Markets, haggling and hats

I had my first experience of Portobello Road market today :-) me and my landlady Margie and her dog Totty headed out well wrapped up. It's great as as soon as you get to the end of my road and turn left u're not even on PR* yet but there are stalls down the street selling various random things, including a friut and veg stall where i was able to buy one onion for 10p lol. My lovely landlady bought me 'The Book Theif' which we got for £2! (It's originally worth £11)

What we mostly found on the part of PR we were on were a lot of clothes stalls. There was one stall that seemed to specilise in hats and scarfs and gloves, margie bought a couple of wicked hats and i got two scarfs :-) i love scarfs and bought another one later :-P

It was so nice today, seeing all the stalls and all the people and rummaging through piles of hats.
We saw this beautiful white wool coat that we were haggling over until i tried it on and discovered that although it looked stunning on the manekin, on me it looked like a dressing gown. Ah well.

In case anyone else had the same preconceptions as me about market stall holders, all the ones i spoke to today were lovely to me and very helpful. Margie knows a lot of the stall holders on the road near our home so i met some of them. It was nice going for a walk with a local as it did mean that i met people which i havent done yet. After all, it's not like St.Ives, you can't just strike up a conversation with people you pass on the street. Or maybe i'm wrong, maybe you can, but i havent managed it yet.

I like haggling but havent really tried it yet, i was observing margie today. Haggling isnt something i'm used to, but could come in handy.

I took Totty for a walk earlier which was really nice, but unusual for me. I'm a firm cat lover, maybe having had a less than nice experience with a dog at a young age has something to do with that, but Totty is a small curly haired dog with a nice temprement so i was fine with her. We went for a walk round the block which was nice. Passed a mosk on the way, and behind me, obviously on their way there was a woman dressed in one of those black robes that covers everything but the eyes with a younger buy who i assumed was her son. I'm definately not in st.ives any more, there are so many different religions and religious buildings here. I like it. Variety is the spice of life and definately the spice of this city. Im constantly fascintated by the difference and variety around me.

I think what im going to find hard here is asserting myself, being more bolsy than i normally am, blagging my way to cheap clothes, or a job or whatever. I think i can be too nice for my own good sometimes and put other people before me. It's the fine line between being rude, arrogant and annoying and being assertive and pro-active. Hopefully i'll stay on the right side of that line.

The Job hunt continues tomorrow, as does the exploring.

My mood continues to be happy, upbeat and optimistic :-)

xxx


*PR = Portobello Road (just in case there's any confusion)