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....

 

Buses

Off to Westfield White City yesterday with madame. The overground is out of action so we elect to go by.... bus. Big mistake. Not only do we have to wait and wait, with the bus in sight because of traffic but it takes an age. A very popular bus route that to say it goes around the houses is no exaggeration. Not only do we get traffic just about everywhere but being popular it stops at nearly every stop! Ah the delights of Willesden and Harlesden, Acton and Shepherds Bush... not. So not only is it long and drawn out it is desperately boring and frustrating. Aaaaanyway we get there, eventually and a nice day ensues, a late, late breakfast and lunch. Biggest disappointment was Reiss, the three visions of loveliness that were there last time have gone to be replaced by.... men. We pop into Aspinalls and see three totally wonderful handbags. The Hepburn which is nice, the fabulous python and the absolute favourite embossed Brook Street but just a tad out of our price range. Of course it happens again, up comes the assistant who says, can I help you ladies! That is until I turn round LOL.
Madame gets herself one of the limited edition LBD's in H&M, not a shop we usually frequent but it is rather nice.
Thankfully the trains are mended and our journey home is vastly quicker.

Ooooooo that long !

Well off out today, wedding anniversary. A mere 43 years married and 50 together.
I much prefer day outings to evening, they last much longer and you can do interesting things like shop and look at girlie things. Aaaanyway off we set for Oxford St, first stop Pret for breakfast. Madame goes off to Primark while I go to Superdrug for yet more mail varnish, a clear and a red. A wander up Marylebone High St just to check out the Cancer Research shop but nothing for us, all too small.
Back to Oxford St and John Lewis and a troll round ladies fashions and shoes then lunch in the Brassierie and a return to ladies shoes where madame get herself a pair of boots. I do see two rather nice pairs of ankle boots, the Uggs are rather special but at £195 I give them a miss as I do the Somerset at £165.
So we return home after a walk round M&S at the Pantheon where madame buys me a new jumper which will do in both modes :-)

Day 4

Off out for breakfast around nine then up to the rooftop pool for a sunbathe. It gets really hot around eleven so off comes the slap as sweat pouring out through makeup is not a good look. Not too long after we decide to go walkabout which of course means a holiday beer or two. We shuffle back to the hotel for a freshen up before departing for Dolenta's mothers for paella.



We grab a cab and are there in a few minutes. A long late lunch ensues and we take our leave about six. Madame and I decide not to venture for the evening and collapse exhauasted after I have had an evening stroll.

Day 3

Beach day wooohoo! Breakfast at our now usual haunt but just Madame and I. Back at the hotel Steph, madame and I get a taxi and off we go to a non touristy beach down the coast at Cala Comtesa.



Its the Primarni playsuit and black swimming costume today so its tattoos out again. Once on the beach its off with the playsuit, grab a couple of sunloungers and on with the suntan cream, a little squirt here a little squirt there........ and there. Oh its wonderful passing with the crowd, hardly a look except for the ink.





Its time for a swim, goodness I haven't been swimming oooo since I can remember..........Eeeeeek lots of little fishes in a shoal and if you stand still.... they dive and nibble your feet !! This is all very well and entertaining, to a degree, until a larger one decides that it will take a chunk, well bite out of my leg.





We take lunch in a rather nice cafe and while away a couple of hours with Madame, Dolenta, Andy and Dolenta's mother. I keep getting strange looks from the older couple at the next table but after a while we all strike up a conversation and find they come from Wales!



Post evening meal Madame, Steph and I repair to the bar on the roof of the hotel.......



All in all a rather fabulous day.

Day 2

Madame is not feeling too good today due to the radical change in diet. I go for an early morning walkabout and find these fabulous shoes!......

But as we are to find out shoes in Palma are expensive! 255 Euros no less.



Steph, Andy and I go in search of a late breakfast and a long gossip. Steph has a desire to go shopping and we start in C&A of all places. Not been in one of their shops in many a long year. Aaaaanyway we find nothing and traipse around a few more with no results but Madame has joined us now.
We return to a cafe near the hotel and take a long lunch before setting off for a stroll taking in an Irish bar on the front. Again as in Kings Cross the obligatory hurling is on the multiple TV screens :-( I have to say that sport is just not my thing, at all.
Back at the hotel the three of us are shattered, all this fresh air I 'spose. Madame and I decide to go walkabout to try and find the looky-likey men that's the fake handbag guys. We find them but fussy Anna decides they are not the style she desires so we carry on our merry way winding up at a restaurant near the hotel for a lateish dinner. So that is the end of day 2.
Looks like we shall be beaching it tomorrow, mmm could be the black swimsuit could get an airing.

Delivery

Damn, popped into Primark in Bournemouth and they've had a delivery. So I exit with a zero bank balance and a super tight pair of candy stripe trousers and a super tight off the shoulder red frock, oh and some bangles for the wrists.
Most excellent lunch in Debenhams, roast pork and all the trimmings. Well I'm on holiday so the diet can go hang until we get home tomorrow. Yes we extended our stay by a day, well it seemed a shame to waste nice weather by going home.

Woo-hoo !!!!

Well I decided to do both. Pictures and go out and.... well of the five frocks that didn't used to fit.. four now do and the fifth fits but a little more weight needs to go so it looks right.
So 200 odd pictures done and me out the door by 10.30 not bad. Glorious weather so its down to Camden and a stroll round. By the time I have parked the car and walked down Chalk Farm Road I am ready to divest myself of the white cardigan and its tattoos out in my halter neck flowery frock.

It is just not possible to convey the feeling of being out en femme. Its not exciting, its not and never has been a turn on. The only way i can describe it is liberating that it feels natural to be who I wish I was and should have been.
Aaaaanyway I digress, much to my disappointment the gothic lolita japanese frocks are all still too small and always will be but it doesn't stop me looking. I did however find a nice little shop with two divine frocks. Both my favourite halter neck,one short and one more modest. It was the pattern that attracted me. Both with a white backgound and what i can only describe as very 80's type facial representations, very angular, quite delightful but a waste of time as is any purchase in the middle of a diet. Its no good buying that bit small as you never know where the weight is going to disappear from. Ah well.
I'm not sure which got more looks me or the tattoos LOL. Had a nice wander round CyberDog. Not been in there for ages, Stephanie and I never seem to venture in there mores the pity. I do wish shops that play music would put up a sign of what is playing. I'd love to have bought what was playing in CyberDog.
All too soon its homeward bound as lunch is beckoning and Camden has nothing for the diet concious. After lunch madame and I decide its sitting in the garden time so off with the frock and stockings and on with the pink swimming costume. My afternoon nana nap eludes me but no matter as the sun has got his bestest hat on and a nice breeze blows.

Only a t-girl

Only a t-girl would get up, shower, shave, makeup and dress in multitudinous outfits and take over 300 pictures, make and eat lunch and then, then mark you, then in full dress and makeup decide to grout the tiles she put up yesterday. Madness, sheer and utter madness. Well at least I took the high heels off.
Mind you a lovely surprise, with this dieting a few corsets are coming back into the fold and the odd one or two will be leaving soon as they will be too big !

Been and gone

Well that's Christmas out of the way for another year. Its all sooo tiring. Just the family round xmas and boxing day with the addition of the odd interloper, so cooking for 9 one day and 11 the next.
A trip to Brent Cross the day after boxing day, but we went early and missed all the madness and were back home by 10-10.30. I must admit my wardrobes are overflowing so the sales are a bit of a non event thankfully.
So we get a phone call……. Howard, would madam like to meet him at Tate Britain to see the Turner Prize, no she doesn't want to go. So after he'd gone I said… I should put on a frock and go, so she said why not, so I called him back and said I'd go. Didn't say it would be Ann though ;-) Bus up to Charing Cross, bus up to Tate Britain, afternoon tea and a wander round, came out of Tate Britain, walk along Millbank, over Vauxhall Bridge and into Sainsbury's, buy a couple of bottles of fizz, pick up the car and back home with H !! We never got to see the Turner prize stuff as we were gassing so much we were too late :-) Oooo lush !
Talking of afternoon tea, we were sooo underwhelmed by the Tate's offering. Well the space, considering we were in a premier establishment can only be described as dire, just like a works canteen my dears. Dear H decides he wants tea, a pot of tea. Oh we don't do pots she says only cups and if he wants a mixture of earl grey and English breakfast then he will have to pay double. We get our drinks and scones, what flavours of jam do you have? Strawberry she says, that's it. Do you have clotted cream? No. I mean what sort of afternoon tea is this? Only one sort of jam and no clotted cream :-Must be a sign of times.(
Although we didn't have that much time to look round I must say I was rather, well, underwhelmed with some of the work I saw. True the skill is quite, quite amazing but I do like to be grabbed by the throat and have an invisible arm drag me to a painting and say look at that ! And to be honest, not a lot did. But as I say one melts and goes green with envy at how a canvas, paint and brushes can be used to such amazing effect.
Lunch out yesterday, in the wilds of Hertfordshire, a girl I used to work with and her son. Well my dears I didn't realise that the last time I visited his pub I'd cause such a stir! This place was just outside Potters Bar, well I suppose they'd never seen a 'girl' like me before but supposedly there was quite a commotion after I'd left, who was that? who is it? etc. etc although that said it was all rather complimentary.
So we get home and it hits me. All that stress and work over xmas, the gadding about caught up with me and I was soooo exhausted I just had to succumb to a nana-nap for a couple of hours and manage to feel like death when I awoke.

Pubbing it

Ah well all back to normal sadly. A trip out today to see an ex work friend. An excellent pub lunch where my friends son is the chef and four hours gossiping. Ooo I love a good gossip. For a pub outside London I caused hardly a stir, indeed the staff were fabulous, not even a raised eyebrow although I wonder what was said after we left.... :-)