Here we go again

Time slips by and updates get forgotten such a naughty girl. Well I'm always out and about and never get time.
We have our holiday booked for September, off to Mallorca again and the same apartment. This time we have Dolenta and Andy and Mark and Philip our friends from Brighton who we are to see in a couple of weeks.
Have had a disaster on the computer front. The hard drive on my iMac is failing, luckily I have a largeish drive so I managed to partition it and and am booting up from that, thank goodness I back stuff up. Then of all things Madame's computer failed, couldn't find the hard drive but luckily after taking it in to the Apple Shop it was just the wire connecting the drive to the main board and not the drive itself.
The week before last I managed  5 days out of six dressed which was amazing out here there and everywhere even the visits to the Apple Shop were en femme.
On the sixth we were off to the London Alternative Market but a little Billy no mates as our friends were all unable to attend but we had a lovely day and so good to catch up with Mistress Caramel.
It looks like I shall have quite of string of days to myself from Wednesday as Madame is off to her friends on Canvey Island frock making although I might get roped in spending the weekend there.

So Christmas has come and gone and the New Year is here. NYE was spent indoors I don't see why I should pay extra for something I can do any other time just because of a date. So the intervening time between the last update and this? Of course being out and about. The only sales we participated in were madame getting herself a new belt strap and buckle at Elliot Rhodes as she always does and visits to John Lewis and Liberties haberdashery departments. Madame managed to get loads of material at knockdown prices at John Lewis in particular their 150 year celebration fabric at a £1 a metre. Talking of which Liberties managed to do this......

I wonder which sort they were, Electric or Gas?

We took ourselves off to the London Alternative Market last Sunday, all prepared for our usual breakfast in Pret in St Mary Axe we found it shut! Off we trolled and found a new place on the corner of some alleyway and Bishopsgate called The Drift and very nice it was with prices comparable to Pret etc but a much, much wider choice. All sparkly and new it was with painters still painting. The staff were... a little taken aback with the pair of us, even more so when the remaining four of our party turned up.

A little trip out yesterday, a quick flit into Superdrug and Selfridges thence off to the V&A. No matter how many times I go there I always find something I haven't seen before...

Plus of course the odd self-portrait....

 

Off to the Camden Crunch last Friday, daughter on the door and son DJ'ing more like a family business. I must admit with the change in DJ's and music the numbers have gone up and there has been a marked change in the average age in a downward direction which has brought about more eye candy. We both a got some lovely comments and its so nice to be told by a young straight man that you look fabulous.
So there we are sat sitting there having lunch and I am struck by a thought.. You put on a radio and you listen, sometimes you may read at the same time, or stare into space, or even wander around but when you listen via the television I find myself looking at the screen and of course there is nothing to look at you silly bugger.
Of course we are all being flooded by images and sounds of Christmas and getting thoroughly sick of it but we are in Marks and Spencers at Marble Arch on Monday and I hear the Phil Spector version of Frosty the Snowman by the Ronettes, mmmm nice. Off we wander with madame saying she wants to go to the charity shops in Marylebone Hight Street, I relectantly go along but am glad we did. In the Cancer Research shop she goes straight to the CD's while I persuse the clothes and find a frock, oh do I find a frock. I wander up to madame and she asks if I have found anything. Well there is this frock I say and show it to her. Try it on she says so off I go. Oh my it fits and its all floaty and rather nice plus its only £18.....

John Lewis outdoes itself again with its sparkling choice of hot food (see previous post) so we go off to the pub, Bond's in Dering Street where we can get a far wider choice with two hot meals for under £12.

So yesterday I meet up with Stephanie and we trot off to Westfield at White City. She gets caught in traffic and is going to be late while I am sat sitting in Pret in Orchard Street so its off to Selfridges for a few pictures....

So I'm stood there, in front of a mirror phone in hand, as you do when a young female assistant comes up to me and says Don't worry you look fabulous, makes a circular motion over her head and says love the..... God I love my life.

I seem to be getting into a competition with myself as to just how far up my legs I can get my hemline :-)

So its off to Westfield, get the train from Marble Arch and I'm away. I get to Shepherds Bush and for some reason think I should get off at the next stop, White City. Mmmmm wrong so have to get the train back. We wander and there is just not a lot to tickle my fancy. My love affair with Ted Baker is well and truly over. It is all so been there, seen it, done it, sooo boring. Three lush frocks in Karen Millen though and a couple in Lipsy although of course their website has far more choice but I'm a have to see it in the flesh type of girl before I buy. We decide to do lunch on the cheap and go to Burger King, my goodness how drab. Mind you I wouldn't like to say how long its been since I have eaten at that type of joint and hopefully it will be that long until the next time.

Thursday

 Eeeek where does the time go. The Kings Cross fire was 28 years ago today. The day I walked from Swinton Street in Kings Cross to Gloucester Place to get home. Yep I used to catch the underground at Kings Cross to get to and from work. If I hadn't been on a late night could have been in the middle of that.

 Off out today, usual breakfast in Pret with a smile and a wave from the girlies. Post food and drink into M&S where I find a rather nice coat which Santa may bring me....

Off to Selfridges for a troll round...

 

 

 So whinge of the day. John Lewis Place to Eat Oxford St at 12.15. Your hot meal choice today was sh*t. 1/4 roast chicken or quiche, no fish, no sausages, you are crap. ‪#‎johnlewisplacetoeatcrap‬ ‪#‎johnlewisgetyourfingerout‬
 
 So wandering Radio and TV in John Lewis I find direct evidence that shopping is a taxing and tiring business...

I'm wandering through John Lewis' on my way to their christmas shop and espy desks etc. Just how can people justify paying £2,200.00 + for a computer chair. Or even the average price of £900, leather or not you are a mug.

I carry on past these highly expensive chairs and into Christmas Decorations and get myself into a conversation with a middle-aged woman on the cost and effectiveness of Christmas Trees. How I love these random conversations with strangers.

So there I am sat sitting there, on the bus, as you do when someone rings the bell for the next stop and the little light in the bus says... bus stopping. All is well so far.... Then someone else rings the bell, and another. Look you lot are you both visually and aurally impaired? Good grief it only needs one of you to do it !!!!

Culture Vulture

So Monday see me off to the British Museum, a stop over at Pret on the corner of George St for breakfast then into Selfridges. I've got madames camera today to see how it goes. I really cannot be bothered with my big camera, too much of an incumberance. Aaaanyway I get a few selfies in Selfridges, ooo poet and dont know it. The upshot is that it is difficult to keep the camera straight using it one handed but I'll just convince myself they are a bit arty-farty. It is one of things if they are slightly off it looks odd and you don't know what you are doing but if you make it a long way off it looks intentional.

So there I am on the bus trundling along Oxford St and we get to Oxford Circus, masses of people innit. It is not until much later I find it was all for the Balmain clothes at H&M, ah well. We get almost to Tottenham Court Road and the inevitable traffic comes to a standstill and some moaning Minnie who wants to get off starts having a go at the bus driver to let her off. I'm late she says. Well dear you should have left earlier then you wouldn't be would you. After a fair bit of arguing he lets her off so we can all have a bit of peace and quiet. Goodness that Tottenham Court Road is drafty so its down the side streets and into The British Museum via the rear entrance, just where I want to be.

Soon its time to go home so I wend my merry way back to Portman Street and the bus home. There I am stood standing there, as you do, waiting. My bus doesn't figure in the first 10 but not to be dishearted I've learnt that as this is the first stop on the route it could turn up any time. So there I am and I can 'feel' someone looking at me. I half turn and sure enough there is. Some bloke, eyeing me up. So as his attention is focussed on my legs I can see who can't I. Oh my! Is he a looker? Hardly. But much to my amusement I know him, well used to, a long, long time ago. We were childhood friends, he lived on the corner of my road, we went to junior school together, played football together. Yes I know but at that age I didn't know any better. Then he went off to grammar school and... I didn't.

Been having a clear out this week. The dump that was our son's room needs to be cleared as madame wants it to be a sewing room and all his stuff has been making the room damp. So skip hired we start. We are taking a breather and next thing we know a van pulls up and some guy starts nicking stuff out of the skip. Well he gets told to go forth and multiply for not asking first. It is on my property therefore it is still mine, if the skip was in the road I could understand but it isn't. He feigns no-speak-English, yes right but I bet you can speak it when you come to argue a price when you sell it.   A few days later while I am out another van arrives. According to madame a nice, polite Irish guy comes to the door and asks if he can go through the skip and take stuff. Madame says of course, help yourself and he does. See that is how you should do it.

Goodness me

Goodness gracious it been ages since I posted anything, how time flies. Well I 'spose the best way is to work backwards to a point where I can't remember.

Yesterday (Tuesday) wa a trip out. Madame was busy so I took advantage and went out myself in red and black jumper and my new black and white hairy coat, nice thick black tights for warmth with the new mini kilt which madame had made for me and the Dune suede boots. Off on the bus and off at Pret in Baker Street where I'm now well known :-) Post Pret breakfast and thanks to the traffic I managed to keep up with the 74 bus and catch it outside Selfridges and it was off to the V&A. A lovely stroll around the V&A although slight disappointment finding that while they said the cast courts had reopened there still was one part closed for refurbishment. In fact there is quite a lot in the V&A closed off because of the reconstruction work. They seem to be spending massive amounts of money on new additions while many galleries are in dire need of updating especially in the display of items. Most disappointing is the silver gallery, it is so depressing. Aaaanyway stroll finished it is off for a quick tour of Harrods. Again a part of woman's fashions under reconstruction, not my day was it. I don't know but I am quite put off by Harrods, it just seem to exist for tourists these days. Quick tour finished its on the 74 bus back to Oxford St. As we round Marble Arch we are right behind my bus and of course I miss it at the next stop so I decide a look in Selfridges only find my bus about to do its turn round so its back to the stop and five minutes later I'm homeward bound. A quick lunch and I'm off again to Brent Cross in the afternoon and coffee and a bun in John Lewis where I am getting quite well known.



The week before sees me out again, Oxford Street of course. Breakfast in Pret and then a walk round M&S then opposite into Selfridges which is quite my favourite store, its light and airy. Having window shopped thousands of pounds then its out and onward. I call into Elliot Rhodes our favourite belt shop in St Chrisopher's Place to see our friend Vlatko who has neve seen me 'dressed' and he just doesn't twig until I come up to the counter and have to out myself. His face is a picture and he holds my hands and just says fabulous, fabulous !!. Then its off to Boots by Bond Street where I get clocked by an assistant, "well hello" they say with a lovely smile, so I return the greeting and smile which seems to make his day then its off to John Lewis for a stroll round.

The week before I am out a couple of days with madame on the Paddington Bear hunt around Paddington itself and then over to the city. The other days she is gadding about I am of course out and about, including Liberty's ;-)



We are now into jumbled memories so forgive me if things get out of sequence. The week previous, around the middle of November Stephanie and I are having a professional photoshoot. I meet Stephanie in Pret feeling a little naked with little makeup on.
We arrive at the photo studio and while the girls are doing our nails and makeup I get complimented on my nails and eyelashes and then she says and we have all seen your legs !! We have a fab time only marred when they tell us how much it would be if we had all the prints, £5,120 !! Needless to say we didn't take them up on that but did spend just about all the money we had. Nicest compliment came when I got home. Madame looked at the pictures appreciatively and said she preferred the way I did my owm makeup :-)



Monday saw madame and I off to Westfield at Stratford, she is after a pair of Timberland boots that are an Office special. We have tried various Office branches without success so she settles for a different colour. Apart from some makeup that is all we manage to buy thank goodness.
Saturday it is off to The Old Crown pub in New Oxford Street for the London Fetish Scene reunion. Unusually madame doesn't seem to mind being out with me 'dressed'. We travel down to Tottenham Court Road about 2.00pm and walk down to the pub returning about 9.00 including a meal. She is pleasantly surprised that I draw no attention. My goodness prices in tourist areas are a little steep, a large Rose wine and a coke is just short of £10 !!. A fab time catching up with old friends. Quite a few turned up, well over 30 of us.
Friday was a mega window shopping day, we had gone out to get the above boots but were unsucessful. Arriving at Pret in Baker St about 9.30 am we got home around 6.30 pm totally shattered! I did however stock up on makeup.
Thursday I'm off out with Stephanie. No Sarah so take ourselves off to the British Museum for a wander then off to lunch at Pizza Express in Marylebone High St as I have a 25% off voucher then a wander around Selfridges.
Wednesday sees the return of madame who has been off to see a friend for 11 days. This of course meant I had spend the whole time dressed, a real treat. It was really nice to be out almost every day.