all without having to change out of our pyjamas. Result.

Soon we realised it was nearing 10pm and what was meant to have been a quick hot drink, ended up as an impromptu shopping and food extravaganza. I became distracted slightly by a boy and girl behind us, eating their KFC meals and in deep conversation about the Freemasons and the Illuminati and all the hip-hop and soul artists who are involved in it. We chit-chatted a bit longer and then realised it was time to leave, even though we then ended up chatting for another 10 minutes or so outside, until the same boy and girl eventually left too and passed us standing there chatting. Eventually we hugged and went our separate ways, Lolly to the tube station and me to catch a bus. I got home, said a quick hello to Big Sis before she retired to bed, then got washed and changed and into bed to edit a blog post or two and watch some of the latest and final series of Monk. I slept later than I should have done and had weird dreams that I can’t remember, but which left me feeling a little bit uneasy. But overall, the evening had been a fun one. That’s Monday over with!