Monday - Tuesday

Another two days of here there an everywhere. Monday sees us bussing it up to the West-End and onto the British Museum. I know two culture vultures out and about, again! We wander in wonderment. We really should plan our visits to these places. We purchase maps and floor plans but do we follow a plan? Of course not. Its feet ache that drives us out. We really need to do this properly, wear silly shoes going there, change to flats whilst we are there and then back into silly shoes when we leave! Ah well lesson learnt. Suitably shod we wander along New oxford St and take a late lunch in Pret. Re-energised we pop into Primark and get ourselves bargain cardigans and wander off up Oxford Street. As we get to Great Portland Street we make a diversion up to Mortimer Street to a shop filled with sparkles and glitter. Frocks and outfits covered in sequins and glitter, we ring the bell and venture in. An Aladins cave, so much to tempt us and I'm driven to enquire of prices. Not bad actually considering. we take our leave with intentions of returning with the necessary money :-) Not satisfied with all this walking we continue on foot to John Lewis to gather provisions for dinner and then walk all the way to Cumberland Place to get the bus home and by the time we get back its gone 5.000 pm ! Where does the time go? Tuesday is a photo morning and a Brent Cross afternoon. A stroll around the shops, oh for the money to buy everything that takes our eye, so many frocks, so many shoes. It never crosses our minds of what we do and where we go, not until it all sadly comes to an end. We are so lucky we can do what we do.

Culture Vulture

Well off we went again, the promise of cold but fine weather we set out. Fat chance! The rain that is supposed to arrive tomorrow has decided to turn up early. Ah well. Off we trot with very little idea how to get there, well the first part of the journey we know by heart, Oxford Street but after that.... Aaaaanyway consulting a map at one those touristy bus type thingies a nice man tells us which bus to get. Oh dear, Park Lane and the myriad of bus routes. The indicator board says our bus is the 11th one and will be here in........ 4 minutes.

Our bus is fairly disconcerting, it appears to cut out everytime it stops. Oh no it doesn't, its one of those new fangled hybrid ones, quite a comfy ride too. Aaaanyway I digress, Hyde Park Corner negotiated its down Knightsbridge and Brompton Road and we are there, the Victoria and Albert Museum.

My goodness its has been absolutely ages since I've been, so different. Well we wander, hither and thither, mindless ambling amongst pure wonderment. Paintings, sculpture, jewellery, oh the jewellery, the jewellery. We smell food, overbrimming with culture hunger drives us forth but what is this? Exhibition Road, its no longer a....... road? Since when? And what is this lump on the side of the Natural History Museum, not seen that before. After last week at the National Gallery with attendants shooing away people with cameras I am gobsmacked by the amount of picture taking and no one complaining!

Well by the time we leave the V&A is getting rather crowded so we hop a bus back to Oxford Street and wind up in Pizza Express near dear old aunty, eventually getting home at nearly five o'clock.

Sunday sees a few pictures being done then a trip to dear old Brent Cross. Oh my its Sunday and its raining which means lots and lots of people and we get clocked all over the place. No problems but boy do we get clocked. LOL Oh we love it ! Its the pubescent girls that can prove a problem but no, wild amusement of course but that is it. I can see many a 'girl' being put off by the attention but not us. A sweet smile and just 'keep calm and carry on' is our motto. I did feel sorry for one guy though, shock filled his face and just as he was about to tell his companions I caught his eye and smiled. Bwhahahahahahaha that made him run away. I must admit though we did rather over do it. We usually are quite reserved clotheswise when shopping but yeaterday, well not to put too fine a point it.. we were not. A short frock with broard red and white stripes is not blending in and neither were those shoes Stephanie, tee hee.

How nice, how very nice

Well how very nice the last two days have been. Thursday off we set, Stephanie and I, to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. A totally delightful few hours soaking up the culture. Herds of little school gnomes in their conga lines dashing here and there with their escorts desperate not to lose any on the way.

How many times do we get 'spotted'? Oh loads and we love it. We usually find its not so much disapproval as shock. The OMG its a bloke in a frock. This is usually followed by fascination. It is so amusing to us to see how obvious people are, the nudging of their companion to look, the whispering. Sorry folks but you might as well shout, it is that obvious to us.
Brimming over with culture we decise its is lunchtime. Aaaaanyway finding the restaurant in the National is as expensive as we imagined we stroll up Charing Cross Road towards Leicester Square in search of lunch. After dismissing one eatery who offered us a measly £1 off their overpriced fare we were seduced into another by a rather attractive young lady. Suitably refreshed we returned to take in the National Portrait Gallery spending even longer in there, in fact we find that by the time we weave our way back to Charing Cross Station its four o'clock!

Friday see us trolling around Brent Cross frightening the locals. The assistant in Hobbs rather likes my new yellow jacket and we have a lovely chat with two lady assistants in Fenwicks about Monet jewellery and where I got the jacket! How lovely it is to have these chats, perfectly ordinary girlie chats about girlie things, wonderful. Then off to Waitrose for stuff for dinner where again we seem to draw attention while we are waiting to pay and again the jacket draws an appreciative comment fro the lady on the 'till. I love yellow she says, its my favourite colour, just like summer. I would dearly love to know what is going through their minds, men in the main seem afraid that it might be catching or they might be seen to be looking while women are more... fascinated. Fascinated about what I have no idea. Is it us? Is it because we are out and about? Is it because we treat it as 'normal' and do not shy away from the staring and attention? Ooooo I'd love to know.

Well all that snow has been and gone. Strange isn't it how one's love affair with the prettiness of snow disappears when you have to go out in it especially when its pristine whiteness has gone. Aaaanyway a lovely trip to Westfield White city last week. We have decided that this is out favourite with Stratford being to pushy and shovey for our liking. Don't get me wrong but there is a difference between things being comfortably busy and packed, plus of course the shops are that little bit nicer. Very little was bought, just a little Olay and a foundation spreader. No not a trowel, a sponge LOL.

Upon arrival we selected a rather nice little coffee and bunnery and indulged in hot chocolate with whipped cream, mmmmm, even if the whipped cream came from a squirty can. Going along a deserted aisle we espyed a policeman, as I said to Stephanie, if this was 30 years ago we could have been arrested for this ! Talking of Stephanie she was tempted by shoes that naughty girl, black suede, although we both were in heaven after seeing a pair of suede black and gold heels in Miu-Miu but well out of our price range :-(

So a stroll round and lunch in Byron's and then suitably refreshed we take in a multitude of things we cannot afford. As I have said, I don't mind things that are far out of reach pricewise, it doesn't worry me in the slightest its the things that are just out of reach that get to me.

So my partner and I need to go up to town, off we trot. She needs some dressmaking accoutrements and I some loose powder. A nice breakfast repast in Marks and Spencer and quick stroll through Selfridges and then down to Charles Fox in Covent Garden. A nice chat with the girls about foundation and powder bought its back to Oxford Street and Morplan in Great Titchfield Street only just before we get there madame realises she hasn't bought her student discount card with her! So home we go but not before she has to have a pair of Ugg ear muffs in John Lewis!

Whoooooops !

Well you know how it is, you go out not intending to spend much and...... well after a rather fetching bright yellow jacket bought I thought that was it. I did after all have a frock to go with it but oh no. We took ourselves off and it all went horribly wrong taking into consideration the pair of Kurt Geiger shoes I had bought yesterday. Anyway that rather nice tight black and white frock in Marks and Spencer was a temptation too far. Then of course there was the fab shparklay Kurt Geiger shoes and those fold up Dune ballet pumps in their delicious pouch. Oh dear, oh dear. Still I'll have a lovely outfit for next week.

Well.....

Well 2013, how time fly's. 'Tis true, the older you get the quicker it flashes past.
No going out last night, well it's sooo expensive just to do what you would normally do and pay through the nose for the privilege, so we didn't. Did watch the fireworks though, felt a little yawn, seen it, until about half way through and then thought.... bugger I that's good innit. Still better being at home though, better view and not having to stand for hours beforehand. Getting too old for that sort of malarky I can tell you. I do wish they would learn though, close ups of fireworks don't really work, there is a hell of a lot more going on than you can see. True 'tis pretty but.... now long shots from helicopters or ground 'ish level are different, much more effective.
Well I wonder what this year will bring. More outings for sure but what does fate have in store? I'm sure if we knew we would wish we didn't.
I'm sure it happens in all walks of life but reading a friends Blog I notice even when in a minority group people attempt to take over and control. Thinking about it I suppose the smaller the minority the more likely it is to happen as there is less people to rise up against you. I suppose the worst of it is that those who need support retreat into their own world rather than confront this type of person or persons. Call it what you will the cd,tg,ts,tv world is rather small and many do need the support of others. Personally I do not. I go my own way, always have, always will. I've seen it in the fetish world, if you don't do things my way then can't call yourself whatever. Well dearies that is exactly my response, WHATEVER. Stick your opinions and attitudes where the sun doesn't shine. You might think it shines out of there but believe me......... it doesn't. What you all really need to do is get out there in the real world.
I know there are a myriad of places I cannot go because of who I am but I would rather keep my outings to daytime than have to restrict myself to only being in the company of other 'girls' and going to places that are only for 'girls' like us, every time I hear the words Brick Lane my heart sinks. Good grief give me variety.

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.