Wednesday 13 January 2016

A 'posh venue' and other things...

A weekend without jeans... AND I decided to 'push my boundaries' by focusing on statement jewellery rather than a scarf.  These are a few of the outfits I wore for shopping and teaching on Friday (left), a 40th Birthday Party (centre) and Sunday lunch with my F-in-L (right)
 
 
The necklace at the top has heaps of sentimental value.  Mark bought it for me to wear with a black Laura Ashley dress for my 21st Birthday party - which was also the night that we got engaged.  I bought the big bracelet a few years ago to wear with a long black dress to a formal dinner.  The next necklace is a 1950s Lisner piece (and is easily my favourite of all my vintage jewellery), while the bottom bracelet was a gift from a pupil several years ago.
 
The frock that I wore to the party is a Ghost dress that I found in a TKMax clearance section a few years ago.  I used to wear it for work with a smart jacket and flat boots.  It felt perfect for the party on Saturday night because our friend had booked the first floor of this venue, right next to the river at Greenwich.  We don't know the area at all and didn't realise how posh it was going to be until we arrived and started exploring in the afternoon!  It was an amazing location, with a fabulous live band, and we stayed up way past our usual "country mouse" bed times!!!
 
 
The weather was pretty foul on Saturday afternoon
but we did manage to explore the park around the Observatory..

 
..and I snapped this photo of the Greenwich Meridian
through the gates of the Observatory buildings

 
We left early on Sunday morning because we wanted to get across the city before the traffic started to build up.  We stopped off in Oxford on the way home to see Mark's Dad.  He's 82 this year and has some problems with his heart, and he seems to be increasingly frail.  It's clear that he doesn't feel much like eating at the moment so he struggled with the volume of a pub Sunday lunch.  We are worried about him (but he gets very grumpy of we try to ask too many questions etc.)   The good news is that he's got further hospital appointments and a scan in the next week, so the Doctors are not ignoring his situation.
 
On Monday I went to Hereford with my neighbour to visit the fabulous Doughty's Fabric Warehouse.  Yesterday I attacked the housework and made time to pop round to see my Dad.  He's also had a period of severe ill health with his asthma recently.  He did some tests with the asthma nurse on Monday and they discovered that his 'preventative' inhaler was actually making his condition worse(!!).  Fortunately there are plenty of other medications that he can take so we are hopeful that he will soon be feeling significantly better.
 
I had a nightmare at the weekend that I had to go back to work!!!
It's funny how your subconscious throws up random stuff in dreams...
I hope that you're all having a good week,
Jx

10 comments:

  1. Your outfits look great. It's very hard seeing our parents age, isn't it? Especially when they're not in the best of health. My mum and dad are both in their 80's, getting frailer by the day as well as having health issues but they hate me doing things for them or asking questions, I think it's to do with not wanting to lose their independence.

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  2. You look great Jan and so slender. Parents are a worry, my father never went to the doctors for over 40 years. But as soon as he was 75 he had to give in and go on a regular basis with circulation problems. Every time they told him to lose weight but he'd been over weight much of his adult life and ate very healthily but large portions. He lived until he was 86.......still overweight!

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  3. Sounds like a very busy and very sociable weekend - and you looked fab! x

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  4. I have serious bracelet envy! And necklace envy too come to that.

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  5. I like the patterns of the material matched with the plain black. Lovely jewellery. Greenwich for a party venue sounds wonderful.

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  6. great outfits and I love the jewlery.

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  7. You look brilliant, sounds like things have been pretty busy xx

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  8. I hope both dads are ok! It's horrid thinking of strong people you have been looked after becoming frail.
    Your outfit is gorgeous and I adore the necklace, what a nice memory associated wiht it!x

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  9. You look great in all the outfits. Isn't it lovely to have such memories associated with certain things? I can't throw out (but neither can I fit into!) the T-shirt I wore on our first wedding anniversary - we did the Run for Life in Cardiff city centre to support Live Aid. I can't bring myself to toss it out, because I smile everytime I see it at the bottom of my clothes box!

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  10. Beautiful jewellry and you look so nice in all your different outfits. Sounds like you had a wonderful time on your Greenwich weekend.

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