First of all, apologies for the gap in my blogging! I have had a very surreal two weeks with 2 trips to the UK in one week and my eldest daughter, Carla leaving for Australia this week. I have regained my energy and am working on putting my emotional self back together at the moment! Anyway – hence the silence.

Said daughter, Carla is a travel agent and decided that we should have some quality mother and daughter bonding time before she emigrated and so booked us an overnight trip to London. We had a great two days – full of laughter, sore feet, a bit of shopping, nice food, some wine and Dirty Dancing. It was wonderful.

While on the shopping part, I visited Evans on Oxford Street where, with Carla’s encouragement I purchased me a dress (I don’t generally do dresses – this was a major event). The price tag listed the UK sterling price as £49.00. As Evans also has shops here in Ireland it also listed the euro price of (wait for it) €75! Yes – that’s right €75!

Anyway having decided to purchase I went to the till and paid with my Laser (debit) card. The assistant asked if I would like to pay in euro or sterling. “How much is it then in Euro?” I asked. €60 was the reply. Needless to say I paid in euro at the till.

But it goes to prove (again – I know this is not new news) that we are being ripped off here in Ireland by British stores. How on earth can an extra €15 on the price of a garment be justified? I am sure that our neighbours in Northern Ireland pay the same price as in London.

When I chatted about this with Carla she told me that some of her friends go into the British Stores and try on clothes for size. Then go home and buy them online as it’s cheaper! Madness – especially in the current economic climate when we need to protect Irish jobs.

I will send Evans a link to this post and seek an explanation. I will let you know of the outcome!