Chasing the (almost) impossible

My mum had to make an emergency dash to Melbourne to get a re-entry visa because she is going to England next month and is still a British National (even though she has lived here a long time!).

When Nanna Leah comes to visit she ALWAYS brings presents for the kids. This time my mother wanted to buy the girls something called a zhu zhu pet. I had never even heard of these toys until yesterday morning.

My mum had been telling me how popular these toys were and that they sold out quickly and were hard to get but I didn't believe that we would have this problem in Melbourne. How wrong I was!

We popped in to the huge Big W in the city but they were all out of stock and not sure when they would get more in. I picked up something else that I thought the girls would like but mum suggested we try another store on our way home.

I was thinking of heading to Eastland but decided Doncaster might be better. We walked in to Big W and there was ONE zhu zhu guinea pig. It wasn't really a very cute one but it was a zhu zhu pet. This lead us to believe that more were available. I knew we had another Big W at Eastland and I called them to hold one for me but they were out and they advised that we would be hard pressed to get one as even the manufacturer was out of stock!

Isn't it just the way that we always want what we can't have? Just when my mum had decided we would have to settle on something else I felt something inside me click in to overdrive and the desire to purchase these toys (well, mum purchase them!) became greater than good reason!

I then started to call toy stores or stores that sold toys and the story was always the same - out of stock. After about 12 phone calls (really not kidding - I checked my phone log!) I was almost ready to give up but I spotted the sign for Croydon and decided to call one last toy store.

Imagine how surprised we were to find they had two in stock? And not just two in stock but two pretty ones in stock, one pink and one yellow. We told them to hold them and zoomed off to collect them with great joy!

It turned out that this store was also out of stock but a lone box had been misplaced in the store room and only recently discovered and these were the last two in the lost box.

When we came home and gave the toys to the girls we expected them to REALLY, REALLY love them because of all the effort we had gone to buy them. We were not disappointed and I can see exactly why they are sold out and so popular. The girls love them.