Some Powerful Words & A Few Outfits

 

Hello! How was your weekend? This was mine. 

On Saturday morning I read Mary Beard's groundbreaking Women & Power, a pocket-sized manifesto where the celebrated British classicist explores the gender agenda and shows how history has treated powerful women using examples from both antiquity and the modern age. It starts with an extract from The Odyssey where Penelope, Queen of Ithaca and Odysseus's wife, addresses the public within her own court and she is told by her teenage son, Telemachus, "Mother, go back to your quarters, and take up your own work, the loom and the distaff...speech will be the business of men, all men." 

Penelope - Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

Written in around 750BCE, Homer's The Odyssey was the first written evidence of the beginning of Western culture and how an integral part of growing up as a man, was learning to take control of public utterance and to silence the female of the species. At less than 120 pages long, it's one of the most powerful books I've ever read and after reading some of the unspeakably vile comments posted on social media this weekend, victim-shaming the women who dared to speak out about the sexual predator, Russell Brand's crimes, its evident that woman's voices are still being silenced three thousand years after Homer's literary epic. You can buy a secondhand copy HERE.

Anyway, on to the rest of Saturday. After the usual Saturday morning of bed changing, plant watering and leisurely cooked breakfast, I got dressed. I wore a 1970s block printed maxi dress by Geeta Enterprises of Delhi with a 1970s wool felt hat I bought from a charity shop in Cirencester in 2015. 

A damp, cold and misty day, we drove over to Hidden Gem, an antiques centre and auction house in the neighbouring town of Bloxwich. 

Jon loves watches and this Soviet era polar watch caught his eye.

Meanwhile these turquoise beads caught my eye.

I nearly bought that 1970s Toulouse Lautrec mirror, I grew up with the print on the wall. 

We left without buying anything but we'll be back. It was so encouraging to see an independent business thriving.

Back at home I spent the afternoon reading Claire Heywood's The Wandering Queen, a modern day reimagining of Dido & Aeneas. 

I translated Virgil's Aeneid from the original Latin as part of my Classical Studies A Level and found it extremely tedious. These modern day reimaginings, from a largely female perspective, are far more relatable. 

The Meeting of Dido and Aeneus - Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland (1766)

On Friday night we watched Face, a gritty 1997 British heist drama starring, amongst others, Robert Carlisle & Ray Winstone, the late 1990s Indie soundtrack was especially good. On Saturday night we saw Remarkably Bright Creatures, based on the book I'd read a few weeks ago. Although I'm not into cosy stuff, it was a decent watch despite huge chunks of the book being omitted from the film. Like Olivia who commented after I'd mentioned reading the book a few weeks ago, I was concerned that Marcellus's voice wouldn't resemble the one I had in my head but he was played by Alfred Molina, a fine British actor, so my illusions weren't shattered.

On Sunday, awake at 6, I cracked on with The Wandering Queen before breakfast. I'd got a couple of Vinted parcels to drop off so we walked down to Ajay's and then on to Lidl, a distance of around 2.5km. My hip's been dodgy for days - probably due to the drop in temperature and the penetrating damp - and again, stupidly not taking my stick with me, I had to hobble back holding on to Jon's arm. You'll be pleased to know that I've finlly got an appointment with the orthopaedic consultant at the hospital next week, it's been a long wait as I initially saw my GP in April and the appointment's been rearranged three times. 

The return of the suede jackets! 

 

Under my jacket, I wore the vintage silk velvet Laura Ashley maxi skirt I'd bought from the £2.99 charity shop last winter with an embroidered Greek blouse (1970s?) and my Accessorize (via Vinted) corduroy cap. After replacing a broken zip in a skirt, I spent the rest of the day reading with William curled up on my lap. 

We watched Janina Ramirez's Raiders of the Lost Past, Tutankhamen's Secrets on the BBC i-player before finishing season 2 of Breaking Bad. Janina, Mary Beard, Bettany Hughes and David Olusoga, my favourite TV historians! 

In bed I started reading The Wax Child, a tale of witchcraft and persecution, based on the real-life 17th century trial where an unmarried Danish noblewoman and several of her friends are accused of being witches. 

Monday (today) was swimming day.  I clocked up another 2km. I'm much better in the water than I am on dry land (I really am a mermaid!) The pool was very quiet, possibly put off by the dense fog, and by 7.30am there were just 5 of us in the pool.  After breakfast in Spoons we had a look around the chazzas but finding nothing of any interest, we came home with a bag of leeks from the market with which we made a cheese, leek, petit pois filo pastry tart for tea this evening. 

I wore the All About Audrey lace wrap top I bought from Vinted recently (£3!) and a vintage cotton velvet skirt I'd found on Vinted during the height of Summer for £2. The wool fedora was from the clearance section of Decathlon, of all places, last year. 

The damp and foggy conditions not only play havoc with my hip, they also do weird things with my hair. As I'm out tomorrow night I'm washing my hair for a second time in a week (normally I only do this on a beach holiday!) after a liberal application of rosemary oil - great for the hair and scalp and believed to boost mental clarity, concentration and memory. 

I'm off for an evening of culture with my friend Lynn tomorrow night, stay turned to hear all about it! 

The Return - What I've Been Wearing & Doing Since Santorini

 Hello! Here's another round-up of the clothes I've been wearing and what I've been doing when wearing them plus some (very amateur) outfit sketches, my latest obsession. 

Saturday 24th October, the first full day at home after our week on Santorini. I wore my vintage India Imports of Rhode Island maxi skirt with an All About Audrey wrap top for an early morning manicure at True Beauty. After tackling the washing pile and watering all 56 of our houseplants I continued reading Paper Cut by Rachel Taft, the story of a woman who, as a teenager, achieved infamy after committing murder to escape a cult. 

 

We spent the evening watching the new series of The Diplomat on the BBC i-player and drinking rum.

Sunday 25th October. A lazy day of reading, sketching and blogging

I wore the linen embroidered blouse, I'd charity shopped for two quid a couple of weeks ago along with a vintage Samuel Sherman knitted maxi skirt. We watched more of The Diplomat after tea.

Monday 27th October. I wore a vintage Afghan dress by Hindu Kush to walk down to the pool. I managed to maintain my 2km swim speed of 55 minutes. After breakfast in Spoons we had a look around the chazzas, finding a TOAST djellaba for £1 (which originally sold for £140), perfect for lounging around the house. After a bright start the day became rather wet and miserable so I spent it reading my next book, Nesting, an Irishwoman's fight against the system after she flees her abusive husband.

Meanwhile Jon helped our neighbour move a large tree branch which had been damaged by Storm Austen. Later we finished watching The Diplomat.

Tuesday 27th October. The day kicked off with a Wii Fit workout followed by a 2 hour leaf sweeping session. I wore a Naked Generation blouse and a vintage Phool midi skirt. Liz popped round for coffee and I wrote a blog post after she'd left. After tea we started watching the new series of Slow Horses.  

Wednesday 28th October. I wore a me-made maxi, an Aldo trilby (charity shop, 2016) and a vintage Eastern European blouse to walk down to the pool. Another 2km swim (Jon did 1.25km). We came straight home after our Spoons breakfast. I spent the afternoon in the garden, removing the geraniums from the window boxes, trimming and potting them up for Winter. Later we continued Slow Horses as well as the first episode of the new series of Race across The World.

Thursday 29th October. After my Wii Fit workout I changed into an All About Audrey wrap skirt, a velvet Afghan waistcoat and 1970s Ayesha Davar cheesecloth blouse. I sent off another festival application and removed the Holiday Mode setting from our Vinted listings, selling three items in a matter of minutes, which Jon posted after I'd wrapped them up. After some more leaf sweeping, I vacuumed upstairs and did some dusting. After tea we started watching Breaking Bad - talk about late to the party! I started reading The Vanishing Half, a novel about twin sisters growing up in segregated America and living very different lives.

Friday 30th October. I wore a vintage Anokhi quilted blouse with a contemporary Anokhi maxi dress for our third swim of the week. Afterwards we had breakfast in Spoons and went for a look around the chazzas, coming back with a pair of bronzed curtain finials and two packs of Portuguese azulejo tile stickers (£5).

I sold a couple more things on Vinted which Jon dropped off at Ajay's, collecting my latest purchases at the same time (2 x All About Audrey tops for the grand total of £6!). Later we drank rum and finished series one of Breaking Bad.

Saturday 1st November. A lazy start to the day, reading in bed till 8.30. I stripped and changed the bed whilst Jon cooked breakfast. I pegged the washing on the line but we had to rescue it when the heavens opened a couple of hours later. I listed some stuff on Vinted and spent the rest of the day reading. I wore one of my vintage block printed kaftans.

 Later we met up with Liz and Al in The Avion, the Aldridge branch of Wetherspoons, before a curry in Laboni. I wore a Seventies Soul co-ord I'd bought from Vinted last year.

Sunday 1st November. I was awake at 5am so made tea and went back to bed, starting and finishing the cult Korean psychological feminist thriller, Plant Lady. We watched Laura Kuenssberg over coffee and toast before getting dressed and heading to the garden centre to buy some plants to replace the geraniums I'd removed from the window boxes earlier in the week, planting them as soon as we got home. I wore a vintage Adini maxi I'd found for £1 in a charity shop in 2018.

 

I spent the rest of the afternoon writing a blog post. Later I got changed into a secondhand All About Audrey crushed velvet maxi dress and, with Jon, walked to the Wheatsheaf (our nearest pub) to meet  Liz and Al for Off The Track, a monthly vinyl-only DJ night, playing the finest soul, funk, jazz, rare grooves and disco. What a night! It was like Walsall used to be in the late 1980s, packed to the rafters with cool, stylish, like-minded folk some of whom I'd not seen in decades. We loved it!

Monday 2nd November. Although we weren't out late and only had a couple of pints, our early morning swim felt like hard work! After a Spoons breakfast we headed straight home, doing the washing, pegging it outside and packing more Vinted parcels, which Jon deposited at Ajay's. I wore a vintage silk Treacy Lowe dress and 1970s printed velvet blazer by Eclipse. I spent the afternoon reading the book I'd started in bed the previous evening, an epic of love and family, India and America and tradition and modernity. 

To thank Jon for his help with the storm-damaged tree last week, our neighbour cooked us a meal. Her food always smells amazing and, I'm delighted to report, tasted even better. Nothing beats proper homemade Indian food, cooked with love. Enjoying Breaking Bad, we started on season 2 after we'd eaten our feast.

Tuesday 2nd November. Up at 6am (On non-swimming days I set the alarm for 6.30 but I'm always awake before then), I did a Wii Fit workout and cleaned the lounge before Jon got up and joined me for breakfast. While he was at the dentist, I sanded down the top of the bathroom cabinet, covering it with the tile stickers I'd found in a charity shop last week. Back home, Jon applied a coat of varnish to (hopefully) prolong their life. 

I wore the All About Audrey tunic I'd bought from Vinted over a vintage David Silverman printed cotton pinafore dress.

My plans for leaf sweeping and photographing Vinted stock in the garden were thwarted when it started raining so I did a bit more sketching and repaired a dress before catching up with Blogland. We've got more Breaking Bad planned for later. 

Thanks for reading, see you soon!