Thursday 27 December 2007

Shopping with a difference

We headed out to Bicester Village outlet shopping village. It's different. I've been to a few of these outlet places in the States and over here but this one is in a class of it's own. In this one the sale price of bags are around £400 ($800 US), the men's suits are as high as £900 ($1,800) and these are the sale prices.
The cars in the car park were different, Jaguars, Lexus, Mercedes etc and almost all, this year or last years models.
The shoppers were different as well.
When I was a little girl, rich tourists were Americans, then it was the Arab nations, now it seems they are Chinese and Russian. I'd say about 50% of those shopping yesterday were either Chinese or Japanese. Most were not casual tourists. A lot spoke with public school (public schools despite what the name sounds are NOT public, these are amongst the most exclusive schools in the world) accents. I spoke with one or two Greeks, there was a sprinkling of French and Italian. Almost no one wore jeans (DH being an exception). Dior was packed, as were all the most exclusive of the stores.

Did I buy anything? Well not a lot, I am not a label victim but I did find some nice reading glasses.
My optician has said the off the shelf reading glasses are all I need (with the proviso they are of a reasonable quality). Normally I wear the funky ones at the front with the hand dye look but these have been discontinued, so the hunt has been on for some more that suit. I need a few pairs round the house so I always have a pair to hand. My perfect pair would be bifocals with clear glass in the top so I could keep them on all the time, but can I find any?
I like the funky blue ones at the back which 'glow' like mercury glass. The green ones behind are really dark reading sunglasses, something else I have had difficulty in locating. The next ones have leather arms and look very smart, I shall save these for when I want to be taken seriously (not often) and the white sunglasses were my indulgence (or rather DH's indulgence) they are Versace and come very very close to being the perfect sunglasses. No bits in the middle to catch my hair and nice wide sides to keep the sun from hitting the front of the lens from the side whilst I'm driving.

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