Everyday Life Continued...

Hello! Here's another three days of everyday life.

Tuesday morning started, as it usually does, with a 30 minute workout which invariably takes much longer as, being the only human up. I'm at the beck and call of the cats.

Not Gordon, so-named after we discovered he wasn't the Gordon our neighbours, who used to look after the residents of the neighbourhood cat colony, has reverted back to being just Gordon. AWOL for days during the Summer, he's recently moved back into the catio and demands food on, what almost seems like, an hourly basis. If the door's open, he'll lounge around indoors - until William gets fed up with him taking liberties and chases him away. He loves catnip Trump and the other day ran away with him and buried him in the garden.... give that cat a Nobel Peace prize! 

Hopefully we'll be able to get to the vet soon and get those pompoms removed. 

After breakfast we drove over to Birmingham as the dentist needed a 3D scan of Jon's head for his implants. It was a gorgeous morning, making our drive through the leafy suburbs of Harborne and Edgbaston even more beautiful.

I wore my hand-printed 1970s Kate Beaver maxi dress, bought from a charity shop 11 years ago for 99p (HERE).  

Liz called round after lunch and we drove over to Bilston to stock up on larder supplies at Rogers (HERE). It's brilliant if you're not fussy about best before dates and have plenty of storage space as you can only buy by the case or in catering sizes.

We bought two cases of passata, a case of tinned white beans; couscous with Lebanese herbs and Korean spicy noodles. An industrial sized tub of vegetarian bouillon, cases of 100% durum wheat pasta, basmati rice, stir fry sauces, vegan jelly crystals and Mangalore and Goan curry sauce packs (fabulous for festivals). Jon was very good, not swayed by the cases of chocolate or crisps but did cave in when he spotted Hubba Bubba bubblegum..I'm not sure if you still get the Bazooka Joe tattoos inside, I'll have to let you know! 

Back at home I had more time for some fashion sketching...

Saturday night's school reunion dress.

Last Tuesday's outfit (above) and what I wore on Monday.

Wednesday was a swimming day and, happily for those less hardy than me, the boiler had been fixed and the water was back to the normal temperature. Again I swam 2km. We didn't bother with the charity shops after our Wetherspoons breakfast, just popping into B&M for a tin of coffee before walking back home.  Of course, we didn't leave the shop with just the coffee, I couldn't resist this pack of coloured pencils.

Jon did another tip run, depositing another couple of sacks of garden waste and dropping off the books we'd recently finished at the on-site charity shop. Meanwhile I watered the houseplants and pegged the washing out.

I'm wearing a 1970s St Michael embroidered wool blouse, a charity shopped Moroccan leather belt and my vintage India Imports of Rhode Island maxi skirt. 

 Using my new coloured pencils, I did a bit more doodling in my fashion sketchbook. 

 I finally sorted out my travel wardrobe for our upcoming trip! As my friend Betty correctly guessed, we're off to Greek island. Its the latest in the season we've been before and I've been following the weather apps like a woman posessed to get my packing just right (there's no margin for error when you only travel with carry-on). Anyway, the average daytime temperature is currently around 21°C dropping to 16°C at night with the sea at a delicious 23°C! We've visited this island before and there's loads to do (and an excellent bus service) should it not be beach weather. 

Clothing (clockwise from left): Art silk maxi dress (Mrs Kaur's £5 rail), Sari silk kaftan (Vinted), velvet wrap top (Vinted), silk tunic (Vinted), 2 x Anokhi cotton maxi dresses (one bought new in Mumbai, the other from Vinted), silky wrap top (All About Audrey) and a kantha riding jacket (which used to be Nikki's)

Jewellery: 2 x leather wrap bracelets, my turquoise & silver pendant, six rings, my turquoise earrings,  and my Shilpa Silver fishtail earrings. 

Fringed leather bag (charity shop), Teva platform sandals, FatFace reversible bikini (Vinted), 2 x vintage scarves (charity shop), Accessorize cord cap (Vinted), Adidas Superstar 90s (charity shop), Accessorize metallic jute bag (charity shop).

And here's what I'm wearing to travel in, in art form!

We saw Uprising on Wednesday night, Paul "Bourne Identity" Greengrass's film about the real-life Peasant Revolt of 1381. With half of England's population dead from the Black Death, the corrupt oligarths who have the ear of boy king, Richard II, use their positions to enrich themselves whilst oppressing the peasantry. Inspired by the actions of a bereaved ploughman, the peasants rise up and march to London to confront the king. It's a brutal and well-acted watch with a startling contemporary resonance. During the pandemic I researched our family trees, whereas my family line is mostly peasant stock, Lord Jon's is far more illustrious including much of the Plantagenet family (of which Richard II belonged). If we'd been around in Mediaeval England, we'd have been on opposing sides! 

Woody Norman, the actor who plays 14 year old Richard II and looking like the love child of Jack White & Harry Styles! 

Thursday started with a thirty minute Wii fit workout, which was interrupted by me dashing outside to capture the stunning sunrise. After breakfast I dusted and vacuumed downstairs whilst Jon scrubbed the shower and did some washing.

I wore a vintage block printed Indian cotton midi dress I bought from the flea market in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife for 4 Euros along with a 1970s Chelsea Girl waistcoat. I added boots to go outside and do some more leaf sweeping. 

  

I spent the afternoon reading. Never let it be said that my taste in books isn't varied. This week I've followed the exploits of a 19th Century nun shooting her way across America and now it's a friendship between a widow and a Giant Pacific Octopus (passed on from Josy, a friend from swimming). It's a very usual and rather lovely read! (Also, according to the cover, a film on Netflix).

Thanks for reading....see you soon!

Five Days in October

What have I been up to since I last posted?

Thursday, being a non-swimming day, kicked off with a 30 minute yoga & muscle-building workout on the Wii Fit. In the words of Caron Wheeler & Soul II Soul, Keep on Movin'! After breakfast I changed into an early 1970s Ritu Kumar for Monsoon midi dress I bought from eBay eight years ago.

These Clarks nubuck biker boots are a recent Vinted acquisition.

We drove over to the council tip to drop off some garden waste before having a rummage in the on-site tip shop. I rescued this jute lampshade from the "free" bin. Back at home I turned it upside down, wedged a ceramic plant saucer in the bottom and popped my Monstera inside. 

Priced at £2.50 but bearing the original price tag of £22.99, this gorgeous gold and blue jute bag reminded me of the bags you always see for sale for £££s in those chi-chi tourist boutiques in Greece. 

There's a few charity shops around the corner from the tip so we had a wander, picking up a needlecord cowboy shirt with snap fasteners for the stockroom plus this choice piece of vintage vinyl, Rod Stewart's album Every Picture Tells a Story, released in 1971, for the princely sum of 50p.

I spent the afternoon trying to sort out my clothes for our upcoming trip. After tea we continued watching Pierre, the new Channel 4 series about a West London duty solicitor starring one of our favourite actors, the wonderful David Harewood OBE. 

Friday was a swimming day so we left the house at 7am, walked into town and were in the water 20 minutes later. I've recently upped my game and now swim 6km a week (that's 3.75 miles in old money). How's the hip? You know what arthritis is like, it changes from day to day but it's only three more weeks until my appointment with the orthopaedic consultant.

After our Spoons breakfast we did a bit of tree hugging. The council are proposing that these beautiful trees are removed from the town centre to make way for the new Sprint bus which promises to shave 7 minutes off the usual journey time to Birmingham (which will still be slower than the train). Residents have just under a fortnight left to raise objections. The council has printed the incorrect email address on both its website and the official notices, I'd like to think its an accident but the cynic in me says otherwise.

We live in one of the most deprived areas in the UK, trees are not only good for the environment but add some cheer to our increasingly derelict high street.

A rummage in the charity shops gleaned a vintage straw boater, a Betty Barclay Y2K fake Afghan coat and a 1980s alpaca and wool Italian-made jumper.

A rummage in the charity shops gleaned a vintage straw boater, a Betty Barclay fake Afghan style coat and a 1980s alpaca and wool Italian-made jumper.

I wore a vintage Afghan dress (bought from a vintage fair in 2017) with a chazza shopped Baker Boy cap and my Swedish Ten Points boots (photo below for 50 and Counting).

Jon dropped me off at True Beauty to get my nails done. Unusually for me I knew what I wanted before I got there, a teal blue, which will compliment the browns and rusts I'm currently embracing.  

Later we watched Silver Haze, a British film about a nurse who after a traumatic event 15 years previously is bent upon revenge until she falls in love with one of her patients.   

We had a lie-in on Saturday morning and read until 9am. Jon and I walked the long way round to the corner shop and treated ourselves to The Guardian which we read over posh coffees at the kitchen table.

The manager of one of the town centre chazzas thought of me when this Fashion Sketchbook was donated. People always seen to assume I'm good at art when nothing could be further from the truth but I had a go at sketching some of my recent outfits and was quite surprised with the results. It's rather addictive 

After the success of last year's school reunion, we decided to do it all over again.

I wore this vintage Hilary Floyd maxi a friend found for me in a Devon charity shop six years ago.

 

Like last year we shared our Queen Mary's High School for Girls gathering with the boys from Queen Mary's Grammar. We'd got too much to talk about to take many photos but thanks to Ian for snapping all of us together.

See you all in 2027!

It was my turn to make the tea on Sunday morning, which I brought back to bed and continued with my female-led Western, Nunslinger, which is proving to be a cracking read. 

After breakfast I sorted out next year's Glastonbury trader application and then got dressed and spent a couple of hours in the garden with Jon, sweeping up leaves and pruning bushes, dressed in a me-made maxi skirt, a chazza shopped tee-shirt and a secondhand Levi's Type 1 jacket .  

The rest of the day was spent reading and sketching and after tea we watched the final of the Great Celebrity Pottery Throwdown and the last episode of Pierre (fingers crossed Channel 4 commission a second series, we loved it!)

Today (Monday) kicked off with a 2km swim. There's a problem with the heat pumps so the water was a bit cooler but I barely noticed a difference after the first couple of lengths. The showers, on the other hand, were icy! 

We bumped into an old mate in Spoons, had a chat with him and then had a look around the charity shops before walking home. Jon got three 1980s 12" singles, including a white label, and I found a £3 teeshirt with an Eye of Time print which originally came from the Salvador Dali museum in Figueres (which I visited in the 1980s but, being a penniless student, could only afford a postcard from the museum gift shop). 

Although it's supposed to warm up later this week, it was chilly enough to need the jacket Nikki gave me to walk down to the pool, which I wore with this 1960s Indian cotton maxi dress a blogging pal sent me back in 2020.

The rest of the week is looking busy so I'm planning on a lazy afternoon of reading, once I've caught up with Blogland.

See you soon!