I had a very lovely weekend, all the same. As the weather has been so beautiful, Nic and I decided to take a long weekend and head down to Kent to see his parents. The additional bonus of doing this is that, as they live by the seaside, we can have a dip in the sea. I worked from home on Friday so that we could get away early, which was really helpful. It also meant that I was at home to receive delivery of a new pair of shoes:
Shoes number 28: Vivienne Westwood Anglomania for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes
Wow. The name of those shoes is a mouthful, isn't it?! I've admired these shoes for quite some time, and tried on a pair in Selfridges at Christmas. They were £110 and also, the size 5 was miles too big for me so I quite happily relegated them to the file in my mind marked "Shoes I like but can't afford but that's okay because I wouldn't be able to wear them anyway." I revisited my love of them when a lady was selling them at the empty attic sale on Rue Lepic when we were in Paris last month, but again they were too expensive (well, affordable but too much for a pair of pretty scuffed-up second hand shoes, Westwood or not) and also, size 5. Sorry, I guess this story is actually pretty boring, so I'll get to the point. Amber bought a gold pair when she was on holiday, and I felt very covetous of them...and then Fi got sent a pair to review, alerting me to the fact that they were on sale. So I snapped them up, this time in a size 4, and they fit! They're ridiculous plastic shoes with a big old heart on the toe, so I can't say that I'm going to get miles of wear out of them, but sometimes you just need to buy something ridiculous and frivolous.
I didn't actually wear these shoes with that dress on Friday - that was just for the photo. It was too hot, and I was going to be walking around London so plastic shoes weren't really the thing. Nic and I got on the train, and spent a few hours in London before going to Kent. You'll be in no way surprised to learn that I bought a dress in the Fever shop and Nic bought some comics, so we very nicely played to our own stereotypes. There wasn't anything exciting on the sample rail in the Fever shop, and the one sale item I liked is probably more trouble than it would be worth but I am very pleased with the dress I did buy (but I bought it in blue)
After a week of feeling headachy and blue, getting to the seaside was a real tonic. I love the first glimpse of the sea that we get when the car drives down the hill into Sandgate and you can see the sea glinting behind the buildings on the seafront. After catching up with Nic's mum and dad, we headed down to watch the sun setting on the English channel:
Half an hour of sea air had the effect of a tranquliser dart on me. Nic and I got back to the house and settled down to watch an episode of The Rockford Files and I fell straight asleep. I could barely open my eyes enough to get ready for bed, but then I am pretty lame around bedtime at the best of times.
Nic and I started Saturday morning with a dip in the sea. I had bought a swimming costume and a pair of jelly shoes (the beach is pebbly so not the most comfortable for walking on) and was ready to have a good old splash around. I should say there that I can't swim and neither can Nic, and also that this is the first swimming costume I've owned since I was about 12. So, I didn't swim in my new swimming costume, but Nic and I did have a highly enjoyable splash around. The water was cold, but the sun was shining and there was a warm breeze. It was beautiful. After getting dressed, Nic and I went to visit his grandparents. We followed this up by spending the afternoon in Folkestone, having coffee in Home Ground and chatting with the delighful Paul Rennie. Folkestone is a funny town - it's a bit like Coventry in that there is a disconcerting mix of beautiful architecture and concrete, but I am very fond of it all the same.
On Sunday we had a day out to Charing to visit our friend Dan and his girlfriend Vic. Charing is a really beautiful little village that sits between the North Downs and the Weald, and it's also the former home of Tom Baker. The house that Vic and Dan in was formerly owned by Vic Reeves, and he still lives in the village (in fact, we saw him driving past in his car. How starry was my weekend?!)
Dan and Vic had made us a lovely lunch, and we sat out in the garden to enjoy it with a glass of Pimm's and lemonade. YUM! I hadn't seen Dan for a while so it was excellent to catch up. I've only met Vic a few times, but we got on incredibly well as it turns out we have a lot in common. After lunch, we went for a walk through the Charing nature reserve and up onto the Down. You can see a few more photos on my Flickr if you'd like but here are a few in the meantime:
We took a bottle of cava and some beers back to the blanket in the garden, and met some of Dan and Vic's housemates:
It was an amazing day, and we had so much fun that we ended up getting back to Sandgate pretty late. It was another tranquiliser dart evening, so we went to bed pretty early. Today Nic and I travelled back up to Leamington, stopping off again in London. We went along to the Portobello Road again, which was lovely. I didn't buy anything exciting but Nic did buy me a copy of Mrs Harris goes to Paris by Paul Gallico. I was too tired to read it on the train back up to Leamington, sadly. In fact, the train was so warm and comfortable that I fell asleep. That's the main thing about this weekend, I have been feeling sleepy for a lot of it!
The other thing about this weekend is that I have had a weird pain for most of it. It started out as a sore RSI-type shoulder on Friday and now it's full on pain in my back and side which is making it difficult to lift my right arm. I think it might be that sleeping on a sofa bed all weekend has pulled something but it sucks! Also, it bloody hurts and it kept twinging (I know that's not really a word, probably) the whole time we were walking around in London. I hope it's better tomorrow after sleeping in my own bed, I don't love feeling like an old lady.
With that, I'm off to lie down. My back hurts. Ouch!
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