I'm flying out to Italy on Friday[1], so today I went to do the necessary shopping. And of course ended up doing some unnecessary shopping too, but hey :-)

Chemist, check. That was part of the "necessary". Turns out that my prescription was inexplicably dated "Nov 2005", luckily the chemist didn't make trouble about it (though he pointed it out). I know my GP isn't very computer-fluent, this seems peculiar though...

Then Penneys. Necessary: a pair of summer-type shoes. Ended up with: the above shoes, a light but long shirt (which I had wanted for a while), a wifebeater (I wish I had another name for it, in Italian it's called "rower's shirt"), a sparkly white scarf, 6 pairs of black socks. For a total of 33 Euro. Which is more than I normally spend in one go, and probably less than I would have spent on any one of those items in Milan (except possibly the socks).

As I came down the escalator to the lower floor (shoes and accessories), I saw two girls trying on headscarves. This is the first time I've seen this, I'm probably very provincial, or more likely I just don't go shopping for clothes much. Anyway, one of them was trying on the most stunning-looking hijab I've seen in a while, and they looked outgoing enough, so I told her :-) At which point I discovered that they were a much weirder phenomenon than I had thought at first: they sounded entirely French. Now, what the bleep are two young French women doing shopping for clothes in Dublin, and in Penneys of all places? I'm still reeling :-) (Oh, and I bought a scarf like the one she was wearing. Doesn't look as stunning on me, and I'm unlikely to wear it as hijab anyway, but it's still a very nice scarf.)

Then the bag shop, for a laptop bag which I'd seen yesterday, but today I had the laptop measurements to make sure it would fit. It looks almost exactly like the so-called handbag I use normally (more like a soft briefcase really, with shoulder strap and a surprising capacity; also very handy as hand luggage), but it has a padded laptop compartment. This will make carrying the laptop on the plane a lot easier.

I think I'm done with shopping until the winter :-)

[1] Unplanned. My father is in hospital again, and it seems that he may be for a while, because what we thought was going to be a trivial procedure turned out not-so-trivial. He seems to be stable and recovering, I'm going mostly to be practical and moral support for my mother while he's in hospital. No idea how long I'm going to stay, I suppose at least until they let him out.