Adelaide Pt 2: Shopping

Being miserably sick most of the time I was in Adelaide, I didn't do as much shopping as I'd expected. However, Lyndall (my daughter-in-law) and I dragged ourselves up town last Tuesday to check out Rundle Mall, and we pretty much kitted her out for winter. They've been living in the tropics for the last eight or so years, so have no winter clothes to speak of. I tried on a heap of shoes, but only bought one pair, these hidden platforms from the Shoe Shed where we stopped on the way to town:


It's a style I love, but I could never afford Louboutins and they'll not get worn much, so I thought I may as well go for the other end of the price range. These were about $60 I think - not leather, obviously.

The next day I ventured out by myself on the bus, and experienced the Adelaide O-Bahn. It's really quite impressive, I can't think why more places don't have one.

I was wanting to check out a few Japanese shops that I thought may have bento gear, so I headed off to the Victoria Square Arcade, looking for Little Tokyo. They had very little in the way of bento boxes, but a good selection of food and other bits and pieces. I bought a little pan for making tamagoyaki, some rice ball moulds, and some wee animal-headed picks.

Victoria Square Arcade merges into the Adelaide Central Market; a really great food market. There are heaps of fruit sellers …


… butchers and delis …


… great cheesemongers …


… bakeries, patisseries, fishmongers, the lot.

I bought this wonderful ciabatta Pugliese from Skala Bakery:


In the Arcade I found a few bento boxes in a shop called "Kawayii Fashion", and bought a Hello Kitty one for my elder granddaughter Emily, who is three. It has a spoon and chopsticks in the lid; she's fascinated by the chopsticks. I also found her some little gloves (which started out being "hand socks", but now socks have become "foot gloves"), which she loves even though they get in the way of her thumb-sucking.

On the way to Glenelg the next day we stopped off at "Made in Japan" in King William Rd, Hyde Park. They didn't have bento stuff either - much too up market. I impulsively bought a kimono though. It was reduced from $165 to $90 because of a mark on the front; I've since applied Resolve, and the mark is no longer.


I love the way the lining is dyed around the edges.

My only other major purchase was this pair of over-the-knee boots from Sportsgirl in Melbourne Airport on my way home!


They were a real impulse buy - I was feeling groggy from being up at 3.15am and having headcold- and change-of-altitude-induced blocked ears, and saw them on a shelf beckoning to me as I walked past. I'd tried on several similar pairs when out with Lyndall, but they were either too baggy or too narrow in the feet, and they were all just knee-high. I have an unfortunate weakness for thigh boots, so when these turned out to fit perfectly, and drew admiring comments from other customers as well, I just had to get them.