One girl, one retail village, much spending

*Wanders past, whistling innocently*  Who, me?  Yeah yeah, okay, okay...  So, remember my last little trip to this retail village?  The one where I popped in with my Mum for a quick wander and ended up buying All The Things?  Well... it happened again.  This time some of it was functional, I swear!  ;)

Okay, so, you know we're going away to Fuerteventura right?  I might have mentioned it once or twice, because I'M SO EXCITED AND IT'S THE SHINING LIGHT AT THE END OF THIS WORKING SUMMER HOLIDAY SHAPED TUNNEL.  One of the big problems about this holiday is the fact that I Have No Holiday Things because Agoraphobics Don't Go On Holiday.  This has been a fundamental flaw for the last few years.  Sooooo, first up, I needed a suitcase.  I bought one these World's Lightest Suitcases, a little cute one that Mum is convinced isn't going to be big enough.  But I was excited because I could lift it with one finger, and also I am a very low maintenance bare-makeup-no-I-can't-be-arsed-to-blow-dry-my-hair kinda girl, so I reckon I'll be fine.  This is probably not very exciting for you, dear reader, but it's a cool red colour and I'm going to show you anyway with this delightful generic image.

So there.  Now, the next thing I bought was also from the bag shop.  I am not a bag-crazy person.  Yet both times I have been to yonder retail outlet recently I have somehow managed to buy a bag.  This one is AWESOME!

See?!  It's the perfect size for a carry-on tote (squishy enough to fit in the basket thing for customs, then I can hit Waterstones in the departure lounge, hehe) and it'll make a fun poolside bag and IT HAS FOOD PICTURES ON IT WITH SEQUINS.  Here, look:

Peaches and carrots and melon and cherries and chocolate pie and wine and strawberries... mmmmm.  My kinda bag.  It was the last one and it was a bit pricy but IT HAD TO BE MINE.  And now it is.  :)

After that we had a nice yawn-inducing wander around the Edinburgh Woollen Mill, where I tried on a top that looked all wrong, Mum finally bought the pretty blanket she's been eyeing up for months, and I *cough*accidentally*cough* bought Rebecca on DVD.  I have it somewhere but in a freebie-DVD-cardboard-case kinda thing, rather than a real copy.  I LOVE this movie - particularly Laurence Olivier being dashing and Joan Fontaine making ridiculous 'dramatic' faces - so I reckon a Sunday evening showing avec ice cream might be on the cards sometime soon.

After that Mum disappeared off to the Cook Shop while I 'popped into The Works, just for a quick look - they might not even have anything I want!'  *snorts in a very unladylike manner*  I don't think I quite believed what was coming out of my own mouth, and rightly so.  I'd found my first three '3 for £5' titles within a minute of getting inside the shop. 

The first book I plucked down with glee was The Sick Rose by Erin Kelly.  It was only published in paperback this year, and I already have The Poison Tree, so I was pretty gobsmacked that this one had made it onto the remainder shelves so quickly.  I was even MORE gobsmacked when I spotted The Paris Wife by Paula McLain a couple of inches to the right.  Again, this is a 2012 paperback - and one I couldn't even get hold of at the library yet because it's always out - so I couldn't believe it was sitting here for £1.99.  It was kinda sad and really awesome at the same time!  ;)

The last of my first '3 for £5' trio - I couldn't believe my luck this time, I swear - was It's Not Me, It's You! by the wonderful Jon Richardson.  I half-read this book on my Kindle, then when I decided me and the machine weren't getting on I reckoned I'd rather get a paper copy and start again so I could read it properly.  In case you don't know, Jon Richardson is a sweetheart of a young British comedian with some borderline-OCD traits and quirks (in fact, he made a documentary which was shown last night - you can watch it on 4OD now, it's great), and this book is a pithy autobiographical look at why the need to have things just right makes it so difficult to find love.  The cover quotes by Alan Carr and Michael McIntyre are pretty damn funny too.  I can't WAIT to read it!  The first in my second '3 for £5' batch was travel writer Peter Moore's Vroom by the Sea, in which he travels Sicily, Sardinia and the Amalfi Coast on a Vespa.  I've heard great things about his books, and the Amalfi Coast is one of my favourite places in the world, so I have high hopes for this one!

Last but by no means least for the '3 for £5' stash - I was well chuffed to find ALL THREE of James Dashner's Maze Runner books.  I already have The Maze Runner at home, so I just (just?  Ha!) bought the other two, The Scorch Trials and Death Cure.  I haven't even read the first one yet, but between the great reviews and titchy price, I was willing to take a gamble!

And finally... I swear... I was just doing a quick tour around the non-fiction shelves and stumbled across Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb.  I already have his previous book, The Discovery of France, and apparently both books are the kind of fascinating history books that make you constantly want to stop and turn to whoever you're with and say, "Hey, hey, hey, HEY!  Did you know...???"  Works for me...  :P

Sooooo.  Another restrained, small, unassuming little shopping trip, then.  Let's just the say the luggage shop lady was very happy.  So was the bookstore lady.  My mum... not so happy.  But I was.  I may not read all of these books immediately (though The Sick Rose is one of those ickle paperbacks that would be perfect for sticking in my NEW SUITCASE, woohoo!) but they're all ones I've been wanting.  Well, apart from that last one, but for £2.99 I couldn't leave it, could I?  And I needed a new case and now I have a shiny red cool one.  And a bag with sequinny food on it.  And a movie for when it all gets too much.  So that's good...  And I got to spend the rest of the day flat out on a sunlounger in a bikini reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower, so all in all the day turned out fairly all-round awesome!

Any thoughts?  Did you make it past the riveting suitcase photo?  Would you, too, have nabbed the sequinny food bag if you'd had the chance?  Have you read and lurved any of these books already?  Can you make this face, copyrighted by Joan Fontaine in 1940?

Tell me aaaaaall about it in the comments (dramatic photographs optional)!