I know I’m really fortunate to have a good job, easy commute, challenging workload, but sometimes I really miss time to myself.  Two days off last week have me chance to catch up so I:

• Cooked my favorite roast chicken recipe (with a mustard crust) for Jen and Thea
• Won a vintage RL cardigan on ebay, and lost a vintage RL jacket which I really didn’t need anyway. The ebay cosmos righting itself again, thank goodness
• Watched Tales of the City on DVD - Vaginal Davis and Country Joe cameos. A all-time favorite.
• Replaced our old broken clothes airer with a brand new one. I have jammed my finger in that plastic thing for the last time - little things should make you happy I think
• Walked Rita on the common, watching the trees lose more and more leaves each day
• We saw Superduck and Sooz at Michael Clark’s Barbican performance, then Mr G and I jumped a cab for champagne cocktails in Soho
• Spent most of Saturday in bed with tea, crumpets and the papers, enjoying Mick Brown’s interview with Paula Rego and looking like a halloween costume thanks to the cocktails…
• Meeting Junior and Linnet and their dog Jack for lunch. I can’t wait to see Linnet’s hair - she’s gone from blonde to brunette overnight - impulse decision!!

Tomorrow is Monday and it begins again…

…filming Shanghai Surprise.

This is all I want to look like right now. And I guess with these pics doing the rounds Madonna wouldn’t mind it either. Ouch. No fair.

I am looking for an oversized and chunky navy cotton knit sweater like crazy but to no avail. I also missed on some 80s Cutler and Gross frames on ebay… feels like the gods are conspiring agin it.

Searching for a dress to be married in last year was fascinating. In the space of a month I had completely moved my sights from very sculptured and tight dresses, like a  Forties “war bride” suit or a Gaultier flesh-pink corset dress, to more romantic and feminine shapes. Edwardian lawn dresses, Thirties chiffon and my favorite of all - Irish Crochet Lace gowns.

I didn’t wear one in the end. They’re totally impractical for a registry office then pub day, far too tiny for Australian-reared shoulders and waists, they’re mostly available in the States, and a hand-made well-preserved dress will set you back thousands.

Doesn’t mean I can’t dream…

On ebay.

I haven’t worn a watch for years and years (and years!) so with the credit crunch looming and general financial and moral despair all over Radio 4, I am doing the perverse and thinking about “investing” in one. Hermès, thanks.

Via Ebay Fashion which, god help me, I just stumbled across.

Add these to the Christmas wish list.

Why, oh why do I find things on ebay about thirty seconds before the end of the auction….

I am in the market for a duffle coat: Gloverall, Burberry or Ralph Lauren?

Photography by Akihiro Furuta

I hope to win this 1940s wool and knit myself some over-the-knee socks from a pattern I found in a junk shop a few years ago, but that has languished in a box since… or a vest with an accent colour at the neck and hem, or perhaps that old standby of a large moss-stitch scarf.

Wish me luck!

Changing my mind on kilts forever, from Time’s Up Vintage.

(The auction is for the sailor top though.)