Shoes

Monday was a little bit wet, so Carolyn and I hit the Mall. And not just any old mall. This was West Edmonton Mall, the largest mall in North America/the northen hemisphere/the world. It boasts a hotel, a pirate ship, submarines, a theatre, a skating rink, a hotel, a cinema, a go karting track, crazy golf, a theme park, a water park, a sea life cente, a sea lion display and a few shops.

Our mission was to find me some cream shoes to go with my bridesmaids dress for Elisabeth's wedding. Piece of cake - there are around 30 shoe shops in the mall so one of them must have some suitable shoes. Oh no. After a couple of hours of fruitless searching, we found one or maybe two pairs which were just about met the criteria, except with a price tag over $150, they were decidedly unsuitable.

So on the Tuesday we hit the thrift (charity) stores in Edmonton. Now if you're thinking of your usual high street Oxfam or Cancer Research shop think again. This is Canada, baby, where everything is BIG. Our thrift stores are probably the size of your average Sainsburys with racks and racks of clothes, books, brick-a-brack, electrical goods, furniture and...shoes. The first store I didn't find any suitable ones (but came out with a rather fetching cherry raincoat instead) but in the second one and there were about twenty odd pairs of cream shoes, several of which were in my size and two of which fitted well and were ideal. So I bought them both at the extortionate sums of $4.99 and $5.99. Bargain.