The Distancing Diaries - 18th & 19th March, 2021

On Thursday morning I did a load of washing and, as the sky was looking somewhat ominous, hung it up in the utility room, then did my Wii Fit workout. I'd just finished replying to blog comments when Jon got up. After our breakfast, I sorted out the cupboard under the sink as I couldn't find anything in there. The binmen arrived, took our bins and litter-picking sacks away with them, giving us the thumbs up (we're in their gang now, keeping the streets of Walsall clean).

Armed with our grab sticks, gloves and sacks - and arms no longer aching - we did a litter pick of Church Hill. As usual, we did opposite sides but remained visible to one another. Jon saw a man taking my photo (to which I was totally oblivious). Further along, another man, assuming I was alone, started making kissing noises at me. This is the grim reality of being a woman, we are harassed all the fecking time. Predatory men aside, we managed to collect four sacks of litter before Jon broke his grab stick trying to fettle a whisky bottle from the undergrowth. 

Back at home, after our lunchtime noodles, I wrapped my latest eBay sales and spent the afternoon stitching another banner. 

Wear:Sleep: Repeat! You can just about see the Anokhi jacket I'd worn on Wednesday peeking out from beneath Liz's old Elgee coat. I'm wearing an Indian gauzy cotton midi dress (eBay) underneath and my latest crocheted hat.

The details: Vintage Liberty silk scarf (car boot sale,2009), Turkmen earrings (eBay), high heeled wellies (jumble sale) and some vintage label porn.

Tea was a Morrison's Finest veggie Moroccan parcel served with spiced couscous and some sticky roasted veg. The previous evening we'd started watching subtitled Dutch cop series Amsterdam Vice and loved it. Loud, lairy and set in the 1980s, just our kind of thing. We watched another couple of episodes. I also watched Ten Years Younger for the first time since it moved from the BBC in 2010. It's lovely to see women buzzing with confidence but man, the skintight clothes and plastic-y stilettoes they dress them in, are dreadful. 

Friday was a dank, cold and drizzly day. I put away the previous day's laundry, did the final workout of the week and joined Jon in the kitchen for breakfast. When he went out to do the post office and supermarket run I swept and mopped the kitchen floor

There's a cat colony living in the old windmill up the road and there are signs up asking that passers-by refrain from feeding them as that they are already being cared for. Every so often we'll get a visit from an inquisitive tom. I hadn't seen this big boy before this morning but Stephen and Frank didn't seem too bothered by him. 

Richard arrived with the post. I spotted this early Anokhi beauty on eBay at the weekend and my heart skipped a beat, I was thrilled when the seller was kind enough to accept my offer. She'd noted that there were "issues" in that two buttons were missing but that there were three spares inside.

Within 30 minutes of signing for my parcel, unwrapping it, washing my hands and reattaching the buttons, the blouse was ready to wear. 

There are lots of things listed on eBay as "like Anokhi" or "possibly Anokhi but the labels have fallen off". Some sellers mistakenly think Anokhi is a term to describe Indian block print and others are just trying to pull the wool over your eyes. If it doesn't have a label it probably isn't what they claim it is.

My other package? Not quite as exciting, just the black cotton twill tape I'd ordered to make a sash for my Hmong dress, a simple way to make any shapeless dress fit a bit better.

1. Cut your tape in half with pinking shears, to reduce fraying.

2. Carefully unpick a section of the side seam, or the front panel, depending on the style of your dress.

3.Insert 1/4" of your tape into the gap of the unpicked section.

4. Sew the seams shut. I do mine by hand as I'm a touchy-feely hippy and like to connect with my clothes.

By the time I'd finished my sewing, Jon was back (he'd swung by Tony's on the way back) so I helped him sanitise the shopping and put it away before we tucked into our lunchtime noodles.

After lunch, I hung my latest banner in the avenue. There's no polite way of telling irresponsible dog owners to clean up after their pets, is there?

As the drizzle had subsided, I photographed some menswear in the garden and listed it on eBay, a bizarre mix of snazzy jackets and Indian cotton grandad shirts because that's what caught my eye in the Kinky shed.

Jon shuffled a couple of the V Dubs around and had a fiddle about with them. Once he'd finished we went for a walk around the block wishing halfway around that we'd taken a sack and a grab stick with us, it'll have to wait till tomorrow. 

Wear:Sleep: Repeat continued with Thursday's Indian cotton gauze midi dress, this time topped with a Phool quilted waistcoat (2018, Eyewood Vintage), my M&S Heatgen leggings and a Reiss felted wool fedora (both from eBay).

The details: Clarks' Orinocho Club boots, Afghan cuffs and earrings (all eBay), coin necklace (made by me from an old anklet).

Sixty-eight days into my challenge and I'm still having tremendous fun with my wardrobe.

Tea was half a pizza with jacket wedges and a liberal sprinkling of fresh, home-grown basil (and a cheeky glass of wine).

Tonight we'll be continuing with Amsterdam Vice with a break for Gardener's World at 9pm -  something we'd never have dreamed of watching before lockdown - and there will be rum.

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Stay safe and see you soon!

PS Hello, Catmac!