What a totally insane week. Today isn’t proving to be any better so I have unilaterally decided that Sunday is no longer the first day of the week just so I can put the madness down to last week and pretend that anything which happens today also happened last week so as not to hex the new week. Don’t give me that ‘God rested on the seventh day stuff’, I’ve made my decision and that’s it. The worst day was on Thursday when I left home at the crack of dawn and drove 180 miles to attend a funeral. I’m sure you all know how much I loathe and detest early mornings. Long story short, a journey which normally takes two and a half hours took five hours, with the last 15 miles taking 90 minutes. I got there five minutes after the funeral finished. I could have cried from frustration.

Mad dash to the wake after frantic efforts to find out where the venue was since I was just expecting to go along with everyone after the service. Just about managed to spend an hour there as I was now running late for everything else. Oh, and thank you Tower Hamlets for charging £4 an hour for parking, just 40p less than parking outside Harrods. What with your wonderful environmental maintenance, the two places are practically interchangeable…. Then a mad rush to North London to my hairdressers. The North Circular– where should I start? Suffice to say I was now 2 hours late, she’d put off taking her kids to the school fete to accommodate my tardiness and yes, I did feel like the Grinch who stole Christmas, thank you. I arrived to find her street liberally festooned with new ‘No Parking’ signs, fine £200. So, mad scramble to find a paying-parking space 3 streets away. I did get to make it up to the kids by 1) helping them name several generations of ants in the garden (don’t ask) and 2) by proferring a lavish bribe thus allowing them to go on every possible ride when I finally did drive them to the fete.

By now, it was 5.30pm. OK, no problem, just one quick trip to collect a parcel in Chiswick, maybe pick up some fast food so I didn’t have to cook when I got home and the day would be OK. North Circular…… Arrived at Chiswick at 6.45 pm, 10-mile journey. OK, no problem. Nix the parcel, just get some KFC or something. Got to KFC, it has shut down. At that point, I really had to laugh. I left home at 7am and arrived back at 10pm. In that time, I was driving every minute except for the hour I spent at the wake, and the two hours at the hairdressers. How insane is that? I went back to work the next day for a nice rest, not to mention a shorter day 🙂 Apropos which, Chiswick is ridiculously snooty; there was a McDonalds there briefly but it closed down for lack of custom. In London. The poor kids had to have quinoa & kale- themed parties and probably loved it 🙂 Now the KFC is gone, coincidentally just as the police station closed down. Just sayin’…… Still, there is still a Poundland so it’s practically a sink estate as far as the denizens are concerned.

Today, I’ve discovered that I can no longer access the page builder I use for writing this blog. WordPress have made the much-loathed Gutenberg Editor (curses upon you)  the default and try as I might, I can’t get Classic Editor back. And yes, I’m pretty computer-savvy; I tried every permutation of every patch, installation, plugin etc, no joy. Luckily, I remembered the cool images I have for today so I’ve persevered with another Editor.

So, how excellent are these shoes, not to mention that sassy playing-card skirt. Just the thing for visiting the bank manager or the vicar. As for that bonkers Balmain ’19 outfit, I’d buy it if I could afford it. Just randomly wear it to the supermarket and strike a pose. The Chloe belt is normal but so darling, I had to include it. Favourite of all is the incredible paper installation from a Chanel show about 10 years ago. Karl Lagerfeld, mad as a box of frogs but a much-missed total genius. I remember using the paper-installation thing to make curved room-divider for one of my projects at KLC and getting a decidedly frosty reception from my inspiration-bypass tutor who hated me with the heat of a thousand suns. Remembering her expression still makes me laugh. Best bit of the week was having my Jasmine & Citron body oil recommended with the comment, ‘Her products are amazing but too expensive’ The cheek of it: the finest, lushest, expensive natural oils, soaps, and essential oils, made up to fragrances that angels have been known to stop and inhale. No, it’s not expensive; you’re just too cheap to flash the cash. Aston Martins aren’t expensive, I just can’t afford one. I wouldn’t go into their showoom and query the price; I would very much like to just take my bedding and permanently move into one though if anyone’s buying. She did see the funny side of my retort; I suspect there’s a sale in it 🙂 Result.

So I’m definitely looking forward to next week which has resolutely not begun yet. Hope y’all have a fantastic A406-free week. Pip pip