The fourth day has been great.Two things happened - I went shopping 👭 with my littlest sister Susannah and I had the most excellent affogato ☕️👌.Suzie is at St Andrews studying International Relations (very serious, she is going to be a spy 🔫 or something like that...) but she also shares my love of shopping 👗 and as it is school holidays has some spare time on her hands. I really love shopping - I am a serious browser and spontaneous purchaser, and I prefer to shop alone, or at least with someone who understands the importance of independent shopping - which Suzie does. My worst joint shopping experience ever was when someone I didn't know very well, called me into a changing room and wept all over me because she thought she looked fat in her bikini 👙. These people make me angry - who shops for a bikini in mid winter in Scotland, and seriously never try it on in a shop changing room, the lighting is ALWAYS ghastly. Please in future just order all bikinis online - Coco Bay has some really quite excellent choices...Today I set myself a challenge - browsing only, NO purchasing (this is particularly hard, as it is January sales.)When I am shopping, items tend to fall into these categories:I don't really need it, but kind of want it (TK Maxx bright pink 💘 shiny stretch disco shorts that were £5)It goes really well with my current outfit - these tend to be surprisingly good choices (Topshop beanie in turquoise 💙, with multi-coloured pom pom )I will never be able to afford it, but I'm going to try it on (Sophia Webster shoes 👠)Things I can't afford, but decide to buy anyway (anything from J Crew 💋 and Kate Spade 🎀)I will buy it, know it is right, know when I will wear it, and may even wear it straight away (Whistles 👜Rucksack)So my non-purchasing shopping day panned out like this:I met Susannah in Beyond Retro on Great Marlborough Street, we were wearing scarily similar outfits - I am not sure who this is more worrying for - furry jacket, trendy rucksack and Nike Air Maxs 👟... probably me:
Beyond Retro was super fun and, being vintage you never quite know what you might find, we tried on some great dresses:
We then spent some time in Liberty, and tried on Fendi sunglasses 👓 , found a Marcus Lupfer skirt 👗 I would very much like please, and some sparkly Sophia Webster shoes 👟:
Then French Connection which has some great items - I don't know if by this point the withdrawal was becoming too much ' I WANT EVERYTHING' but I genuinely may go back for these shoes 👠:
And finally Topshop. I love Topshop on Oxford Street so much, the best time to go is first thing in the morning when you practically have the place to yourself. We headed straight to the shoe section in the basement and I got very jealous when these shoes were only in Suzie's size not mine - but probably for the best:
I did make one very small purchase - a velvet diamante 💎 scrunchie from Beyond Retro - we got matching ones ❤️💙 😍.
We had to go to Said on Broadwick Street to recuperate. I really wanted hot chocolate ☕️, they do proper thick, spoon-standing up stuff - but they were out of hot chocolate which really was terrible. So I settled for an affogato, which turned out to be one of the best things I have ever tasted - a ball of starting to melt milk chocolate surrounded by a small dollop of vanilla ice cream, all floating in an espresso 👌👌. It was amazing. Suzie had a 3 chocolate mocha. I am going to write more about hot chocolate ☕️ and chocolate 🍫 soon, as it is one of my favourite things ☺️.
Catch up tomorrow.Alice xxx