Gossip & Shopping
Bumped into Imke on my way home from town yesterday - she was our landlady the first place we lived in Ipswich, we lived in a granny flat on the side of their house so saw them quite a bit. Nice to see her & catch up a bit. Their daughter is doing her A-levels now. Which is one of those things that makes you pause & repeat it - their daughter is doing her A-levels?! It, of course, makes sense - she was just pre-school when we moved in, so of course she's at the end of sixth form now, it's been 14 years. But still takes me aback somewhat, having not seen them in 8 years. She's off to UEA next year, too, to do biochem, which is an odd piece of co-incidence. Pat (Imke's husband) is apparently doing wedding & portrait photography now & a casualty of the BT downsizing last year, as she said it wasn't the best time to be starting up a new venture, but it's picking up now apparently, so that's pretty cool.
While in town I picked myself up a dress - the excuse is two wedding reception invites and a holiday. The reason is that there seem to be loads of nice not-quite-too-formal dresses in the shops this year, ones I can see dressing up for more formal things but are still casual enough to wear more often. And purple is still an in colour :) I tried one on in Dorothy Perkins that was really nice, but somehow made me look as if I was trying to pretend I was still 14 :/ So I went back to BHS - I'd tried one on the other day but thought the fit wasn't quite right, but I tried another one (of the same style) yesterday & it fitted well. Success! :) It might be more dark blue than purple, it's on the edge between the two colours, but it's nice anyway. Got a free book, too, for spending £30 ... I haven't even looked to see what it was, the lady at the till said something along the lines of "Here's your book, I don't know if it's any good, I'm not going to read it, but it's free". Hardly a ringing endorsement. I suppose I should at least see what it is, tho ;) Ah, it's "The Shop on Blossom Street" by Debbie Macomber ... never heard of it, but apparently it (or she?) is a "No.1 New York Times Bestseller". Doesn't look quite my thing, but I'll probably at least try to read it at some point.
While in town I picked myself up a dress - the excuse is two wedding reception invites and a holiday. The reason is that there seem to be loads of nice not-quite-too-formal dresses in the shops this year, ones I can see dressing up for more formal things but are still casual enough to wear more often. And purple is still an in colour :) I tried one on in Dorothy Perkins that was really nice, but somehow made me look as if I was trying to pretend I was still 14 :/ So I went back to BHS - I'd tried one on the other day but thought the fit wasn't quite right, but I tried another one (of the same style) yesterday & it fitted well. Success! :) It might be more dark blue than purple, it's on the edge between the two colours, but it's nice anyway. Got a free book, too, for spending £30 ... I haven't even looked to see what it was, the lady at the till said something along the lines of "Here's your book, I don't know if it's any good, I'm not going to read it, but it's free". Hardly a ringing endorsement. I suppose I should at least see what it is, tho ;) Ah, it's "The Shop on Blossom Street" by Debbie Macomber ... never heard of it, but apparently it (or she?) is a "No.1 New York Times Bestseller". Doesn't look quite my thing, but I'll probably at least try to read it at some point.