The long tale of the Bag Hunt.

Dear Daughter,

I had a bright idea for your Christmas present – Beth needs a bag I said to myself.

She’ll never buy one for herself and since the present one was mine I might as well try again.

I went to the shops – (worth something in itself) but I didn’t know where to start. Help! I thought- I need help, I know I’ll contact Helen: she loves shopping and is good at it Beth says and she has been shopping with Beth. Next problem is to extract Helen's e-mail address without Beth realising why. I managed to come up with a fairly plausible cover story, enough to satisfy Beth at least. Address obtained I e-mailed Helen and explained that I needed help and would she be willing. She was terrific and said that she would see what she could do.

Meanwhile I went to France with Dad and there in one of the shops was the grey bag. I thought that might be the one so bought it although it didn’t fit all the rules- see later on. When I got home I had an e-mail from Helen who had got off her sick bed and spent a Sunday afternoon in Cribbs (which she said she had enjoyed) and had identified three bags that mostly fulfilled the strict criteria we had laid out:

• black, 
• with pockets, 
• roomy, 
• zips for safety, 
• shoulder strap 
• if not rucksack handles, 
• and definitely not really a handbag! 

She gave me all the reference numbers etc so I went on the Net and found them all. Unfortunately no.1 was lovely but had bad reviews about the clasp, I didn’t really like no.2 so followed up no.3. Then the fun started. Off to T’Wells I go, to have a look at said bag. Couldn’t find it anywhere – no Oasis shops in T’Wells. Then I go on the Net again and where it used to be it wasn’t anymore – at least not the black one. Then more chasing around to see if I could find the size as I was worried on a second shopping foray to find some bags were equivalent to a suitcase. This one I find, was ‘unsized’ – had they lost their ruler?

What to do?

Should I just give her the grey one – but what about Helen? Keep the grey one and search for Helen’s? Buy a ‘Day Pack’ from Millets and explain to Helen?

Decided have another go to find a supplier on the Net which proved to have the unlikely name of Bootz!!! And trust Helen on size and everything else. Oh and give Beth the grey bag in case she likes it and can cope with actually having two bags – one for school and one for ‘afters’.
Here ends the saga of the bag hunt.

Love Mum