Shopping in Camden...

Great, it’s a miserable afternoon and it’s raining. I absolutely adore London in the summer and generally when it’s fresh. But today is just miserable. I was aiming to get out of bed early-ish to buy my sister’s birthday present and take the usual leisurely stroll through Camden, but the rain and the grey sky just put me right off! So I delayed getting out of bed until the rain came to a stop- which thankfully it eventually did.

Leaving the house (at 3pm) with an umbrella in hand, I was on my way to Camden. I’m not great when it comes to shopping, I normally only go when I have an idea in my head of roughly what I want to get, I don’t hang around, as soon as I see it I get it. Shopping and browsing are two completely different things. Shopping is stressful and browsing is much more fun! I always find that when I don’t have money to go shopping and browse instead, there are loads of things that I love and want and always have a great time. On the other hand, when I finally have money to spend, I don’t find any of the things I initially wanted so find that I end up buying things for the sake of it, resulting in me never truly being satisfied. Oh, and I’m stressed to the point that my head wants to explode and the only thing that cures me is a good nap.

I’m quite fortunate to live in between Camden and Hampstead. When I’m off to hampstead, I’ve got money to spend, when I’m off to Camden, I’m usually on a budget! (Although it can still be rather expensive!) My sister’s birthday pressie was a Camden present!

When we were kids, during the Christmas holidays, my dad would pile my brothers and sisters on top of each other in the car..Quite literally as there was never enough space, and drive us through oxford street to see the Christmas lights at night. All the designer and high street shop windows were lit up. It was truly magical. Me and my sister would point at things and at people’s clothes and say “when I grow up that’s what I want” and whoever would say it first, would apparently have it when they’re older. Because she always won and beat me to it most times, when we finished playing our shopping game, I would look at all the things I wanted to have when I was older and as long as I raised my eyebrows at each thing, it would mean I would get it! How ridiculous! I probably looked like the kids in the funny eyebrow advert!

Half way there, it began to rain again! I whipped out my umbrella and thought “I’ve been saved by the bell!” (In this case, by the umbrella!) Only, to my annoyance, I suddenly starting fighting with it because it decided to turn itself inside out- the wind didn’t help, I must have looked like I was doing some crazy ass dance swaying back and fourth with my arms in the sky trying to get my god damn umbrella under control! In the end it was causing me more hassle than help so I threw it in the bin. By this point, I now looked like a drowned rat, stepped in about 10 puddles and quite frankly, couldn’t wait to get what I came for and go home! And, I hadn’t even entered one shop yet!  

Gothic, punky, trendy, highstreet, expensive and budget, you name it, it’s all here in Camden. I’m awful at choosing things for my sister because she likes funky (and sometimes weird) things that only she could pull off. Having walked up and down the highstreet, in and out of the markets about twenty times whilst being surrounded by extreme temptation along the way, I’m talking donuts, waffles, Chinese, Mexican, Indian, Italian, all types of food imaginable, I suddenly found myself lost within the market. You enter one door and it’s like you’ve entered into a new world- I felt like Alice in Wonderland! Every part is different, giving you a new experience, a lot of the items on the stools are from all parts of the world. I found myself imagining that I could quite easily be in Mumbai! Or other places for that matter! 

Looking at the time, I quickly snapped myself out of it and carried on trying to find the perfect gift. In the end. I went into one of my favorite shops, Lily, and bought a beautiful crème vintage looking jacket that I spotted at the very beginning!

I started my shopping trip for this gift hoping it would be quick, relaxing and kept on budget. Four hours later, stressed to the max and down £50 I was on my way home.