Tragedy To Farce

Karl Marx wrote that history repeats itself; first as tragedy then as farce. Guess where we are? First of all, let me just say that I still firmly believe that the Covid madness is over, bar the shouting. What we are witnessing now is what happens when people don’t know when to quit. The Covid narrative is a busted flush but we are still having to go through the motions. Come December the 31st, this insanity will come to a halt. So here we go again; lockdown no 2085. The government has just put London in Tier 4 so there go my Christmas plans. Of course in the light of the problems so many people are experiencing, if that is my worst problem, quite frankly I’m laughing. The poor people who work in the hospitality and entertainment industries are just having to stand by helplessly while their livelihoods are being destroyed. The concept of a mutated version of the virus that is cutting a swathe through the South East but is still susceptible to a vaccine ostensibly developed for another strain is so risible that I can’t believe anyone can make the claim with a straight face. They must be following that science again.

But be of good cheer, you just have to hold on a little longer and the whole house of cards is coming down. I suspect that January might be a bit tough as we all rub our eyes and look at the rubble our societies have been reduced to but the whole shenaningans of endless vaccinations and lockdowns and restrictions? That stuff is done. In the spirit of always cheering you up, here are my latest favourite videos and a repeat of my all-time fave. This is no laughing matter you say. Well then what shall we do after we’ve sobbed our hearts out? The one thing that authoritarian societies cannot handle is ridicule because you can’t terrify people who are laughing. That’s why the first section of society that is targeted by any dictator who knows his business is the arts, particularly writers, actors, painters and comedians. So ignore these maniacs, they don’t get to cancel Christmas. Christmas is too big for them: the fact of a newborn baby, come into the world for the sole purpose of rescuing and ransoming every soul in that world. Until I meet a person who can guarantee that when he/she inhales, they’ll definitely exhale because they have the power over life and death, I’m not going to let anyone terrorise me. We are going to make the best of any idiotic rules they come up with and we will rejoice and be glad wherever we are because the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Mere people don’t get to take that away, they don’t have the power. So, be of good cheer because Christ has overcome the darkness. Christmas is cancelled, indeed! Muppets.

Enjoy the videos, and have a wonderful week.

My personal favourite
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Style Necessity X Girotti Collection

Mosope a.k.a @stylenecessity

What a week! I finished at my old job this week and now for something completely different (copyright: Monty Python) As any fule kno, when you’re leaving one job for another and you haven’t been fired or stormed out, there’s suddenly a shedload of work that you should have done 3 months ago. You can either ignore it and suffer stabbing pains for the next 3 months as your ex-colleagues stick pins in your effigy (don’t bother; I’m covered by the blood, phew!), or you can knuckle down and leave a clean slate, berating yourself all the while for being a workshy procrastinating fool. Care to take a guess?…….. Still, I survived and here we are. Next! As you should know if you follow fashion or beauty on IG or FB, we’ve got another pop-up at John Lewis in Exeter. Hurrah and Huzzah! So, I’m chilled to the max because I’ve done it all, ready to move whenever, got it all planned. Till I got an email from John Lewis that we would be opening one day earlier, and all the closing times seem to have been extended so we’re there from the 2nd of December onwards. Big Yikes. Woman plans, God laughs 🙂 It’s all in hand, thank God and we are expecting to meet loads of people, and sell out completely so Hurrah and Huzzah!

Yes, yes, that’s all very well but who’s the fierce slayer in the photo, the more fickle (i.e everybody 🙂 ) amongst you ask? Good question – that is my brilliant and I think we can all agree, extremely gorgeous cousin Mosope of Syle Necessity. She’s that fabulous mixture of brains and beauty; Corporate Secretary by day, Style Influencer Extraordinaire 24/7. She has a mind-boggling 699,000 followers on Instagram and keeps her clothes on! It’s a Christmas miracle 🙂 She has just designed a boss collection of shoes and boots with Girotti and they are things of beauty. We are very, very proud of her. My personal favourites are:

You can find her collection at https://girottishoes.com/blog/fashion-influencers-spotlight-style-necessity-x-girotti-collection and there’s a 40% off Black Friday steal at the moment. She’s designed slip-ons, boots, shoes, heels, flats, you name it. You can thank me later. AlaraApothecary: we show you where it’s at. Step out and step high; have a fabulous well-shod weekend.

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Many Waters

To get business out of the way, we are back in John Lewis, Exeter the very first day the wretched lockdown is over, to God be the glory. As for them extending the lockdown, I say pshaw. I’d like to see them try. So, if you’re about, come and see us on the 3rd floor, enticingly on the way to the cakes and tea, and buy some Christmas goodies. If you’re not about, don’t forget that we are on Amazon, and of course this lovely website. We thank you in advance 🙂 Here’s a link to our cheery new video:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eash9GaGAuZ2whvGrg4qp-9wZdkGzC5k/view

I’ve chosen this image because it reminds me of the summer holiday which I was so fortunate to be able to take. If you told me that we’d still be in lockdown in March, I’d have said…… yup, the power-crazed government has no intention of letting us out of our homes unless compelled to do so. So, I bring you glad tiding of great joy today. First of all, let me remind myself and you also that we should not be afraid. It’s quite apparent already that the ridiculous SAGE projections of 50,000 cases, or was it deaths per day by December is so much hogwash. Quelle surprise, as we say down the Old Kent Road. It is especially gratifying to see people trying to cover their wotsits as the wheels are coming off the Covid narrative in a spectacular fashion. You know the jig is definitely up when the Daily Mail starts to write articles about how the government got it wrong and Covid is just like getting a hangnail. I had a hearty laugh at that this morning; they’ve done a U-turn so fast, they must have whiplash. See the article here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8971669/What-DONT-tell-Covid-facts-twisted-strike-fear-hearts.html

Quite a departure, I think you’ll agree. As for the vaccine: 125% effective!, but you still need to wear a mask and socially-distance and wash your hands every 10 minutes. Well, you’d need a heart of stone not to laugh. Obviously this is media-driven information so perhaps when the developers publish the SmPC for their vaccines, the claims may be more realistic. Even better, we are to be allowed to see our families for Christmas. Gawd bless you, master (tugs forelock). It’s almost like we are freeborn people with fundamental human rights. Hang on……

In the light of this, I’m here to declare that Christmas is ON, because you mess with God’s Son at your peril. Governments didn’t create us, they don’t get to destroy us with their ineptitude and villainy. As for the Covid shenanigans, I confidently predict that come the 1st of January, we’ll all be rubbing our eyes and asking what the helling hell that was all about. Whatever it was, it did not factor in one very important factor: Love. The whole universe stands or falls in its presence or absence. Humans can’t make it, robots can’t make it. All you can do is tap into it, and without it, the glories of existence are utterly worthless. You can keep human beings apart for decades, you can put oceans between them, but you can never sever the link between two people who love one another. One dictator after another has tried, and it always looks like they’ve suceeded for a while, but here we are, with their empires in utter ruin and desolation. As that great poet Solomon put it, ‘Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.’ And so say all of us. I leave you with our cheery new video. Have a wonderful blessed week.

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Happy Days Are Here Again

Indefatigable Tayo: mille grazie
JLP kindly put this in all their elevators. I was pretty chuffed 🙂

We finally made it to John Lewis. I’ve never been so tired in my entire born life. The government very helpfully instituted a lockdown the day before our stock was being delivered, but we decided to go for it anyway, half a loaf always being better than none. It was a really weird week – on the Sunday, there were over a hundred in the queue when the store opened, which was mental. Monday was quieter but it picked up as the week went on, then we had to pack up on Wednesday. Can I just say how marvellous all the people at JLP were? From the guys in the loading bay, to the admin staff, the merchandisers, the team members on the 3rd floor- they were terrific. I was gutted for them when job losses were announced this week – 2500 people! Please shop online with them if you’re a fan of JLP; let’s try and save those jobs and high street jobs if we can. It’s the best experience so far, and it’s only now that I realise how stressful it was sorting out spaces at fairs etc, not that I’m dissing them. There’s just clear blue water between both experiences. The people at GBEx who arranged it are doing a wonderful job, getting us new brands out there; a big thank you to them also. Even better, we’ve been invited back post-lockdown, so watch this space. Christmas is ON!, and thanks to all of you who’ve ordered online. Most of all, thanks to my intrepid friend Tayo who took a week off and travelled from London to wo(man) the pop-up. I don’t even know how to express my gratitude – you’re an absolute star.

Left JLP on Wednesday, back to lockdown on the high street on Thursday to find a huge increase in my workload. Then followed the kerfuffle of the USA elections which is just ridiculous. The media bias on display was staggering, I guess the gloves are definitely off now. I’m no prospective republican and I would certainly never vote for Donald Trump. Unless of course, my only other choice is a 77-year old man who is clearly suffering from dementia. I might consider it then, but I suspect that even then I’d vote for someone else, not The Donald. What I am is a veteran of many, many dodgy African elections, and I know electoral malfeasance when I see it. We now need observers from Africa to oversee western elections 🙂 This one was a doozy – from the dumped votes found in garbage to the mysterious halt in counting before 100,000 votes were found behind the sofa, all of them for the losing candidate, to the software ‘glitches’ – you’d need a heart of stone not to laugh. Unfortunately, the joke is on us. Meanwhile, you have the media asking Donald Trump to prove the fraud before the count is over. I believe there is a group of people for that – they’re called law enforcement; the police and the FBI. JFK died in 1963 and there are still doubts about how he was assasinated, for crying out loud. Then you have the strident declaration that Biden is the 46th Prez-elect – er, he really isn’t. Not till the Electoral College reports back in 5 weeks’ time. If you doubt it, I refer you to Bush vs Gore in 2000; who could forget the hanging chads?

It’s great psychology though – shout it out loud and often enough, and hope your opponent throws in the towel. It’s an attempt at declarative utterance but it won’t hold this time. As the saying goes, a lie goes round the world twice before the truth has even got its shoes on. Just because the man is an obnoxious vulgarian, it doesn’t mean that I’d like to see him replaced by a fraudster. The bit that amazes me (apart from the possibility that a mind-boggling 75 million people voted for a man who through no fault of his own, is unwell) is how little thought the TDS sufferers are giving this. They hate Trump so much that they are willing to embrace a liar and a cheat as their president if it turns out the democrats have been cooking the books. A man who would steal and cheat his way to the office of president is unlikely to give two hoots about the electorate; that is the problem right there. If Biden has won fair and square, congratulations to him for a battle well-fought, and fair winds and sunshine for the next 4 years. Well, one year anyway, before they declare him unfit for office and the real president, Kamala Harris steps into his shoes as planned. If they have defrauded the voters, they should all be in jail. My prediction? Believe it or not, Donald Trump is destined to be the 46th president of the US. So here is the new boss, same as the old boss. God help us all 🙂 Have a wonderful week, once you’ve recovered from choking on your dinner. AlaraApothecary: we call it as we see it 🙂

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Indomitablest!

A bit of frivolity to show we’re still standing, if rather precariously 🙂 Human imagination is a wonderful thing

This is most certainly not the post that I was planning to write today. This post was going to be titled ‘John Lewis X AlaraApothecary’, but that was before the government got up to their usual tricks. I have a slot in a pop-up store in John Lewis in Exeter starting on Monday (3rd floor, come and say hello if you’re around), and plans for some more in London in January. With the lockdown announcement, I’m not even sure if it will be going ahead. This is the second time this has happened: I had gotten a call from Fenwick in Bond Street in March where they had said really nice things about the sample I sent them and Alara being stocked by them was pretty much a done deal. The week after, just after I’d sent in the presentation, price list etc, the first lockdown was announced. So, here we go again.

I’m not upset for myself, I still have a day job and can weather the storm, thank God. I’m just reflecting that in the last week, I’ve made 14 kilos of creams, 80 bottles of body oil, hand wash, facial oils, balms, ordered insanely expensive printed bags (which are coming from Denmark apparently, no sign of them yet), ordered other plain bags in a panic as a substitute for the AWOL bags, spent a fortune on ingredients, hotels, train tickets ete etc, ad nauseaum. Oh, and I worked a 45-hour week, then made products till midnight every day. Now, I’m a minnow, it’s just a tiny business. If you then try to imagine the amount of hard work it’s taken to build up a John Lewis or a Waterstones or whatever, it just makes you want to weep. The team at John Lewis have been so fantastic and helpful even though I’m not exactly Estee Lauder; these people work very hard, everyday. To see the hard work that so many people have put in being reduced to rubble by a bunch of morally-challenged poor excuses for humanity just makes me so angry. I was reading the latest copy of House & Garden’s ‘The List’ which annually showcases the best interior design and product design companies, and it was really nice to see the names of a few people from my set at KLC who are doing so well, and then I began to wonder how many of them have found that the work has dried up completely. We all worked so hard, that course is intense and then you invest so much into starting your own practice.

It’s extremely appropriate that they’ve announced the lockdown on Halloween; if you want to see what evil looks like, this is it. Never mind the pantomime demons and painted zombies, for all who don’t believe in a devil or evil, you are looking at him face to face. But, people forget what comes straight after Halloween – All Hallows Day a.k.a All Saints Day, November the 1st. So my message as ever is, don’t be afraid. Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world. It is quite apparent that help is not coming – the church, parliament, the judiciary, the healthcare professions, the police, the army, the celebs, the royal family etc etc – everyone is keeping their head down and pretending that this makes sense. Thank God for Christ – when people ask me why I’m a Christian, it’s because of times like this. That faith is tried and tested believe me, and I know in whom I’ve believed. God has never let me down and I’ve never had to put my trust in princes. These are dangerous, uncertain times but the whole Covid thing is a busted flush; I keep repeating it. Come the 31st of December, it will all be over bar the shouting. I will be setting up the pop-up store if JL are still willing to go ahead and I will not be scared into seeing other human beings as walking parcels of viruses. Everyone on this planet is kith and kin. As for our cherished leaders, to paraphrase King David, a man who knew something about sabre-rattling warmongers and spiritual warfare, ‘Who are these uncircumcised philisitines, to defy the armies of the living God?‘ ‘So let them dance in the light of their fires, they will lie down with sorrow’ That’s another handy verse from Isaiah. I guess when we get to the part where they start losing firstborn sons Exodus-style, they’ll cease and desist.

A big thank you to John Lewis and GBE, even if the pop-up is cancelled. If it goes ahead, I’ll be donating 10% of all the takings there, as well as 10% of online sales till December, split among 3 charities: Shelter, Crisis, and The Trussell Trust. I am fortunate enough to be able to do so; if you are in that position, please pick a charity and give. Believe me, the need is there. God bless us and keep us and cause His face to shine upon us all in the coming weeks.

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