Kinky Boots!

Last night Liz and I pulled on our best kinky boots and headed off to Wolverhampton's Grand Theatre to see the stage show of the same name.

Preferring a lower heel, Jon opted for a pair of charity shopped Vans hi-tops worn with a vintage cord jacket, a 1960s batik shirt and a pair of second-hand Levis.

 

I went for the vintage Peter Max-like maxi dress snaffled for £2 the previous day which had taken me a large portion of the afternoon to shorten, hacking 5" from the bottom and hemming it by hand.

I bought the fabric bangles from Gujurat and the clutch bag (made in Florence) was a chazza shop find. Jon had done my roots earlier in the day. 

Wolverhampton's Grand Theatre, or The Grand, as its known locally, is a grade II listed building with a seating capacity for 1200. Designed in 1894 by the architect Charles J Phipps, it was built at a cost of £10,000 and opened just six months later. The foundation stone was laid by Mrs CJ Mander of Wightwick Manor, the stunning Arts & Crafts mansion we often visit on our National Trust days out (see HERE). Wolverhampton is our nearest city, seven miles away from Walsall (Birmingham is 9 miles away).

After a drink in the bar (a zero alcohol San Miguel for me), we took our seats in a packed house. The production was an amateur one, by the Bilston Operatic Society, but the performances were excellent and we had an absolute blast.

Jon and I are convinced that one of the drag queens is a volunteer in our favourite charity shop, we'll have to ask if he can do the splits next time we call in.

Review and more photos HERE

It was a school night for Al, the only one amongst us gainfully employed, so we gave the 'Spoons opposite the theatre a miss, posed by a magnificently moody looking wall, and he drove us home. Tucked up in bed shortly after 11pm. 

With the course of antibotics finished, we went for our first swim of the week, clocking up 40 lengths and 40 poolside pull-ups (me, not Jon, his back would probably give out!)

An early morning swim means breakfast at 'Spoons and, of course, we ordered our usual, Eggs Benedict for Jon and Mushrooms Benedict for me. 

A quick trip around the chazzas yielded an 1980s cotton jumpsuit, made in England, and exactly like something Liz & I wore as teenagers - complete with crimped hair, plastic beads and lashings of Rimmel's Blue Sapphire kajal. We also found a huge vintage Indian silk screen printed tassel-trimmed shawl; a 1960s fur bag (all profits from fur sales always go to an animal charity); a relic from the Madchester era, Northside's "Shall We Take A Trip?" on 12" vinyl, banned at the time by the BBC for its many references to drugs. I was pleased to find Anita Anand's The Patient Assassin, based on the life of the revolutionary Udham Singh and the bloodbath that was the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre in Amritsar. 

For my trip to the baths I wore my vintage Mayur Indian block printed dress & some 1970s deadstock sunnies and, because we had a 'Spoons date, the rings and bangles I usually leave at home.

Back at home I washed the swimming gear, along with everything else in the laundry basket, and pegged it out on the line to dry, a luxury after a succession of miserable & wet days. After we'd fed and chatted to Ollie, I sat in the sunshine in my bikini hemming a dress I'm planning to wear when I meet up with Nikki in the morning.

I'd started this historic novel a couple of days ago but decided to abandon it as it had started to irritate me, Alison Weir isn't a patch on Phillipa Gregory and life's far too short to waste on bad books. Back to the charity shop it goes!

That's more like it....castrastions, chaos and baby-eating, courtesy of national treasure, Stephen Fry!

Can you see Lord Jon slaving away in the background? He's been sanding down & applying Danish oil to the cast iron garden set our neighbours Ray & Florence gave us. Initially I wasn't overly keen on the green paint but, now the wood's darker, it looks rather nice.

I've always loved Greek mythology. I grew up reading The Iliad & Odyssey and studied Classical Studies at A Level. In Mythos, I'm reading about Chloris, the nymph associated with Spring. She was abducted by the God of the West Wind, Zephyrus, who transformed her into the deity known as Flora. She is said to have transformed the youths Crocus, Hyacinthus and Narcissus into flowers. 

Flora from Botticelli's La Primavera (Source)

Zephyrus with Chloris by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (Source)

Chloris (Greek for yellowish-green) has been out visiting our garden this week with the Rheum Palmatum (Ornamental rhubarb) shooting up in the pond and our Laburnum & Euphorbia in full bloom.

Tonight we'll be catching up with last night's Great British Sewing Bee & Secrets of the Museum and feasting on Haloumi with roasted veg. I'll be back soon with tales of my adventures with Nikki!

See you soon.