Dedicated follower of fashion

Went to see my lovely Mum today, and she is much, much better. Hurrah!

Mr WithaY and I went into town for a wander about and to pick up a few things, as it was such a beautiful day.

There were loads of buskers out, including a lad with a truly fine singing voice, albeit rather quiet, a man playing a harp, and a chap playing some mean slide guitar. We watched the slide guitarist for a bit, and I said "I wish I could do that."

Mr WithaY, instead of riposting with "Give him a biscuit and he might let you," instead opined that I ought to buy a slide* and thus improve my picking no end.

"Why would having a slide improve my guitar picking?" I asked him, interested.

"Well, it just would," he replied, in his 'I can't believe you're questioning me when I am so obviously correct' voice.

When pressed, he had no logical reason for this position, but instead reverted to his fallback argument of "Well, it would just make you funkier." Which, frankly, he uses far too much, and I have no answer to.

We walked down to the motorcycle shop and he drooled over a huge Kawasaki tourer, only five grand, ooh, let's get three.

We wandered into the teeny arcade opposite the bike shop and saw a disturbing slideshow in the window of the nail bar place. All the hands and feet in it looked horribly deformed, like an advert for arthritis relief medication or hammer toe surgery. They all had gorgeous painted nails, though.

We had a damn fine lunch in the Chinese. £6.50 each for three courses. Bargain.

We saw two old women with pushchairs, each containing a big fat dog, cushions and an assortment of toys. Small expensive dogs in elegant handbags I can sort of understand. Huge scabby-looking tongue-lolling dogs laying in dilapidated pushchairs I can't.

Mind you, when every chic fashionista has one, boy will I feel stupid.

I bought a huge jar of giant chocolate buttons from Montezuma's. Marvellous. We sat and ate some whilst watching "Live at the Apollo", in which Jack Dee was entertaining and the other comedians weren't.

On the way home we stopped off in Salisbury and went to have supper in ASK. I had butterfly king prawns as a starter, probably the nicest I have ever had. Very simple, very tasty.

A small group of teenagers came and sat at the table next to us. One of the girls was celebrating her sixteenth birthday so they were all dressed up to the nines. The boys were plastered in hair gel and Lynx, draped in huge cheap bling, the girls were all giggly and pretty in their best going-out clothes.

It was sweet, but boy did it make me feel old.

Over dinner we** made plans for re-landscaping the front garden, and discussed which European cities were likely to get a visit from us for a long weekend this summer.

All good, positive, life-affirming things. Hurrah.




*for my guitar, not to play on in the back garden. That sounds more fun, frankly.

**Me and Mr WithaY. I wasn't interested in the teenagers' opinions.