Decided on an uncharacteristic trip out to the mall in Lower Hutt yesterday. I’ve lived all my adult life in Wellington so don’t really feel that I can join in on the Wellington vs. Lower vs. Upper Hutt banter with any experience or backing … however, to me the Hutt is a big old ‘burb and with that comes the ‘burb life that we like to compare to our own. Not in an awful way of course, just in the have-blog-will-commentate-on-society kind of way. The weather was pretty hideous and I thought picking up a friend who I needed to spend time with talking about non-work stuff and going for a wander was a good way to spend an afternoon. Plus she knew the way since it’s all changed around!
- Lots of Holdens
- Lots of mother/daughter combos
- Lots of people in Ugg boots with lots of bulging bags
- Lots of stuff that looked the same which meant in a London Underground kind of way I never knew which way to turn when we came out of a shop – lucky I had my shopping expert friend with me!
- You’ll not believe it but I stopped for a mall coffee. I know! It was a Mojo bar so after questioning the staff (hell yes I’m a terrible city snob) it turned out that they did know what a piccolo (a.k.a. ristretto latte) was so it was safe to stop a while. Coffee wasn’t too bad either! Wasn’t the super super strong mini latte that the girl described after all, well not by mall standards!
Topped of the mall visit with trip to the biggest Woolworths I’ve ever been in. Double wide aisles and a double set of aisles arranged in that slightly offset pattern normally reserved for restaurants and luxury coaches so that you’re not being stared at by a stranger which meant that when I’d finished with one ginormous aisle (where you think that seeing as they had every size, brand, texture and fat content of peanut butter that they’d have the one the Mister likes, but no) that I didn’t know where I was when I came out the end of it. And the trolley (‘cart’ for my American reader)! It was big enough to fit the Titanic in! Trolley pushing is not my job and it was rather daunting that it was big enough to fit my short dark friend in (no good asking her to push it as she wouldn’t’ve been able to see over the handle) as well as the groceries. I felt like I was mistreating the $4 of shredded chicken when I pitched it over the side and there was this whistling/air rushing sound for a few seconds before it hit the bottom with a thud. The woman behind the deli counter who’d said [eyebrows raised, show incredulous look at small packet being so expensive] “Aaahh, that comes to 4 dollars?” certainly didn’t understand what all the laughter was about when the poor chicken finally came to rest! And so it went on … I have to say I was very impressed with the woman in front of me at the checkout counter who had coupons, and a special shopper card and bulk this-n-that who’s 6-bag shop came out at $42 and my 2 bags (when I finally retrieved my items from waaaaaay down there at the bottom of the trolley (I think I still have a bruise across my stomach from swinging over the side to reach the poor chicken)) came out at $45.
A fairly exciting afternoon all up!
4 comments ↓
i think you have more than one american reader! i appreciate your translation effort! 🙂
But you live here now! I’m sure you used the word ‘cart’ in the supermarket once and got a funny look so now know it as a trolley.
Haha it was fun going to the Mall…. And even more of a surprise that OG made purchases and I didnot!!!!
Oi!!! I so can see over the handle!!!!
"A fairly exciting afternoon all up!" Surely you mean in a vouyeuristic-aren’t-they-quaint-anthropological-field-trip way! I’m from the Hutt (by which I naturally mean Lower Hutt – Upper Hutt just always seemed like a poor cousin to Lower Hutt – but then someone here in Sydney said they would rather be from ‘Upper’ Hutt than ‘Lower’ Hutt, equating the names, I guess, with upper and lower class!) In fact, I always say I’m from Wellington. If people here in Australia find out I’m from the Hutt, they always feel obliged to say, ‘I’ll visit it when I’m there’, to which I’m quick to reply, ‘Please don’t, for your sake and mine’ – it would be a waste of their time and my exotic allure would be revealed as a sham. So that makes my position on the Wellington vs Lower Hutt vs Upper Hutt argument clear!!
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