With the weather being SOOOO cold and my having to walk an hour a day (to and from work combined), a hat is an essential and I have enjoyed wearing my way through some of my winter hat collection over the last month. This pearl beret (H&M) is one of my favourites- pretty and warm! But, the main feature today is, I found this dress in a charity shop recently and was immensely pleased as how often do you find an almost maxi knitted dress AND in rainbow stripes!!? Admittedly, it's a bit more skimming of the body than I am used to or comfortable with- because I have a very small top-half, anything fitted to the lower half does look not so flattering as it might do on someone with a more even body, compared to Mrs Pearshaped here. Not complaining about my size, shape in the slightest, but I do know what does or doesn't suit my shape, hence why I avoid pencil skirts (Quote my Mum in Oasis when I was 17: "That skirt shape does nothing for you." She was right- it looked vile!). The kids always love it when I wear anything brightly coloured- the girls always say 'Miss you look pretty today'! Awwwww! BUT, despite its unusual shape for me, I adore the stripes and knitted happiness of it! Shame these photos don't reveal its Joseph-and-his-technicolour-dreamcoat vibrance but since I was at school till 6.30 that day, this was the best I could do!
{sorry, I feel all I have done recently is moan about my various ailments. Tell me to shut up gladly but I seem to have caught everything since Jan the 1st!!) Considering how ill I felt on Friday night and Saturday morning with tonsils that felt like they were trying to escape down my throat- swallowing has a 3 second delay, I have been here, there and everywhere today and actually it's been quite good and helped! We started off the day going swimming and as soon as I was in that humid swimming environment, I felt a lot better, nose was clearer and throat and tonsils calmed down. I swam about 30 lengths non-stop (but slowly! I am a sllllloooooow, incompetent swimmer though I have stamina!) until CBC got out. Bizarrely, as I showered, I listened to the same two children in the next shower cubicle to me that I had heard three weeks before:
"KAAAAAAAAAAAAAI, put your head under the shower. KAI, stop it. Mum, he wont put his head under the shower! KAI, stop it!"
Kai made all sorts of comments, crumblings and screams all through this. The whole torrid affair lasted the length of my shower and before and after it! Kai sounds a bit of a pest!
After we changed, we ate a quick teacake in the cafe before heading towards the town near where my Mum lives to Le Moulin, the French Patisserie that made our wedding cake- to meet her for lunch. Just before we reached the Patisserie, CBC made up a song about our house being cluttered with all my stuff, so to punish him*, I dived into the St Francis Hospice charity shop whilst he went to look for a cashpoint. Contemplated a pinafore but bought nothing in there....
In the patisserie, we were asked the same tired old question that people seem to think is socially acceptable once you are married: "Are you not pregnant yet?" (The real answer I want to give is: "No! Bog off and leave me alone!") and once that was politely deflected, we met my Mum and ate olive, cheese baguette-bake things, Praline mousse cake and tea.
At this point, CBC declared a wish to visit the Music shop to search for some theory books for school and I rejoiced, knowing he'd spend AAAAGES in there which meant I could have a lovely pootle round the myriad charity shops in that town!
I actually only bought things in the first shop which I went into with my Mum (before she got the bus home) and I got some really nice items I was happy with (to be shared in future post once photos done!) before getting caught in mad freak sudden hurricane-style downpour! It vanished as quickly as it came and left a whole highstreet of wide-eyed, shell-shocked individuals!
Meeting CBC, on a whim, we decided to drive over to my Dad's to go and pick up the suit-jacket my little sister used her staff-discount to get for him. They are super, super organised and need weeks notice for a visit so we have taken to suddenly springing ourselves on them with a quick phone call! They are very accommodating, surprisingly! It was lovely to see him and my stepmum and we had a nice cup of tea and chat about ISAs (strange and confusing things!) before heading homewards.
Back in Essex, we nipped home and grabbed stuff to go to Waitrose to get shopping and surprisingly for once, didn't have a supermarket tiff!!!
Came home and CBC cooked Spaghetti bolognaise and I blognaised (see what I did there?!) after eating it!!
Hope that all is well with you. xxx
Linking with these lovelies:
Liz Burton's Magpie Monday with my stripy charity shop purchase
Patti's Visible Monday with my lovely bright dress
*Actually was totally going to go in anyway. But it was nice to have an excuse that wasn't just: "But I want to!" I'm not sure he believed me.