The Distancing Diairies - 4th & 5th February, 2021

 On Thursday morning after my Wii Fit workout I caught up with blog comments before joining Jon for breakfast. We'd intended to go on a heritage walk but got distracted by measuring our pupillary distance (don't ask) so decided to postpone our adventure until Friday and make do with a walk around the block instead.

We chatted to neighbours Ray & Florence, he was off for his Covid vaccine, she'd had hers two weeks previously. We bumped into an old school friend and chatted about the neighbourhood cats as he's as mad about them as we are (Of course, I don't need to tell you that we maintained social distancing at all times but I will anyway). Jon wore the Pierre Sangan 1960s all-wool jumper I'd persuaded him to snaffle from the Kinky Shed. It's perfect with the vintage cord jacket, don't you think?

Wear:Sleep:Repeat! I'm rewearing Wednesday's 1970s Anokhi jacket over a vintage Adini Indian gauzy maxi which I still can't believe I found in a charity shop for £3. 

The details: Vintage amulet pendant (Gujarat), Afghan earrings (eBay) and my old faithful Clarks' clogs boots, my go-to footwear when I'm struggling to walk (they look higher than they actually are!)

Back at home I had a phone call from Specsavers asking me to book an appointment as my glasses were ready - a second date for the calendar! I chatted to Liz on the phone, had noodles for lunch and while Jon continued with the hard drive swapover I photographed sportswear in the garden (and did a load of washing after dropping it all in a puddle) then wrapped my latest Ebay sales and read a bit more of my book.

After Jon had finished I listed my stuff on eBay and printed off my postage labels ready for Friday's post office run.

Tea with haloumi with roasted red & green peppers, shallots and potatoes accompanied with a glass of wine. 

SOURCE

The previous evening we'd finished Bullets and started It's A Sin, which is utterly magnificent and you need to watch immediately. Following a group of friends, mostly in their late teens and early twenties, who move to London in 1981 and have their lives turned upside down by HIV/AIDS, I was instantly transported to my own mispent youth.

Me in 1983

Whilst my classmates mooned over the rugby-playing lads from the boys' school and dreamt of wedding dresses, diamond clusters and the happy-ever-after I was climbing out of the window and podium dancing to Miquel Brown & Hazell Dean at Birmingham's legendary Gay super club, The Nightingale. The clientèle were a exotic mix of leather boys, drag queens and Boy George wannabes so a skinny teenage girl in 1960s dresses, fetish boots, orange eye shadow and a back-combed to buggery spiral perm barely raised an eyebrow. It made a refreshing change from being the laughing stock of the mainstream wine bars of Walsall. Although my gay boyfriends were forever calling round, doing my make-up or borrowing from my massive wardrobe of vintage clothes, my parents never found out about my secret clubbing life or that one of my mates lived in my bedroom for months after his parents disowned him for coming out. 

Bizarrely, echoing the gang of friends in It's A Sin, my best boy friends included a wannabe actor who stayed in the closet, a beautiful boy of Indian heritage and a shy Welsh lad, fresh from the valleys. This was our song. 

On Friday morning I did my final Wii Fit workout of the week, put away the sportswear I'd washed yesterday following my mishap, wrapped the overnight ebay sales and joined Jon in the kitchen for breakfast. After we'd got dressed we set off on our heritage walk walking towards the town centre via Ablewell Street, named after the Able well, where the townsfolk of Walsall got their water from back in Mediaeval times. Yes, Walsall has been a settlement since Saxon times. The town is first mentioned in texts from the early 11th century, when it was known as Walh Halh, meaning Celt's Valley.

12, Pool Street dates from 1930, a former bridle and buckle works. A two storey structure with a flat roof and iron windows, it's been a 24 hour gym for ages but obviously now closed due to Covid restrictions (much to my brother's disapointment).

The mock Tudor Royal Hotel used to be the place to go back in the day. My parents held their wedding reception in their function room in 1966 although most people crowded into the hotel lounge to watch the England Vs West Germany cup final, held on the same day. I worked behind the bar for a while in the 1980s although the mainstream clientele and chart music used to bore the pants off me (as mentioned in my teenage confessions earlier). Obviously its another place currently closed.

Nessa's! This is where the Dead Relatives Society used to meet for our annual Xmas day curry. Sadly it became a takeaway last year and the restaurant converted into a barber's shop (another business closed due to the pandemic). I haven't had a takeaway since 2019 or eaten a curry that wasn't cooked at home since 15th February, 2020 when we ate at the uber-hip Bombay Vintage in Mumbai. The building itself dates to around 1750 (the same age as Stonecroft)  and happily the first floor still bears its original sash windows and elaborate lintels.

Central Hall Methodist Church was built in 1849 but the frontage extension was added in 1929. Back in the 1990s Walsall became known as the most obese town in the UK with the media coining the phrase The Walsall Wobblies to describe a large percentage of the population. In a bid to improve the town's fitness the council and the NHS got together and offered free exercise classes to one and all. I used to go to Pilates classes here after my hip replacement every Wednesday lunchtime. Unfortunately the free fitness sessions were shelved when the Tories introduced austerity. 

Silver Knight is a purpose built early motor garage in the Art Deco style with a round corner facade dating to the 1920s. 

Amen to that!

Just off Ablewell Street in Goodall Street stands the School of Art, built in 1859 by architects GB Nichols and Morgan in the Italianate style. Shortly after moving to Walsall in 1952, my Grandma took art classes here. One of her classmates was Raymond Leslie Morris aka The Monster of Cannock Chase, who went on to murder three schoolgirls in the late 1960s.

Back in the early 1980s Boy George lived in a squat here with Sigue Sigue Sputnik frontman & Walsall boy, Martin Degville. George, dressed in a Elizabethan ruff, a tin foil suit and in full make-up, was a common sight in the town centre for several years.

Now I've explained about the correct pronunciation of Caldmore you'll find Tinie Tempest's Tweet as amusing as I do. 

Back on Ablewell Street, on the junction of Upper Rushall Street is the former Borough Arms Public House, becoming Flan O'Briens when everyone went crazy for Irish pubs in the 1990s. Built in 1903 in a free style but with an Art Nouveau accent, the ground floor is fronted with green and brown tiles and the upper floor combines brick with extensive salmon pink dressings and mouldings. The original stained and leaded glass, mullion and transom windows survive. It's gorgeous inside although it's been ages since we last called in.

Just over the road from Flan O'Brien's is Tantarra Street School (housing association flats since the late 1980s), built in 1872 in the Gothic style.

Walsall Box Company was established in the late 19th Century, the box making arm of T Kirby and Sons Limited, a printing business. The current premises in Bank Street opened in 1918 and run by the fourth generation of the family.

I love the original paintwork. 

With the sky threatening rain we finished our walk just in time and made our way home where, after Jon had done to post office run, we had noodles and took delivery of our litter collecting gear - our new job starts tomorrow!

Meanwhile my Wear:Sleep:Repeat challenge continued ......

Thursday's vintage Adini dress had another outing, this time worn with another vintage Anokhi jacket from my collection (eBay), a charity shopped belt and my orange fedora, a retail buy (in the sale) back in 2019.

The details: Obsolete Indian paise coins threaded on a shoelace (by me!); Mjus charity shopped boots and Indian earrings (present from Curtise).

I did a load of washing, dusted the spare bedroom, tidied up the wardrobe & spritzed the houseplants whilst Jon finished the great hard drive switchover and handed it back. It's certainly faster (and quieter!)

Tea was pizza...what else? Tonight it'll be rum & cola and the last of It's A Sin (sob!)

Stay safe & see you soon!