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....

 

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.