I've been here there and everywhere just lately. Friday Chris took the day off work and took me to London as a treat. He was so sweet, he made the whole day about me (my favourite kind of day ;) ) and treated me like a princess. He's such a good man, we've been together 24 blissful years next month, so I think I'll keep him :) . I know we're vomit inducing aren't we, don't worry I'm as shocked as the next person that someone has put up with me for this long, believe me.
It was a very long day, which I knew it would be from the start, so packing my bag in the morning was like packing a baby changing bag. I took spare trousers, yes, they are bulky to carry about but it's better to be safe than sorry, plus all of my usual colostomy stuff. You could argue I could have purchased more trousers to wear should the need arisen, but firstly it would be wasteful as I have plenty of clothes I could take as spares and in a high stress situation ie a bag leak who wants to be gallivanting round the shops looking for something to wear?
We finished our wonderful day having virgin cocktails in Quaglino's followed by dinner at Chutney Mary's, thoroughly recommend both if you're ever in town.
And then it comes to Saturday, ages ago we organised to go to Latitude Festival with friends. Having been to my first festival last year I thought I'd really enjoy it. What I hadn't thought to do was check who was playing....turns out no one that I know or liked.
I've got to be honest, it just wasn't my sort of place. I just wasn't feeling it. Not that I'd want to eat from a great big dirty kebab truck or anything but By the same token I didn't expect there to be a Waitrose Tent, a Waterstones book shop and reading tent...not very festival-y is it...well possibly The Hay literary festival maybe but not a grungy music one.
They might as well have a sign at the gate stating "if your names not Tarquin you're not coming in!"
That said, it was an incredibly well mannered, polite place to be, in fact the only slightly risqué behaviour came in the form of middle aged, accountant/librarian looking folk smoking weed, and to be completely honest at their age it was hard to tell if it was medically prescribed for their glaucoma or arthritis... hahahahahahahaha...
What I did love though was spending a day eating and people watching with our friends. Oh my goodness there was plenty of people watching to be had...and to join in with as it turns out. I'm not sure how it happened but at one point it was insisted upon that I join in with the "fun and frolicks" and getting dressed up nonsense...I'm not a fan of fancy dress at the best of times but what can you do when you're with a bunch of maniacs...If you can't beat them join them springs to mind.
Top from Next, Jeans Joni's from Topshop, Shoes from Jimmy Choo, Bag from Longchamp.
I was happy with the outfit I chose for the day, it worked on every level. But Chris and Sam and the others had clearly woken up in playful moods so I found myself at a stall watching them in disbelief as they got dressed up festival stylie....and then thier attention turned to my lack of festive fun ware....oh for heaven's sake... go on then!
My commitment to the day managed the addition of a lizard tail. In fairness bearing in mind where we were the stalls were all very reasonably priced. We bought two deck chairs for £15...you can see how into the music at this particular music festival I was when one of the highlights for me was the price of the chairs we bought (totally my own fault for not checking the line up though, I'm sure for fan's of the bands playing it was amazing). Sam threw himself into the day with full force...he ended up with the matching leggings to his gold fish skin jacket!
It was bloody good fun and a good laugh. Ben our youngest son was sadly missed as he's on a lads holiday in Marbella, as you can imagine he was devastated to miss out on all the dressing up. (we're going to another mini festival soon, he checked last night what the dress code would be, I think he may have pulled out if dressing up was going to be on the cards...
I kid you not, we didn't even stand out from the crowd!
The layout of this festival is exceptional, we found a little woodland clearing with some nice chilled music the perfect place for pizza's.
Knowing it would be a long day I packed two spare colostomy bags. To keep the weight I had to carry down to a minimum I pre cut my bags to save taking scissors, as they'd likely be taken off you at the gate anyway. I took Ostoguard wipes for removing the bag instead of spray, and I took a small bottle of room spray, although I wouldn't have needed it, you wouldn't have notice any smell I produced over the smell of the loos anyway. :0
All neatly stowed in a little pouch that I put in my little rucksack.
And to finish off the weekend nicely we met up with Kim and the twins for a lovely Sunday roast. To which I wore my normal (boring?) clothes and no tail...
Top from Hollister, Jean's Joni's from Topshop, Shoes from Manolo Blahnik.