Shopping for the fac

One of the most wonderful things about the kids no longer being in school is no more listes de fournitures scolaires. Oh, how those things tried your patience. Teachers specified different sizes of graph squares, different sizes of book and some specified what colour the book should be covered with. We would wander hopelessly hunting for that last elusive size of book, or for the bizarre indispensable whatnot whose name we did not recognise...

But that was then! This is now!

So today found us wandering hopelessly round the bag shops of Bordeaux looking for a bag for Catrin for the fac. She needs a big bag suitable for a cultivated young lady studying to be a singer-songwriter. A fluorescent yellow puma rucksack at only 15€ really appealed to me, but not to her.In the end our choice came down to a 50€ handbag / shopping bag cross, or a REALLY NICE thick leather bag from Magellan at 150€. The expensive bag would last her life, probably. The other MIGHT last a year or two... Anyway, I think she'll go for the 50€ one.

She also could do with a better computer. The ideal would be a refurbished small macbook air - which would last about 5 years - trouble-free years in all likelihood. We don't have money for that at the moment. So I will probably pass on to her my trusty iPad mini, which will do most of what she needs, taking notes in lectures...

Then there's her piano. She needs a full-sized keyboard, and an electric piano of reasonable quality costs around 1000€. We don't have money for that at the moment, either. We can buy either a computer or a piano on instalments, and I think it will be the piano that wins.

So no liste de fournitures scolaires, but though the shopping list is shorter, the bill is heavier.

Still, we enjoyed traipsing round the shops together and celebrated by getting some fruit juice from the fruit juice bar and then impulse-buying a hammock from Decat to sling between the trees in the garden.


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