Direct Factory Outlet

In a desperate attempt to search for matching/suitable shoes for a ball, my friend (Felicia) and I decided to head down to Direct Factory Outlet after school to shop. I was expecting a warehouse like place selling loads of cheap clothes (like the typical warehouse sale in Singapore) but to my surprise, I saw this large shopping mall!

DFO is like a mall consisting of many small shops selling a wide variety of products, ranging from clothes to shoes to furniture to kitchen utensils to accessories/fashion jewellery to eyewear to stationery supplies. Some of the brands they carry include Roxy, Cotton on (some stuff are really cheap), Supre, Oakleys, Nine West and Diva. Think IMM.

The good thing about it is most of the products at discounted rates and thus we started shopping merrily, something we rarely do in Canberra City (Civic) because the things in Civic are generally more expensive, and the range of products isn't that fantastic.

We shopped from dawn till dusk. Haha. I was kidding. Even though we went there in bright daylight and left when the sky darkens, we were there for only 3 hours. The sky in Canberra starts turning dark at 5pm. I've no idea whether it's an Australia thing or whether it was due to the fact that the days are shorter in winter. Hmms.

We shopped from 3pm to 6pm because the shops at DFO closes at 6pm punctually. I bought quite a number of clothes because I brought very few to Australia. As a result of my father's insistence that 'there's no way I can wear summer clothes in winter', I brought 0 shorts, 2 t-shirt and loads of jeans + coat + sweater. What my father didn't know was the fact that there's heater in my hostel, lecture theatres and tutorial rooms. Thus, the room will be too hot for me to wear my coat and/or sweater and I will literally prespire. Luckily my mum and sister left behind 2 t-shirts (which they have worn to Australia) for me. Otherwise, I will have to cook and do household chores in sweater/coat.

At DFO, I found a nice pair of shorts from Cotton On for AUD 5.00 and from now on, I shall wear that instead of jeans to do household chores and cooking.



Somehow the clothes or rather the fashion sense here seems to date back to 10 years ago. It's so difficult to shop for suitable clothes here. These were the rare times when I miss Takashimaya, Ion, Far East and even neighbourhood malls like Lot 1. I couldn't even find the Hugo perfume that I usually use. Oh, and you know what? There's no Starbucks in Canberra (Read the following link for more info about why isn't there Starbucks in Australia's capital.) I miss my Caramel Macchiato!

Sometimes, I wish I was studying in Sydney or Melbourne instead.