We Can Work It Out

 

Hello! After sharing tales from my mispent youth I'm back with normal grown-up activities, no psychotic Mediteranean males, just cats, clothes and chat.

On Monday, after Wii Fit & breakfast I spent the day photographing and listing on eBay. I'm saving most of the vintage for festivals so a lot of the things I'm listing are contemporary pieces, although you can't get more 1970s than that glorious bikini, can you? Much as I love it, I prefer my beachwear a lot more skimpy.

The Dilli Grey maxi skirt got another outing, worn with a vintage Alpnani block printed blouse and a 1970s belt with a snarling lion buckle. I wore my Docs as I'd arranged to walk into town mid-afternoon and meet up with Kate, a friend from school. A family friend was having a clear-out and Kate had kindly rescued these two vintage crepe cocktail dresses from the bin.

Back in the eighties I'd have lopped a few inches off the hem and worn these early-1960s dresses out clubbing, accompanied by ripped-up black fishnets and eight-hole Doc Martens. Although they fit perfectly and I love the fringing on the San-Clair dress, I'm not that little black dress girl any more but I know I'll soon find someone who is.

After tea we started watching Borgen on the BBC i-Player, a Danish political thriller series which, for some reason, we've never seen. We were rivetted.

On Tuesday we swam for half a mile then treated ourselves to a Spoons breakfast. We looked around the charity shops, Jon bought New Order's Blue Monday on 12" vinyl (not that we haven't got at least three copies already) whilst I snaffled a Boden denim dress and a handprinted wraparound skirt for the stockroom. Back at home Ollie was waiting. We'd not seen any cats for days but I'd discovered Mr Trousers fast asleep on the doormat before we left home.

Dressing for the baths is always a challenge, no matter how cold it is walking down, I'm always boiling hot on the way back. Jackets have to be light enough to roll up and throw in my bag. Other than earrings, I don't usually bother with jewellery unless we're popping into Spoons and my hair is always up ready for the swimming cap. I swim in my Barry M kajal and mascara, they never budge.

This was my first Dilli Grey dress, snaffled from eBay for a knockdown price a year ago this week.

We'd skipped lunch and had an early tea as Jon was helping Al and Liz shift 2 tonnes of secondhand paving stones they'd bought online. There's only room for three in the works van so I stayed at home and read until Jon returned, filthy and knackered. We shared a can of Shipyard Ale and had an early night.

On Wednesday, after my Wii Fit workout, I wrapped the ebay sales, handwashed a couple of my Indian dresses and hung them out on the line to dry.

Mr Trousers paid us a visit and, once again, got off his tits on cat mint.

An overcast day at a pitiful 9°C, it was back to boots for me, which I wore with a vintage Indian gauzy cotton midi dress and an early '70s Anokhi jacket to do the post office run, buy a cycle helmet and try on some sunglasses. The gloom did have its advantages though, it was the perfect day for photographing black garments to list on eBay. 

We've taken out membership to the baths, paying a one-off fee which entitles us to unlimited swimming, use of the sauna, steam room and gym in all four of Walsall's leisure centres for a year. Membership works out at £30 a month for the pair of us - we're spending £20 a week on swimming so it'll save us loads of money even if we don't take advantage of the other facilities on offer. I used to love the gym but haven't been years and Jon's never ventured into one his entire life so I called and booked an induction for this afternoon (Wednesday). Jon's not keen but I can always go on my own if he decides its not for him - I'd love to get back six-pack and rippling biceps of my youth! 

I'm not sure what Jon's going to wear but I'm sorted, here's the £2 leggings & £1 vest I bought from the clearance charity shop on Sunday. There's always loads of women's workout gear in the chazzas, maybe it's because the donators feel like they can't keep turning up to the gym in the same outfit, not something that bothers me. 

I'm off to pump iron (or maybe not) then it's rum, cola and The Great British Sewing Bee. 

See you soon!