A rare chance to escape today. First of all I took the kids to Girl Lacer’s ballet lesson. I’m really pleased with this new ballet school, the class just seems better and the mums outside are so much friendlier which is far better than the silence I used to sit in outside Girl Lacer’s old ballet school. I took Boy Lacer along to, even though Mr. Lacer is home today, there’s quite a few 1 year olds there, so it’s nice for him to mix with kids his own age.
Anyway after ballet, I dropped the kids back home and off to do some shopping on my own, ahhh the freedom, although I always miss having a buggy with me, as it means not having one means that I have to carry my own shopping bags! The aim of the shopping trip was to buy something to wear to the father in laws funeral and get some birthday cake stuff for Boy Lacer but any chance to have a browse round my favourite bookshops and interior shops to, unhindered!
Buying something to wear for the father in laws funeral was a tough one. I literally (being a SAHM for the past nearly 4 years and therefore live in jeans) had nothing to wear. I used to wear my black suit to funerals (even when working I only owned one suit as I had a casual wear job most of the time), but two breast fed children later and it doesn’t fit anymore. I pondered buying a black dress, one of those woollen knitted things, but feared it was too casual and the more formal ones I tried on weren’t that nice, so I then decided on a pair of black trousers to go with a black jumper I already had at home. But I tried several pairs on from Gap and they were just horrible, I think partially due to my prejudices against black clothes, I subscribe heavily to the old maxim that if you’re going to wear black it has to be black all over or at least mixed with maybe a bit of white or grey, black with any other colour just cheapens it. So I was going round trying on all these black trousers knowing full well I wouldn’t wear them much and when I buy clothes these days they have to work for their money. I did like some pairs of city shorts but definitely did not think that was appropriate. So I tried Marks and Spencer and as long as I wasn’t following the strictly all black trousers / skirt rule, there was alot more choice. I ended up buying a lovely long grey, full skirt with a black rose print, which is lovely and although I can’t see me wearing it down the park, it will be worn a bit more frequently than a pair of cheap black, ill fitting trousers I hated.
Like I said earlier, I couldn’t resist going to the bookshop as well, I could so easily spend a fortune everytime I go in there, but this time I was good and controlled myself, even though there were some very interesting looking books. I’m in the middle of reading two different books at the moment and I have one more waiting to be read, so I couldn’t really justify it. At the moment I’m still half way through Soon I Will be Invincible, it’s just not grabbing me. I’m currently actively reading The Quiet American by Graham Greene, on the advice of Susan Hill’s writing course. She gave the choice of four Graham Greene books and I chose The Quiet American because it seemed the least catholic of the four and I recognised it (from the Michael Caine movie, which I haven’t seen). To be honest, it’s not my sort of book, I’ve never read Graham Greene before and probably won’t after this one, I struggle to keep my interest up after just a chapter however I can see why Susan Hill recommended it. I say it’s not my sort of book purely because of the subject matter, it’s a little too ‘male’ and at this point I vehemently point out that I do not exclusively restrict myself to ‘chick lit’, infact I don’t really read chick lit at all, it’s just The Quiet American is for me too male and there’s nothing wrong with that, men read books to! I can see why the Graham Greene was recommended as good reading for someone who wants to be a writer, he writes in a refreshing, straight to the point manner, which although skipping the flowery adjectives still manages to bring you straight into the story, I’ve got to the point in the story (don’t read on if you don’t want absolutely any spoilers, even very mild ones) were Pyle has told Fowler that he’s in love with Fowler’s girl and that he’s going to make a move on her, honestly I wanted to reach into those pages and give Pyle a good slap! So even in someone who isn’t in to stories about people in Vietnam, Greene has managed to invoke enough sympathy / dislike for the characters to provoke an emotional response in the reader. Anyway I will continue to read it but it’s much in the manner of someone reading it in the view of trying to get through it so they’ve finished that bit of homework.
