Do I ever want to get to a point where I just give in and give up with dressing well with a stoma? Would you? Nahhhh, me neither.
I was a bit upset that jeans might be a no no from now on (is that too strong a word? - upset - I think it probably is really, miffed maybe, I was feeling something but can’t quite define it in writing).
Jeans are a staple. They are the blank canvas to add a great top and shoes too.
They’re the bit we don’t take much notice of...until you can’t wear them anymore that is. Then it becomes a struggle to find something to replace them with.
(I hear ya, I get it, I appreciate it’s a first world problem. I’m really very lucky, I do have a very lovely life).
Jeans are just there. They exist but they don’t usually make the outfit, they’re just the base of it.
I ordered more jeans from Topshop, they are my go to shop for jeans, I love Joni’s. They’re high wasted and shapely. Or maybe I am...hahahahaha.
Anyway, having had a few leaks in my smaller sized Joni’s I thought I’d give the size 18 a go. (Size 18 Uk, size 22 USA).
Well I’ve worn them a few times now. And although they do fall down a bit, I haven’t leaked, soooooo, falling down jeans it is then!
I can cope with the constant hoiking them up, as aggravating as it is...more so than I would cope with a bag leak.
I think you’ll agree that baggy skinny jeans are a small price to pay for not stinking.
(Fear of smelling is one of my constants, yes, I’m fine with a colostomy, I’m happy as I am, I go out and enjoy myself as much as possible. I feel confident for the most part, I think my body is fabulous, in both aesthetics and ability to survive. But that nagging fear of leaks does leave me with some bag based anxiety).
It would be easy to say oh it doesn’t bother me - I don’t care about leaks and accidents. But it’s far less easy to live it, than say it.
I’m confident, but I am human.
I wear gallons of perfume, it’s a little security blanket. I mean, it’s not really going to help should a leak occur, it’d be like trying to contain a flood with cotton wool.
But I just feel more comfortable and confident with perfume on.
Top from Karl Lagerfeld, Jeans, Joni’s from Topshop…
…and a little nod to Valentine’s Day with my Dior love heart boots.
So with jeans back in play I got myself all dolled up for a most romantic of Valentine’s Days!
First off, Chris and I were married on Valentine’s Day 1996, so this year was our 24th wedding anniversary.
We got married on Valentine’s Day, not because we are sick makingly cute. But because I hated the day before I met Chris.
I had been dumped by two different boys (yes, definitely boys) on two consecutive Valentine’s Days.
I don’t know about Dangerous Liaisons but I certainly had disastrous ones!
I had such dark and unhappy days until I met Chris, my ray of sunshine, my giver of confidence, and self worth, literally my everything (ah, ok, we are a bit vomit inducing I agree) hahahahaha.
So I was able to take the power back of a dreadful day and give it new meaning, and a good idea it was too, I’ve had over 20 happy Valentine’s Days since.
Chris asked me a few weeks ago what I’d like to do as he had had an idea....and his idea was wonderful!
He was going to take me for a day trip to Neptune’s head office in Swindon!
(I work for Neptune in Colchester, I do their social media, mostly remotely, so I have never had a need or opportunity to go to head office. They have a massive show room there that isn’t open to the public in general, but visits to it can be arranged by appointment).
So with Chris’s idea and the help of my bosses Dani and Jasp, we had the full bells and whistles tour of the beautiful showroom.
I love Neptune, I love the brand, I love the store I work for in Colchester. I love the people that work there, I just love it all.
I’ve worked for them for 3 years and this was my first visit to this mystical place I’d heard so much about.
If it sounds like a weird date to you, that’s ok, for me it wasn’t.
To me it was one of the most thoughtful things someone has ever done for me.
A most fitting way to celebrate 24 years of marriage in my opinion, luckily and thankfully, it’s the only opinion that mattered in this case. xxx
At 22 I knew he was the ONE, 24 years later he’s still the ONE.
A weird thing happened though.
The junction we needed to come off the motorway at was the same junction Chris and I stayed at a motorway hotel for our 5th wedding anniversary.
Let me just elaborate on that.
For our 5th wedding anniversary Chris booked for us to go to the Waldorf Astoria in NYC!! Incredible!! Utterly incredible!!
But for many and various reasons, first and foremost was my phobia of flying - I refused to get on the plane.
It was the Valentine’s Day following 9/11, and the world was still in a daze and chaos of that horrific event.
We arrived at Gatwick airport the night before our flight. We turned on the TV in the hotel and they were showing video footage live from Gatwick, there had been some security issue and tanks, yes TANKS had been drafted in to surround the perimeter of departures and arrivals.
Well, I had a horrendous phobia of flying.I didn’t fly at all at the time, in fact I had 8 years where I didn’t fly. (Oddly, having cancer cured that fear, but this incident was way before diagnosis).
So when morning came and the tanks were still in place I was unable to get on the plane, such was my phobia.
My mum and dad had the boys for us so my mum said we should to go somewhere else and she’d still have them as they had a weekend planned anyway.
We ended up in a Premier Inn in Swindon as Chris had blown the budget on the NYC trip.
....and then 19 years later there we were, a coincidence, a quirk, that the junction we needed for head office was the same junction of our “romantic” trip to sunny Swindon.
We popped over to the roadside hotel, for old times sake and took a selfie.
We did actually have a lovely weekend all those years ago. Ok so it wasn’t the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, but Swindon has a certain charm to it. Hahahahaha.
I have a very lovely husband, he was very kind about our first and failed attempt to go to NYC. He took responsibility for getting carried away in the travel agents and booking something I wasn’t able to achieve. And I felt eaten up with guilt that I had ruined his trip and wasted all that money...money that at the time we did not have.
But we got through it the way we have gotten through everything that’s ever been thrown at us. With humour and piss taking of one and other. Hahahahaha.
Anyway, Neptune head office’s showroom was spectacular!!
It’s not used for the public, it’s for staff training and to show how all the stores should look. It’s a life size diorama! It’s wonderful!
I had such a lovely day. And he bought me a Greggs vegan sausage roll on the way there, so really can life get any better than that!?! :)
We came home exhausted, Swindon is farrrr! We stopped to buy some quick cook food from the M&S at the local BP garage, romance is certainly about who you are with rather than what you are eating and where. :)
A quiet night was followed by a busy day out...
…On Saturday we set off in spite and despite of Coronavirus scaremongering and Storm Dennis’s best efforts.
(My feelings on Coronavirus, well I have a fear of ALL flu, I had real flu about 20 years ago, horrific experience, utterly awful, I’ve had a flu jab ever since, I do what I can to protect myself, it’s all I can do.
I wash my hands throughly with soap and hot water, I don’t touch my face, or at least try not to and I use anti bac hand gel.
But what I can’t do is live in a bubble of fear not going out, not doing anything, and that’s from me a self confessed germaphobe, that has a very low immune system).
Virus concerns and storms be damned, my husband was treating me to presents for our anniversary so I was all in! Hahahahaha
Shirt from Ralph Lauren, Jeans from Topshop, Boots from Lacoste.
Storm wear from Belstaff, Bag from Goyard
We had a wonderful day, I tried on some lovely things, put loads on my ever growing wish list.
I was bought some lovely things in Boodles, and then we met Kaitlyn and Ben who had come up to London for some art shows and a bit of culture.
We ended up at Chutney Mary for brunch...seriously why would I go anywhere else!?
I spent another full day out in a pair of jeans, with no incidents or accidents. Bearing in mind I’d eaten my body weight in chole, butter chicken and naans.
So the conclusion for this week’s blog is jeans are back on the menu…just in a larger size than I’d prefer. ;)