overlap

This isn't normally a good time of year for me - my sparkly wardrobe is very much an autumn/winter one, and the sort of seasonal stuff that's on sale right now is naturally enough at the flesh-revealing end of the range where my taste tends to be at the other end. Then again, from a certain perspective, all of my sparkly expenditure is pure self-indulgence and extravagance, and while I'm lucky that I'm now in a position where I am not counting every single penny, I still need not to get carried away. For non-sparkly clothes, function is everything, and as long as it's relatively cheap and relatively plain, that'll do. I shop purely on a targeted basis - want shoes, look at all shoes on offer in town, find shoes at an acceptable price, buy shoes. I've never got the hang of shopping for sport (but music shops are another game entirely), though I bought my expensive super-techno windproof fleece after going into the shop every other day for a couple of weeks and looking at it and trying it on in order to be certain I really liked it before parting with that much money. But that's pretty much a one off. It can be difficult for me to openly look at sparkly stuff in the shops, but I do know the longest ways to walk through all the womenswear sections to get to the menswear departments. I naturally walk at a rate of knots, so that's another 'normal' thing I need to concentrate on doing differently, so I can take my time scanning the racks. Most of my in person sparkly shopping is done out of the corner of my eye, followed by website research to find out a bit more, and to consider it in detail, before making a decision that I do actually want to spend that money. And you'll find me doing my shopping after the evening shopping rush is over in the late opening out of town megabranch of a major high street clothes retailer, where I know the racks are full, the aisles are empty and the queues are short. That helps me concentrate on looking at the clothes rather than worrying about who's looking at me. The process works well for me, because I like to be prepared for things. Sure, I'm used to the look at the till that says what's he doing buying that skirt? and because I know there's a good chance it's coming, I'm expecting it and it doesn't take me by surprise these days. And I know to take it at face value and that the world doesn't end when it happens. And on the subject of being prepared, I'm trying to get myself psychologically ready for a major sparkly event in my near future. On which subject, more later when I think through what I really want to say.