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.

A lush day out

So Tuesday I decide I need more photographs for backgrounds so off I troll to Covent Garden, nice summery frock and away I go. My goodness it is deserted, admittedly it is only 10 'ish but where is everybody? I troll round for about an hour and a half and wander over to Leicester Square for a sit down and watch the kids playing in the fountains. Its wonderful to watch their delight trying to escape getting wet until of course they get a little damp then it is a case of 'oh well in for a penny in for a pound' and they get themselves soaked on purpose. By now those fabulously comfortable Gabor sandals have raised a blister on my left big toe so its down to The Strand and into Superdrug for a plaster. I must have either got something trapped in there or as I found later a tiny bit of extra thread. Aaaanway as we all know once it gets bad enough to feel its too late. Freshly plastered I wander back to Charing Cross Road and think I'll be a bit naughty and dive into Byron's for lunch, a blue cheeseburger, fries and one of their vanilla shakes. Hardly any customers results in me getting far more attention than I deserve ;-).
Repast finished I'm off. Down to Charing Cross and catch a bus up to Oxford Street and a wander round Selfridges. As I'm examining a rather nice frock in Karen Millen I am accosted by a rather pretty young assistant and we get chatting about tattoo's and of course once she see the leg she just has to call over a rather nice young man. Go on show him she says to me. I don't flash my legs to any man you know I say. Well he says I noticed your legs just now, ooo sooo cheeky. So of course up comes the hem, well it would be rude not to. I take my leave and have a wander. A tour of the shoe department then up on the third floor where I see the most fabulous frock in Reiss, one that gets filed away for future reference. A tour of the designer fashion dept on the second floor results in me being accosted again. Goodness knows what label they were selling, very wierd and wonderful and black, we have a little chat and she says to me how she loves my necklace and asks where I got it. Zara I reply. No she says, well it must be the way your wear it. Now that is what I call a compliment !

Of course most of us have 'something' that calls attention to us, we may be tall, short, fat or thin but these things are with us all the time and we tend to forget them. So when I analyse what it is that causes people to stop and look I cannot say what it is. Of course I am a bloke in a frock but is that always why? I'm not exaclty in the first flush of youth but refuse be dowdy. I have tattoo's and in this weather they are plain for all to see. I have a tan that cannot be called anything else than dark so little wonder I get looked at and lets face it that is the name of my game. I don't want to hide in corners.

So there madame and I are wandering the west end the other day, a visit to Selfridges to show her the frocks in Karen Millen and Reiss and then down to dear old John Lewis for some haberdashery when she wants to pop over to Collectif in Spitalfields. So off we go. As we turn from Bishopsgate into Brushfield Street a slender young tall girl comes out of a building. It is obvious to me she is female even though she wearing a white shirt, tight black jeans and a rather nice pair of cream brogue shoes. I point out the shoes to madame as she has a panchant for them. When we have passed madame says to me, she was very male looking. Really I say. Very androgynyous she says, just like people think you look female.

Tuesday, Wednesday

Tuesday sees Stephanie and I off out and about. No photo's this week. A little snack in M&S and off to Selfridges, a peruse of the Lulu Guinness handbags, Karen Millen and Ted Baker and into Oxford Street and a bus down to Oxford Circus, cut through into Great Marlborough Street and into Liberties. I haven't been there for simply ages. It was the programme on Channel 4 that reminded me. Aaaaanyway we peruse the ground floor then the first and second floors which while interesting didn't exactly fill us with desire.
We depart and go to John Lewis for a wander and meet up with madame in the shoe department. A little chat and we part company Stephanie and I intending to be very brave and go to Primark which we know will be sooo rammed but when we arrive we change our mind and its homeward bound, the remains of Stephanie's cold getting the better of her.
Wednesday and we are off to Westfield at White City, madame and our daughter have already departed to Westfield at Stratford. We arrive and have a quick snack in M&S then wander. We find a lovely assistant in Dior and we both ooze over a fabulous red day frock at a mere £2,500. Miu-Miu have a wonderful black coat but knowing how far it will be out of my price range I don't bother to enquire. We take a light lunch on Byron's and get our usual chatty waiter. We take out leave around 3.30 which puts us just ahead of school chucking out time. As we exit the station I hear... oh no not you, it is madame and daughter who have arrived back from the opposite direction at the same time !

Fed up with it

Off out again to Oxford Street and Primarni. No not buying, returning. Madam takes her and my stuff back while I peruse the shoes. By the time she has finished she finds me trying on a pair of white wedge heeled basketball type boots. Quite cute but too high for me. Definitely not for wearing for long periods and deffo not for the amount of walking I do.
We exit money intact and stroll down to M&S. Two more pairs of their knickers in a 12 primarily for the hols.
We leave there but as its before 9.30 Selfridges is shut. So we take coffee and a bun in Starbucks in North Audley St where it first happens. Madam gets the coffee and we await our munchies. As they are delivered its with.... Sorry to keep you waiting ladies. Tee hee goodness I'm passing in male mode again.
Hunger and thirst satisfied we go into Selfridges and I find the price of that Ted Baker deliciousness, £1500 mmmm a little out of my league by about £1400 :-)
We amble on stopping at Karen Millen and while we are perusing an assistant comes up from behind me and says to us both.... do you need any help ladies. So it happens again! I wouldn't mind but bleached hair or not with hair this short you can see the bald bit !!! Aaaaanyway she strolls off and madam says she is fed up with this keep happening, I of course revel in it. I do however say that it is far better for us to be referred to as ladies than to have someone say can I help you two gentlemen which makes her smile no end.

Sometimes

Sometimes I wonder how I do it. All this gadding about here there and everywhere at my age. Brent Cross today, all the best shops. L.K. Bennett, Karen Millen, Hobbs, Reiss, Fenwicks, John Lewis. Everyone is so nice to us, conversations, hello's goodbyes, its wonderful. I even get asked if I want to help Stephanie when she tries on a frock in Monsoon, most unexpected. Oh we could have spent an absolute fortune. Beautiful frocks begging us to buy them, shoes to die for. The total delight of course had to be THE most beautiful assistant in MAC. There are pretty girls, lovely girls and there are the rare ones that the only response can be a sharp intake of breath.