Dec 16 - Savers Shopping!

Stracciatella Lindor Ball

"Let's be naughty and save Santa the trip."
- Gary Allan







  I was up and dressed in record time for a Sunday.  Showered, dressed, another delivery of veg from my neighbour popped inside, Christmas presents loaded, in the car and off to pick up Miss Mischief all by 9:30am.  Not bad for me.  I collected Miss Mischief and we headed on down to the land of Kath & Kim.  We met HotCakes at our destination, Savers Fountain Gate, an enormous thrift shop!  Very good for when you are shopping on a budget which all three of us are.
  I've been so looking forward to this day.  I have been in increasing need of new clothing as my weight has gone down and the chance to shop inexpensively for transitional clothing was an exciting one.  But of course, you still want to end up looking good.  Some shopping buddies will humour you if they know you think something is pretty even if it looks horrible on you.  These two lovely ladies will simply shake their heads and give a unified "No!".  There are no two ladies I'd trust more with such duties!
  The other fantastic thing is that we know the cuts, fabrics and colours that suit each other so we can easily spot things on the racks for one another.  Sometimes we even insist they try things on because we know how good it will look once they try it!  We also share a fantastic sense of the ridiculous, which is illustrated in the following brilliant finds!

The 'Cinderella As A Grandma', The 'Anyone For Macrame' and the 'Mrs Oliver'

The 'Drop Knee?', The Purple Twins of the 80s, and The 'Dress is Missing Bits'!

  We had hysterical fun finding these fashion nightmares and even more fun trying them on.  There was a big corner change-room which we all fit in and thus was born The Change-Room Sisterhood (a name coined at lunch afterwards when we still hadn't stopped laughing about it).  We did take one picture in hideous outfits in the change-room but it unfortunately came out blurry.  I've included it all the same because it's just too funny.

  I think the scariest thing about some of the 'horrible' clothes we found is that we all ended up sort of liking some of them once we tried them on!  I very nearly bought the dress I'm wearing except that it was just a tiny bit too clingy still and my wardrobe has no space for things that aren't perfect for me!  I also really liked a tiger print dress but it too was just a smidge too small.
  The funniest thing is remember that someone once loved those clothes.  Someone picked them off a rack brand new and said "That's the outfit for me!"  Fashion is a funny thing.  One day in a couple of decades or so, someone will no doubt say the same thing of outfits I've since donated.  Nevertheless, we had a blast poking fun and giggling ourselves breathless.
  I think thrift stores are generally fun places, in fact the only mildly sad thing about visiting them is seeing things like hand-crocheted rugs and padded pot holders and having the vague notion in the back of your mind that someone's granny died for those to get there.  Miss Mischief in fact picked up a very lovely hand-crocheted rug for just three dollars.
  Before we left I quickly browsed the books and when I got to the biography section I did see one other thing that might qualify as sad, or might not depending on your sense of humour, personally I giggled.  I actually have a lot of sympathy for Lance Armstrong.  It's perhaps not a popular stance but I have absolutely no doubt that every other cyclist at his level was and is doping too.  Other people it seems, have less sympathy.

No Lance, apparently it's about the drugs.

  In the end I spent $81.64 at Savers today and for that I got: Ten brand new tops (five casual and five for work), a pair of very comfy Diadora thongs, two pieces of Tupperware for Bertie, a biography of Dudley Moore and a random old bound book for a craft project!  The most expensive item of clothing bought was $9.99 for a Regatta brand striped casual top and there were four that were just $3.99!  I didn't actually take photos of the new tops I bought but obviously I will be wearing them over the coming weeks and I will try to remember to show you a few!
  We left Savers in extremely high spirits after three hours of bargain shopping and walked over to Fountain Gate proper to make good use of their new food hall.  The parking over there looked terrible!  We walked faster than the cars could move and even the Savers carpark, a good 600m from the shopping centre, was packed by the time we wandered over.  The new food hall though looks lovely.
  We chose to sit down at Tivoli and HotCakes and I both ordered the Tivoli Mega Burger, a delicious concoction of bun, cheese, beef pattie, bacon, egg, beetroot, lettuce, onion, pineapple and tomato sauce!  Served with chips of course.  And I also opted for a vanilla milkshake with mine.

  After lunch, we went to Madcap Cafe for coffees and cake.  I had a slice of Blood Plum Tart.  I was a little worried it would be a disappointment like so many cakes in shopping centre cafes, but in this case I was delighted!  It wasn't too light or too heavy, it kept some of the sourness of the plums and it had a pleasant not to thick biscuity crust.  By the time we wandered back to our cars it was about fourish... a mightily successful day out.

  We said our goodbyes and Merry Christmases in the Savers car park then went our ways.  I dropped Miss Mischief at home and rushed off home to write yesterday and today's blogs and oh boy hasn't that taken me a long time!  It's almost 1am!
  Just one more quick thing before I rush off to bed though... How freaky is this folks?  Minutes before I went to write this blog, my Dad posted this picture on facebook.  I pre-selected the Christmas quote for today's blog weeks ago and Dad had no knowledge of what it was!  He's reading the blog telepathically, the sneaky devil!
  Only three sleeps until Gub arrives!  Woohoo!
  Jess