A tale of two scissors

You know that saying, "you never know what you've got 'till it's gone?" That saying is about scissors.

Or at least in my case it is. My mini-project at the end of each class day is to accumulate the things on my necessities list--everything from butter knives (still have not purchased) to a cork screw (purchased today). Yes, my priorities are in order. But aside from butter knives, the one thing I cannot seem to find is scissors. They don't sell them at the numerous grocery stores near me, nor do they sell them at the adorable market just down the road from my hall. They also do not sell scissors at the pharmacy (here it's called Superdrug or the chemist).

So today, finally, a woman in the grocery store told me to get them at Paperchase, which is this posh stationary store. I got there, and EUREKA! I have found scissors! For the equivalent of 30 American dollars. They are the same, bright-orange handled scissors you have sitting in your desk drawer right now, and they cost more than my entire grocery bill for the week. I left the store indignant and scissor-less.

Aside from scissors, London is expensive but in my experience not that much more expensive than any American city. The prices of things are actually numerically lower--it's the exchange rate that gets you in the end. And perhaps this is just my ignorance, and there is a secret scissor store somewhere in London that I don't know about. In any case, I'm just going to rip things open with butter knives. As soon as I get one.