Well Bloggers, it's time for another purse story. I got this one in Tallinn, Estonia around a year or two ago. Isn't it adorable? I've used it a lot in the past couple of weeks. It's really tiny, just big enough to hold a wallet, a set of keys and a cell phone. It's perfect in the summer if you're wearing a dress or shorts and haven't got pockets - it's like a portable pocket.
It looks like it might have been made out of an old pair of jeans, but this is a purse that I bought. It's FCUK. And for those of you who are not fashion-concious, that's "French Connection UK" (and not a dirty word!)
I got this purse on a trip to Tallinn with a bunch of colleagues. We had kind of an adventure on that trip, but not such a nice one. My friend and I were walking from downtown Tallinn back to the boat that would take us back to Helsinki. We took a wrong turn somewhere and found ourselves on an isolated street - but in the middle of the day.
We were walking along, talking happily. I was walking a few paces ahead of my friend, when I heard her scream. For some reason, I immediately knew what had happened; somebody was stealing her purse. The next thing I know, a man dashed past me and started running. Without thinking, I dashed after him. I thought that he had my friend's purse and my only thought was to get it back. He saw me come after him and I saw the look in his eyes, and I could swear he was afraid of me! He was tall and skinny, maybe 30 or so. But then I noticed that he was empty-handed; my friend has quick reflexes and she had held onto her purse for dear life. The guy had pulled so hard that the shoulder strap was partly torn, but he couldn't tear the purse out of her hands. In the next couple of seconds, the guy ran over to a wall - higher than him - and somehow jumped over it and was gone. If he had gotten that purse, we never would've seen it again. It had my friend's wallet and passport in it.
So we were lucky in many ways. We didn't get hurt and didn't lose anything. But I learnt that I'm a bit too brave for my own good sometimes. It's great to not have a "victim mentality", because it means that you perhaps get attacked less, but in some cases it's better to lose your purse than to lose your life! But I acted on instinct, I didn't have time to think anything.
I often think that it might be a good idea to take a self-defense class or martial arts or something to help me defend myself, but I've never gotten around to it. But nothing bad has ever happened to me. I've been attacked a couple of times, but have never gotten hurt.
It's a terrible world where women have to think such thoughts. It's always been that way; women have never been safe. The world seems to be divided into the men who want to hurt us and those that want to protect us. The trick is in being able to tell which ones are which. That's why they say that the most important thing is to trust your instincts: if you have a bad feeling about someone, you should listen to that hunch.
One should listen to one's hunches more in general. The truth is that we always know what's best for us, if we only take the time to listen to our inner voice and then believe what it tells us. We sometimes think that we don't know what we want, but we usually do know. I studied NLP several years ago, and there we learnt that if someone says that they don't know what they want, you can ask: "Well, if you did know what you wanted, what would it be?" The amazing thing is, most people can answer that question easily! ;-)
Pink Lady, wishing you health and happiness!
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