She's Sweet But A Psycho

Whilst the temperatures haven't been up to much, it's all starting to look rather Spring-like in the garden. Even Jacob's come out of hibernation and is currently chomping his way through a lettuce mountain! 

On Sunday morning, with a pile of recently finished paperbacks cluttering up the hall, Jon suggested a trip down to the clearance chazza to drop them off. I'd fallen for this woven linen maxi skirt when I spotted it in Zara's sale last year but they didn't have my size (although my friend Anne was lucky enough to snaffle one in hers!) so I was thrilled to spot it on Vinted. 

The organic cotton blouse, new with the £39.99 price tag still attached, was a £3 find in the clearance charity shop earlier this year and originated from fairtrade label, Omnes. Don't you love that you can plant the label and it'll grow?

I paid £1 for the belt a few years ago. When I bought it I joked that it belonged to the mysterious H from Line of Duty not realising that its stamped Hermes (although I highly doubt its real!)  

Talking of "designer"stuff, remember when I found that £1,045 Victoria Beckham "Quincy" bag in the clearance charity shop back in the Covid years (HERE)? What are the chances of finding another on Sunday? This one's a bit scuffed but nothing a bit of shoe polish won't sort out.

Here's some of our other chazza shop finds from next week - vintage Barretts leather boots; 1980s cropped leather jacket; That Christian Lacroix jacket; TOAST linen top; Hand knit cardi; 1980s Peter Baron midi dress; Fabulous fake fur jacket; 1980s Shelley's, London suede Western boots; 1980s Italian leather trench coat (very The Matrix!); 1980s Ciro Citterio Italian cable knit; 1980s Gabicci jacket; TOAST needlecord midi dress; French designed/Indian-made sari wrap dress from a posh boutique in Barbados.

What could be more appropriate to wear on Monday, which being 25th March was Greek Independence Day, but this Minoan print midi dress? A magnificent £3 from Vinted!

It was obviously inspired by the Greek designer, Mary Katrantzou's Spring/Summer 2017 collection which referenced some of the culture of the land of her birth. We saw the magnificent mosaics printed on the dress when we visited Knossos in 2022. 

After an early morning swim followed by breakfast at Spoons & a tazz around the chazzas, today's been another day of eBay listing. The last couple of days have been dry and bright (allelujah!), perfect for taking stock photos outside. I'm wearing a Dilli Grey maxi dress and a pair of (not) Gucci sunglasses (via a Greek supermarket!)
 

At the tail end of last year I picked up a copy of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City from a charity shop and devoured it in an afternoon. Before they became novels, Maupin's stories about the lives of the tenants of 28, Barbary Lane in San Francisco, many of whom were LGBT, were serialised in the San Francisco Chronicle from 1976 onwards. The first book was made into a mini series in 1993 and funded by Britain's Channel Four because the US networks "refused to portray gay people in a positive light" (what the actual f*ck?!!!) I absolutely adored the TV series but reading the book gave me such a jolt - when I watched Tales of the City I was 27, a year older than Mary Ann Singleton, the uptight young woman who ran away from Cleveland to start a new life in swinging 70s San Francisco; in December 2023, I was older than Mrs Madrigal, the eccentric marijuana-growing landlady with a mysterious past. 

Jon recently surprised me with this - a boxed set of both Tales of the City and the second series, More Tales of the City (which I never saw when it originally aired in 1998) - and I love it just as much the second time around.

I'd forgotten how much I adored free-spirited hippy goddess Mona Ramsay. That hair, that face, that body, those clothes!! I was so disappointed that the actor who played her, Chloe Webb (best known for playing Nancy Spungen opposite Gary Oldman's Sid Vicious in the 1986 film Sid And Nancy) was replaced by a younger - and far less feisty - actor in the second series. 

I think over the last 31 years I've subconsciously morphed into Mona...Afghan dresses, voluminous kaftans, shirred sundresses, Indian block prints, embroidered jackets, mad hair and the refusal to wear a bra....I've just got to work on the witty one liners. 

As Tales of the City was pre-internet, I'm struggling to find many images from the show to share. I loved this tribute video someone posted on YouTube especially as I was often described as Sweet but a Psycho back in the day!

We've managed to find Further Tales of the City and Tales of the City (2019) on our streaming service so our Barbary Lane fix can continue into next week.

Were you a fan of Tales of the City? Who was your favourite? 

UPDATE: Attention all Brits! Channel Four are currently screening series one on catch-up HERE

Stay tuned for some More Tales of the City....I'm off to Birmingham with Nikki tomorrow!!