I'm struggling a bit today. I woke up with my alarm, that literally never happens. I wake up about an hour beforehand (not a big sleeper). This means I have a nice leisurely start to the day. The problem with waking with my alarm is the whole morning feels like a rush (not my favourite start to the day). By the time I've had a coffee and got son ready for school I have to go and start work.
I had a good weekend. On Saturday I did something that was very out of character. I went clothes shopping. I literally hate clothes shopping - in fact I'm the least girly person in the world. I put makeup on only because I feel I should and I have little interest in what I'm wearing. It's not like I can see my clothes because I'm wearing them. Handbags and Shoes are my thing - so I'm not totally ungirly.
When we were in the marina last weekend I saw a new clothes shop with FABULOUS handbags. There were round clocks and grandfather clocks - as handbags - with real working clock faces. Now this is right up my avenue as something of an Alice in Wonderland fan. Problem is that I have nowhere to go with a groovy handbag any more.
They did however, have some quirky clothes. So as I've been locked away for so long I decided to do some retail therapy. I ended up walking out with 4 items. I felt very decadent. Felt sorry for the people in the shop though because every time I tried something on they had to take it away to steam it. What a faff! On a positive note it did mean I felt compelled to spend.
Husband was a little bemused by 2 of my purchases. Basically sweatshirt jackets with angel wings on the back (yes I know!!!). But they made me smile. The angel wings are not flappy ones like you'd wear aged 3 for halloween or a party, they are part of the jacket. But I appreciate totally mutton dressed as lamb as far as I'm concerned. Thing is I JUST DON'T CARE! Anybody that's going to make faces will make them behind my back because that's where the wings are. So I can remain oblivious - personally my favourite state of mind.
A friend came for supper on Saturday and we didn't have to sit outside in the weather. Which was lucky because it was lashing down with rain with winds high enough to send our wheelie bins flying down the road. I spent much of Sunday wandering around the neighbourhood identifying which bits of rubbish belonged to my house.
The other thing we did on Sunday was go to my favourite restaurant - the Gingerman. I just love it in there. I mentioned in a previous blog, when Boris was breaking down the timetable to come out of lockdown I sat on the sofa with my finger hovering over book. As soon as he gave the date when you could sit down inside a restaurant I hit the nearest Sunday and booked us in for Sunday lunch. The Gingerman group are simply my favourite. You'll recall we went to the Ginger Fox a few weeks ago. We've already got our next visit planned there.
We heard about a new 'street food' place down near the pier, after we'd eaten we went to take a look at this. It's in the old rotunda. Years ago this was really run down, with a gym inside. They've totally done it up - it looks very smart (though I did always mean to join that gym - such a great position - but I never got around to it). Next time there is grotty weather at the weekend I think we'll go and try this out. No point doing it in the sunshine because the place will be heaving with tourists.
What was really strange about Brighton was it was stuck in a pre-COVID time warp. Also it's the festival and so there's lots of outdoors things going on. As we went past one of sons friends houses we saw they were doing an 'open house' in their garden. Things they'd made from the woods, must make a note to go and look at it. Doing an open house has never appealed to me. Sort of like trying to sell your house - you have to make sure everything is immaculate always - but then you don't get the benefit of somebody giving you hundreds of thousands of pounds at the end of the tidy up!
The photo today is one of the attractions they had on the beach. I'm not 100% sure what it is to be honest, but it summed up the rest of the town perfectly. Outside the cinema the posters were releases from 2019, some shops still had Christmas decorations from Christmas 2019 up in the window. It was totally surreal - a bit like coming out of your bunker after the zombie apocalypse (well I imagine anyway - as I haven't actually been involved with an ACTUAL zombie apocalypse - sorry if that comes as a surprise).
When I remember being in Devon last summer with hundreds of holiday makers with nowhere to go wandering around aimlessly like zombies - it all begins to make sense.
It was, however, nice to do some things that felt a bit normal. Nice for son to get out too. I mean basically this all sucks for the younger generation doesn't it. Those who are 12 like son are spending their childhood locked indoors without being able to do sleep overs etc. Then if you go to people in their late teens - how are they going to get decent practice at going out with people. Then moving to 20's where are the parties, the freedom, the trying different relationships to see which ones work. Then late 20's and early 30's - getting your feet under the table with your career, settling down with your significant other etc. etc. etc.
I don't need to tell you that I don't fall into any of these categories. I feel so lucky I got to do all of this - especially as we don't know how long COVID it's going on - it's feeling endless. Plus I had the AZ jab (haven't had second yet) and by all accounts this is look a bit of a duff jab compared to the others - I'm not remotely happy about that.
Was saying to son (who is hugely shy) at the table in the restaurant that at least he might not go through the trauma of having to invite a date to the prom. This elicited a fist pump. The waitress heard what I said and promptly offered to be son's backup date if he needed one. Obviously there's something of a 20 year age gap, but she seemed unperturbed and son was curled up with immense embarrassment and unable to have any opinion as he was kicking the ground trying to create a hole to hide in.
She explained that (as when I was younger) they didn't have proms and she really fancied being given a corsage, dressing up in a puffy frock and then being transported to a dance in a pumpkin coach with horses.
I explained this was unlikely to happen if we were paying for the coach, but she seemed quite happy to see what happened. Son told me that he'd kill me if I mentioned any of this to anybody. So perhaps a good thing son doesn't read my blog.
Anyway, to work to work to work I go.
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