Regret for the past is a waste of spirit.

I can tell it's been a good weekend when I'm faced with the prospect of washing every dish I own. This is what I did this afternoon - it didn't take that long because our kitchen is very small, because it was just too nice to spend time washing up this weekend.

I worked from home on Friday and got a fair bit done before packing up reasonably early to meet my girls for a drink in Wilde's. I met Caroline at the station and we joined Sugar Plum, Lauren and Martha in Wildes for a few early evening drinks. Well, actually, I had planned to have a cup of coffee but as Lauren was on the wine I thought it'd be rude to leave her to it alone. Ahem. I suggested Wildes because of the football - it being a small wine bar I thought it'd be quiet. It was, after the group of annoying shouty jock boys left, and it was a very lovely end to the week. I picked up dinner for Nic and myself on the walk home, and we settled in for an evening of Chinese food and 70s thrillers. It was ace. Oh, I nearly forgot - I did an outfit shot on Friday afternoon:

Darling dress and Irregular Choice Hermia wedges. I was stopped by a lady in a shop who wanted to compliment my dress, which made me smile a lot!

Nic got up early(ish) on Saturday to go and hang out at the Leamington Peace Festival with Viv, but as it was so grey and cold I had no mad desire to join him. Instead I got to work on cutting out the pattern pieces for my next sewing project, and spent the afternoon pottering away at that. I was joined in this by Sugar Plum, Martha, Lysy and Lauren and we passed the afternoon quietly and companionably working away at our own things; the living room was a quiet hive of activity! It was a truly relaxing way to pass the time and I made some headway on my dress. I'm finding it more difficult than the first one I made, because the pattern is a little bit more complicated. I spent some time last night hurting my brain by trying to figure out how exactly the bloody bodice goes together, but I worked it out and I think I may get the dress finished either this evening (if I can be faffed to get the machine out) or sometime later this week. I am pleased with how the fabric looks, though - I chose it with this dress in mind and I'm happy with the effect. I'll put up a photo if I ever get the durned thing finished!

Lauren stayed with us for tea and an episode of Star Trek :The Next Generation (oh yeah, we know how to show a girl a good time) and some time later we were joined by Paul for a very civilised evening with a few gins, some tasty food and some dancing music. Good times indeed!

It was beautifully sunny yesterday morning so Nic and I headed down to the Peace Festival nice and early to catch Noke's set on the main stage and we contrived to spend most of the day down there. We were joined by Martha and, a little later on by Louise, her mum and her lovely husband. You can read about it in more detail over on Louise's blog, but it was a very happy day of listening to music, chatting and generally just feeling very lazy. Oh, and trying on hats, of course:


This weekend was just what I needed. It was so good to spend lots of time with friends, and to have nothing in particular to do except have fun. Okay, it did mean that there was a fair bit of washing up to do today but I think I can live with that! This week is going to be a busy one work-wise as my team are moving out of the London office and a number of my colleagues are leaving. I have to be in London on Friday (by no means my favourite thing) but that will be the end of me having to commute down there for work, which is a blessed relief. Working in Coventry is far less glamorous, but much more convenient!

Right, well I think I am going to get the machine out and do a bit more on this dress. Well, maybe after I have a sandwich. And a piece of cake. And a cuddle.

I'll have a pint. Of wine.

Where has the sunshine gone? I'm a bit sad to think that I'm looking out at a big grey sky and it's the weekend of the Leamington Peace Festival. Ah well, the falafel will taste just as good under a cloudy sky, I suppose...

All is well with me right now, which is a really nice thing to be able to write. I had to go to London yesterday for a meeting, which was very good, and afterwards we went out for lunch, which was even better. It was a bit bittersweet because two of the people I have worked with closely over the past six months will be leaving next week, and I'll miss them, but it was good to hang out with them at lunchtime. I decided to come back up to Leamington early and beat the rush and work on the train, but by the time I got home I was SERIOUSLY grumpy because I was so cold. It was a beautiful day, so naturally Chiltern Railways decided to turn their air conditioning up to the Icy Blast setting. Nothing will get me grumpy faster than being cold, and yesterday I spent three hours in a refrigerated container - not nice. I'm going to complain to Chiltern because it's really uncomfortable and it's such a shame, because their service is excellent in every other respect. However, they should know that it's just too damn cold on their trains, I think.

Anyway, I got home to find my darling Nic had made me a big pot of delicious coffee so I calmed down (and warmed up) by answering some emails and doing some ebay browsing while he finished working. Earlier in the week I'd suggested a walk over to The Saxon Mill, but in the foul mood I was in all I wanted to do was sulk at home! However, I saw the fruitlessness of that, so off we went, picking up lovely Tom, Paul and Viv on the way. I got changed (but also packed some flat shoes for the walk back)

Numph Summer dress and the wedges are from Debenhams via Oxfam. I haven't worn this dress for ages, but I love it.

I love the walk to The Saxon Mill - it is quite the best thing about the pub, and walking there as it's starting to drop dark is wonderful. We joined Lysy and The Scientist and bagged a table by the water. We had an excellent evening of sitting around and chatting, and both The Scientist and I ordered this tasty dessert:



I don't make a habit of taking photos of my food (although, I should have taken a photo of those amazing salads from the Relais Gascon) because I'm usually too excited about the tastiness. I couldn't really do this justice - it was apple and blueberry crumble and it was (to quote Nessa) immense. The Scientist had his with ice-cream, but that's not how I do things so I asked for custard and it was lovely too. It was just so nice to hang out with friends - it might sound stupid, but when I get stressed I avoid doing this, and it's obviously the best way to destress! The walk back through the fields in the darkness was gorgeous, and I slept so well as a result of the exercise, the tasty food and all the laughter.

So, even if it stays grey and miserable this weekend I'm going to spend lots of time doing these things:

1. Seeing my friends
I'm going to see my girls Sugar Plum, Martha and Caroline this afternoon, and then hopefully lots more people over the course of the Peace Festival. Louise might come over as well, hurrah!

2. Reading
I'm rereading Anne's House of Dreams and Nic bought me a Rose Tremain book yesterday that I'm going to make a start on.

3. Sewing
As I mentioned previously, I finished the present I was making and I'm going to make a start on a halterneck dress this weekend, Sugar Plum is going to join me and we'll have a little sewing party of two (or maybe three, if Lysy comes too)

4. Smiling
The most important one of all. Ewwww, how cheesy am I?!

Don't ask me, I'm just the ice cream man.

I don't know if I can write that more coherent blog post I boasted about the other day, you know. I just don't know if I have it in me, but I suppose my friends and readers know by now that I'm a bit of a slabber so I'm not going to worry unduly.

Well, I suppose that got me over the old 'what should I write for my first sentence?' dilemma!

Maybe it's the sunshine, I don't know, but I am feeling a lot chirpier today. I didn't think I would when I woke up this morning though, I was in a bad mood. I had drifted off into a nice comfortable sleep last night, only to be rudely awoken at about 4 in the morning by some sort of alarm going off. It was so loud that at first I thought it was the fire alarm in our building, but it was just something going off on our street or the street next to us. It's one of the perils of living in the middle of town, there's always some racket going off outside - it just seems much worse at four in the morning! I held onto my sanity by reminding myself that in The Remorseful Day, the final episode of Inspector Morse, Morse reckons that these kinds of alarms cut out automatically after half an hour. This one didn't, but it did change frequency and I was able to drown out the second set with earplugs, but of course by that time it was bloody difficult to get back to sleep. So, I slept late and dragged my grumpy ass to work, I was not feeling it.

Anyway, I ended up having a really nice day. I think it was definitely helped by the sunshine, and by the fact that lots of my colleagues were in the office. Some of my colleagues from the department I used to work for have also joined us, so that's good too - it's nice to be working with old friends. Also, I had something really nice to look forward to because I was meeting Louise for lunch. We went to Inspire again, and like the last time nattered away like two old friends, it was so relaxing and it really made my day. Also, Louise and her lovely hubby had bought me a wee gift at a boot sale at the weekend - a Hornsea pot!


This one is in the Saffron pattern. I have been collecting the Heirloom pattern, but have been looking to find nice examples of Saffron as well so I was so delighted with this. Immediately I got home I filled it with my earl grey tea bags and found a nice spot in the kitchen for it. I was so touched by the gift and felt grateful once again to have randomly sat opposite Louise's husband all those months ago in work!

I had two meetings when I got back to the office and then scooted off to the railway station - my train was cancelled due to signal failures so I had to get the bus back to Leamington, but I was in such a good mood it didn't bother me. In fact, I quite enjoyed my bus journey home, it was nice to have time to stare out the window and think and daydream.

This evening was the Sew Make Believe social so after dinner I popped up to The White Horse. I changed out of my sandals into my lovely Bertie shoes and Nic took a wee photo of my outfit:
Ruby Belle Photograph Beach dress, Bertie shoes and the cardigan is from Mango.

A few of the ladies couldn't make it due to illness, but we had a lovely time all the same. It was good to catch up with Lysy and Lauren and to meet some new people too, and the time passed by much quicker than I realised. I got home to find Nic watching a Clint Eastwood film, and I think I'm going to take myself off to bed quite soon as I have an early start in the morning.

Working backwards here, but I had a good day yesterday as well. I worked from home and had the house to myself as Nic had to be on campus. I got some work done in the morning and spent my lunch hour being very domesticated by cleaning the kitchen while listening to You and Yours on Radio Four. It was one of those days where I felt like I got lots done because in between my work I got lots of bits and pieces done around the house, and it made me feel happy and purposeful. In the evening Nic and I had a lovely walk around Leamington (and a go on the swings in Victoria Park) and a long talk, and I also finished the present I have been making. It looks really good - it's just a little crochet blanket for a colleague whose wife is expecting their first child, but I like the colour combinations:



It helps, I think, to feel like I have taken a bit of control over my life. Or, at the very least, gained a bit of perspective. Over the weekend I turned over lots of ideas in my head of things that I can do to make myself feel better, or to protect myself or whatever. None of the ideas I had seemed to be right, but coming to the decision that I should just carry on as I am seemed the most positive. I can't control what others do or say, and I can't control how I feel about it, I suppose, but I can attempt to not let it rule me. Big words, I know - and no doubt there'll be plenty more stressy blog posts in future but again I feel like I've reached a bit of peace, which means I can enjoy life a bit more!

Right, now I think I'm going to watch the last ten minutes or so of this film because I've just realised that not only does it have John Mahoney in it, but Joshua Malina too. And then it's definitely time for bed. Oh, but before I go I'm going to share with you the dilemma of the week that my sister sends me every Wednesday. This week it is Would you rather have the face of a goat, or the ass of a baboon?

What's in my purse?

Erin from Library Girl tagged me to take part in the purse post meme. It's the first time I've been tagged in something like this, so thanks, Erin! I'm sort of tempted to do a what's in my fantasy bag post, filling that beautiful Joules Dumcombe bag from my last post with pretty things, but I'm going to stick with the actual things in my actual bag, for this time at least!

The bag itself:



I don't know if this bag has a name, but it's a little oilcloth satchel from Cath Kidston. I'm normally not a big fan of CK stuff, but I saw a few people with this on the tube and such and thought it was just too cute to resist, so I took myself to the Cath Kidston shop on Marylebone high street and bought it. It's a good wee bag. It's waterproof, big enough to hold most of my essentials and it has an adjustable strap. All good!


I usually have a book in my bag. I've actually finished this one, but it was still in my bag when I picked it up. It's The Reluctant Bride by Lucy Mangan, which I borrowed from Martha on Saturday. After feeling all blue last week, it was really nice to read something fun and nice and this book really cheered me up. I always enjoy Mangan's writing in The Guardian and I did here as well. So much so that I started and finished the book in two train journeys! Now I need to find the next good book that will also fit in my handbag.


My purse. Another Cath Kidston, I bought this one in a shop in Rye when Nic and I were down a few months ago. I love the colour, although it is a little bit bulky. It's sadly not bulky through being stuffed with £50 notes, but you can't have everything I suppose.


Leaflet and tickets from the Stacey Kent gig on Sunday in Regent's Park. I'm such a hoarder and these are the kinds of things that hang around in bags and shoe boxes and on the coffee table for ages. I may put these in the recycling now...or just put them to one side for safe-keeping.


My house keys. These are so I can let myself in to where I live when I get home from work! I keep it simple - I don't have a car so no car keys but I do have two keyrings. One is an Emily Strange one that I bought in a shop in Nottingham years and years ago, when I was an undergraduate still with some pretty emo tendencies. It's made of rubbery plastic and it's good for twisting between my fingers when I'm a bit stressed. The other one has Cagney and Lacey on it and was a present from Nic.



Mints and lipbalm - I have so many wee tubs of lip balm in various bags. This one isn't my favourite, but it's reliable. It smells a bit medicinal but the consistency is good. The other photo shows some anti histamines, a pen, a little hairbrush and some tissues. None of these are very exciting but all very necessary - well, I suppose the tissues have some interest by virtue of having been bought in Paris but mainly they're in my bag because I sneeze a LOT.

So, that's what's in my bag. Next time it will be what's in my fantasy bag, I promise!
I'm not sure about tagging etiquette here, but I'll pass the baton on to

1. Lauren from A Typical Atypicall
2. Louise from Princess Prudence Diaries
3. Caroline from Second Hand Shopper

..and of course to anyone else who may feel like it! x

Not a look to be taken lightly, especially not at two in the morning on the streets of Derby. If the media is to be believed.

I always find the first sentence of the blog really difficult to write - I have written and deleted about five different sentences already. Maybe I should just plunge in and start with a pun or something, but I don't know if I would find that any easier. You'd think I'd have got the hang of this by now!

Anyway, here's what I've been up to. After writing my blog and finishing work on Friday, I had a very long and hot shower to make myself feel better. I put on the new frock that I bought before going to Paris (but which I deemed to short to wear with flat shoes and therefore didn't take with me) and headed out to meet Sugar Plum and Martha for a coffee:


Ruby Belle sailboat dress from Lilac Rose. See how short it is! Still, I suppose I should give these things a go while I'm still young enough to wear short skirts and high heels.

I don't love it - I'm not totally sold on the colour, but it's fun and I think it'll look cute with pink tights in the autumn. Anyway - it was nice and sunny on Friday evening so it was nice to put on a new frock and see my best girls. We ended up staying in the cafe until it closed and then having to continue our conversation in Tesco. It was really good to see the ladies, even if my coffee was pretty bad. I should have known it wouldn't be good when the lad making it had to consult the manual, even though it was just a white coffee. At any rate I think we were too busy talking and catching up for me to drink the coffee, which is just as well!

Nic reasoned that watching a Fred Astaire film would be a good way to make me feel a bit cheerier and he was right. We had singapore vermicelli and watched Shall We Dance and my blues were turned rosy pink by bedtime. Well, not quite but it certainly did help!

After a very sleepy Saturday morning browsing the library sale, the charity shops and catching the sun in Jephson Gardens, Nic and I watched about eleventy million (three) episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation while I worked on the gift I'm making for a colleague. I had sort of half planned to do some sewing, but I really want to get this other thing finished so my plans will have to wait. It's always nice to make something for someone else, isn't it, boys and girls? Yes, it is! Saturday evening was excellent - along with Martha, Nic and I had a drink in Wilde's before having dinner with Sugar Plum and N in their house. Nic and N escaped to the Somerville for last orders to give us time to talk and it was lovely, if a little bit rambunctious. I won't bang on again about how excellent my friends are, but they are and I honestly don't know how I would get through the tough times without them.

It turned into an unexpectedly late night, and Nic was feeling a wee bit delicate on Sunday morning, but not delicate enough to stop us from going to London. Ages ago Nic had booked us tickets to see Stacey Kent, who was playing a gig in the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park. Of course going to this was dependent on how good the weather was, but as it was bright and fine on Saturday we'd decided to go. Nic booked us a hotel on lastminute - a four star hotel near Regent's Park! We headed down to London, checked into our hotel and bought a picnic to take with us to the park. We met up with our friend JP and his girlfriend H, and had a picnic in the Rose Garden. It was a lovely lazy way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and although H had to leave before the gig started JP was able to come with us.

I don't really know Stacey Kent's music at all, but Nic likes her a lot and the gig was excellent. Her phrasing is quite a lot like Blossom Dearie's and as well as some of my favourite standards (The Surrey with the Fringe on Top and Tea for Two are two good examples) she sang lots of material that had been written for her. What made the gig so special was the setting, however. The music was beautiful, and it was very moving to experience it as the evening was getting darker and the wind was moving through the trees. We all headed back to our hotel room after the gig to hang out with JP for a bit, which was lots of fun. Also, Nic was able to have a drink from the mini-bar for the first time ever! The hotel was lovely and we got quite an unbelievable bargain, really - so much so that going to gigs in London is something that we'll hopefully do more often.

This morning we had an amazing breakfast on Marylebone high street (grilled halloumi, scrambled eggs, roasted tomatoes and toast) before having a wee look in the shops. I avoided temptation this time and didn't even go into the Cath Kidston shop, and we caught the last of the sunshine in Regent's Park before catching the train back up to Leamington. It was such a lovely thing to do, and was a bit of a tonic after feeling so low all week. I didn't take any photos, but I got another wear out of my lovely new vintage dress and I saw LOTS of herons!

All in all I am feeling much better than I did on Friday. It has been difficult to get a sense of perspective because, between one thing and another, I have felt totally besieged. It sounds very obvious to say that talking it out with my loved ones (and on here too) has really helped. So has looking at pretty things, like this bag I have my eye on from Joules:


It's pretty expensive so I might have to save up for it. Or, more likely, I won't buy it at all but will occasionally go into the shop to stroke it lovingly until it is no longer available to buy. Either option is pretty good, really.

Right, I'm off. On the cards for this evening is Saturday's episode of Doctor Who, home made pizzas and rice pudding. You'll get a more coherent blog from me tomorrow, I'm sure. Maybe.

He really is a groovy cat, he's a gentleman, he's a scholar, he's an acrobat.

Urgh, I am feeling very lurgied today. It may well be my body rejecting the fact that I am no longer on holiday or in warm and sunny France, but I have been feeling seriously under the weather for the past few days. So much so that I took myself home from work at lunchtime to work from bed. It's the only way to do it and I might have to go for a snooze later as well.

On a happier note, on Wednesday I gave my Paris vintage frock its first outing:



I teamed it with my red belt from Accessorize and my red mermaid shoes, but I'm looking forward to trying it out with other colour combinations as well. I'm ever so pleased with my find, but I think I may change the buttons in a while. You can't really tell all that well from the photo but they're a bit cheap looking and I think I'd like something a bit nicer. I'll have a look in some of Leamington's haberdashery shops over the weekend I think, and see what I can find.

I was too ill yesterday to go to work and spent most of the day asleep on the sofa, or rereading The Dolly Holiday by Anne Dunlop. Oh, I also watched two episodes of Lewis as well! As well as feeling physically under the weather, I was feeling very low emotionally. Call it post-holiday blues, maybe, I don't know. I had a little cry to Nic and a good old think about it as well. One of the nicest things about being away in Paris, apart from the fact that we were in Paris, was getting away from all of the things that have been bothering me over the past six months. It was an especially good time to go given the bad news we'd received shortly before about the proposed closure of the organisation I work for - work troubles seemed very far away when I was sitting in the sunshine with a glass of champagne! So did all of the other things I've been worrying about, and I'm truly grateful to have had such a restful holiday.

Most of these worries came crashing back in on Wednesday evening, however - probably compounded by the fact that I was feeling so ill! I didn't sleep, was ill in the morning and couldn't go to work, and spent a good part of yesterday hiding from the world and trying to hide from myself.

I'm not saying that I'm suffering from depression but what's clear to me is that I am finding it harder now than I have ever done before to cope with feelings of anxiety and sadness. Things that I would have been able to shake off before, like making a silly mistake or someone making a snide comment about me are often extremely difficult to bear. At times I find myself feeling completely overwhelmed by sadness and stress, and while this doesn't last for long it's deeply unpleasant.

It's been a tough six months and no mistake. My job has been physically and emotionally demanding and I am so very disappointed in the coalition government's decision to close my workplace down. Silly as it might sound, it hurts. Things at home in Northern Ireland are better than they were, and I spend a lot less time worrying about what's going on, but the way things are in my extended family makes me really sad. Without talking about it again at length, the other things that have been going on in my personal life continue to make me sad, and to make me full of self-doubt and to bleed into my other relationships and other areas of my life. I've been through sad times before, so I'm not sure what's making all of this so much harder. It might be the accumulation of it all, or maybe that I'm just less robust than I had thought.

On Saturday evening's episode of Doctor Who - Vincent and The Doctor - The Doctor tells his companion Amy that someone's life is like a heap of good things. He tells her that the good things aren't always enough to drown out the bad things, but that the bad things don't have to overpower the good things. Who would have thought I'd be taking advice from Richard Curtis, eh? But I did, and I do. The bad things in my life are lingering, and they are poisonous and they make me unhappy, but on most days they are massively outweighed by the good things. It isn't always easy to remember that and increasingly I've been struggling with it, but I'm lucky. When I put my hand out there are a number of good and loving people waiting to take it and pull me up. Sometimes I don't even have to put my hand out. In my saddest moments recently I have berated myself for not taking more strength from this, for allowing myself to feel sad, for being self-pitying and pathetic along with all the other negative things I've heard (and imagined) being said about me. The fact is, though, that I have taken strength from it, and I continue to. It might be a while before things get easier for me, and I can't promise that there aren't going to be more of these 'woe-is-me' type entries (because, seriously - you know there are going to be) but I'll be all right. Someone told me a while ago that they thought I was a very unhappy person, and that even when I say I'm happy I'm really just denying my sadness. I've been thinking about that and wondering if it's true, but I don't think it is. My last blog entry is about the wonderful time Nic and I had in Paris, and all of the happy moments I experienced. I was happy, and I am capable of happiness, and I am lucky enough to feel happy a good amount of the time. The trick I suppose, is keeping the happy pile of things from being tainted by the sad pile of things, and I'm working on that.

To that end, I'm hoping to have a happy weekend. I'm meeting Sugar Plum and Martha for a coffee when I finish work. Nic and I are going to watch a Fred Astaire movie tonight (because Fred Astaire always makes me happy) and I'm going to be as restful as possible over the weekend to try to get over this icky sickyness. I might even do a little bit of sewing, provided I get the present I'm making for a colleague finished first. Oh, I'm going to wear my new shoes as well at some point, and that always does help to chase away the blues.

The dogs wear pants and the cats wear waistcoats.

After what felt like an interminable journey back from Paris this morning, Nic and I are back in our wee flat. He's currently cuddled up in a blanket watching a DVD and I'm embarking on my obligatory 'here's what we did on our holidays' blog. As ever, if you're easily bored you can feel free to skip this one!

So, we were due to set off early-ish on Tuesday 1st June. It was cold and bloody miserable outside and I felt pretty lucky to be getting away for a while. We had a few boring chores to do in the morning (post office, bank, library etc) and then we were off! We had a slight deviation to our route due to a fatality on the line at Solihull. Even though we were leaving Leamington five hours before our train was due to leave London I did entertain a few thoughts of being so delayed we'd miss our Eurostar. And look, that isn't as mad as it sounds - the last time I encountered this kind of delay it took me five hours to get from London to Leamington. Anyway, it was all grand and we made it to St. Pancras with a ridiculously long time to spare. I busied myself finishing Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant and by trying to keep warm.

We arrived into Paris at 8:30pm and, thanks to detailed directions from our landlady made it to our apartment with no bother at all. We were staying in Montmartre, in a little passageway off Rue Lepic. Our little flat was tiny, but really cosy and comfortable and the location was amazing. Directly opposite the entrance to the passageway was Cafe Des Deux Moulins, and we had everything we could need on the street - an excellent fromagerie (which we visited the last time we were in Paris as well!) a boulangerie, a supermarket, clothes shops, bars, a bookshop specialising in Bandes-Desinees (comics) and a jazz bar called Autour de midi...et minuit ('Round midday...and midnight) After washing the train off us we went out for dinner (to a very good Vietnamese restaurant around the corner) and then on to enjoy the Tuesday boeuf at Autour. The bar is a restaurant at ground level, with a cave au jazz underneath. It was very atmospheric and the perfect first evening in Paris.

Inside the Cave au Jazz

We spent Wednesday exploring Montmartre, enjoying a picnic made with camembert from Fromagerie Lepic and bread from the boulangerie on Rue des Abbesses. The weather was absolutely glorious so we made the most of it by spending lots of time outside cafes. We visited the Montmartre cemetery and found the grave of Francois Truffaut (Nic left a metro ticket on the little memorial) Emile Zola had been buried in Montmartre also, but his remains were moved to the Pantheon so I didn't bother with trying to find his grave. The cemetery is really beautiful, and surprisingly quiet and peaceful considering its location. We made the first of many visits to the incredible Sacre Coeur, but it was a bit too hot to climb to the dome so I contented myself with the view from the steps. I can't tell you how much I loved being in Montmartre, and it was looking especially beautiful in the bright sunny weather! Nic and I paid a visit to Reine at Place St. Pierre and although I didn't buy any fabric, I felt very inspired. Above many of the stands they have miniature mannequins sporting clothes made from the fabrics beneath. I took a photo with my proper camera, I'll put it up when I've developed the photos later in the week.

After a couple of drinks in Les Deux Moulins we had dinner and headed back over to Autour de Midi. Tuesdays and Wednesday nights are their free nights, and it was a vocal jam led by Francoise Fognini. This was also excellent fun, although after she spied Nic and I singing along to a Gershwin tune we reinforced all stereotypes of the British reserve by refusing to get up and do a number ourselves (although Nic briefly considered a duet of Ebony and Ivory) It's just as well we didn't get up, we'd have cleared the place as the rest of the participants were extremely talented.

We had a bit of a lie-in on Thursday morning before taking the metro to Concorde and wandering up through the Tuileries to the river, and on to the Latin Quarter. It was another scorching day, so we stopped for an ice-cream at Le Petit Cluny before looking at some BDs in the Latin Quarter's many bookshops. We walked up to the Eglise St.Etienne and the Pantheon and stopped at a cafe in Place de la Contrescarpe where Nic bought us both a glass of champagne to enjoy with the view. Sitting here on my sofa in Leamington, looking out at a grey sky it seems like that was merely a beautiful dream, and it was definitely one of the more magical moments of the holiday. We followed that by a wander down Rue Mouffetard and along to the Jardins des Plantes for another ice-cream (it was that kind of day) and walked along the Seine to the Institut du Monde Arabe. We took the lift up to the top and got roasted on the rooftop terrace, but it was totally worth it for the view along the Seine and the peppermint tea from the cafe. I think I'd taken a bit too much sun by this stage so after stopping to buy some bread and cakes from a Boulanger-Patissier we headed back to Montmartre. I had a nap and then we went out for dinner to Le Relais Gascon, on Rue des Abbesses. I can't recommend it highly enough - we both had salads, which come in these enormous bowls (bowls so big they're the size of casserole dishes) and they're topped with thinly sliced potato that has been fried in garlic. It was really delicious, and I would have been in danger of falling asleep if Nic hadn't suggested a walk up to the Sacre Coeur to enjoy the view at night. After this we found some more free jazz, this time at the Cafe Saint Jean on Rue des Abbesses before stopping off at Les Deux Moulins for a last drink before bed.

On Friday we went to Marais-Bastille, which was lovely. By this stage I was really tired, so I probably didn't enjoy it as much as I might have. We visited one of Paris's flea markets, and had our lunch on the Promenade Plantee before having a dander through the back streets of Marais. I think my favourite place was Places Vosges, where we visited La Maison de Victor Hugo. We took the metro back to Abbesses and stopped for a drink at Au Petit Montmartre to listen to a jazz band busking in Place des Abbesses:


I look seriously chubby in this photo, but I think it might have been the heat. I really didn't eat that much cheese.

After dinner and another nap we headed out again for more free jazz, this time to Le Houdon, then on to Cafe Le Refuge on Rue Lamarck before finishing the night again at Les Deux Moulins. This was one of the nicest things to do in Paris, just sitting around drinking wine and enjoying the various sights and sounds of Montmartre around us. Most of our days followed this pattern and it was extremely relaxing.

After having been good in Reine, I succumbed to temptation in Dreyfus and bought some fabric - and then I took Nic back with me on Monday and we bought some more:

Printed African cotton - this has a slightly waxy feel to it





I'm going to use the black and white cotton to make that halterneck dress I wrote about before. I think for the purple fabric I'll try to find a maxi dress pattern and I haven't decided yet what to do with the African cotton, but it was too pretty to leave behind. All of the fabric shops in the garment district of Marche St. Pierre were buzzing which is no surprise, given how expensive clothes seem to be in Paris! Buying the fabric was a good test for my French and the market was a really lovely place to talk to people as well. Saturday was really the only day that I did much in the way of shopping, but it was really nice. As well as the fabric I bought a simple little red cotton sun-dress and an amazing pair of shoes from a second hand and vintage shop called Dialogue on Rue Caulaincourt:


Shoes number 27: Bottle green Oxfords

The photo really doesn't do them justice, but I'll get a better photo for the next Shoeperwoman's Shoe Challenge because I plan to wear them very soon! Dialogue was such a great shop, the lady who runs it was so much fun. She threatened not to sell me the shoes because they were too cute, and spent ages talking to us about how much she loves to get the chance to show off her English. We had another lazy afternoon of sitting in Cafes and pottering about before going back to the Saint Jean and Le Houdon - you can see here that I'd caught a wee bit of sun!





We also went back to the Sacre Coeur so I could take more photos of it. Seriously, I took loads:



Rue Lepic was holding a vide-grenier on Sunday, so we spent some time pottering around that before venturing a bit further afield. Our Lonely Planet guidebook recommended visiting the 'fabulous' Marches aux Puces de St.Ouen so we decided to do that. It's Europe's largest (lingerie section?) flea market and I think if you were in the right form for it, it would be great, but it was stressful to get there and I found St. Ouen to be really chaotic and a bit depressing. After that I was in need of some glamour and some macarons so we took ourselves off to the Champs-Elysees to buy some treats from Laduree. YUM, that's all I need to say there! Following that, I peered in some of the fancy shop windows around the golden triangle and pretended to be Carrie Bradshaw outside Hotel Plaza Athenee:





Then it was time for the Parisian experience we'd avoided last time...going up the Eiffel Tower. The queues weren't too bad, the price was reasonable and it was totally worth it. I won't go on about it too much because it'd be a cliche, I suppose, but I am so happy we went up there. It was a clear and breezy day so the views were spectacular and it was lots of fun. I was absolutely wrecked afterwards and pretty much went into a coma after I'd had my dinner - sleeping from 8pm until around 10 the following morning!

Yesterday we stayed in Montmartre to try to get the most out of it before coming home. We mainly just pottered around and did a bit of shopping - we bought some wine and cheese and champagne to bring back with us, and I bought myself a vintage dress:



It doesn't look that much on the hanger but it is really nice on. I love the bold and over the top rainbow colours, and the fact that it has pockets! Also, the band of green is the same colour as my new shoes but of course the colour scheme means this might be one for a Ruby Shoesday as well. We went back to Le Relais Gascon for another one of those enormous salads before going back to Saint Jean to hear the amazing jazz manouche band that were playing. In both places Nic and I got chatting to some lovely people, and so neither of us felt too sad to be having the last night of our holiday. We ended the night again as Les Deux Moulins and went off to bed very happy and pretty tipsy to boot.

Getting home was fine, but a bit depressing so instead I'm going to leave you with a few more photos from the trip. You can see some more on my flickr photostream as well:


Passage Lepic


I got to touch the Louboutins...wasn't brave enough to try them on and face having to leave them behind! These were in a vintage shop in Montmartre.






Nic getting ready to hear some jazz in Leamington railway station