Kersti's Corner

On yer bike!

Never thought that I'd see the day, but I'm now the proud owner of a shiny new bike. Christian has been hounding me to get a bike for a few months now, and to be fair, the DART commute into work is getting a bit boring so I started to warm to the idea. I did some research online and found a stunning bike that would be just perfect - a handmade Pashley "Princess"... that got me really interested! Unfortunately the 1000 euro price tag was a bit steep, but at least I had an idea of the style of bike I was after and even had a name to put to the style - a classic shopper. (Doesn't that sound just like me????)

Saturday we headed into town and took a look at a few different shops. Not a great deal of choice in shoppers. The last shop of the day however did have a few to choose from, they even had a boy's Pashley bike in store so I could confirm that the workmanship was amazing. Anyway, long story short, Christian test-rode a couple of the bikes for me and the woman in the shop took me through all the ins and outs of different models and I've come away with something not quite what I had originally decided on, but which has the features I wanted - a Sprint Trace Ultralight.

The shop had to build it all up for me, (I added in lights and a chunky U-bolt thingy) so we went and had coffee - which is when the heavens opened. By the time I picked up my bike it was raining quite hard, but it cleared a little soon after. So for the first time in over 20 years, I rode a bike home. Later on the night we went into town to see a concert, we took our bikes and then rode them home again. Still not quite sure how to get the gears working in my favour, and looking over my shoulder to check traffic is scary stuff - for now I think I'll keep out of the busy times until I've got real control over the thing.

Sunday morning I could barely move! I rode the bike to the car hire place (that's another story!) but didn't quite make it. About 500 metres away my legs totally gave out, nothing left in them at all. I had to walk it the last bit and even that was difficult! So the bike was locked up at home, the idea being to be riding it again by Wednesday and take it to work.

But Tuesday I found that my poor little bike had been truly christened, some bastard has taken the seat! Not even a week old, and already violated, I can tell you now that I'm not happy about it. Aside from anything else, it's amazingly inconvenient! Grrrr....

Personal Shopping

I've been interviewing with a couple of financial companies over the last couple of weeks for roles, the interviews have been going well and I've made it through to the second round on both so far.

That's great - except that I have nothing to wear! I have three quite traditional suits, one is definitely a winter suit and it's been far too hot for it. Another is really starting to look very tired, not surprising since I've had it for about 5 years now. The third is currently in the dry cleaners and has already made it to the interviews I've done so far. Time for a new suit.

I popped into Brown Thomas last week to look for a new suit. After an hour or so of looking I was... shock and horror... getting bored. So I decided to see if BT has a personal shopping service. I went down to the information desk to ask about it.

The women's wear person was on a break so the men's wear guy came to see me - he shook my hand and explained how it all works. He said that it's a totally free service and there's absolutely no obligation. Then the women's wear girl came back so  I had a quick meeting with her where I described what I was looking for and gave her my size. She booked me if for Thursday afternoon.

Thursday came around and I went to the personal shopping suite. There was a large room with racks at one end and huge three way mirrors and a couple of lounge chairs. Sharon had a half dozen suits ready for me to try on in the huge changing area. I tried a couple on and we discussed what I did and didn't like about them. We also discussed budget. She then disappeared (brought me some tea) and went to find more.

Over the course of the next hour I tried on about 30 suits all up. Included were suits from Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith - one of the Paul Smith suits was navy pinstriping with skin tight pants, very 60's - all it needed was the winkle-picker shoes! Surprisingly it looked awesome on me :) Showed off my figure perfectly, but was perhaps a little out there for the average financial institution.

In the end I decided on a Moschino Cheap and Chic suit in brown. It's got all sorts of tweed and pinstriping type panels, so the unusual type detailing that I love. It comes with a pencil skirt - they didn't have my size in skirt so they brought in the company tailor who pinned up a larger one and will size it down to fit me perfectly at no extra cost. The jacket is shown in the picture here.

As I was finishing up with the tailor Sharon brought in about 20 pairs of jeans for the next client - what a fabulous idea! I'd recommend personal shopping if you have something quite definite in mind to buy. I'm sure I'll be using the service again too!

Manchester

I began organising this weekend in Manchester way back in December, but despite the best layed plans it didn't work out as I'd thought, but I decided to make the most of it.

I arrived on Friday night and had a bit of a walk around to scope out the place - find the good shopping and see if I can spot a place where I might get a decent drink and a decent breakfast for tomorrow. Seemed like a nice enough place.

Saturday I headed out determined to do some hard core shopping, after all I had a date with Dior to pick up some shoes. Didn't take me long to find my favourite store and I was upstairs looking at the clothes in Burberry in no time at all. Got chatting to the wonderful assistant, Alex and lamenting the demise of my dream of a red Burberry trench coat when he pulled out an alternative - a gorgeous red rain coat. I tried it on and it looked lovely. The price was hideous, but hell - Ilze spent more than that on a pair of shoes last month... I asked Alex to put it away for me so I could at least think about it.

So I left Burberry and headed for Arndale - Europe's largest city centre shopping centre and site of the 1996 IRA bombing (no one was killed, lots of damage but all sorted now). Picked up my Dior's which are just gorgeous. Spent most of the day looking around Arndale but thinking about that coat, so I headed back to the store. Alex had gone home early but his colleague put the sale in his name.

Dinner was in a French style place and then I popped into a local pub for a drink before heading home to bed.

Sunday I decided to leave my cards in the safe in my room - if I wanted anything I would have to go back and get funds. This I've decided is a good general plan. Wore my new Diors out for the day - something which my feet were not too happy about after a few hours. It was far too hot for my new coat, was wearing a singlet!

Sunday night was the reason for the trip, went to see James Taylor playing at the Apollo. Think "Something in the Way She Moves", "Country Road", "How Sweet It Is"... The show was really good, the guy is a hoot. At one point he brings out a drum machine - a huge wooden contraption with a spinning drum and huge arms that bash on cymbols and actual drums... woodworking was clearly a passion. Anyway, amazing voice, three encores and a thoroughly good show.

< The drum machine, totally crazy!

So Monday was my last day in Manchester. I slept in and took the morning very relaxed before heading out to Bury to see the "Famous Market". I was most disappointed! It's tiny and mainly made up of cheap clothing stalls, but since those are popping up in shopping centres all over the place it was a waste! If you lived there the butchers might be worthwhile, but it certainly wasn't worth the trip out for me. What I miss is the Queen Vic. Not that I ever really went there that often but it was so nice to know it was there!

Easter Monday

Our last day for this long weekend. Must say that in some ways I wish we'd have less three day long weekends and more 4 day ones. It's just so nice and relaxing.

We popped out to Dundrum for some shopping. Much better than Castlecourt which is the largest shopping centre in Northern Ireland and which takes about 10 mins to complete.

I found an absolutely gorgeous dusky pink silk top with fine cream crochet lace in Harvey Nichols but to be honest 325 Euros is a completely stupid amount of cash to pay for any top that is not diamond encrusted so I happily left that one behind. Later on I found a dusky pink top (viscose) with a similar drape to the expensive one, although not as nice a neckline and no lace, however the 30 Euro price tag is a bit more like it. I plan on adding a tatted edging to it in cream (if I can find some tatting thread - not so easy here!)

I did end up with yet another pair of shoes - some cream lace Sketchers, I needed some lightweight joggers for my Salsa exercise class and these will do lovely.

Dinner tonight was at Millers, my local pizza restaurant that is always so busy that you HAVE to book in advance - even for lunch.

Ilze is off tomorrow morning at stupid o'clock and then I'm back at work. Overall been a lovely weekend.

Good Friday

WOW! No pubs open on Good Friday - totally bizarre. Even restaurants are not allowed to serve alcohol. Of course that doesn't stop the locals from going to the off-license on Maundy Thursday and stocking up for their home parties. I'm sure that there will be some very sore heads tomorrow!

Ilze flew in this morning. We headed into town for some lunch and for a bit of a shop - thankfully Brown Thomas was open, so we had a good look around at the shoe lounge.

Louis Vuitton has a new range out - the monogram canvass with a silver or gold lace pattern overlayed, it's lovely but only come in a couple of bag styles and really is a bit overpriced like most LV stuff is. Still, lovely to look at.

Next stop was Dior and they finally have in the flat shoes that match the pumps I purchased last year - I just adore them, I've been popping in and out of Dior ever since to see if they'd get them back in. You can just imagine my excitement to find them back, I'd honestly given up! Naturally they didn't have my size in the colour I wanted - they did have in white so I could try for size. The assistant looked up stock lists and found that Manchester have my size - what luck! They store in Manchester is holding a pair for me :)

We next tried for a bit of an afternoon tea at Bewleys - and everything on the menu that I fancied they were out of. Finally I settled on a scone, but they came back to say they didn't have any so I decided to give up - maybe grab some chocolate later on. Was a bit miffed when they girl came out to give the couple at the next table some hot cross buns - they hadn't told me about those! Not to worry, M&S make the best hot cross buns... we grabbed some of those to heat up at home.

Next stop was a quick look in Fitzpatricks where I found a lovely pair of Fendi's in my size going for less than half price :) Love that! Yes they came home with me... I'll upload a photo in a few days. Obviously St Crispin is looking out for me today :D

The rest of the day was spent planning tomorrow....

London for weddings and shopping

Had a lovely 4 day weekend in London with Kamal and Ilze. Diana (who I went to school with) and Nick were over to celebrate their recent wedding and since the last time I saw Diana was at Paula's wedding, I figured I'd make the effort to see her again - probably won't get another chance for years. Was a lovely party held in a great bar called Just St James.

While in London I simply *had* to do a bit of shopping. So Ilze and I toured a few particular shops. I found a pair of black suede mary jane Jimmy Choos going for half price in Harvey Nichols - huge bonus! And they only had my size... so clearly they were meant for me!

We later on stopped by the Manolo Blahniks shop, which is hidden away somewhat, and where Ilze got a gorgeous pair of shoes for herself.

Also finally tried the "traditional" pasty from the West Cornwall Pasty Co - and I must say that it was a fair approximation of the one that my family makes. Tasted lovely and brought back lots of memories - although it could have done with more filling.

Sunday saw us head to Bicester Village (pronounced Bister) and boy what a great place that was! My haul included a lovely orange knitted top from Burberry and a Mulberry belt that matches the bag I'd gotten in Oslo last year.

Monday we headed off to see Leadenhall Market - just because I'd seen something on a travel show and so wanted to have a peek. It's absolutely gorgeous yet not really pushed through most of the guide books, probably because it contains fairly standard shops and isn't really in a high tourist spot. Still, if you're in the area it's worth a look.

We stopped at a lovely bar on the way back for a glass of bubbly with a view (oh my, that was a very expensive glass!)

My way home I encountered one of the stupid aspects of air travel at the moment. Aer Lingus lets me take on board a carry on bag, a laptop and a handbag. I had to pay extra to check another bag when I booked my ticket (it costs a lot more if you forget and have to do it when you check in). However, the Heathrow security people wanted me to take my laptop out of it's case and then I could only take one other item through with me. This meant that my laptop bag and my handbag had to go into my carry on bag. This was just to walk into the security room. Ridiculous! It took me a while to sort out and shuffle enough to do that - the alternative was to check my carry on bag, but that would cost big time. Naturally there was NO signage to say this.

When I'd finally sorted that out and got through I was so jammed in that I realised I didn't know where my keys were - and with Steve in Cork and Emma in the States, I really needed to find them! Luckily the x-rays were empty, so I asked the guys there to see if they could find them - they had a good look and then told me which corner of my bag they were sitting in - that was brilliant! They seemed rather chuffed to have been able to help too.

http://www.juststjames.com/

http://www.westcornwallpasty.co.uk

http://www.bicestervillage.com

http://www.leadenhallmarket.co.uk/

Christmas in Antwerp

A real Christmas tree and my first ever cold Christmas! I'm so excited, and yes I know it's daggy to be excited about it, but there you go.

On the day I arrived we went to the local Carrefour and picked up a base then a sweet little tree  and a few decorations. On the Sunday we headed up to Amsterdam cos I had my heart set on some lovely baubles that you can get from the tourist shops there. 

Boo, Alan's cat is quite interested in the tree - she keeps trying to eat it. So we've got her some cat grass that was ready for eating by last night - she loves it. She's been chomping away like it's going out of fashion, even made herself ill poor thing!

Anyway, we had a lovely day of doing absolutely nothing, opened some presents and had a lovely meal. All in all it was a very nice relaxing day.

Outlet shopping

Well I never thought it could happen - Henry managed to toally out-shop both Hamra and myself at the outlet stores!

It was great shopping, just like those discount villages over Europe, but much much bigger.

And my splurge? A silicon Madelaide pan and a couple of pairs of socks!

New shoes - almost

I saw these Christian Dior leather buckle pumps while I was in Brown Thomas the other day with Nanou - just gorgeous. So, Saturday saw me popping back in to see just how good they looked on my foot. And as luck would have it they looked gorgeous! Only one thing wrong with them - didn't have my size. However, a quick scout around and my size was located in London - so after paying a deposit they were ordered in for me. I have to wait about a week before I'll see them and that might just kill me... well, maybe not...

New Shoes

Gotta love these. 3.5inch heel, ribbon bow close.. comfortable.. well, will be once they're worn in some more. Even better, got them on sale. Go well with the black micro-nets.