[SWEDEN] Stupid Mistake

Mistakes, actually. I've been quite the klutz and scatter-brain since shortly before I left for Sweden up until now. Here's a collection of the many bloopers I've made in the last two months:

1. I bought two packs of Gillette Sensor Excel refills to make sure I had enough to last me a few months at least. Smart plan. Would've been smarter if I bought Mach 3 refills since my razor was a Mach 3. Sheesh! To make matters worse, I only realized my mistake when I was about to shave, which meant I had already been here a few days. So my plan to save a bit of money by stocking up on razor blades fell flat on its face, and my initial expectation that razors would cost a fortune here was confirmed when I had to pay P700 for 4 refills! (I think this is about 2-3 times the price in Manila).

2. I have two pairs of running shoes at home. The older pair I've been using since my Pledge Run in 2005, and when I noticed lots of wear and tear after last year's marathon, I decided to get a new pair. I thought of bringing running shoes with me here, and I decided to bring the new ones. Of course, it totally slipped my mind that this pair (New Balance) is designed like Adidas Climacool - you know, with all those holes to allow air to come in and out of the shoe easily. Definitely not the shoes you want to have when you are running in a country where the temperature barely goes above 20 degrees, even during the summer.

3. I also bought a pair of leather shoes before I left for Europe - brown Rockports for use at work. I tried them on at Rustan's in Shangri-la mall, but the Rockport sale there (20% off on all items) was over. So I head to Rustan's Makati and see that the same pair is at 20% off. They didn't have my size though, they only had a pair that was a half-size larger. I try them on really quickly, and in the mad rush I think that they fit snugly. Of course I realized later on that I should've stuck with the correct size (Rustan's Shang had it), even if it wasn't discounted. Good thing is that at least these shoes have laces so I can just tighten the laces and the shoes won't fall off.

4. I brought only two pairs of jeans with me. So I guess you could say I was really unfortunate that when I sat down to work on my laptop in my hotel room last weekend, I heard a big RIP! My jeans ripped at the butt area! Now I only have one pair of jeans left. And I'll be damned if I buy jeans here. One the plus side, at least I was lucky enough for the jeans to rip while I was in my hotel room with no one to see it.

5. When I was purchasing winter clothes back home, I decided to just get sweaters and jackets and not to pick up any vests. In retrospect, this was a silly decision because it's quite cumbersome to wear sweaters on top of long sleeved shirts. I really should've gotten at least one.

6. I have this cerulean blue sweater that I got from Marks and Spencer which has now officially become my favorite sweater. (Okay, it's not cerulean. But it is some shade of blue hehe.) Anyway, I just got to my hotel room and I was taking it off when I hear another RIP. Damn! What the h*ll??? My favorite sweater now has a small rip in the collar area. Small enough to not be noticed but big enough for me to see it each time I look in the mirror while wearing it. I am so p*ssed off! I mean, I have a couple of other sweaters and I just had to rip my favorite one. I haven't even had my picture taken in it. Haay, oh well. That's life I guess.

Oh, and if you are ever thinking about buying those nose-hair cutting scissors in Body Shop, don't. Body Shop is a great store - no to animal testing!- but these scissors don't work. They look really nice and are stainless, but their "stainless-ness" essentially disables them from cutting anything. Waste of a whole lotta dough if you ask me!