A hair poll

I am considering a change but I can’t decide on which I like best, so I need your help. Please vote on the poll below!

ETA Note: You can’t vote directly from Google Reader (not sure about other RSS readers), so go direct to the page. Sorry about that!

Thanks a bunch. ♥

More brain fail

After a weekend of moodiness and emotional roller coaster rides (yay hormones and yay biological procreation clock) I began Monday with a positive attitude. You know, the kind you force yourself to have even though you really want to stomp your feet and yell about how crappy your white, middle-class, Western life can be.

All was fairly well. I was mentally going over my to-do list: French class, finish and hand in statistics assignment, appointment.  I was all of about 5 minutes from university when I remember that I had forgotten to put my memory stick into my back. The one with my 95% complete assignment on it. Cue internal cursing and much internal stomping of feet.

Then I had an epiphany! I had remembered by netbook with my 50% complete assignment file still stored on it, so halle-freakin’-lujah, I wasn’t entirely screwed. Had to skip a few things, but at least I wasn’t having to start at square one.

Yeah man, life is soooo tough!

The Right Shoe(s)

Yesterday I ventured back to the Nike outlet store to get the right shoe, literally. My eldest sister actually called them after I did and tried to get them to send the correct shoe to me because it never should have happened in the first place and was technically more their fault than mine. But unfortunately I would have had to courier one shoe to them, then they would send the right one back to me and reinburse me for the trouble/postage. Or I could just go back to the store. I opted to go back in order to ensure I actually did get the correct shoe and to save the time and hassle of couriering. They gave me a 50% discount on any purchase I made while I was there, so I grabbed a sports bra which I needed anyway.

While I was at the mall I couldn’t help myself. I went back and got the creepy bride T.U.K. shoes from WildPair. Then I proceeded to prance around the supermarket wearing them. They are a hot pair of heels, let me tell you. No more shopping for me for awhile!

Speaking of shopping though, here’s a few photos of some recent purchases! LOL

Scarf, bought from uni market.

Badges, also from uni market.

Matryoshka doll, bought a few weeks ago.

Today I opted to skip my two classes and stay home after a restless night made worse by one of the cats howling for not apparent reason, for ages, in the middle of the night. Probably not the best idea on my part, but I could not face that damn bus as that time of the morning, feeling like the zombie I did. Now I shall go and do my statistics assignment!

In Admittance of A Brain Fail

As agonising as it is for me to admit when I’ve done something wonderfully stupid, I am going to admit it anyway, instead of entirely blaming it on other people.

Last week I decided I needed a new pair of gym sneakers and today, after having looked in the usual stores at my local mall, I went to an outlet mall 30 minutes from my house in order to hopefully find a bargain. After looking in the Addidas and New Balance stores with no luck, I finally found myself in the Nike store (did you know their logo has a name? It’s called a Swoosh). I walked past the high-tops that make feet look swollen (what? Those shoes have a lot of puff!) and saw what I was looking for: a great pair of good-looking, nicely priced crosstrainers (Lunarlite Speed model, if you must know). But were they comfortable?

Oh yes, yes they were. And, remarkably, the white silver ones were oh-so-much comfier than the white and blue pair! Who would have thought. It took me all of 5 seconds to make up my mind about purchasing. But wait, is that a slight mark on that beautiful pair of size 9s? Hm, no thank you very much, must change the pair. So, I get another size 9 box, checked the sizing of one shoe, decided all is well and went to the cashier.

The cashier. You either get a good one or a bad one. She was friendly enough, but the poor dear wasn’t able to tell if the shoes actually had a security tag on them or not and had to walk the box through the front doors’ security system in order to check. No beeping, thus I was safe from the embarrassment of setting alarms off as I left. Unfortunately our dear cashier neglected to check the sizing of the shoes, something I am of the opinion should be mandatory as a cashier in a store that sells shoes, even if the customer has assured them that they are indeed the size-x he or she is after.

No matter, I am oblivious. It is horribly WARM in this store. I am beginning to sweat. Maybe even smell a bit. Must leave quickly and go to the part of the mall where the air conditioning appears to working properly. So, shoes are paid for, cashier thanked, assured another employee for the 4th time that, no, I really didn’t want to get another pair of shoes for half price. I left store and trotted off to find some food with my sister, shopping complete and, I thought, successful.

I come home, excited to look at my new purchases, especially my gym shoes which I plan on wearing tomorrow for my workout. I even want to take a photo of them so I can upload it to my Flickr and share them on my blog, and maybe Twitter, Facebook and LiveJournal, too! I finish tying the laces up when it suddenly dawns on me… Are these….are these shoes two left shoes?

Hang on a minute, are they two left shoes and….different sizes? I hastily check the sizing in each shoe and find that, indeed, no only are they two left shoes, they are two completely different sizes. One size is a 9, the other is an 8. Oh shit. Ohshitohshitohshit. There is no way I’m going to be able to go back to the mall today to change them, so no new shoes for my workout tomorrow.

Now I’m sitting here, after having called the store in order to see if they could send the right pair to my local Nike store, but they are unable to. Something about them being an outlet store and my local one not. Fair enough. But now I have to go back there tomorrow, inconveniencing my mum because I can’t legally drive myself.

I could very easily blame it all on the cashier who didn’t check the sizing. Surely, if she had, she would have noticed they were different and two left shoes, thus avoiding this whole situation to begin with. But I am not going down that path, I am admitting that I should have checked thoroughly. After all, if I had noticed a mark on one shoe, I should be vigilant enough to notice two left shoes and two different sizes. I screwed up; I was an ‘unengaged consumer’. Now I have a pair of useless gym shoes. Pretty yes, but useless.

I must note, however, that my shopping adventures weren’t completely unsuccessful. I did pay a visit to Wild Pair shoe store where I found the most fantastic range of shoes: T.U.K Shoes. At first I wanted to get the pair of heels with the creepy bride on them, but decided on the cupcake wedges. I do plan on going back though…and also raiding their online store.

Weighty Musings

This morning in my statistics lecture I won a mini Crunchie Bar for participating in a game to demonstrate probability. Yay for me, I got a treat! The only treats I will consuming for the next Really Long Time are those that are bought for me but not at my request, or won. Having a set of scales in the bathroom is now daily proof of what poor eating habits I have formed since becoming omnivorous again.

I guess after 8 years of no meat burgers and no salami and limited pizza selections it’s been like being a kid in a candy shop, not knowing what to eat first. So I just ate it all. And now it’s on my tummy, hips, bum and thighs, jiggling there for me to feel as I waddle walk along.

Okay, so I’m not a whale, but I am certainly overweight and I really don’t like it at all. I was never overly bothered by my weight in the past, not to the point where I ever dieted or did anything to really actively keep it at a place I felt comfortable. However, since gaining weight over the last year, I have become acutely aware of it, of my body, of feeling ‘gross’, but even more so of the health implications that carrying extra weight can have. More than anything I would like to be fit and healthy, without excess fat.

So far I am going to the gym 3 times a week and trying to do at least 30 minutes of exercise (usually treadmill at home) on the other days. The food thing is…okay. Ish. I’m a terribly foodie, and by terrible I mean that I tend to gravitate towards the more unhealthy end of the spectrum, despite the fact I do enjoy eating healthy meals. It is very frustrating to be such a junk food person and I’m really trying to cut down but am struggling a lot, unfortunately. I know it will take time, so I guess all I can do is stick at it and try my best!

Anyway, that is all for now!