Shopping

I went to Manchester yesterday with Lindon, Sam, Bekki, and Amy, specifically to buy some clothes for my trip. I'd have to say, I was fairly disappointed by the two Outdoor "super stores" I visited - although at The North Face the staff were particularly friendly.

I was expecting to return with bags laden with goodies from The North Face shop - but despite having a huge store, they didn't seem to have that much stuff in it. I tried on some great trousers, which were too tight in a 32 and too big in a 34 - I'm either going to have to eat more or less to make them fit :>)

Having made a decision to buy two pairs, and I asked for them in my size (32 short - I decided the diet would work best) only to be told they didn't stock them in that size. Which is a bit odd - given that I remember reading somewhere that my size is the western world average! I've just checked the web site and found that they do in fact make them in my size.

Any way - I did check out the Back Track 50 travel pack I'm thinking of getting and it looks great, and has just about everything you'd need - and may be more - which adds a little to the weight. But if I can get the packing down to a suitable size, I think that's what I'll get.

I also tried Black's - but they had nothing of interest.

So I ended up at T K Max, and bought a short sleeve Craghoppers shirt, and a long sleeve shirt that I'm going to try the dry test on. I also bought some shorts and a T Shirt from the Billabong shop.

We also went for Nando's - and as we were leaving we spotted some great signs on a shop window - all great advice: