Let's go to the Mall! Today!

 Today, Thursday, was our last day of vacation here in the UK. We'll probably do a little wrap up post tomorrow while stuck in the Orlando airport waiting out our layover. For this blog though, let us recount the exciting day we had!

We went to the mall! The Trafford Centre is a HUGE mall, definitely one of those destination malls. There's a really cute Pokemon scavenger hunt going on for a few weeks and there were children EVERYWHERE! We figured we would grab a scavenger hunt sheet and look around at what they had but hoo boy, the line was like something out of Disney World! We decided it was not worth it as they had the various Pokemans installed around the usual, flamboyant décor of this mall.

I had two goals in mind: a souvenir for Mom and something from the SuperDry store. I kept seeing men with the Asahi SuperDry logo on their shirts and I'm like, "Have all these people been to Japan?", but it seems there is a store here in the UK called SuperDry which was inspired by the creator's trip to Japan. I bought a tee shirt from there because I am too poor and schlubby for anything else in there.

There was another shop called Kenji which had really cute Japanese, kawaii critters, but I was able to resist their draw. Even though there was a really cute ceramic sheep in a sweater that was a hanging bell/wind chime. Where was I gonna put that? That was my mantra so that I could escape empty handed. 

What this mantra doesn't work on is tee shirts apparently. Because I am going to always have a body to put a tee shirt on. And there was a music store with a whole bunch of band tee shirts for sale so I bought me a Bowie and a S.O.A.D. tee.

We had lunch at the Sushi Yo! in the mall where they were painfully understaffed and we witnessed their manager come in, make placating words at the impatient customers, yell at some of his employees in front of us customers, and then put on his coat and leave. What an ass. So we were patient, we tipped well, and we thanked our waitress profusely for her hard work when we left. SMH. I know it's bad over at home, but I feel like we've been seeing evidence of work shortages [Jeff Edit: Maybe they should offer more money to their existing employees, as well as increasing starting wages for the folks they're hoping to hire.] more here in the UK with stores closing earlier than listed, wait times being longer, being able to count the number of employees running a store on one hand, or stores that Google says should be open not even being open at all that day with a taped note of apology on the window.

Anyway!

This mall is HUGE, but nothing that we couldn't really get at home. Or all chain stores. If I'm gonna get my Mom a souvenir it's gotta be special! So we decided we'd walked and seen most of the mall, and Jeff and I went back to our neck of Manchester for the Manchester Craft and Design Centre. Small but a wonderful building for artists and crafters to set up shop. That's where I found her the perfect souvenir! :)

Small enough that I could explore the whole place while Jeff waited for the person who was in the bathroom FOREVER. Some say he's still waiting to this day.

Jeff and I went back to our hotel room as it was a little before 5:00 and there was a Manchester United game playing that night and we wanted to get away from the crowds that were starting to build and before the trams got too crowded and crazy.

And then we played the packing game where you swear you're bringing back the same amount of clothes and stuff but it doesn't want to fit the same. Then you have to find room for souvenirs on top of that! We've been doing pretty well making sure to only buy stuff that is small, but I am toeing the line with my little Christmas pyramid and ornaments I have bought. It'll fit in my personal item bag! Fingers crossed security doesn't want to unpack it all and swab it or some shit like that asshole at ORD who has forever made me hate Chicago.

Well Jeff, how are you feeling? What was your experiences for today?

Big mall go brrrrrrrr. 

Seriously, that place was colossal. And hardly any storefronts were closed. I can't imagine a mall like this in America, because all of our malls are falling apart due to predatory landlord shenanigans. 

Tonight's dinner was deep-fried everything, of which Angie ate very little because she is a sensible person and I am a trash goblin. 

On the whole, I think the vacation went pretty well. Now, to go back to not drinking soda like I'd been doing for a while before this vacation happened. 

Let's do a travel~!