Yesterday I sauntered off to Westfield Bondi Junction to look for more cot panels for my tutorials and to personalise for my etsy shop. I started by returning some clothes I bought a few weeks ago. Do not know what I was thinking ….the fit was terrible ….. I can make them much better myself. Also until I lose the rest of my excess weight I do not want to buy too many clothes that I will be stuck with later. I am already down two sizes…but do not jump up and down… I lost that weight last year and have to tackle the rest of it now! I was talking to a friend and fellow blogger and later on to my son about weight gain. I do believe the secret is to not allow yourself to get over a size larger in the first place. I know I can and do blame my useless Thyroid and I do mean useless as it does not appear to work at all and once again have needed to up my dose to try to level it out… but really it is self discipline and knowledge in the light of all the new research we have at our disposal now. If one has fat parents and diabetes in the family then the children in that family should never be allowed to become overweight…okay rant aimed at myself really… over!
So then I went into Spotlight which is my local fabric shop chain where I stock up on wadding and cottons etc…supplies really and occasionally fabric for quilts. I had a good haul really, all the DMC perle style threads I need for the forseeable future and then after great difficulty managed to manhandle [well if there had been a man working there I would have got him to manhandle] the baby panels on their bolts as they are wedged in so tightly that it is almost impossible to get them out. Don’t even think about trying to get a good look at them so that one has some kind of a choice in the matter! I ended up with three girl’s ones again…don’t they think people make things for boys too?
Then I spied some stunning yellowish lemon floral fabric which conveniently was on the counter where I was being served. Naturally it had no bolt and information about it whatsoever and also naturally nobody could remember the price or where the empty cardboard bolt was! After much searching they decided on eight dollars a meter and we agreed that was fair as they do not have anything over thirteen dollars anyway. I managed to get about two and a half metres which is useful on so many levels.
Then as I waltzed…still on cloud nine from yesterday’s world news I spotted a bolt with a lemon background and coral coloured butterflies. Well am a pushover for butterfly fabric and especially yellow florals so I grabbed it and saw it was five dollars a meter! Yes my mind did go straight to ‘was that other one five dollars as well’ but I soon got over that. The counter where I had been served before was packed so I strolled up to the curtain counter which as luck would have it was free. I managed to get over four metres so was a very happy shopper.
As I walked out through the store I felt something on my leg and looking down saw my tan linen skirt was covered with chunks of fur and threads trailing down my leg etc. As I wriggled and shimmied and tried to pat myself down without the aid of a clothes brush or mirror I thought to myself what was the point of getting into my lovely freshly pressed linen outfit when I ended up the same as if I am at home? Thank goodness I had found it before I strolled up to Westfield where Armani and Ralf Lauren type clothes are worn by quite a lot of the shoppers. We are talking luxury shopping centre…leave your flip flops at home type place. Anyway I think I might suggest they put a mirror up near the front of Spotlight so that people can check their clothes….otherwise there is no point getting all dolled up…we sewers may as well stay in our thread laden everyday wear when we go there.
After that I needed a coffee pronto so sauntered into the Coffee Club near David Jones Foodhall where I proceeded to risk it all happening again by taking out my fabric and patting and stroking it all. Madness…I know but fun. After refueling myself…you know I have suddenly really started craving a coffee…..duh….I pottered right across the other side of Westfield….you actually have to go across the road or a walkway to get to the other department store in the complex ….it is just so huge …to look for more tea towels in Myer for my Tea Towel Tote range. Yes it is the Three Tees.
Then I sauntered over to the shop next door to gawk at the tote bags made with Marimekko fabric….. they are over two hundred dollars a bag! I wasted another half hour looking at writing paper and such like in Pepe’s Paperie and ended up with some stunning writing cards for CJ. The shop is quite expensive but they have a range of boxed mugs and writing pads etc which are all under twenty dollars and great for Christmas gifts and just for spoiling one’s favourite son.
Then I had to return something for that favourite son to the huge electronic warehouse opposite Myer and naturally they would not give him/me a refund…store credit only but boy was I pleased I did not have threads and fur and wool all over my skirt as it was like a night out on the town there for everybody.
Shopping appears to be the new entertainment. Don’t laugh…Westfield has these hugely glamorous signs or I should say glamorously huge signs ….which say….something like …Spend your Fridays here at Westfield Bondi Junction. Shop with us right up until 7pm then have dinner in out wonderful Harbour View Room [well it actually is fabulous] while you wait for your movie in our fabulous cinema complex. Actually I do not think they have to say anything about the cinema…it is self evident. Anyway…imagine the amount of money one would be spending? Not only are you shopping but you are eating in a restaurant quality foodhall with the same prices I might add and then one is off to the most modern and spectacular movie complex in our city.
What happened to the old “lets go down to the pub or drop in to see a movie”? Well, now it is destination shopping and the destination is Westfield and there it is simply a case of more is more and there is absolutely no way that aging quilters who are limping around the centre trailing threads and detritus fits their demographic. Okay am off to get a coffee…you might need one too to get through this post!!!







6 Comments
WoW! You packed a lot in! Some attractive purchases too. There’s nothing like a good shop to bring on the need for intravenous coffee!
hi there – it sounds like it would be fun going shopping with you – reading this post reminded me of shopping adventures with my mom, actually – especially fabric shopping… i miss doing that with her heaps. thanks for your email yesterday too
That is so funny about Westfield Bondi – isn’t it a hoot there?! It’s like another world… and to do ‘destination shopping’, eat, live and breathe there – they have some nerve!
You have done well!
Thanks for your comments ladies. Coffee just seems to go with shopping for me although it is also becoming necessary to take water with me as well now too…maybe that would help the need for coffee. But it is the actual ritual of having coffee out that I love….taking my time settling into a comfy chair or booth…finding a magazine ….getting my fabrics out and stroking them! It would be good to go fabric shopping with you Jeana …think we would have fun and I have already been shopping with Kara or… browsing in the second hand mall in the Blue Mountains…that is more your sort of mall Kara I think!
You seem to be one of those people who buy things and habitually return them later. That’s not to say that you can not change your mind but just don’t buy things if you’re not absolutely sure. Why don’t you just not buy the item that you don’t need in the first place.
If everyone thought about their purchases better then we would not have to produce so much rubbish that is cheap and nasty.
Just ranting…i work in retail and i hate it when people just buy things only to later expect a refund especially after weeks have passed. A simple phone call would have sufficed if they couldn’t make it in rather than delaying the action…
Alex I am not sure what you read here or why you would assume that I am a habitual returner of goods. I explained in the post that I am losing weight and as I am also menopausal I always take clothes home to try on after I have a shower so that I do not get gross sweat all over the clothes! However I rarely buy new clothes as most people who read my blog know..I am a thrift shopper and that is where i get most of my clothes.
I do however buy lots of stuff from fabric shops and Spotlight as you would have seen when you read this post. I bought heaps which I did not return….so I quite frankly have no idea why you felt the need to rant at me. Just because you work in retail and get annoyed by people who return goods does not give you the right to rant here on my blog about something that is patently untrue