Obsessive comparison shopping

It has become clear why it takes so long for me and Ian to buy anything – we have to comparison shop everything! We need to get a changing bag for Picard, and although the Mothercare catalogue has plenty in, I was kind of intrigued by the fancy Skip Hop bags which were not only rather fancy looking (fun materials and elegant shapes), but had some clever system for hooking properly onto the buggy handle rather than just draping over like most people do. I was rather shocked at the idea of spending £55 on a bag, and so have been scouring ebay for these bags and realising that they get snapped up for quite a lot! So we thought that, as I was getting cabin fever from being in York (work doesn’t count), we’d take a trip to Harrogate, try and have tea with Rosie and Pete and look at said bag in the wonderfully overpriced JoJo Maman Bebe.

I’m glad we did. I was right – spending £55 on something that keeps reminding you how chic and stylish it is is always a mistake. Yes, they were bags, but not bags that you’d want to use in the rain (no proper fastening at the top), and not bags that you could get much in. The second you stuffed them with a waterproof or two, the poppers wouldn’t do up and then the rain really would pour in. That would have been a serious waste of money.

So we had a wander around Harrogate and played in the park a bit, failed to see Pete and Rosie because they were going on holiday, and had a quick look at the rather pathetic offerings of Mothercare.

But we did need a changing bag, so we went home via Mama and Papas in York (I do detest the fact that they insist on having their stores in out of town shopping centres), and took apart all of their bags. There were a good many that again had no proper fastening (do chic mothers just not leave the house when it rains?), and a few that were pretty and really just a bag, but in the end we settled on one which has suitable numbers of pockets, a sensibly sized changing mat, wipe clean insides, expanded exponentially and still does up and looks about as waterproof as you are likely to get. I won’t say how much it cost, coz I was quite shocked (and the evil Mamas and Papas had put up their prices but not on the labels – got rather irritated with the shop assistant about that), but at least we have a sensible bag. Our thought is that the simpler it is to take Picard out of the house, the better.

The rest of the weekend was taken up with trying to sort out the study. I sorted some stuff and moved books around ineffectually, while Ian did a sterling job painting the last remaining wall and plastering bits of the hallway. Now all we have to do is work out how we are going to safely rig up the ladder so that the cracks near the ceiling at the top of the stairs can be reached.