shopping

that season

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It’s that time of year again – autumn… and people’s kids are returning to school, so outlets like Facebook are covered in back-to-school/first-day-of-school photos. None of these bothered me until I saw someone’s “first day of kindergarten” pictures, and I was suddenly struck by the overwhelming sense of anxiety and daily dread I felt when I was in kindergarten. I really wanted to go to school, but I hated having to socialize, having to get myself up alone in the morning and get to the bus stop on time. Seeing these children in their kindergarten classrooms, I was overcome – yes, at my advanced age – by a wave of nausea, remembering that helpless, horrible feeling of being five. Being forced to play and take naps and things I hated. OH MY GOD I LOVE BEING AN ADULT.

I also love saying, “I am an adult.”

Even if being an adult has often brought little to no certainty to life or to me. Funny how certain we are of things when we are young and have absolutely no reason or experience informing our baffling certainty. We just know. Like I just knew when I was 12 that I would always be obsessed with U2 and Ireland. Hahahahahahaha. Um, no.

Oddly, many people go on living in those (naive?) certainties and are often no less happy or fulfilled for it. But I guess my mind was meant to work the other way… becoming less and less certain, more and more questioning over time.

As an adult it is also fun sometimes to buy stuff. Not too long ago I became obsessed with buying undergarments/lingerie… nothing particularly crazy. Just, you know, stuff one needs to wear anyway (most of the time). I stumbled on Lonely of New Zealand and LOVED their stuff, and even more loved the realism and diversity of their models. Just the website made me happy, so when I placed an order, I was glad to patronize the company. But I was even more elated when the parcel arrived, beautifully packaged in individual small boxes that serve as miniature drawers. Inside the garments are packed with care into individual ‘garment bags’ of sorts. It had such a careful, personal touch to it that I felt, as I unfolded everything, like ordering every item on their website. When I opened up the second box, I noticed that it even contained a handwritten note thanking me for my business. Yeah, so it might be a bit more expensive than the average store (but not by much, especially taking into account the exchange rate), but the attention and care paid to both the packaging and the products make it so worth it.

Yay. The one certainty: So fun to be an adult. Not a kid in kindergarten. With no kids in kindergarten. No anxiety, leaves falling and lovely matching undergarment sets. Haha.

Photo by Alexandru Zdrobău on Unsplash

Souk Market Amazing

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I finally visited the new Souk Market in Charlottenberg (Norway/Sweden border shopping overload). It was amazing. I was alone in the store, so I could explore the aisles of previously unseen, exotic products from all over eastern Europe and the Middle East/northern Africa – loved it. It was also cheaper in many cases than all the other stores. Fabulous!

It kind of made me sad – thought a lot about Anna, my former colleague who passed away at the beginning of the year, because the store had SO MUCH Polish merchandise. I also found giant tins of poppy seed filling paste, Cheetos (!?), lots of different Lebanese and Turkish stuff – including some cardamom coffee. I did not stay long enough to explore everything, but it was a much-needed taste of diversity. Another good point – there is a suggestion box in the front just as you leave that had a note in Swedish and English asking patrons to write down any products they wanted and did not find because the store will aim to get them.

Downside, rain and +3C turned suddenly to -2C, crazy wind and snow – first real snow… did not make the drive home that lovely, but I am in control. Home safely, surrounded by candles.