Monday, September 04, 2006

Why I dolled myself up for a visit to the mall

On Saturday, I got up early, cleaned and tidied my flat, went grocery shopping and then set out to accomplish Mission Possible: tadaaaah, to buy a notebook. I had made up my mind on Friday, realising when leafing through leaflets from various electronics stores that if I waited for my financial situation to improve/THE ultimate special offer to catch my eye, etc., etc., I'd probably never ever buy one.

So. Determined to overcome my adversion to haggling, I reconsidered my usual casual Saturday-look, applied an extra layer of mascara (for some serious eylash-fluttering) and glittery red lipgloss. Thus prepared, I headed to the COSMOS branch at the mall down the road to fondly stroke the object of my desire. I couldn't have been there longer than a couple of minutes when a miracle happened. A shop assistant actually walked up to me and asked me if he could help me. Those among you who've ever been to an Austrian electronics or DIY store know that the one commodity you usually can't get for love nor money is sales people. Be that as it may, either my engrossed perusal of the gadget on display or my carefully made-up appearance attracted this rarest of species, a shop assistant willing to devote his full attention to a customer. I coyly asked if "anything could be done about the price" or if he could throw in some winter tyres or alloy rims. He gave me a strange look (is there a tumour in your humour?, to quote the Robster...) and said "You're not buying a car here, you know." To cut a long story short, I got my new Sony Vaio for €50 (better than nothing, eh?) less than it said on the price tag and went home a very happy new notebook mum, convinced that her baby is the prettiest by far:
me and my new baby (onemorehandbag) The photo above was taken by Novala, who came over for dinner on Saturday night. dinner for two (onemorehandbag)
She told me all about her most recent Balkan adventures and was a GG, Good Guest, polishing off her plate and complimenting me on my cooking...

In case you're interested in some food trivia, here we go:
Starter: figs and feta (cream) cheese with dried cranberries and roasted pine nuts marinated with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Main course: salmon-filet wrapped in prosciutto (a Jamie recipe) with rice and salad.
Dessert: Divine Eismarillenknödeln (ice-cream apricot dumplings) from TICHY.

It will feel strange not to join "Novalica" as I like to call her and the other ladies for yet another - in my sad case at least - completely useless Slovenian course next month. I've stuck to my decision not to prolong the agony.
14:04 update - Lunch-break purchases: Back in full throttle. More about today's spree tomorrow. Stay tuned.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

@useless Slo: Se upam, da ti lahko uberzeugam. :-)

No, just kidding. I've got the impression that the decision is irrevocable. Which I understand. I think I am just going to class for one more year out of tradition and because I don't want to accept, that I will never learn this language properly. At least not if life stays like it is.

9/05/2006 08:37:00 AM  
Blogger ka-ma said...

Ohhh, c'mon! Don't give up!!It is not that difficult, or is it really? ;)

Congrats for the new Vaio... and especially for the discount. See what a litlle mascara can do for a woman. But only in the case of male shop assistant, so I guess you were double lucky, or is it triple? Finding a shop assistant in the first place, him being male and you getting discount. Yeah, triple! Good one!

9/05/2006 10:20:00 AM  
Blogger onemorehandbag said...

Nah, I knew chances were slim that I'd bump into a female shop assistant there. Btw, at the airport I always make sure to choose a counter staffed with a man when checking in a far too heavy suitcase. I admit that I'm very shallow but what can you do when men are susceptible to a little eyelash-fluttering...

9/05/2006 11:23:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ka-ma: It's such a beautiful language and I really, really like it. But since I hardly ever get the chance to use it anymore - where's the point? Night college has a 4 months summer break. It's like starting from the beginning again each October when the winter semester starts. It's so frustrating. Due to various reasons I don't get to Slovenija very often anymore. Actually not once during the last year except driving from Vienna to Sarajevo.

9/05/2006 05:52:00 PM  

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