I went shopping.
That in itself does not say much, seeing as I'm not very fond of shopping and whenever I say I've been shopping I usually mean 'I went out to that-and-that shop to buy this, and then I went back home'.
But I went shopping for real this time. Window shopping, that is, because I still don't go in-and-out of shops when it's not necessary (and especially not on a Saturday afternoon when I get irritated by the amount of people in the shops). I basically walked to the Leicester city centre to check out where everything is. Unsurprisingly, the first proper shop that my instinct guided me towards was a Waterstone's; a book shop. I went for the fiction section to see whether they have Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim because it's been recommended to me by several persons on several occasions (and also because it's supposedly set at a fictionalized University of Leicester) and I'd have bought it if my eye hadn't fallen on a set of very pretty new editions of Ian Fleming's James Bond books (and I don't mean based on the film, but the actual original books). Those were 'second for half price' and again I'd have bought those... but then I saw the new Pullman, Grimm Tales.
And then I saw The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde for 12 pounds.
After buying Oscar (I did need a proper copy since my Picture of Dorian Gray is falling apart and the only other physical copy of an Oscar opus is The Importance of being Earnest - all else is on my e-reader), I went to the bank to figure out how to open an account. The bank man wanted to know how long I planned on staying in the UK, so I admitted my still-vague plan of doing something in Cultural Criminology (yes, that is a very real field) ('I might stay for a PhD.' 'In what?' 'Cultural Criminology'), which led to a discussion on very awesome crime series. The account should be fixed in about a week.
I strolled about for a bit, looking here and there, but Leicester is fairly generic in that there is a Marks & Spencer, an H&M and a Primark all close together. As always, I became adventurous and strayed from the beaten path a little to stumble onto Leicester Cathedral and the Guildhall - though both were closed. I then had to find my way back to New Walk because I was getting tired, and while doing so I came across the site here in Leicester that's currently most interesting for history and archaeology enthusiasts: the car park in which they'd found the bones of Richard III (yes, there is no scientific certainty* yet, but from a legal point of view the circumstantial evidence is clearly sufficient), the last Plantagenet King of England before the reign of the Tudors. It's been paved over now, but still... this was quite cool.
On my way home, I passed a bespectacled young Sir Knight who, together with his father, both equipped with Halloween swords and shields, was bravely fighting the infamous invisible dragons and monsters of Queens Road.
Coming home I found a slip from the porter's telling me I was to pick up a package; at the porter's office, I found the sweetest little coloured glass owl waiting for me, carrying a scroll from Anouk. A nice surprise.
It also seems I was home just in time, because it's raining now (again).
*Since scientists are never certain of anything, scientific certainty is when they say that it is unlikely to be the result of coincidence. You know, like when they have a 0.00001% certainty that these bones do NOT belong to Richard III.
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