Fresh air

A trip to take advantage of the Superdrug Olay offer yesterday. As it was a glorious day and one for strolling it was of course sensible shoe day....



I hop on the bus and as we travel along a middle aged french woman gets on and sits next to me. She turns and says.... excuse me madame could you open the window. MADAME ! How fabulous is that!
So we eventually arrive at Oxford Street and off at Primark. Its about 9.30 and Primark is already busy, outside on the pavement sits two Arab women and they have already accumulated seven full sized Primark bags! I was looking for their nail kits but am waylaid by the arrival of their basketball boots in a myriad of colours, a mere £7 and £6 for the plimsole variety. Definitely one for a return visit. It all starts to get manic so I leave. I just cannot bear all the pushing and shoving and the lack of space to examine clothes, not that they had anything that took my eye anyway. I cross Oxford St and into Superdrug get what I have come for and am off again.

A stroll down Oxford Street in the sunshine and into Marks and Spencer where I espy a rather nice leopardskin print jacket in their Limited Edition and some leggings to go with it so all they would need is a nice brown or black top, mmmmm, definitely a post holiday outfit. Apart from a rather delicious dress in their Per Una Speziale range which would have very limited wearings there is nothing that really tickles my purse so into Baker Street and the civilised peace that is Selfridges.
Of course the shoe dept first, such wonderful shoes, too, too many to mention individually but of course I do linger over the Gina shoes, so shparklay !
Oooo frocks, so many fabulous frocks. As I pass the Alexander McQueen concession I am rather taken with a white shirt and skirt but a quick look at the price of the shirt makes me run a mile. Well I mean £840 for a white shirt although I am tempted as the assistant does, in her French accent greet me with "good morning madame", yes another one !
So its off the denim exclusives on the third floor, nothing new unfortunately although Primark have changed their range and not for the better either although I do have a little banter with one assistant on the Hudson jeans concession as I stroke a pair of jeans. If you need any assistance just ask she says, Oh I will I say, if I could get these up my legs I'd have them which tickles her no end. Back on the ground floor I take a look into what used to be Miss Selfridge, well it may still be. Aaaaanyway there I find an absolute darling of a frock, Ted Baker of course.



It must have been frighteningly expensive as it had no price tag and the Karen Millen concession was a revelation. So different, so modern quite unlike their shop in Brent Cross as I was to find out in the afternoon.
All too soon its time for home, we are back on week one of the diet and madam's weight loss has come to a full stop and we need to kick start the loss again.
Post lunch I'm off again, Brent Cross to pick up something from M&S for madam. Of course this means a stroll round too although of course its all autumn/winter stock now and my dears Fenicks ladies fashions have 'done a Tesco', yes the whole floor has been rearranged so to find a particular concession requires the services of Sherlock Holmes. Of course just to throw you certain concessions haven't moved, grrrrrrr!

Picture this

After a morning of picture taking we zoom off to Brent Cross to frighten the local yokels. Neither of us has any cash to flash so it's window shopping for us. Oh my we get some attention but in the main we are totally ignored. Yes ignored, silly people they don't know what they are missing. Both of us decide that its time to raise hemlines so there is plenty of leg on display :-)
People do not realise the delight they give us if they stand and stare, I always give them the full treatment. I stop and appear as though I'm looking around the shop and give them the full 360 degree view then flounce off. We have a lovely chat and a giggle with the ladies in the Phaze Eight concession in Fenwicks only to find the totally gorgeous LBD on display is not one of theirs but an Armarni at £400! I manage to find another of our friends downstairs and we have a little chat with her and her companions. Sadly I never manage to find her when I'm in male mode.
Once done I take Stephanie home and return for a couple of things I've forgotten which means I revisit dear old John Lewis, Fenwicks and M&S to stock up on their gorgeous dates, yum !
As you can see I take much better pictures than Stephanie does, both in front and behind the camera. LOL

Not quite tea at the Ritz

A day out with Stephanie. We get the bus to Oxford Street and change to another route that takes us to The Strand, through the back streets to Charles Fox. Supplies purchased we stroll through Covent Garden and take an early lunch at Pizza Express in Bow Street. Sufficiently stuffed we continue our stroll to Seven dials and into Mercer Street where Stephanie buys a pair of shoes in Poste Mistress and some concealer in Screen Face then we stroll into Soho, along Brewer Street to Regent Street on then into Bond Street. We take a look around Fenwicks who have some amazing hats and frocks. We cross and go down Conduit Street for a look round Vivienne Westwood then into Bruton Street. By now the sun is really hot and we need liquid refeshment. Where to go? I know let's push the boat out as far as it can go, Claridges. Oh yes we do. In we go and are directed to the cocktail bar and a totally delish Blood and sans Alcohol. A very pleasant hour passed we make our way home. Well if you are going to do it, do it in style.

Trying

Well the decorating has started again. Early start before the heat. Wallpaper off by 9.00am then with the sun streaming its heat... I stopped. Ceiling tomorrow and wash the paintwork, paint ceiling and woodwork Wednesday, start tiles Thursday then three girlie days, Friday and Saturday Stephanie will be here so we are off out then Sunday is Peters BBQ. So the remaining tiling will have to wait until Monday.
Popped to Brent Cross today as we needed olives as only Waitrose know how and I have a need for a long sleeve thin white cardigan. Now you would imagine that a fairly simple couple of tasks to complete but oh no. For a start Waitrose had virtulally run out of olives, well loose ones so I left there emptyhanded so that left the cardigan. Well the long and short of it I couldn't find one of those either. Well I could if I wanted to pay over £50 otherwise nothing. One or three short or 3/4 sleeve ones, long sleeve heavy ones but not the sort I wanted. I trooped round John Lewis, M&S, Zara, Fenwicks and Gap, nothing. Bah!!!

Never satisfied

It really amuses me, if we get spotted while we are out then we are disappointed and then if we aren't spotted we are just as disappointed !
A trip to Brent Cross today and I got hardly a look let alone clocked. The nice assistant in Fenwicks who knows me said I was looking lovely which pleased me no end.
So many nice frocks in the sales including a couple of Ted Baker's which I've had my eye on for quite some time but no, not worth it, still a few more pounds to go before I can buy anything new and anyway there are so many frocks I already have that will be wearable once more. My main problem is wardrobe space. Buy another I hear you say , well I could but I have nowhere to put it. If only you knew how much wardrobe space we have and its all rammed tight. So tight that things get lost in there. Well you know how it is, you have so much stuff you can't remember every single item, you extricate something and it reveals something you have completely forgotten you had, so you rearrange everything and stuff that gets put to the back gets forgotten and the whole cycle starts again.

A trip

A trip to Brent Cross today, no reason in particular which of course means unexpected spending. A visit to the Kurt Geiger shop and their sale results in Madame exiting with a pair of loafers, very tasteful. A little treat, a coffee in Starbucks, ooo that was nice. We take a stroll around Fenwicks, a few nice frocks, very nice but as we are on a diet it would be waste of money. I need some eyeshadow so we pop into Boots and I exit with a couple of Revlon palettes, a selection of browns and a selection of greens.

It is so nice to be able to discuss these things with someone, even better when it is your significant other. What with my appauling colour eyesight it does make my life rather difficult. I can see colour but someone with good or perfect colour vision could convince me virtually anything is not the colour I am seeing. Many colours I just do not know what they are, I know there is a colour but what it actually is, is a different matter entirely. Of course I am certain that many of the assistants know that it is for me and not my partner but as I say I am proud of what I am, I see no shame in it whatsoever.

We stroll into John Lewis, again lovely frocks but of course a waste of money if I manage to slim down a size or two.

Not thirteen just one

Dear Ted,
Mr Baker why is it that I enter your concession emporium in Fenwicks Brent Cross and find a lovely frock with mark you, a matching handbag and then fail to find it on your website? This is not the first time this has occurred. Now I know that there are many places that list more on their websites than they have in their shop, I can see the reasoning, I can see the financial implications and the issues of space but why have something in a shop you cannot buy online? To the best of my knowledge, and believe me I look almost everytime I go out, these items are not old stock.
It is also a shame that you have another rather large outlet that disposes of old stock at Bicester whose stock you hide from view on your website?
yours etc, etc

Two wanderings

Off we go this a.m. to the Hill Gardens. Weather forecast was not auspicious and proved correct. Still we got a few pictures done before it started to spit with rain and we retreated homeward. It seemed that half-terms have started so a few children about but nothing to bother us. Aaaanyway we had lunch then took ourselves off to Brent Cross. Oh my it was sooo busy but again no problem for us. So many nice frocks. Heard as two women passed us in Fenwicks, "was that two men?". Well that's an improvement, she wasn't sure. LOL

Popped into Curry's, not that I'd ever actually buy anything in there but I wanted to get my mucky paws on a Nikon D5100 as I thought it might be too small. The trusty old D90 is coming to the end of its useful life. It was a shame that they didn't have a D5200 to try. I would go for the D7000 but it is even heavier than the D90 and that is one reason I don't carry it everywhere. I was not that impressed with the speed of its focusing but then that is down to the lens it had not the body and I'd only be buying the body.

Bargain !

Sooo lovelies I was after a nice pair of flats, shoes that is. A totally delish pair on the Kurt Geiger site a mere £120. Well a trip to Brent Cross drew a blank. Not in the Kurt Geiger shop, not in Fenwicks, not in John Lewis. So do I order them online. I don't really like buying online unless I have to. So I have another look and I see a similar pair, on sale, £120 down to...... £29!!! Ordered them, tooo right my dears.

Spend

I really shouldn't be allowed out with money. A trip to Brent Cross to spend a voucher still begging to be spent from Christmas would you believe. So first into M&S for breakfast then into Fenwicks and the Mac concession for some Lady Danger lippy and sponges. Dive into Boots for a Rimmel Jet Black eyebrow pencil and under a tenner spent. What I shouldn't have done was go into Zara. I only went in to look and came out with a necklace for £25.99 or £26 as I call it. Had a lovely camp chat with a young lady in the queue to pay who I convinced to go and buy a necklace :-)