How Not to Travel Light.

I'm currently drinking tea, watching Jeeves and Wooster and nursing a sore arm. I don't know if it was Thursday's pilates, too much gardening, or a combination of both but I am in pain dammit. Thankfully it's not my drinking arm.

This weekend plans changed at the last minute so I got to spend a good long stretch outside, finally sorting the flowerbeds which were so overgrown it was shameful. I'm pretty much done out there which makes me very happy.

Last weekend was a birthday trio (Himself. his Dad and my friend Kay) so we hotfooted it down to Margate to spend some time with Himself's Dad.
As we were only going for one night and might be carrying our bag round with us all day I had to pack light. Not even an overnight bag for me, oh no!, I was going for broke with just a messenger bag.

I was hyperventilating by the time I was done, packing light is not my forte. I still find it hard to believe I backpacked around America for 2 months, I can't go anywhere these days without the kitchen sink at the very least.
I had hardly left the house when I realised I had forgotten my sunglasses, close enough to quickly nip home for them, not so when I realised I had forgotten to pack the handbag I planned to use when we went out for dinner that night.

Oh irony of ironies. The woman who collects handbags, indeed has a house full of handbags was without!!

My options were going to dinner with a bright yellow messenger bag with a huge cartoon monkey face on it, Going to dinner with my possessions in a white carrier bag proclaiming 'Bicester Market - Every Tuesday' or the option I plumped for, diving into Peacocks en route to dinner and buying the first half decent bag I could find, get the girl behind the till to snip the tags off and tip all my possessions into it!

This was what I grabbed in desperation. Good grief.

Dinner was sublime. We went to Giorgio's in Margate, a fab little restaurant and somewhere Himself's family have always gone for special occasions, so it was bitter sweet to be there without his Mum for the first time.

 Beautiful end to a beautiful day.

From there we headed to the old town for a drink in Barnacles

Another place full of happy memories both of Himself's parents and the early days of our own love story.

The next day was another glorious hot day and I managed to grab a couple of hours with Kay sitting on the cliff top at Palm Bay, catching up on all the news. Bliss.

On the shopping front, other than the unexpected bag purchase, I had a voucher for Lady Vintage.

I wisely spent it on their sale page therefore getting three dresses for the price of one. I dithered over this green one for a LONG time. The model is meant to be wearing my size

However she has, well, acres more in the bust department than I, so I was really worried it was gape horrendously on me.
What I hadn't realised was the dress is made from stretch jersey so it was absolutely fine. I would have taken a picture but I spilled my dinner down it so it's in the wash!

Next was this one that I had been eyeing for a while.

I love the quirky key print and I know I will get lots of wear out of it.

The final dress was a real punt. I'm not sure I will have quite have the guts to wear it, or even quite where I shall wear it, but I kept going back to it again and again.

I just loved the summery fruity print so in the end I thought bugger it and bought it.

Trials and Tribulations

Not much to report from Magpie Towers. It's been a very trying week I'm glad it's over.

Thank you for all the outrage over the builder next door nicking land, I should have clarified we rent not own, otherwise believe me I'd have been in there giving him what for!
Instead I took pictures and reported it to our rental agency who came out on behalf of our landlady on Wednesday to measure and take more pictures. Apparently a cease and desist letter will be winging it's way to the builder very shortly, so there's mud in his eye.

We did a little bit more of the mammoth patio clean. This time round it wasn't so bad as I was prepared for just how much mess Himself was capable of making!

Only the last strip at the side there to go. No idea what that big grey splodge in the middle is, clearly something of a different mix got spilled at one time!

Work has been a bit of a nightmare, we had an interview day on Monday and I wore a new frock. New in that it hasn't managed to have an outing since I bought it a little while ago.

It's a bit big around the boobs but fine under a cardigan until I get round to taking it in.

Anyway to set the work scene, we have one head of department and 3 managers in my office. Of those the head of department and one of those managers in on long term sick right now, one other manager finishes on Friday for a year's maternity leave and the last one goes on holiday for 3 weeks on Wednesday. We also have 2 empty posts right now, so to say those of us who are left are feeling the strain is a bit of an understatement.

I also realised I had managed to lose a stone out of my engagement ring at some point. It's one of the pinprick sized diamonds so not something I'm likely to ever see again but very upsetting none the less. I've had the ring 15 years now so I'm kind of attached to it.

I took it in to get a quote on replacing it and came away thoroughly patronised. I think the girl thought she was being friendly and chatty, well she was certainly chatty.
When I said it was Miss not Mrs for the name she went "Oh you're STILL just engaged" "Oh bless you" in such a pitying voice I couldn't decide whether to burst out laughing or punch her.

She clearly thought that I have been stoically waiting with my upper lip stiffened for Himself to finally come to his senses and marry me.When the truth of the matter is he'd gallop down the aisle faster than his feet could touch the ground if  I'd only agree to it, so it's actually been me who has balked at the idea all these years!  

In fact a couple of friends joked that maybe this was a sign and I should finally replace the engagement ring with a plain band, but frankly that seems like a very expensive and excessive way to replace it to my mind.

Then on top of that our washing machine died, and being the notorious tightwad she is, our landlady replaced it with the cheapest piece of junk she could find. I'm absolutely gutted. We have gone from a very reliable workhorse to something that barely scraps a 1 star review on various sites on the internet and even the washing machine engineers call it 'cheap and nasty'.

 It has such a small drum capacity I can't even do the bedding in one load!?! That's only a duvet cover, 2 pillow cases and a sheet by the way, it's seriously that tiny.
The average 40 degree cycle also takes a whopping 3 hours and 20 minutes from start to finish. So not only am I going to have to do many more washes than before they are going to take me forever.

We don't have the spare cash at the moment but if we did I would seriously look at buying our own machine and asking for this thing to be taken away. It really was a shit way to end a shit week.

Having said that we did go out for drinks on Friday night. Someone I used to work with at the library was leaving for pastures new. We met in the K.A (King's Arms) which was kind of weird, I haven't been in there since I left the library 5 years ago. It's the pub right opposite the library so always full of students and library staff.
The funny thing was they have clearly redecorated and yet they have just put all the old pictures back up in exactly the same places, right down to the incredibly faded Guinness adverts above the noticeboard!

 I remember them doing the black and white photo shoot of all the staff and regulars back in 1989 so in a way it's quite cool that they still have those pictures up nearly 30 years later but god it made me feel old.