Oxford Bags

Off we set, not quite the crack of dawn but decidedly chilly and off at Paddington Station.....

...for our trip to Oxford. It was rather cool there too, my, oh my was it cool. Aaaanyway we meet up with Stephanies friends and go for a stroll then onto lunch with my 25% discount voucher!


Suitably refreshed and warmed through we head out into the winter wind to find a shop where one of our companions needs to get some hair dye and I am relieved of money for some fuschia flesh tunnels. Out into the cold again and we wind our way through the alleyways of Oxford, taking in the

Bodlian Library along the way to one of the pubs frequented by Inspector Morse, the Turf Tavern.

Our friends have to leave us as they are the mercy of country buses and we take ourselves to the station to return homeward only to find that at this point the sun decides to make an appearance!

By the time we are back we are firmly in the rush hour. Oh the joy, oh the delight. I've forgotten how entertaining it all is..... NOT.

Sunday treat

Well off we went to the launch of the What Katie Did Spring/Summer collection, gin cocktails and delish cup cakes yum and two stripteasers!



So good to catch up with Katie, its been soooo long since we have seen her. Had a look at the Bernie Dexter frocks rather scrumptious.

Of course we had to negotiate the traffic mahem that is Kilburn but apeart from that a fairly good zoom through.

Monday - Tuesday

Another two days of here there an everywhere. Monday sees us bussing it up to the West-End and onto the British Museum. I know two culture vultures out and about, again! We wander in wonderment. We really should plan our visits to these places. We purchase maps and floor plans but do we follow a plan? Of course not. Its feet ache that drives us out. We really need to do this properly, wear silly shoes going there, change to flats whilst we are there and then back into silly shoes when we leave! Ah well lesson learnt. Suitably shod we wander along New oxford St and take a late lunch in Pret. Re-energised we pop into Primark and get ourselves bargain cardigans and wander off up Oxford Street. As we get to Great Portland Street we make a diversion up to Mortimer Street to a shop filled with sparkles and glitter. Frocks and outfits covered in sequins and glitter, we ring the bell and venture in. An Aladins cave, so much to tempt us and I'm driven to enquire of prices. Not bad actually considering. we take our leave with intentions of returning with the necessary money :-) Not satisfied with all this walking we continue on foot to John Lewis to gather provisions for dinner and then walk all the way to Cumberland Place to get the bus home and by the time we get back its gone 5.000 pm ! Where does the time go? Tuesday is a photo morning and a Brent Cross afternoon. A stroll around the shops, oh for the money to buy everything that takes our eye, so many frocks, so many shoes. It never crosses our minds of what we do and where we go, not until it all sadly comes to an end. We are so lucky we can do what we do.

Culture Vulture

Well off we went again, the promise of cold but fine weather we set out. Fat chance! The rain that is supposed to arrive tomorrow has decided to turn up early. Ah well. Off we trot with very little idea how to get there, well the first part of the journey we know by heart, Oxford Street but after that.... Aaaaanyway consulting a map at one those touristy bus type thingies a nice man tells us which bus to get. Oh dear, Park Lane and the myriad of bus routes. The indicator board says our bus is the 11th one and will be here in........ 4 minutes.

Our bus is fairly disconcerting, it appears to cut out everytime it stops. Oh no it doesn't, its one of those new fangled hybrid ones, quite a comfy ride too. Aaaanyway I digress, Hyde Park Corner negotiated its down Knightsbridge and Brompton Road and we are there, the Victoria and Albert Museum.

My goodness its has been absolutely ages since I've been, so different. Well we wander, hither and thither, mindless ambling amongst pure wonderment. Paintings, sculpture, jewellery, oh the jewellery, the jewellery. We smell food, overbrimming with culture hunger drives us forth but what is this? Exhibition Road, its no longer a....... road? Since when? And what is this lump on the side of the Natural History Museum, not seen that before. After last week at the National Gallery with attendants shooing away people with cameras I am gobsmacked by the amount of picture taking and no one complaining!

Well by the time we leave the V&A is getting rather crowded so we hop a bus back to Oxford Street and wind up in Pizza Express near dear old aunty, eventually getting home at nearly five o'clock.

Sunday sees a few pictures being done then a trip to dear old Brent Cross. Oh my its Sunday and its raining which means lots and lots of people and we get clocked all over the place. No problems but boy do we get clocked. LOL Oh we love it ! Its the pubescent girls that can prove a problem but no, wild amusement of course but that is it. I can see many a 'girl' being put off by the attention but not us. A sweet smile and just 'keep calm and carry on' is our motto. I did feel sorry for one guy though, shock filled his face and just as he was about to tell his companions I caught his eye and smiled. Bwhahahahahahaha that made him run away. I must admit though we did rather over do it. We usually are quite reserved clotheswise when shopping but yeaterday, well not to put too fine a point it.. we were not. A short frock with broard red and white stripes is not blending in and neither were those shoes Stephanie, tee hee.

How nice, how very nice

Well how very nice the last two days have been. Thursday off we set, Stephanie and I, to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. A totally delightful few hours soaking up the culture. Herds of little school gnomes in their conga lines dashing here and there with their escorts desperate not to lose any on the way.

How many times do we get 'spotted'? Oh loads and we love it. We usually find its not so much disapproval as shock. The OMG its a bloke in a frock. This is usually followed by fascination. It is so amusing to us to see how obvious people are, the nudging of their companion to look, the whispering. Sorry folks but you might as well shout, it is that obvious to us.
Brimming over with culture we decise its is lunchtime. Aaaaanyway finding the restaurant in the National is as expensive as we imagined we stroll up Charing Cross Road towards Leicester Square in search of lunch. After dismissing one eatery who offered us a measly £1 off their overpriced fare we were seduced into another by a rather attractive young lady. Suitably refreshed we returned to take in the National Portrait Gallery spending even longer in there, in fact we find that by the time we weave our way back to Charing Cross Station its four o'clock!

Friday see us trolling around Brent Cross frightening the locals. The assistant in Hobbs rather likes my new yellow jacket and we have a lovely chat with two lady assistants in Fenwicks about Monet jewellery and where I got the jacket! How lovely it is to have these chats, perfectly ordinary girlie chats about girlie things, wonderful. Then off to Waitrose for stuff for dinner where again we seem to draw attention while we are waiting to pay and again the jacket draws an appreciative comment fro the lady on the 'till. I love yellow she says, its my favourite colour, just like summer. I would dearly love to know what is going through their minds, men in the main seem afraid that it might be catching or they might be seen to be looking while women are more... fascinated. Fascinated about what I have no idea. Is it us? Is it because we are out and about? Is it because we treat it as 'normal' and do not shy away from the staring and attention? Ooooo I'd love to know.