After my Wii Fit session, a blog comment catch-up and a flurry of eBay parcel wrapping, I spent Tuesday morning ironing, photographing and listing stock on eBay, leaving Jon to do the accounts - pretty straightforward this last tax year as all our sales were online.
After lunch, I spent the afternoon in the garden, sweeping up leaves and planting the 2kg bag of narcissi bulbs we'd bought from Wilko on Sunday. Lord Jon was far too distracted to take an outfit photo so I had to make do with a mirror selfie after sunset. That's the vintage Annabelinda wool pinafore dress I found in the clearance chazza a couple of months ago, worn with a 1970s Ayesha Davar cheesecloth blouse and my Rhodes Town beads.
After half a cheese and onion quiche and salad we watched Monday night's 24 Hours in Police Custody and another episode of When The Dust Settles.
Wednesday was charity shopping day and we drove over to one of our favourite Black Country towns for a rummage via the Post Office to drop off our eBay parcels. Although the rails in all the shops we visited were absolutely rammed, pickings were slim. I found a lovely conker coloured leather belt and a couple of Philippa Gregory books (for me), a 1960s velvet & wool jacket, two 1980s suede jackets with the manufacturer's labels still attached, a 1970s Viyella House blazer (by appointment to HM the Queen!), a 1980s leather waistcoat, an unworn 1970s tweed Norfolk jacket by Dunn & Co, a 1990s Benetton tartan wool bomber jacket and a beautifully cut dress from the Nordic label, Arket. Jon treated himself to a wool cap for £1 (photo later on in the post!)
After lunch, I did a load of washing and replaced the buttons on the 1960s black jacket I'd bought earlier before dying my roots (my bedroom mirror selfie the previous day was horrifying!) Wednesday was rum night so, after our half a pizza and sweet potato wedges, we poured ourselves a glass or three of Captain Morgan's finest white rum and watched more of When The Dust Settles....fine acting but, goodness me, it's a harrowing watch.
Thursday's breakfast fruit and yoghurt included a handful of absolutely delicious raspberries from the garden. Afterwards, we walked around the corner to drop off my completed accounts. Jon waited while I masked up and went inside to hand them over. As always I ended up chatting to Michael, my elderly & thoroughly charming accountant, for ages and Jon was practically nodding off on the wall outside by the time I came out. From there we walked the mile or so to Jon's accountant, handed his paperwork over and carried on into town.
Nobody knows why we have a lifesize concrete hippotamus in the town centre. What on earth does an overweight, aggressive mammal have in common with the people of Walsall? (On second thoughts, don't answer that.) He was unveiled in 1972 and has become a much-loved resident. Until he was moved to outside the library ten years ago he took pride of place in the high street and was a popular meeting point, "See you by the hippo."
In November 1917 British ships battled German forces in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. During the action, John took a fatal shrapnel wound to the stomach but kept loading his gun, and encouraged his colleagues to do likewise. Once relieved, he collapsed and died. He was buried at sea the following day.
The commander of HMS Caledon, H.S. Harrison-Wallace, subsequently wrote to Carless's parents:
Of course, we had to pop into the town's charity shops (although we gave the clearance chazza a miss as we'll be going on Sunday). We found a gents 1950s reversible moleskin waistcoat, a 1970s flecked wool coat, a 1960s Meritus paisley satin smoking jacket, a rather insane looking 1980s Kangol hat and a stunner of a vintage leather bag with the Penny Lane Casuals tag still attached (it's already in my wardrobe!)
Tonight we're taking a break from bleak Scandi Noir and watching the new documentary series on Pompeii with one of our favourite TV historians, Bettany Hughes.
See you soon!