Morning all!
I had a great week last week. I bagged myself some bargains at Tesco for a start.
A new season brings a desire to update a few key wardrobe pieces.
I often find it difficult to buy good shorts to wear with my stoma. It’s not just shorts in fairness, it’s trousers and jeans too.
The bonus is when something feels good, and someone says they look good too. I dress for my own benefit, but it’s nice if someone else appreciates it too.
I bought a pair of great shorts in Tesco on Friday. I wore them on Saturday. They felt really good, so I was feeling confident and comfortable. I came down stairs and Chris said how nice they looked (without prompting too. He’s asked me to stop with my leading questions. Apparently I have a habit of saying things like “does this look nice or do I look like and utter piece of dog sh*t!?”) hahaha
My Tesco haul;
The shorts are really good. Comfortable and with a slight stretch for poo room.
My local Tesco had them in Black, Navy, Pistachio and Blue stripe (which I thought was very apt for Tesco! Hahaha).
The jeggings are ridiculously soft and stretchy. The look of denim, with the stretch of soft leggings. I bought two pairs of each as I know I’m going to get a lot of wear out of them.
The dress is very cute. A very simple Broderie anglaise fabric, in white. Which can be a bit concerning to the bagged, but this dress is lined so it gave fairly good coverage. Although I always wear short floaty dresses with a pair of cycling shorts underneath, as no one really wants to see my thonged arse, and if recent comments on Instagram are anything to go by, no one wants to see any part of me - ever! ;)
The T shirt below is rather special. It was designed by Bowel Babe, the intrepid colorectal cancer campaigner, although I should really mention her new title;
Dame Deborah James! A richly deserved award/reward for someone who has spent the last five years raising awareness of bowel cancer in younger people.
She must have saved a considerable amount of lives over the last five years, opening people’s eyes to the possibility that their symptoms might need looking into further.
Well, now it’s our turn to help Dame Deborah, who is now receiving at home hospice care. This T shirt is part of her collection with In The Style, a fast fashion brand with a big heart.
All the profits from the sale of the T shirts will be given to The Bowel Babe Fund. A charity set up by Bowel Babe to raise money for cancer research, I couldn’t think of a more fitting legacy.
They will find a cure for this disease one day, and she and all those who donate, will be part of that discovery.
T Shirt from In The Style, Shorts from Tesco, Shoes from Hermes.
‘Rebellious Hope’ has been Dame Deborah’s mantra throughout her life with stage 4 cancer.
It happens to be a very comfy T shirt too.
Chris and I pottered round the garden over the weekend. Not my favourite thing to do. But a necessary evil. I know, I’m very lucky to have such a lovely big garden, I don’t take it for granted, I love using it, but I do very much dislike tending to it.
It was mid potter I said to Chris I fancied fish and chips at the seaside. He said he’d woken up fancying that too, but as he knew I was feeling a bit hurt and fragile from being called fat on Instagram he didn’t like to suggest it. (In fairness it was the same person who said it three times rather than three different people, not sure if it’s better or worse? I think probably better, three different people would be a lot to cope with).
So we packed up the bits we needed for a seaside lunch…
Yep! I took my own cutlery with me! Hahaha
I can’t bear the wooden forks you get at the chippie (or with ice cream come to that). It always reminds me of those tongue depressors doctors use! :)
I sent a photo of my lunch to my Ukrainian friend, who very kindly said she was looking forward to trying fish and chips, and possibly even mushy peas. But as a lot of British born people, including Chris think they are an abomination, I’ll let her off if she’s not keen. :)
It wasn’t a particularly warm day. And going down on to the beach wasn’t on Chris’s wish list.
But fish and chips and a stroll in the sea air is pretty restorative.
We came home and discovered a new visitor…
A duck has decided to lay her nest of eggs…10 of them in fact, in the lavender bushes outside our front door. I’ve seen her about for a while but had no idea she’d taken up residence.
I’ve so far spent £20 on food for her, and I’m in a constant state of flux trying to keep prey away from her and her brood, which is great for fun for a long time insomniac! Hahaha
But I feel very responsible for her. She chose to nest with us, so I should keep her safe.
Sunday we were very lucky to be invited to Meg and Bel’s 5th birthday party!! Five already!
Bel very kindly invited us while we were on holiday in Corfu. She gave me a list of suggestions of characters to dress up as for their Disney’s Encanto themed party.
So I set about looking for clothes that I could fashion a costume from. It was only whilst chatting to Kim last week that she mentioned that she wasn’t dressing up!
This was a lucky save! For one I don’t really have many Columbian inspired clothes hanging around. Plus I didn’t keep track of the characters when we watched Encanto (for homework and research purposes you understand).
I just stuck with my normal every days clothes.
Dress from Nobody’s Child, Shoes from Gucci.
It was such a lovely party. Kim excelled herself with the food.
Kim is known for ordering beautiful cakes. And these ones did not disappoint. No Colin Caterpillars for these twins!
She’s also pretty well known in our circle for her chaotic cake cutting, though she also excelled herself with beautifully sliced cake this time.
Kim hired some fantastic children’s entertainment too. We had a lovely time. Especially as Kim’s mum, Jackie, made scones. I can’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than eating scones with Jam and clotted cream.
Meg told Chris that he was a good boy, then got someone to make him a cup of tea, and gave him a party bag. I can’t help but think they favour one of us more than the other. Story of my life really. :)
We came back home, checked on Daphne (oh, yes, she’s got a name, that’s not a recipe for disaster is it? Naming wild animals and investing time and money into their survival.
Wish us luck.
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I’ve been asked to trial some colostomy bags by a Stoma company. I’m always very happy to give something new a try.
I very often ask my stoma provider if there’re any new products on the market to try.
It’s definitely worth asking. I do tend to drift back to the same bags I started my stoma journey with. But I never rule out making a new discovery of some new incredible device.
Things I’d be looking for are;
larger base plates for avoiding pancaking issues for a longer period of time.
Less crinkly plastic bag part. (It really frustrates me how I can’t sneak up on anyone anymore. I mean, if you asked Chris he’d say I was still ridiculously f****** aggravating at jumping out on him, but it’s not quite as easy as it once was). ;)
A more easy to dispose of product/more eco friendly.
Skin sensitive adhesive.
So we shall see what these new bags bring. Any revelations and I will share them with you straight away. Xx
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Monday night we met some dear friends at Nando’s. I’m not a big fan, it’s not technically that I don’t like it, I’m just not into it like a lot of people are. This was only my third visit to a Nando’s. But our friends are pretty addicted to it. And Chris is a fairly regular user of it (this I didn’t know).
Our friends reckon the Braintree branch is the best in the south. They’ve visited many on their travels and they say that the Braintree one has the best/friendliest service team.
Our friends come from Bath but regularly come up to Braintree.
I’ve got to be honest, I didn’t expect it to be as good as it was. The staff are polite, attentive. Super friendly and actually seem to care.
I’m a pain in the arse when it comes to food. I like to be able to alter what’s on offer. I hadn’t expected them to be able to. But they were great, and not only were able to amend my order, they came over and checked the special order was correct - and that I was enjoying it.
It was actually a nicer meal than in that supposedly fancy Italian restaurant in Chelsea the other day…and for a heck of a lot cheaper too.
Dress from Nobody’s Child, Shoes and Bag from Gucci.
My friend popped over on her Essex visit from her new home up north. We don’t see each other very often. But it’s always fantastic when we do.
Pip is only six months old but that didn’t stop her enjoying playing with the jewellery store I made for Zak.
She is an angel, she’s the most chilled out baby I’ve ever known.
Okay, so for now she mainly enjoyed playing with the bags. But she’s a smart girl. She’ll learn. ;)
It was so good to see them. And now they’ve visited us we owe them a visit to Yorkshire again to see them. Can’t bloody wait! Xx
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I had my first shift volunteering at the Food bank today. And apart from misunderstanding the start time (I arrived 45 minutes late, and the worst thing is I was sitting outside in my car waiting to go in!). Other than that it was great. The Food Bank team are really nice, and I met and chatted with lots of really lovely customers too.
I was on greeting and tea and coffee duty today. I had some great compliments on my tea making skills…I don’t drink the stuff so I am prone to making a rotten cup of tea! Hahahah
*I know things are tough right now but if you can donate to a food bank that would be wonderful and greatly appreciated.
Have a great weekend. Xx