a Sunday playing a Santa

Here comes a bunch of quickie posts just to keep everyone happy. To start with the good news – I’m getting Internet connection as a gift for Christmas, so my overindulgence in blogging is imminent! And even if I haven’t got anything substantial to write about, well just like today, I will be posting with a frightening frequency in the new coming year.
Yet today the temperatures have dropped below freezing, the Christmas is just around the corner, and I spent the entire working day gift-wrapping all sorts of ridiculous stuff that people buy for eachother. Don’t get me wrong - I love giving gifts, just not for Christmas! This time of the year people are out on a hunt for all sorts of decorative paraphernalia, and I prefer to bestow my dear ones all year round without any seasonal obligation. Gladly for now the list of those who are dear is short and practical: 3 cats, mom, dad – I can sign myself up on it too. The result follows:On Sunday I embarked on a journey to Antwerp to visit RA’s Christmas markets. Don’t mean to make it sound so epic, but that one trip felt like an odyssey – prior to getting there I spent a few hours on a broken down train, revised the entire Oneida discography from Secret Wars through to Rated O, stumbled upon the age old Les Georges Leningrad album, got through that one as well just on being thrown up from the train guts in Berchem. I did finally get to RA, and I must say, those guys did a great job! Everything looked so incredibly cosy in a mix of wooden stalls filled with Cosmic Wonder Light Source, BLESS and Vibskov goodies.

After an hour (or two) of touching and trying on all the lovely clothes I walked away with this jersey dress from Lutz. It’s actually a curious take on a t-shirt dress – just imagine two t-shirts being born partially fused together, like Siamese twins! Two sleeves on one side, one on the other, two bodies, one hole to put your head through - the marvellous monster.



the Lutz dress



the guardian beast

the DIY RA ad

One thing to mention – it may be on a contrary of what people imagined – RA is the kind of place for the incredibly laid-back and cosy shopping. If the prices could bite, you’d walk away with a limb missing, but all the sales are so down-to-earth friendly. I’m loving every experience so far. And even on realising that once upon a time I learned to mumble in British and that no one can really understand me for the first couple of minutes, I can still admit to having a lovely chat with the RA kids (all while some ageing Flemish tourists have been trying to figure out on which part of the body you are supposed to wear the BLESS hat).