The third week of my holiday started with boarding a train to London St. Pancras. It seemed a good idea at the time as you don’t have to walk too far on platforms (unlike airports) and you can sit and read a magazine or a book for a long time. Relaxing. Hmm, true … but it took a long time and I had to check in an hour before leaving as well. Next time this girl is flying again. No big hassle though, I arrived at the scheduled time and met Lisa, The Sequinist, wearing this jacket with sequinned sleeves (photo above). I thought “If there is one person who can appreciate it, it will be Lisa” 😆

I will admit I bought it the day before I left for London and yes that was on a Sunday. I had been ogling it for some time, tried it on the day before in the shop and counted my money on Sunday. The outcome was positive so I rushed to the store. I am trying to become more sustainable and believe me, I am getting there, but this was a weak moment (again). The brand is Essentiel Antwerp and yes, also again. They get me every time.

Below: Lisa and I at lunch on the Monday. This is like little frog land. We were both in green clothes from the waist up and the boarding behind us was the third green item. A bit much. We asked a poor waitress to take the picture. There is not a lot to tell about the first day. We talked and talked and talked. And got on so very well.

Special mentioning of the dinners

Lisa’s husband cooked for us and he is bloody good at cooking. I ate so well, better than in a restaurant: asparagus with turbot and sauce Hollandaise. It melted in my mouth. For dessert: Eton mess, my absolute favourite. The second evening he also cooked. They have a child of 6 years old and eating out isn’t really handy, especially as it was still school week. The cooking plans changed after the dog stole the duck breast from the kitchen counter haha. Doggie had an upset stomach for a couple of days and hadn’t eaten very much. The temptation of this meat lying there to get to room temperature was too much. We got risotto instead. A fabulous risotto. The man could open a restaurant.

On Tuesday we set out to the area Belgravia, Elisabeth Street to be exact. What a fantastic, beautiful neighbourhood. So many shops had decorated the outside of their store with (artificial) flowers. It was stunning.

Below: Here I am in front of one of the stores. A woman who asked me to take her picture in front of the store, returned the favour. I am wearing flat ballerinas with my lovely RIXO London dress (see more of the dress in this post) and hating it. I so dislike flat shoes.

Below: Which meant I put my high heels on and Lisa took another picture two doors down. Makes quite a perfect picture. I can hear you think “Did you schlepp your high heels around town?” And the answer obviously is: “Yes I did”. That is how much I hate flat shoes.

Below: This is the dress from the back, taken across the road by Lisa.

Below: And here is Lisa in a lovely red linen dress, excellent for the warm weather. I think we were in violation of the sign that said: “No standing area”. If you want to see this dress styled with other shoes and bag, click through to Lisa’s post about hot weather dressing.

Lisa took me to a shop called ME+EM …”Which I am sure you will love…” she said. Oh yes I loved it all right.

Below: I was tempted by this jumpsuit as it looked like it would be good, even for my figure. After seeing this photo, I left it in the shop. A pair of cream/pink trousers and a pink jumper did leave with me.

Below: Time for lunch and time to meet Susan of Une femme d’un certain âge who is from L.A. but on holiday in France and London. Susan and I met a few times before in Paris here and here. (Gosh, this sounds as if I am a world traveller… Nothing is further from the truth.) She had just had a colour consult with the ladies of Red Leopard. I will not spill the beans, that is up to her. You can read all about it if you click through to her blogpost about the colour consult.

Below: Farm Girl is the name of this cute place where we had lunch. This one is in Notting Hill. The food was delicious and pretty. A great find by Lisa.

Below: Again the waiter had to take a picture. To get all three of us in the photo Susan stood between Lisa and me. At first she was crouching but that made a very odd picture. This one is better.

We went for a little bit of shopping. Susan found a perfect jumper in a very flattering colour. Flattering according to her colour scheme; you only had to look at her to know. Time spent together was too short but Lisa needed to pick up her son from school and Susan had left her husband to fend for himself (which I am sure he didn’t mind as he loves “me-time”).

Below: As Lisa and I drove away, I took a snap-shot through the car window of another stunning facade.

Below: The Wednesday morning after another long chatting session, Lisa and I had lunch in a pub. A beautiful place with good service. A few photos of the pub.

Below: I photographed Lisa outside but decided to do a few more indoors.

Below: First a close-up of the shoes. Easy to walk on, special to look at and sparkling as befitted for The Sequinist.

Below: I think I took 15 photos in this position 🙄 . I liked them all so it was hard to choose. The green jacket she is wearing is lovely and she gracefully gave me the same jacket in another size as it was gifted to her in two sizes. I love it.

Below: I narrowed it down to two photos. Here is one where she is smiling. A great smile.

Below: One more of me with the off-white jacket as a last picture of this post. Those sneakers are worth their weight in gold. Again, like last week, these trousers are baby blue.

Lisa also gave me two dresses she was gifted but which weren’t her style (flowers, you see). I was ever so pleased they fitted me as I love them. So my suitcase was a lot heavier when I returned. I am very grateful and hope I thanked her enough. They will be on the blog soon.

What happened in my life this week

The week for me is in fact Saturday to Friday as I always want the blogpost to be ready in time for Selina to have enough time for her to edit my blogpost. Bless her.

Saturday I took my (nearly) 91 year old mother to a little shopping mall which is something she liked to do. She did very well. Both in walking (for quite a long time) and in spending (two tops and a pair of sandals). I don’t take after my mother even though she likes shopping too. I take after my father who used to be a big (clothes) spender in his younger days. Went home early to meet the guy who was going to wipe out the wasp nest in our back wall. Of course he came late and said he couldn’t do it as it was raining. Hopefully they will be killed this week as they are coming into the house.

Sunday was a quiet day of rest.

Monday: back to work, back to 345 mails in my inbox. Worked hard on Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday Kitty and I did a really quick but successful photo shoot. We did it in three quarters of an hour, including driving to the place and back. Now that’s fast. And they turned out beautifully. We shot one of the two dresses Lisa gave me. You will see it in two weeks.

Then I changed clothes to go to lunch with Eefje and Marja (it was raining cats and dogs), whom I hadn’t seen for a long time.

Below: This is Marja.

Below: And this is Eefje.

Below: And here we all are. The very kind waiter isn’t a very good photographer, but I appreciate his effort.

Below: I do have to show you Eefje’s sneakers (brand Essentiel). I love them.

Thursday: work and stress.

Friday: orthodontist. My teeth are coming along nicely. When I look at photos of the past I suddenly see that my teeth were already getting crooked in 2015. The orthodontist gave me the choice: either go on for another 4 weeks, be done with it and have a night retainer plus an iron “thread” holding the teeth in their place. Or go on for 14 week and have that one canine tooth move a tiny bit. I think I will opt for 4 weeks and be done with it. Not that it is much of a burden, but I don’t need perfection. Nearly perfect is good enough. This whole braces “project” was so easy and I am soooo glad I did it. Mind you, I am an extremely disciplined woman with the exception of buying clothes and such. We all have our faults.

Greetje