Shopping at Dorothy Perkins and H&M

I got to know from a friend that a (or two?) H&M store will open soon in Malaysia.
The first thing that cross my mind is what is the price range of the clothings, etc?

Let me share with you some of my shopping experience at Dorothy Perkins and H&M. I don't go shopping for myself often (shopping for my daughter is entirely a different episode :P). If I do, it's usually during sales months, like Boxing Day (starts on the next day afer Christmas going on until January), Spring Sale (around March-April) and Summer Sale (around July-August). Even then, I rarely shop for clothes.

I consider the price range for clothings at Dorothy Perkins and H&M as affordable if compared to clothings line at John Lewis, Debenhams, and Fenwick (this great store does not have an online store, what a shame!) to name a few. Even if you convert the UK prices to Malaysian Ringgit, I'd still say it is quite cheap compared to Dorothy Perkins and H&M prices in Malaysia. Dorothy Perkins for example, most of the time has a sale for two pairs of jeans at the price of 25pound. That is only RM100!!! At H&M, you can get a pair of jeans at 3pound (RM15)! YES! I am not kidding you girls, that is during summer sale!

(Just so you know, the quality of the clothings at John Lewis and Fenwick are way at the top compared to Dorothy Perkins and H&M)

There's another store which has plenty of pretty clothing lines for kids, it is called NEXT. I love love love NEXT's kids clothing; the quality, the design and the colours are fabulous! NEXT usually has about 3-4 sales lined up in a year. The sales start at 6.00a.m. in the morning and people starts queueing in front of the store around 4a.m! I know it sounds CRAZY but believe me, it is worth it. Sadly, I always miss NEXT's sales. I always got to know about it the day after the sales. So by the time I went all the good stuff has been taken. The only time I got lucky was during NEXT's recent summer sale. I somehow got to know about the sale few hours after it started. Being few hours late, I went to the store with little interest because I know there's not much option anymore. Surprisingly, there're PLENTY more. The perk of NEXT sales is that all stuff are 50% off. If you have a little girl, imagine how to stay sane and not buying beautiful dresses at half the price!

I think one of the things which I'm gonna miss when I leave UK is the sales. I know it sounds horrible but that's the truth. I don't think I can get a pair of jeans for RM15 even at pasar malam :(

Oh! Why don't I mention anything about Mark & Spencer? Well, let's just say their clothings lines (design and price wise) aren't so interesting (to my taste).

When REALITY hits!

I was cleaning up my e-mail draft when I found the following rant of mine. I wrote this quite a while ago.

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It was 5.30 in the evening. I was on my way to the toilet to clean up my coffee mug so that I have a clean mug to make coffee for tomorrow. At the landing of the staircase, I ran into Dr. Katarina, a previous ‘officemate’ of mine. She is a post-doc at our department in the university. We talked for few minutes mostly about how am I coping with work (and life!) after having a baby.

The conversation got me thinking of several things. Among others are:
· period of maternity leave
· quality time with my daughter
· bringing work back home

Most companies in the UK allows a maternity leave of 26 weeks of Ordinary Maternity Leave and 26 weeks of Additional Maternity Leave making that 52 weeks ( 1 year!) in total. It is a paid leave albeit not in full as is your salary. OK, enough about maternity leave.

I still remember my disbelief when a friend of mine who have two kids told me that she did not have time to watch any TV programme. By the way, she is working on her PhD too. I was pregnant at that time and I said,

“I’m busy too but I manage to fit in watching TV while folding my laundry.”

Now is when the reality hits me HARD.

I am a big fan of the Desperate Housewives series. I never missed an episode and I can never miss an episode. But now, it takes me like five sits to actually finish an episode. I’ve already mention it in my previous post, once I am home, my focus is my daughter until her bedtime is up. Once I put her to sleep, I am too tired to watch anything, sleeping is much more inviting.

I am pretty sure part of this is because of I am working on my PhD now. I am not one who likes to compare myself to others but I cannot help if some of my friends put up their facebook status as ‘… watching bla bla bla…” I do envy them.

I know some of you who read this up until this point will think that I am boasting. The thought “As if she’s the only one who is doing Phd” probably run through your head. Truth is I am not. This is my reality. Yours is probably different than mine, either its worse or better. I hope yours is the latter.

Bringing work back home is not something alien to me even during those days when I was still single. So when Dr. Katarina said she stayed up at night to finish her work, I totally understand that. The only difference is, I hardly stay up but I wake up early. Sometimes I do wonder how it feels to have a job where you do not have to physically bring home any work. Again I am by no means saying that my job is greater or better than others. And by no means I am whining. I am just wondering...