A day in the mall.

What is it about shopping malls that I dislike? I think it is that they are soulless, passionless places that offer a formulaic way of separating people from their money. Add to that the fact that they destroy small local shops in a Genghis Khan sort of way and I come to the conclusion that they are not necessarily good for the human race.

This maybe because I detest change and the demise of the small shop, often more expensive, but generally twice as interesting.

We had agreed we would take our box to the shopping mall to send it home and that whilst we were there we would do the food shopping we required for the evening meal we were cooking. It was as we arrived that Rosemarie told me she wanted some three quarter length navy leggings and asked politely if we could look for some.

The packing of the box had been completed in the morning in a rather sad way. Putting in pamphlets and maps that we had collected along with clothes and shoes and bits of electrical equipment that were surplus to requirements. I could tell the master packer was having great difficulty in deciding what to send home. The sad face and the constant sighing rather gave it away. However, it had to be done and their are lessons to be learnt here for future trips.

The box was then put in the car and off we went.on arrival at the mall we parked near the lift and put the box into a trolley to get it to the post office. We enquirer at the I,n formation point where the post office was and were given a set of directions, that took us in the vague direction but not actually to it. The result was that we had to ask again, and a very kind woman gave us clear directions. We arrived and joined a queue for the counter, the box was weighed at 10.87 kilograms and we paid our $120 to have it shipped back to Cornwall. Having paid the money you would have thought that would have been it , but no we were then given a form and told to take the box away to a separate counter, complete the form and then return to the chap who had processed our package. So, we carried the box and the form across the post office and stood there and completed it. Then we picked it up again and took it back across the post and rejoined the queue, and there we stood for several minutes waiting for our chap to be free, waving other customers through as we cheerfully stood there. Oh we do have such jolly times in post offices! Eventually we handed the box over again and off it went, we asked how long it might take to return to Cornwall and we were told two to three months. We then, rather stupidly I felt, asked how much it would have cost by air mail and we were told at least twice as much, so our parcel is now safely on its way to a slow ship who will get it back to Cornwall just before we arrive home.

Back to the leggings,  after the despatch of the parcel, we started to look for leggings and went to Target where we found two pairs that might have fitted the bill, but no there was hesitancy in Rosemarie's voice and I suggested in a foolhardy sort of way that we could look elsewhere. This proved to be a costly mistake on my part, as we spent the next two hours traipsing around the mall looking in countless women's shops, until we returned to Target and bought one of the first pairs we had looked at. I think both of us found it a very dispiriting experience.

After the  leggings we did our food shopping and came home for lunch, to go out again in the afternoon to pick up some items we had forgotten. We then had a small disagreement over the sat nav, from my point of view it is hard to drive in a large city and keep an eye on the sat nav at the same time, from Rosemarie's point of view this should be an easily achievable task. We were not helped by the fact that we have no idea how to turn the spoken directions on, so I was relying on Rosemarie to give me clear directions. As we shot past our destination and were caught in heavy traffic having to go around the block I was a little displeased, as w as Rosemarie who told me categorically she had mentioned that we had arrived, but I hadn't heard her. Anyway we eventually found what we were looking for and returned home safely.
A pleasant meal in the evening , ended rather a tristful day as our departure looms ever closer.