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.