Two Days in January

Monday kicked off with my usual 30 minute Wii Fit session and after breakfast Jon & I went out charity shopping. 

Destined for the Kinky Melon stockroom: 1990s suede Western cut jacket, a vintage Harrington with the Made in England labels still attached, a pair of sequinned Converse high tops, a 1980s wool jumper, a 1990s Adidas track top, a Melody Ehsani butterfly sweatshirt with the £64.99 labels still attached, a 1980s English-made batwing lurex jumper, some G-Star Raw tartan trousers, a Pretty Green (Liam Gallagher's label) paisley shirt and a 1970s Bogart dagger collared shirt still in its original wrapping. 

Several charity shops sell new goods alongside their second hand donations. Banardos stock a range of William Morris homewares which, to be honest, aren't of the greatest quality, but as Jon managed to cremate our Strawberry Thief oven mitt on Xmas day (don't drink and cook, kids!) we took advantage of their half-price sale and bought two gloves in the Morris & Co. Hyacinth print for a fiver. 

After washing the morning's buys, I dusted some of our vintage glass before settling down my next book, Snow Country by the wonderful Sebastian Faulks. I thought I'd read everything he'd written until I spotted this in the clearance chazza last Sunday. Needless to say, its beautifully written and totally absorbing. I finished Milk Treading in bed on Sunday night, a weird but compelling political thriller set in a world ruled by cats. I had to laugh about their blasé attitude towards death and how, no matter what was happening in their lives, they'd easily get distracted by string. 

It was a gold kind of day. 

The last time I had a craving to do housework was 31st December when I managed to get a second degree burn on my hand from dusting the chandelier in the bedroom. It's taken almost three weeks to heal and my right hand is suitable for public viewing once again! 

And despite it being Blue Monday (supposedly the most depressing day of the year), I wore pink. 

Because I'm not a fashion blogger, I wore the same vintage maxi dress as I did on Sunday, with the Afghan gilet, Frye boots & plum fedora I'd featured on my blog last week. I bought the sari silk wrap top for 100 rupees (around £1) from a little boutique in Jodhpur back in 2020  - I can't believe it's been that long since I was last in India!  

The earrings Jon bought me for my birthday.. they're vintage Czech made from a broken Art Deco-era necklace utilising two rare turquoise scarabs and classic Neiger pinch beads and a teeny turquoise bar pendant which was £1 from the British Heart Foundation a couple of weeks ago. 

After tea - a flatbread stuffed with Greek salad and a grilled aubergine - we watched the last two episodes of Aquarius on Netflix followed by Silent Witness on the BBC - the plot is usually ridiculous but as we've always watched it feel like we have to stick with it. 

This is what I wore under my coat this morning. We were back in the brine pool this morning, although I'm tempted to go back to the Olympic pool on Thursday. 

The young woman who served us breakfast in 'Spoons told me that she was obsessed with my style and was always excited to see what I'm wearing. 

Today was a block printed Indian cotton maxi skirt bought new from Kharibu in May 2023, a 1960s suede jerkin (a recent £5 find), a 50p leather belt with Art Nouveau buckle bought from the clearance chazza in 2021, two of my Mum's bangles and some Mexican silver bell earrings from our dear festival friends and trading neighbours, Shilpa Silver. 

I spent a whole £5 in the charity shops on the way home from town. Three pairs of handmade, wool cable knit mittens (£1 each), a brand new pack of three olive oil soaps made in Nyons, France (£1.50) and a pack of wonder bobbles (50p) - hair ties that look like telephone wires and are the best thing ever - they stay put and don't pull your hair. It looks like William was  impressed but, in reality, he was waiting for me to throw his catnip Trump effigy at him. 

After a fruitless search for a winter escape I did some more housework, dusting the bathroom shelves, sweeping the floor and misting the houseplants.

When I walked around the corner to drop something in the post box I met one of William's siblings, who was meowing so loudly I could hear him a street away. He's happy to chat but won't tolerate touching!

William was part of a cat colony which lived in the old windmill before it was sold off to developers. A couple we know from swimming adopted his mum, dad and a sister from a later litter. William was one of four brothers, one was rescued by a cat charity and rehomed and the other two are community cared for and live in a neighbour's outbuilding. 

 Jon made a delicious curry for tea, tikka masala with broccoli, cauliflower and green beans. As always on swimming days, we hadn't eaten since our Spoons breakfast and it was gone in minutes!

   

Tonight we'll be catching up with last night's 24 Hours in Police Custody and trying to decide which TV series to binge watch next. See you soon!