Dundee is still considered relatively lower in terms of living cost than other cities in Scotland (cannot say the same with England, though). Or perhaps because we are here on our own funding we are very cautious about spending. Only at Errol (the biggest car boot sale at this part of Scotland) we can let ourselves offguard.
Errol has somewhat become like an epidemic for us around here, me included. Since our kindly neighbour Taufik introduced us to Errol the first Sunday we're here, we never missed it yet. In fact we are looking forawrd to it. It's like some kind of therapy on one side or just, hmmm... I'm not sure.
Well, here there is nothing much to do except going to class, library, having discussion and meeting your lecturers should you want to discuss anything further on the courses you are taking. This sem I am only taking three subjects. And that is 2 hour class each per week for each subject. In a week there are only 6 hours of class. Too little, you may asked? Well, though there are only 6 hours of class, the reading list for each subject can go as long as River Tay. At this level, one is required to be mature enough to have the responsibility of being able to study and to read all the journals and website of interest in the reading list - well, it is quite tough though!
So, Errol comes in handy as a place of therapy - here the price of each item on sale starts from 50p (last week I bought 3 Daniel Steel books - Wanderlust (Love it - read it for so many times before but still wanting to read it - that's it, after my exam ended on December 17, 2009), Secrets and Fine Things - all three for 50p. Weeks before, we bought a thick hardcover book of Thomas the Tank Engine for £1 but the seller threw a 2 or three smaller books as well, we bought 2 Thomases for £1.50 and we got two Thomas & Friends jigsaw puzzles for free. By the way, our Aqil is crazy over Thomas. And Mia, she got a dollhouse with all the accessories for £2.
Oh yes, did I tell you? It gets dark by 4.30 now. And though some days it's sunny, it is still cold and windy - though we have a playground close-by, it is too cold to be outside - so, as an alternative we let our children get the toys/books of their fancy each week to occupy their time. We can't let them be dull boys and girl can we? Even Danish and Hakim who had just arrived two weeks ago are looking forward to Errol.
Other than Errol, we made our purchases at Charity Shops - a lot of them around - St. Margarite's Hospice, British Red Cross, British Heart Foundation, Shelter, Save the Children Charity Shop and of course Oxfam. Though we bought my laptop quite expensively when we first came (well, brand new at Currys) now we know where to look for cheaper goods - none other than Dundee Gumtree - Life is quite good. But of course we frequent Tesco (their reduced item sections at the end of the day is not bad either)and Al-Noor Halal Food for our groceries, Pound Stretcher and £1 shop for things like laundry basket and the like, all-in-all it is bearable.
