Love at first sight

Yesterday my mum came to visit and we went to two of the few vintage stores the city has to offer. In the first one we called at, we had to listen for about 10 minutes to the saleswoman - who was beyond tipsy - rambling on about how ethical real fur actually was. All this because I winced when she mentioned the hat I was looking at was made of real fur. Maybe I should have added that my concern was not only ethical but also practical, but I just wanted to end this burbling of hers as soon as possible, especially as it was very hard to remain unflinching and refrain from laughing when she kept mispronouncing words and so on, all this accompanied with richly-scented breath. My mum and I tried not to exchange looks for fear of bursting out laughing. In the meantime, my mum made a few attempts at taking the conversation onto a different track with a couple of "oh, look at this nice handbag" thrown away here and there, but the fuddled yet congenial saleswoman kept on. When she eventually stopped talking, we had to leave and laugh it out, even though the boxy shop had some cute cintage designer pieces we didn't have time to examine thoroughly (because thrifting is all about thorough, scientific examination indeed!)

In the second, hippier store, my mum was fascinated with the very 80's looking (because they were) fairisle sweaters and at the back of the shop, I literally squealed when I saw this adorable handbag made of thick embroidered tapestry. It was love at first sight. I didn't even go through the usual questions "do I really need it?" and so on, it had to be mine and all this customary reasoning seemed useless and completely irrelevant!