This Dries Van Noten skirt is the first designer item I bought, years ago in 2013 (??). It was already tight at the waist when I bought it and soon after the purchase I gained weight. A friend of mine had a tiny waist so I gave the skirt to her. Then this year I dropped weight due to my braces and she gained weight. She told me she was giving away a lot of clothes and the Dries Van Noten skirt was among them. Which meant I got it back.

I am not sure whether this is still the style, the fashion of 2019/2020 but I don’t care as I like it. It is a vague sort of green with black panels. Black near my face is a “no-no” but I broke that rule because I felt that black was the nicest with this skirt. It is also the only jumper (sweater) I have that is fitted.  Bought it with my girlfriends on the shopping expedition a couple of weeks ago. By adding the necklace I am trying to soften the black.

To bridge the gap between the skirt and the footwear, I chose my black suede over-the-knee boots. The belt and the bag (both very old) match the necklace (also old) and brighten up the outfit a bit. Threw in a couple of second-hand bracelets and I was done.

Kitty took the photos on a cold Sunday morning. Most people were still at home, which meant there weren’t too many people blocking the camera view.

Below: We started with this nicely decorated chip (french fries) shop.

Below: I was still wearing my warm coat and cosy faux fur hat.

Below: The faux fur hat doesn’t get many outings. I am always afraid it will ruin my hair, but I discovered that it doesn’t. The beautiful heavy-weight scarf is about 25 years old. It was expensive but totally worth its money. The coat is from the Max Mara outlet in Turin, bought 4 years ago. The gloves are from the same outlet, bought this year.

Below: Look to the left, look to the right, look the left again…no traffic? Then cross the street.

Below: The back of the outfit, still keeping my head warm with the hat. The heels look high but these boots are quite comfortable.

Below: Funny face.

Below: Wearing a vintage underskirt to prevent indecent exposure at the side.

Below: In front of a specialized tea and coffee shop. They usually have very nice window decoration.

Below: A few days later the Christmas decorations were up in that store. This is the “coffee window”, left from the entrance. The sign on the chair at the right says: “Stressed from all the choices you have to make? Have a cup of tea. We have 150 different ones.” I thought that was very funny.

Below: The right shop window displays the tea.

Below: The bag is by Dutch designer Mart Visser and very old (20 years?). It is leather with ostrich print, not ostrich leather.

Below: And here is my photographer Kitty at the coffee and lunch place after the photo shoot.

Below: Close-up of the bracelets.

What happened in my life this week

Busy busy busy.

Saturday: my friend Lia visited me and we decided to go out for lunch and do some shopping. I look so dopey in this photo and tiny too haha (my couch seat was lower than Lia’s chair). I am not wearing any red lipstick. Lipstick is an absolute must with me.

Lia needed a jacket for Christmas (and found one) and I fell for a red pleated skirt with a red jumper. The town was lovely in Christmas atmosphere although there were far too many tourists. You couldn’t even properly reach a stand. At the end of the afternoon we went for a tea and hot chocolate at a place which is a bakery and delicatessen shop “In den gevulde broodmand”. It is quaint and established since 1902 and has a very warm atmosphere:

I know what you are thinking… another lunch. One of my friends said I live very luxuriously; every time I mention going out for lunch or buying new clothes etc. she shouts “LÚX” (as abbreviation of Luxury) haha. It is a good running gag. She is right of course, I am a very privileged person. I often feel guilty living such a comfortable life as it is just the result of being born in the rich part of this world, with loving parents, a reasonable intelligence and good schooling. None of these things are my accomplishments. Anyway… getting philosophical now.

Sunday was a quiet day, trying to rest my poor knee which was really swollen from going up and down the ladder to decorate the tree. In the evening we had friends coming round for dinner, always nice. Ron cooked as he always does (bless him).

Monday: work started with a team outing in the morning which was really lovely for all of us. In the afternoon we were given a presentation and in between I worked. Fitness in the early evening as usual. My neighbour across the road told me her brand-new bicycle was stolen. It was chained up to an iron bar attached to the house and they still managed to steal it. She doesn’t have a proper bike left to bring her youngest son to school. So I am lending her mine until the insurance money comes in and she can replace hers. I am not using my bicycle that much and her need is bigger than mine. Trying to earn brownie points here for when I knock on heaven’s door haha.

Tuesday: another training at work followed by some meetings. It was a quiet but useful day, nothing special. Watched TV in the evening: the Thomas Crown Affair. Gosh I have such a crush on Pierce Brosnan, what a gorgeous man. And Rene Russo had ánd has the perfect body, what a beauty.

Wednesday: fitness first, then shower and blowdrying my hair. Went to the seamstress with 5 of my knickers. They are still good but the elastic has gone. Such a shame as the matching bras are fine and I like lingerie sets. My seamstress is going to fix the elastic. When I got home at 12.30 my hair looked like shxt after being exposed to the slightly damp weather. Hopeless. Kept my 1 o’clock appointment with the garage to replace my summer tires by winter tires (for safety). This took over two hours because they had lost my winter tires, aagghhh. Luckily they found them again. After returning home I spent an hour with my friend Anja. The day was filled with little things. Is it going to be like this when I am retired? Hmmm…

Thursday: work with a lot of meetings.

Friday: worked from home. Still having problems with my knee. That going up and down the ladder with the Christmas decorations set me back a good bit.
Ron and I went to the movies in the evening: “Knives Out”. Thoroughly enjoyed it and I had no idea how it would end, which is good. Afterwards I came up with “This scene could never have happened as he would have known that….(no spoiler alert as you might want to see it)”. I have this weird brain for discrepancies in a movie. I will give you some examples about the Thomas Crown Affair as that is an old movie which you probably have already seen: Thomas places the stolen painting in an open briefcase and folds it shut… with the painting still in the wooden frame! Wooden frames do not fold. He then has a forger paint another famous painting onto the stolen one in one or two days, gives this to the museum in loan to replace the stolen one and at the end of the movie the water of the sprinkler installation washes the water colour off the painting thus revealing the original (are you still following it?). No way you can create a forgery in one or two days, which really looks like an oil painting and not a water colour painting plus have it dry in that short of time. I know, it is a movie, but these things bug me.

Greetje