Oh it feels as though it’s been a long week. Here’s a quick update on what I’ve been doing. As you know, last weekend we went down to London to undertake the task of sorting through the belongings of my friend who died a couple of months ago. It was a very strange thing to do. If you’ve ever had to do this sort of thing, you’ll know that you go into a very operational mode. I think it’s a way of dealing with the fact that these are the remnants of a life. It’s so very strange to imagine that if you don’t have children, once you’ve gone all that is left of you physically are the things that you accumulated. They may be special things that had meaning to you – but without the experience that surrounds them they become just things again.
We had moments of sadness and moments of laughter. He was a big character and so first of all there were fancy dress outfits that made us smile. He was also a very dapper chap and we went through so many designer clothes – Alexander McQueen, Armani, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith…that when we came to something not designer we found ourselves saying madly “oh it’s only Reiss, put it in the charity bag.” I spent ages looking through a box of photos that he had kept that included pictures of me through the years that I’d never seen, from 1989 onwards. There were also lovely photos of my eldest son and of my parents which made me happy and sad all at the same time… so many lives that were interconnected with happy times shared and now so many of the people in those photos have gone. But then again they live on in us and the stories we tell.
So – I’m afraid that you’re finding me feeling a bit thoughtful again. Anyway here is a picture of me at the end of the day, feeling a bit grubby but toasting the memories one last time in the way that my friend would have appreciated.
Whistles blazer; TopShop chambray shirt; M&S cami; Next relaxed skinny jeans
We had a great catch up the next day with our old friends and reminisced about the good times. We even ended up having a midnight kitchen disco at somebody’s house, much to the disgust of our combined teenage offspring who skulked off to play on the Playstation together muttering their disgust at their 90s throwback parents!
So, we got back home late on Sunday and I had to throw myself head on into another week of work, training a new starter in addition to the usual manic workload that my weeks bring. I haven’t taken many photos but here are two:
Cos pleated poplin shirt in the sale (we popped into Cos in London quickly when we were going past and were entranced by the clothes – I find it really hard to shop Cos online but could have spent hours in store and Mr MC emerged from the men’s department laden with bags, he’s a very decisive shopper!); Next denim crops; Boden Eva heels; Cos orb pendant necklace; Olivia Burton watch
Boden elegant shimmer jumper; Mango flowy trousers; Zara heels; Monsoon necklace
After much help from you all (and after ordering 36 different ones to try on) I can also declare an end to bikinigate. If you remember I wanted two new bikinis for our forthcoming holiday – one for playing the random swimming games that the boys think up and one for lounging with a book – which I’m hoping to do a lot. This is the practical one from somewhere that I don’t usually shop at but there is 25% off at the moment:
I’ve also ordered the tankini top for when I want to cover up a bit more. Some of us have been discussing tankinis – this is the only one I’ve found that doesn’t feel frumpy.
This is the one for lounging in, now in the sale. The bottoms are flattering with their roll top and the top has support but isn’t underwired so it isn’t uncomfortable.
Roll top hipster bikini bottoms which seem to have gone out of stock since I’ve been typing but are available as shorts here and other colours here. I’m wondering whether I should join the other over 40 bloggers and post a bikini shot in honour of the 40 something body – perhaps I’d better wait and see how many ice creams I’ve eaten by the time I have a tan!
So that’s it, we’re off tomorrow as soon as our housesitters have arrived to look after the cats. We let our eldest choose our holiday this year because it could be the last one that he joins us on and he decided on Turkey. We have a villa with our own pool and I can’t wait to relax and see some proper sunshine. It is between the sea and the mountains which is key to my wellbeing. We all love Turkey, it’s quite a spiritual place and we’ve found that we have made some eventful life decisions when we’ve been there. As soon as I’ve had a bit of a rest I’m planning on doing a lot of reflecting…in between making the most of my time with the boys and Mr MC… it feels as though I haven’t had a proper conversation with them for weeks.
I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with lots of photos, in the meantime I will post on the poor neglected Midlifechic Instagram feed whilst I’m out there. Have a good summer and I hope you’ll all be getting the break you deserve at some point.
