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 !!!!

Well done

So we have cleared out my sons old room that we were using for all our rubbish to make it into a sewing room for madame.  Of course the room now needs decorating etc. Off we went yesterday for what was ostensibly a mooch around the shops. As per breakfast in Pret, a visit to Primark for stuff for my daughter and thence to John Lewis. Lets look at the flooring says madame, OK. Of course within minutes of getting there she has selected what she likes and she is advancing on a salesperson. I did notice that this particular department is, as far as staff is concerned, quite a male preserve.

I must say they coped particularly well with me as trans, I cannot think that they get many 'ladies' in that department as customers. The guy dealing with us on a couple of occasions must have been mentally trying to recall his training as he desperately tried to find appropriate words but he did did magnificently and 'word' did not get around that there was a tranny on the loose so no visits from non-departmental staff and believe you me I can spot those in a flash.

After returning home I am struck by a thought, redecorating. Mmm better get on with it before the flooring arrives. So there I am, full makeup, dressed fem but appropriately for the task tearing out the old carpet, stripping the wallpaper and flinging it all in the skip before that disappears this week and washing the paint at about six o'clock last night.

I am constantly amazed at madame and the things we get up to, talk about where angels fear to tread, she is wonderful.

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.