Monday Madness

Monday this week was a bit of a disaster.  I had planned to go out to lunch with a few girls from the gym after having done our classes. (We can shower and change at the gym - just thought I'd point this out). We did this just before Christmas and had a really nice time and decided to repeat the experience so a few more of the girls could come along.

Anyway, when we got to the gym the studio had just been painted and the paint fumes were still quite strong. As our instructor is pregnant, she couldn't work in such an environment, and it wasn't really good for the rest of us either, so the classes had to be cancelled.  In addition, one of the girls had completely forgotten about the lunch and couldn't therefore make it, so we agreed to reconvene in a couple of weeks time and do it then.

Not to be disappointed, my friend and I decided we would still go for lunch, just the two of us.  We had all our clothes with us to change into and so decided to head off to the same restaurant, but in a different location, which was at our local mall.

I had a few jobs to do whilst there, namely take an item back, do a bit of banking and buy a few toiletries from Boots, so I popped home first to get what was necessary, and by the time we got there and had done my few errands, we were able to sit down to a nice meal and a chat.  A bit later, we were joined by my friend's daughter which was lovely, as I'd not met her before and soon after I headed off, not wanting to stay too long because the parking was very expensive and I resent paying it when I'm spending money in the mall.

When I got to the car parking machine, I had already gone over the time allowance for the cheaper tariff, so as I was going to have to pay more than I liked for parking, I decided to stay a while longer, get better value for the parking fee and do a couple more errands.  Needless to say, I did end up spending a little bit more than I intended, as I got sidetracked in Primark and H&M looking for a few things for Little Bird.

The main reason for this is that we're taking a winter sun break next week at half term and heading off to the Canary Islands for 5 nights.  OH wants to do some road cycle training and while he does this Little Bird and I are going to spend a few days by the pool or on the beach.  We haven't had a winter sun holiday since we went to Morocco, at New Year 3 or 4 years ago, so I'm quite looking forward to it.  As it is an all inclusive break, (this was the only option at the hotel we liked best) I'm hoping that I won't be spending too much money whilst I'm away, not to mention eating too much.  I will have to be self-disciplined and not overindulge.

Coincidentally, last week I took a good look through my summer clothes, which I keep stored in a suitcase during the winter, in order to declutter anything I no longer wanted.  I did declutter quite a few items, but was still left with plenty to take away, and not needing much at all.   Little Bird on the other hand had outgrown almost everything, so a few bits were needed for her to take away with her.

I ended up buying her a couple of pairs of shorts, a short suit for the beach, a vest, some sandals, new underwear and some flip flops for a total of about £35, but couldn't resist popping a pair of flip flops in for me too, and a couple of pairs of summery trousers which were £5 and £8 respectively.

Here are the flip flops.

They are a bit Bet Lynch, if you know what I mean, but I liked them and they only cost £1.50.  I may use them as slippers in our hotel room, if I don't have the nerve to wear them poolside.

The burgundy trousers, which I already own in black, (and did have in khaki until I spilled bleach on them whilst cleaning -  I still use them for cleaning incidentally, but was gutted that I'd ruined them, so it was good to get another pair I can wear outside of the house) were reduced from £9 to £5.   These are such a lovely soft loose fit and look great with a t-shirt and sandals.  They're a definite go to in warmer weather and the ankles are half elasticated to give them a hareem look.

The monochrome print pair were £8.   I did actually want to find a pair of print trousers for my capsule wardrobe at some point, so these will fit the bill perfectly.  They have a lovely crossover feature at the front which you can't actually see well from the photo, but which makes them quite flattering on and I can see me getting a lot of wear out of them.

I did buy one other thing for myself, which was this jumper at H&M, reduced from £30 to £10.

It is lovely and long and very cosy/roasty.  I paid for this using a gift card I received on returning an item I'd bought on line, so only actually paid out an extra £3 for it.  I'm very happy with this though, as I love the knitted pattern on it and the high neck and even if I don't get a lot of wear out of it this year, I know I will happily wear it in years to come.

A small splurge, but I am so happy with the items I bought that I don't mind too much.  It certainly more than made up for the disappointment of not doing my classes that morning and saved me a trip in later this week, which was on my to do list.