We always do a bit of shopping when we are in the UK to buy things that we either know we cannot get in Egypt, or we know are really expensive in Egypt. Our list usually consists of clothes, maybe shoes, beer kits (!), toiletries and food. Sausages and Shreddies are usually our top buys, along with Branston Pickle and favourite sweet treats like Crunchie bars and Jammy Dodgers. With the Baba Ganough on the way though things were going to be a bit different this year!
With the help of friends in Egypt we’d started to put together a list of things to buy and bring back with us – things that again would be expensive in Egypt, or just not available at all. This included some brand recommendations to look out for and covered everything from baby clothes, to medicines, sleeping, changing and feeding. This list also meant that we would need to visit a whole host of different stores including Mothercare and Babies R Us, but also JL and some online shopping.
Our list started off looking like this…. but then we typed it up ready for our big shopping trips. As we bought things we’d cross them off, but inevitably we found ourselves adding to the list as we went along once we realised that we needed other things or had other recommendations from people.
We started off pretty well and did quite a bit of shopping in the first few weeks. By the time it came to mid-July in fact we had managed to fill one of our suitcases with nappies (with space for the newborn cord), maternity pads, medicines and slings (the Dudley’s not only advised us on their best buy sling, but very kindly lent us two of their own for us to use!). The first big buy that we focused on though was the pram and the search for this started with a trip with MummyB to Lincoln’s Babies R Us, Mothercare and Mammas and Pappas.
Our pram criteria were that we wanted something that could be used from birth and something that could survive the Maadi streets (well – allow the baby to survive the Maadi streets when in it!). We started our search with a shopping trip to Lincoln with MummyB. The lady in Babies R Us was really helpful and showed us a few models straight away and helped us narrow down our choices. She kept saying “I should go and leave you to look at them” but we really wanted her advice and she really knew her stuff. We’d seen the Mothercare pram that some friends have out in Egypt and it turned out that one of the best choices was another brand’s (original) version of this, so we knew we were going in the right direction. In Mothercare they were helpful again and we saw the model that these friends have as well as another model that looked good.
Back home we decided that we really had narrowed it down to these two options and so browsed around the web to look at the various reviews and prices for them. Both were offering slightly different things and it was really hard to choose; both were travel systems which meant that they could be a buggy but could also take a car seat and both were a good price. The Trenton had good suspension, looked solidly built and had an extra carry cot which meant that the baby would be facing us when it was lying flat during the first few months. The Xtreme had inflatable tyres which cushioned on uneven surfaces and its three wheels meant it moved well and folded neatly. It seemed that the Trenton came with more gadet-try which was reassuring in a way, but we wondered whether it was all really necessary (do we need to have a carry cot and the baby facing us if we plan to use slings a lot?)
It was probably a good thing that the online offer of 20% off was due to expire at the end of the week as it meant we had to make our minds up and stop faffing around the decision. We decided to take one last trip to see both of the prams at Mothercare in London with MummyP and although we came away not much the wiser it was worthwhile to have another Mummy see them both (although we only managed to see them both because a customer was using the Xtreme herself and the store didn’t have any in stock! The assistant in Mothercare Oxford Street was less than helpful!)
In the end we plumped for the Xtreme as we felt that the three wheels would do well in Maadi, it folded slightly smaller and looked like it could continue to be used for longer. After we ordered it though, we did go online to buy spare inner tubes and a puncture repair kit! The saga of the pram didn’t quite end there as we had a right faff picking it up from Mothercare Holloway Road (they couldn’t find it in the stock room and ended up having to be phoned by head office and sending it to us in a cab!) and then of course a faff preparing it for the flight back to Cairo. We phoned EgyptAir a number of times to check that we could bring the buggy with us and that we would be allowed to bring the car seat as hand luggage – even though we would not yet have a baby to put in it! It took the Egyptair call centre a while to get their heads around all of this, but eventually we got the right answer (and when we got the ‘wrong’ answer we just phoned back until we did get the ‘right’ answer!)
Other big buys – in terms of decisions and shopping around - apart from the pram were an Ergo Baby sling (thanks Dudleys for the recommendation!), nursing bras for Ali (not easy to try and guess how big your boobs are going to be, but we gave it a go!), a fan for the buggy (needing a balance between being baby-friendly and ‘pimp-my-ride’) and various herbal teas recommended on the NCT course (which, ironically, we then found on Road 9!).
Our best buy of the break though was found in the Wimbledon Cancer Research Charity shop. It was Scotty who spotted it – a small purple draw-string bag that was in a glass cabinet and priced at 6.50 We’d been thinking about buying a TENS machine as we’d heard that pain relief options in Egypt would be an epidural or nothing. If we had been in the UK we would have probably hired one, but as this wasn’t an option we had to decide between buying one for over 60 quid, or not bothering…so finding this at 10% of the cost was a brilliant buy. We’ve had to buy new electrode covers and batteries, but it’s still a bargain. We don’t know how effective we’ll find it (some people love them, others don’t get on with them) but at least we have it and can give it a go now!
Our closing list looked like this. There are a few things we still haven’t ticked off that we will probably get in Cairo, or if we cannot find them then will ask people to bring them out for us. And we will probably need to write a new list of things we need to buy now that we are in Cairo that we didn’t even contemplate buying in the UK e.g. a change mat!
But there you go – that was our summer of shopping!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment