A lovely pre-birthday treat

I had a spectacular day yesterday to make up for the crappy day on Thursday - it was the beginning of my birthday week - yes not just a day, a whole week of celebrating! My friend N and I caught the train up to Manchester and spent the day in my favourite "local" shop. We started with a personal shopping experience - buying the dreaded jeans - on arrival at the personal shopping suite we were offered coffee and shown into a large mirrored room (miracle mirrors and lighting that make you look 10 years younger and a stone lighter! - I need these at home) and along one wall was a clothes rail filled with different styles and sizes of denim jeans - this is the only way to buy this must have wardrobe staple, although even in this lap of luxury we still both felt hot and exhausted when we finally settled on a pair each (mine J Brand cigarette mid rise, N's Paige boot cut - both lovely). The whole denim experience was very enlightening - we were told to buy a snug fit and wear them for a couple of hours without removing the labels - during this time the denim will give and the jeans will be a perfect comfortable fit - if this is not the case they can be returned to the store. You wash denim infrequently and never tumble dry it (I know it is probably blindingly obvious not to tumble dry expensive jeans, but when I bought a pair of Sevens and they felt too big, I thought a tumble dry might give the desired results - it didn't they are now too short but still too loose). N opened an account with the store which meant we both got 10% discount on our purchase, and it gets better, we had time for a quick lunch in the brasserie before we settled down to champagne manicures and pedicures and a spot of people watching and gossip - 2 hours and perfect toes and hands later we moved over to the Creme de la Mer counter for another spot of pampering with more champagne. Perfect.

Very Disappointing

This morning I abondoned my pile of ironing in favour of supporting my local church by attending one of their coffee mornings - it was in a lovely country house about a mile away from my home as the crow flies (about 3 miles by car or on foot) - I wish I had walked but there was a threat of rain so I took my lovely little sports number - newly cleaned, and parked it safely in the driveway of said country house. When I left an hour or so later, a friend was admiring my wheels when I noticed a huge dint and scratches in the rear bumper - bad enough but worse is the feeling that someone I may know has driven off without telling me about it. I can drive it looking like this, and I might have to - I dare not look at how much the excess is and how much my no-claims bonus will drop by! I know it is only material stuff and it is health and happiness that are important, I just wish I could get rid of this gnawing feeling in my stomach

First attempt - a wardrobe dilemma

This is not your normal "what shall I wear" dilemma - it is more like how can I get to what I want to wear through all this stuff. I am sure there are plenty of women like me who keep all their timeless purchases but seldom wear them - preferring to shop by occasion and just collect clothes - unfortunately shopping is my hobby - I really need to have a radical cull of this wardrobe/dressing room - but where to begin. What I usually do is file unworn stuff away in an old suitcase, just in case my daughter might want to resurrect it at some date in the future - this means I can go to an eighties fancy dress party at the drop of a hat, and can kit out most of the other guests too - which reminds me I am missing a floral and denim ra-ra skirt and bejewelled denim jacket with shoulder pads. I have thought of enlisting specialist services to help, but I just know I wont be allowing anyone to throw out anything that has the remotest possiblity of being the height of fashion any time in the next decade.

Perhaps I need a thorough Gok Wan treatment - less is more, but that doesn't help with the hobby!