Well folks, Friday I was poorly, so that and the fact that SweetP and I never got to see the wind that shakes the barely, is the reason you never got a review! Never mind though, I have done lots since which I have to update you on.

Friday, mum and I went to the local church fayre. I couldn’t wait to get there, knowing that grandmas in their millions donate to these things I was hoping to come across some worthy vintage goods. Well I wasn’t disappointed, I bought a 50s style handbag for 50p :o) and I bought some dress jewellery too. One of the pieces of jewellery was a big goldtone brooch, on the reverse it is imprinted with Sarah Cov… which I have googled today and found out that for 10p I have purchased myself a 1960s collectors item. Apparently her dress jewellery is widely collected by vintage lovers… so I didn’t do too bad there did I?

Saturday night I went off to the pictures with Peter, his children and his son’s friend! :o) We went to see the new James Bond, which I thought was absolutely fantastic. Daniel Craig plays a rugged and tough James Bond, which is totally believable, and I don’t know why people were saying he was too ugly to play James Bond, he’s quite a dish I thought! Unfortunately though by the time Peter had driven all over Coventry to drop the friend off, he only got back in time for one drink with me before home :o( So I carried on the evening out with mum and went to a local pub, we had a really nice night and was talking to a lady who lives on a narrow boat about how DEFRA are taking money away from the maintenance of the canals… very high brow stuff!

Sunday I watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I’ve never seen it before and it was fab. Audrey Hepburn was so beautiful and a bit dippy really, but I can see me watching that film again… and again and again… actually I can see similarities between Holly Golightly and another one of my New York heroines, Carrie Bradshaw! What do you think?

Finally yesterday, I dragged the weekend out by making the most of a work trip to London and booking the morning off to cruise the shops. Mum came down to London with me, so we went to Kings Road, where I saw Alicia Duvall!!! Unfortunately, the vintage shop which I had so wanted to visit was closed on Monday’s boooooooo. But the rest of the day was great fun, the weather was nice and we finished off the day with dinner in Harvey Nichols. How very posh… dahrling!!! I desperately wanted to buy myself a Christmas present from London, but no matter how much I searched I couldn’t find anything! I think I’ve cultivated a bit too much wisdom just lately around spending my hard earned cash. Despite the fact that I wanted a Smythson notebook, the £38 price label put me off…. Where before it would have only spurned me on! What’s happened to me? I hope I’ve not lost my glamorous wants and monetary carelessness, which would simply not do! I did however price up lots of luggage and when Peter goes to Italy next year, I will be sending him equipped to purchase me some divine Italian leather luggage… where better to get it from hey? I’d also like to save up and get some Jimmy Choos from Bicester village in the New Year sales, but who knows whether I will or not! Anyway, I can’t prolong the weekend any further (doh) I must get some work done!!!!

Well folks, despite the fact that it seems I haven’t really done much of anything this week, it’s flown by and it’s Thursday again… and almost payday… at last! So what exactly have I done this week? Well… finally I sent my application form off to UCE in Birmingham for my masters degree in real estate management. Now, if I am successful in my application (and interview and possible aptitude test) I will start studying again in September 2007, for 2 years! I really want to do this because:

i) It’s going to be a great career move, I will be a chartered surveyor by 30 (note the determination)
ii) I am genuinely interested in the property world… it ties in nicely with my original degree in law and social policy and I can really imagine myself working at this.

I just really have to keep my fingers crossed that my plans now come up against no opposition!

I’m still making the most also of the training allowance that we have through work until the end of the year. I’ve just ordered 3 books off amazon.co.uk 2 of which are photography books and one teach yourself Russian. I’ve always had an urge to learn Russian, and kind of regret the fact that when I was at Uni the first time round and we were given the option of doing a ‘free module’ in a language, I picked French… Why did I do that? I can already speak French… well to a certain level I can, I got an A at GCSE!!!
Bonjour, j’mapelle Louise. Je voudrais un gateaux sil vous plait et un chocolat. Ca combien?

See, I can get by in France ;o) I’m actually really jealous of the guy on my team who can pick up languages no problem, he’s fluent in French, can speak some Africaans and now is learning Italian… and learning it well! I wish I had that ability with languages… who knows maybe Russian will be my thing! Although German wasn’t a strong point of mine at school!

Apart from that I have really just been doing things like packaging up parcels for ebay and finishing off interior design coursework! I’m still selling tons of stuff on ebay, I can’t believe the value I am getting out of some of the items… it provides a good argument to anyone who says fashion is a waste of money, particularly when you know you can get your money back on it that way! It’s also a great way to sell jewellery, if you sell it to a jeweller they only give you scrap gold value… and quite frankly my gold isn’t scrap… it’s very pretty and good quality!

I also got copies of the pictures of me that Peter took in last weeks photo shoot and I put them all into a little photo album (you will have to ask sweet p nicely if he will post one on his blog for you to see). I’m keeping the photo album so that when I am old and grey and a bit batty (I’m looking forward to being a bit batty, I’m already half way there) then I’ll have a momento of when I was 25 and quite glam (he’s done a very good job and I really do look rather glam in my vintage 1950s dress).

Tonight I’m off to the pictures with sweetp… we’re off to see the wind that shakes the barley… so hopefully I will have time to give you a full rundown of that tomorrow.

Well folks as most of you know SweetP is doing a HNC in photography. Well one of his assignments was to take a fashion photograph… well with my 1950s vintage dress having not long arrived, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to pose and preen in front of the camera.

So straight after work lastnight, off we went to begin our photographic session… I had a few outfits, a few pairs of shoes and some props… and we really got into the swing of things. Some of his student colleagues stopped by the door every now and then to glimpse in at what we were doing and ideas, and film just kept flowing… it was really creative… half the time I tried to pose… and ended up laughing instead, but I hope that Peter will be pleased with the results!

Friday night I was so tired, I wasn’t going anywhere, it was an early night in preparation for a trip to York on Saturday.

Saturday morning it was a time for a 3 hour drive Northwards to Yorkshire and the Viking city of York. I’d heard so much about the wonders of York, the Minster being the largest North of the Alps, and the city itself being so wondrous. Peter and I were prepared with cameras. Finally we got there, it was a bit cold (as it always is up north) but off we went towards the minster… first through the market selling it’s wares where Peter managed to get some nice pictures, then up winding old fashioned streets. We found Priestleys, a vintage shop hidden back from the street quite near the minster. For me in my current frame of mind this was an ideal Aladdins cave, and my mission was to find a 1950s vintage coat. The first one I stumbled upon was a vintage Burberry… a snip at £130… I was desperate for it to fit, but alas neither Peter nor my mum found it flattering on me… so back on the rail it went. Then I found a gorgeous black 1950s coat. It was £95 and I fully intended to come back for it on my way back from the Minster… alas I never got back for it.

On we mustered to the minster… it was an impressive site from the outside. Imposing against an azure blue sky, we paid to go inside, and it was truly cavernous. As with many English cathederals it was lined with alabaster tombs, elegantly carved out, and even the lectern which housed the holy bible was a grand gold affair.





We didn’t spend too long in the minster, we head into the gift shop where fancies and Christmas decorations were plenty.



Unfortunately when we head back out into the streets of York, the azure blue sky had disappeared and in it’s place was a black sky and torrents of rain… we scurried off along streets of York to try to find a Tea shop.



We found one, and as luck would have it, it was located in one of our other favourite haunts… an antique shop. So once afternoon tea had been finished we meandered through the vintage watches and jewellery looking for a bargain… I think Peter was tempted a couple of times, but we left empty handed to go and search for Jorvik which is like a Viking ride through what York would have been like… it was great, I think we all enjoyed it. At the end we even got to put on a Viking helmet… which squashed my nose!



After grabbing a yummy subway, we tried to find the shambles again… a medieval shopping lane… but it was too cold and wet and we had the three hour drive home ahead of us. So off we went to the car. It was a lovely day out but I really think next time I visit York I need to stay over… there is too much to do in one day.

I had planned today that I would get into work, and as no one much is around I would have a nice long blog to write. Unfortunately I was in London for work all day yesterday and got home after 11pm, only fit to fall into bed and so when I got in (late) this morning, I was bombarded with urgent tasks, and so it has got to 11.30 am already, and I haven’t stopped!

Anyway, Tuesday night we went to see ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ at the courtyard theatre in Stratford. It was fantastic. The company who were putting it on were all male, and so like the original Shakespearean plays, even the female roles were played by men. But they were played wonderfully, it’s one of my favourite plays I am sure. It was quite rough I have to say and poor old Catherina gets a hard time off Petruchio. At the end Peter pointedly turned to me and said ‘There is more than one way to tame a shrew’… I think he is suggesting I am a shrew… cheek! But yes, it was very good.

I also put a line on the Euro Millions for the weekend. The jackpot is £99million… oooh, just think of what I could do with that. First I would pay for my grandmas house to be totally overhauled and modernised, I’d give several people in the family a million each. I’d also give loads to a charity. I’d buy….

For Peter:

An Aston Martin DB9,
A Breitling Bentley watch,
A mont blanc pen,
A selection of Armani suits,
A selection of Versace Jeans,
A Photographic Studio.
And pretty much anything else he fancied.

For Mum:

An enourmous diamond ring,
The most expensive handbag which Mulberry do,
An Audi TT,
A selection of outfits from various Bond Street shops,
An apartment in Kensington for using at the weekend.
And pretty much anything else she fancied.

And I would commission an enourmous house for us all to live in, it would have 4 garages, stables, a huge driveway, a large entrance with marble floors and a huge staircase leading upwards and a massive chandelier, an enourmous dining room, a library, an office, an ‘entertainments’ room with an enourmous wide screen TV, a play room with a snooker table and pin ball etc, and a lounge, a huge kitchen, a massive conservatory and a large downstairs guest bathroom. A photographic studio and hobby rooms. Upstairs there would be 7 bedrooms, a dressing room, and 7 bathrooms. In the huge grounds I would have a summer house and a hot tub. And lots of flowers… oh wouldn’t it be wonderful? I think I would buy a Ferrari for myself. And needless to say I would give up my current job to pursue something like photography or interior design. And I would take all of us on holiday around the world… oh such fun! I hope I win!!!!!!!!!