Rescue mission — Gladrags & Bags

It’s been a very fine few days. I had the privilege of hitting what is I believe the peak of outfits!

It’s honestly the most beautiful one I’ve ever created. I don’t think I’m ever going to achieve what I feel about this outfit again.

I am utterly in awe of it. Yes, it may sound big headed, but I don’t think I’ve ever looked better.

It’s the most favourite one I’ve ever seen me in.

It’s quite the build up I appreciate, but I do feel the outfit stands up to scrutiny.

We were heading over to Windsor Great Park, for the Guards Club, Cartier polo semi final with clients. Fortunately for me, they are some of my favourite people on the planet.

We’re very lucky as some clients are actually now very good friends of ours.

So I was super excited about the day in general, but I had collected together an outfit which I thought was perfect for the day.

And I was right, because when I put it on (for the first time, the day of the polo, having not trialled it beforehand), I felt that I actually looked a million dollars! This isn’t something that happens very often. Sometimes I think I look a bit shit, sometimes I think I look okay, sometimes I think I look good, but on this particular occasion I thought I looked *******sensational!

Look at her!!! :)

The blouse was from the sale at French Connection, The skirt was from Zara, The Shoes and bag are from Chanel (Chris bought them for me on a trip to Rome 12 years ago and I don’t think they’ve ever looked better in their life), the hat was from Tesco.

…and the very natty little magnetic hat clip was from Amazon.

Polo is one of Chris and I’s favourite thing to watch. We’re quite late to polo, neither of us having been brought up in polo going families. But it’s an incredible sport, almost gladiatorial.

And Guards club is one of the best places to watch it.

The Pretty Woman, divot pressing isn’t the best thing about polo, but it’s certainly iconic and fun to do. Just don’t press on the steaming divots, that’s the best advice I can give. ;)

We had a wonderful day, it was blisteringly hot and sunny. Good food, good company. What more could you ask for. Honestly it was a fabulous day. And topped off with my joy and satisfaction with my outfit.

I’m not sure what flipped the switch in my head, it could have been the afterglow effect of my outfit the day before, but I got up and went out on the first big walk I’ve done in months. I was going quite regularly until March when I had those moles removed on my thigh and foot.

I got up and out in the beautiful countryside with the larks.

Walk completed it was back home for a shower and change.

I chose this dress for its ability to allow free of output. I’ve been having a bit of bother with my stoma leaking. I’ve got a small granuloma at the bottom of my stoma, it’s been there years, and unfortunately it’s grown a bit lately, which means my stoma bag isn’t sticking to my abdomen properly. The poo is getting in that gap the granuloma is creating, and seeping under the adhesive layer. It causes the bag to lift off away from the skin. This little bit of fun is called pancaking, and it’s a massive pain in my arse.

I’ve googled ways to sort out the granuloma, and most roads lead to going to visit the stoma nurse. This is something I haven’t done in 13 years, so I don’t intend to start now.

So as a plan B, I’ve ordered some silver nitrate sticks from the internet so I can do it myself.

DO NOT TRY this at home…

Go to the stoma nurse. You know me well enough to know that I very rarely follow sound advice, even my own, but I know I should.

Dress from Sainsbury’s, Shoes from Gina.

Wearing very loose fitting clothes helped prevent my pancaking issue a bit, but I do need to sort the little nobbly bit out.

On Friday we decided to make a weekend of going into London (The only, the one and only good thing about your children growing up and leaving home is the fact that you have the most amazing freedom).

I’d rather have a house full of kids and chaos to be totally honest, but the fun has to end some day, so we might as well make the most of the benefits.

We have no pets, no kids, it’s just us, and it’s actually pretty cool once you lean into it. We can go anywhere, do anything at the drop of a hat.

So Thursday night we decided to book a hotel for the weekend in London. We were heading up there on the Saturday anyway, as I had planned for Chris to go to a pamper session at Truefitt and Hill, the gentleman’s barbers in St James’s (he didn’t know this, he thought we were meeting Ben for a coffee at 10am, when in fact Chris’s pampering was at 10, and we would then meet up with Ben at 12).

We had decided to park somewhere different than where we usually do, having had the hassle of the break in. So we parked at Stratford shopping centre. Ben parks there a lot and he’s never had any problems with it.

So we parked there and headed up to the hotel the rest of the way by Tube, and as sad as this sounds, it made it feel like a bit of an adventure. Hahahahah

(I would say I should get out more, but not sure that’s actually possible, seeing as I’m never at home)

Dress from French Connection, Vest top from Tesco, Shoes from Gucci

We decided to add in a meal at Chutney Mary’s which I recently heard referred to as Madame Chutney’s, which sounds very fancy, and I think I prefer it. :)

We absolutely love it there. There, and India are my favourite places to eat curry. :)

Saturday, I sent Chris off for his well deserved pampering. The man treats me like a queen, so I felt I should return the favour. He’s the best human I’ve ever met.

Dress from French Connection, Vest top from Sainsbury’s, Shoes from Gucci and bag from Chloe.

While Chris was being cared for I went off to have a nose round the shops. I had a lovely time, when don’t I. ;)

We then met up with each other, and met up with Ben for a few hours over a coffee, or in my case a strawberry milkshake because my palate hasn’t matured from the age of five and I don’t do adulting hot drinks. Hahaha

We then went off in search of a new hat for Chris. He’s never had a real, grown ups hat before, nor have I come to that. But he’s been meaning to get a Panama hat for years. So we decided to go to Lock and Company, you might remember it from the Kingsman films. It’s the oldest, finest hat shop in London.

The hats are beautiful. Chris looks gorgeous in his.

He had his head measured and fitted with an absolute corker, which made me think perhaps I might like to get one too.

So now we are the most sickly smug marrieds you’ll ever meet, with our matching Panamas! ;)

Hubba Hubba!! :)

I’ve never had so many compliments from strangers in one day. My hat is a compliment magnet. One man who stopped to tell me how lovely he thought it and I looked, whilst he was selling The Big Issue outside a shop. He didn’t try and sell us the magazine, he just wanted to say how nice it looked. Which was adorable really, because let’s face it, he’s got bigger things to worry about than a random lady in a lovely hat.

Honest to God, it felt like a magic hat. I was stopped and complimented twice more after that. It felt very strange, but very nice.

We had a fantastic weekend.

And then Monday morning at 5am I set off to Spain with my friend Kim, to go and pick up my purse that I had accidentally left behind last time I came, about 4 weeks ago.

I haven’t been worried about my missing purse, because I thought I knew where I had left it.

Besides, what a great excuse for a mini break. :)

Dress from Tesco, Trainers from Gucci

The only reason Kim and I flew here was to come to get my purse for me, and Kim came along for some much deserved R&R.

Long story short, the mislaid purse has been found!

The longer version of events are as follows;

We arrived on Monday, I made no effort to rush to where I thought I had left the purse, because in my mind’s eye, I knew where it was (under some bits and bobs in the top drawer in my chest of drawers).

So we arrived, we unpack, we have a drink, I then nonchalantly go to where the purse should be, only to find that the purse was unaware of this fact, and most definitely not there.

This is where the once calm, serene, and more than a little arrogant me, had a complete meltdown.

(Building up to this trip I had been borderline showing off “oh, yes, I have to go to Spain to pick up my purse” So that came back to bite me on the bum).

If it’s not here (and it wasn’t), in the drawer which I have a memory of leaving it, where the hell is it?

I knew it wasn’t lost outside of the house because none of the cards had been touched, in fact, I hadn’t actually cancelled any of the cards I was so confident of finding it where I thought I’d left it. Why would I need to cancel them? The purse was in the drawer…(it wasn’t, but that’s not the point).

I frantically searched this place. And it was nowhere to be found.

Anyway, the only reason I came back here was to pick up the purse. Which meant I felt a bit foolish for coming back if it actually wasn’t lost here as I had thought.

But Kim and I had come now so, although I was a bit shaken, I thought I might as well enjoy the break.

Anyway, last night just after I had laid down in bed, prepped for sleep; ie, phenegan, CBD oil, ear plugs, gum shield, and the thick eye ointment I use for dry eye, which renders me virtually blind. (Yes, you’re right, I do look a right treat in bed).

So, there I am, readying myself for my hard fought battle for sleep, when I became aware of a far off distant calling, quickly getting louder.

At which point my light was turned on and now the excited shouting was upon me…

I realised pretty quickly it was Kim calling, seeing as she was the only other person in the house, I’m smart like that.

Through my extremely blurred vision I could make out that Kim was excitedly hopping foot to foot shouting “Suzes! Suzes! Look look!!!”

Kim, like me, gets a bit excitable, and not necessarily at the correct degrees of excitement for the actual goings on. So it could have been anything from an insect to an intruder and everything in between.

But there she was holding a pillow from the spare room bed.

Excited as she was, she still hadn’t actually mentioned anything more than the ‘look look!’

So I didn’t know what I was meant to be looking at.

She then said “LOOK!” she tipped the pillow case upside down and shook it…

….and nothing happened. At which point she was as confused as I was, because she knew there was meant to be something in there to show me….but it had fallen out en route, so she said “hold on”

…Still no information for me of why on earth she shouting at midnight…

Then she came back into the room, this time I could see the cause of her excitement!!

My purse!! My lost purse, my purse I’d definitely put in the drawer (but clearly hadn’t).

I had apparently hidden it so well, from myself, by putting it into the pillow case of the pillow on the spare room bed.

And Kim had happened upon it whilst zhuzh-ing up the pillow to settle down for the night…fantastic!! Amazing! Well done Kim!!! You saved the day!! My hero!!

…..if I was going to be picky, I’d say couldn’t you have ruffled pillow the previous night, but you know what, that seems harsh and ungrateful in the circumstances.

I’m incredibly grateful and happy!!

We came all this way to pick it up. Okay, so we made a little mini break out of the trip, so all’s that ends well. But it would have been a right bugger to go home having failed in my rescue mission to get it.

The funny thing is, Chris offered to fly out last Saturday to pick it up in one day. He was going to get the early flight out and the late flight back, job done.

Can you imagine him getting here only to find it wasn’t where I said it most definitely was.

No way would he have checked the many and various pillow cases in any of the rooms. Who would?!? What sort of loon would hide it there…hello - it’s me!

Hahahaha.

Pesky little blighter!

Anyway, we’ve had a lovely time away. Kim is always easy company, she’s literally no trouble…I wasn’t saying that when she fucked up the satnav on the car (which I had never driven at this point), and we ended up having to drive round the roundabout 4 times while she scrabbled around trying to undo the damage…this was before we’d even left the airport car park.

Hahaha

But finding the lost purse more than made up for that terror. :)

The sun is shining, we’re just doing as we please. It’s really lovely and chilled.