Computer shopping and other nightmares

The Husband actually took a day off work today, so we went into town and spent far more money than we'd planned. Son Number Two starts music college in September. Apart from his school uniform, he's a board-shorts and t-shirt person from February to November (jeans with holes in the knees for really cold weather), so desperately needed decent clothes. Although there were sales on, it was the best part of £80 for a bagful of stuff that didn't even include trousers. (We'll have another shopping trip for those, I'm not that much of a bad mother...) 

Then we had the 'I need advice on this' shopping to do. I needed wanted a chalk bag for climbing, so went to the outdoor pursuits place, where I was an awkward newbie asking obvious questions. I was never made to feel stupid, even though I nearly put a harness on backwards and couldn't remember the names of things. After paying for said harness and loads of other stuff (sorry, Dear Husband), I was told where all the best climbing walls in the area were by the two rather nice salesmen, and then made a classy exit by walking into a pillar. They didn't laugh, bless them (well, not till I was out of earshot, anyway). I will definitely shop there again. When the bruises have faded. 

Then we went lap-top shopping, again for Son Number Two. After wandering around and being dragged away from digital cameras by The Husband who was worrying about his credit card bill, we were approached by a twelve year old in a PC World shirt, who asked if we needed any help. 

'We're after a lap-top,' we explained. The twelve year old smirked and asked, 'What spec?' in a way that made it obvious he thought he was talking to idiots. Son Number Two had done his homework and reeled off a list of acronyms, which stopped the sales guy lazily chewing on his pen and made him pay attention. It took fifteen minutes to choose a lap-top, but twenty to persuade the guy that we really, really, didn't want to take out insurance. The Husband did his best glazed expression after having said, several times, that he wasn't buying it. We finally escaped from the hell that was computer sales and had to recover with coffee and large slices of cake in Costa. 

Unusually, it seems, for a female, I don't like shopping. I'm fine going into a shop and buying something I know I want, but I'm not one for spending all day wandering around and looking. Unless it's in a bookshop, and even then I know that I'll end up actually buying something. I don't browse if I don't have the money to buy something. Again, unless it's in a bookshop, and then I'll mentally remove things from the weekly food-shop to compensate for a must-buy. 'Milk?? Pfft, we don't need that! Bread?? I'm sure there's a loaf in the bottom of the freezer somewhere...'