Bank Holiday - I Don't Like Cricket (I Love It)...

The Oval Cricket Ground, Kennington

Don't look away if you don't care for cricket - this is about fun in the sun last summer! ( Wasn't there a Beach Boys song along those lines...?)

Above is the view from the balcony of the apartment I shall be staying in this May bank holiday weekend. It is also a wish for sunny and warm weather but unfortunately the forecasters don't think so! 

So in lieu of the hoped for heatwave, here are some pics of last summer's exciting Ashes Test Match against Australia (England won BTW for any non-cricket fans!) With some ex-pat Aussies, as well as steadfast England fans and some of mixed loyalty (British grandparents and aunt of our dear little Aussie girl) it was a very good-humoured crowd on the balcony over the five days of the final test match.

England batting (or bowling - can't remember which!)

Our buffet table was popular!

The queues for the loos! 

Whilst we in the cheap seats could help ourselves to snacks or nip to the loo as needed, the poor paying crowd had to try and hold on until the lunch or tea interval or risk missing a world beating wicket.

This is another view from the balcony - in my opinion just about as interesting as what was happening on the pitch. People watching! Sadly I don't have pics of the various outfits - groups dressed as Wally from Where's Wally, Hen Night type outfits (who'd have guessed at a cricket match?),  Flintstones (?), Prisoners - Oo-er perhaps Convicts (geddit?) and so on. The saddest sight I noticed was some poor WAG type young woman in a totally unsuitable over-sophisticated outfit including 6inch heels. Definitely not cricket!

SKY news or ITN likes the balcony too!

Oh and did I mention - those clever "straight to camera" sports news pieces by slick presenters - were done on this balcony! What better way to beat the "exclusive" deals by the main media sponsor. But what did we care about all that. A gentle summer sun, the smack of wood on leather, players in whites, a glass of Pimms or beer, the laid back company of  friends and family, England my England.

Whatever the weather I hope you have a good bank holiday weekend! 

I Do Love A Bargain...Nude is the New Beige...Utility Grace?

Shoon nude leather shoes, Faith coral leather shoes, Next nude leather cross body bag

Where to start? What a wonderful day shopping bargains. Actually I bought the Cara shoes from Shoon a couple of weeks ago but only wore for the first time on Sunday at the Victoria and Albert Museum to view the Grace Kelly exhibition. But they are a tremendous bargain at only £65 for real on-trend and comfortable strappy shoes and I wore them again today out shopping.

I spied the wonderful Faith coral leather shoes from the sale rack in Debenhams today after buying some Clarins cosmetics using my £5 Beauty Club voucher. While I was trying on shoes there was an in-store announcement that if I spent £40 across the store in total, even in separate transactions I could receive £10 in money off vouchers for future purchases. The coral shoes by Faith were reduced from £55 to £35 so with the cosmetics receipt I bagged the extra vouchers. Result!  Will use them next time for some Chanel and Dior items I have spotted.

Oh - and the across body handbag in pale nude with a Next label - that was £5 in a charity shop on my way home.

Marks and Spencer Linen Dress with Pockets!

I spied this dress a few days ago in linen blend, with metal stud decoration, cap sleeves, and POCKETS! Easy shift style but not baggy. It was £35 and was just about to buy when I remembered that M&S offers a £5 money off voucher on purchases of £35 or more if you take a bag of clothes containing at least one M&S item to Oxfam. I rushed home, dug out some nice M&S items that I finally admit I can't fit into anymore and dashed into Oxfam. Voucher in hand, back to M&S and got the dress for £30!

  M&S coral dress, Faith coral shoes, Jump handbag

This linen blend coral dress from M&S doesn't have pockets sadly, but it is a very easy fit and has SLEEVES. It was only £29.50 full price. The bargain Faith coral shoes go beautifully and - what's this? A lovely deep mushroom Jump bag which I bought brand new a little while back for £4 (!) in an antique arcade! I guess it must have been a regretted purchase or unwanted gift of the stand-holder but it's really lovely. Jump is a smart brand of luggage particularly liked by the French, and although this bag is not leather it's very stylish and good quality.

Is that all? NO!

Clarins A-Go-Go!

Here's my big pot of Clarins self-tanning mousse to make my legs ready for their spring outings.  The pretty pochette of free goodies came because I bought two items I wanted anyway and I could use my £5 voucher to when paying.  

I think I'll have a lie down now. And tell you about my museum visit later - though in the first photo you might have spotted a suit as background. It's actually a utility suit from the 1940s or 50s that I bought last week, but it's almost a dead ringer for Grace Kelly's going away suit after her marriage to Prince Rainier. How weird is that?

My Sunday Exhibitions: Quilts and Grace Kelly

The Grace Kelly exhibition at the V & A museum in London

Hurrah! At last tomorrow ( Sunday)  I shall be visiting the V and A to view two exhibitions I have been looking forward to for some time. Because of the popularity of both exhibitions I had to book tickets at particular time slots. Am hoping that this means that numbers of viewers per slot are kept reasonably moderate as I have been very uncomfortable and crowded at recent exhibitions. It may seem elitist but sadly many people have no idea how to conduct themselves when viewing exhibits.

There's a sort of coach party mentality which crowds the carefully structured order and really spoils the experience for those like me who are trying to learn more about the subject. Having said that I have also many complaints about exhibition curators who seem to have been coerced into the overuse of too clever graphics, over darkened displays and badly (sometimes wrongly) placed labels.  If they ever got a random group of outsiders a 'test walk' of the exhibition they would soon move the labels higher - eye level would be good - and larger so that a group of people could read it at once.

So rant over and looking forward to my day at the V and A. This is the other exhibition I have booked into as the proud owner over the years of many vintage quilts. I love the historic ones.

 Quilts 1700 - 2010 at the V & A Museum