Dress down

I was grateful it was cool and grey this morning as this was exactly what I'd ordered to facilitate a long and very necessary lie in. I was grateful that it also turned sunny at two which is also what I'd pre-ordered so that I could get a cab to the river beach before the shops and enjoy a cup of tea with the sun on my back. I give thanks for bonding so well with a pigeon down there that a passing child remarked to his parents 'That might be her pet'!

Apart from essential chores mostly today I've worked on the gathery pleats on my new top which required a lot of the sort of of picky, pinchy, pointy manual skills I really don't have any more so was an excellent exercise in overcoming physical adversity and being very patient! (It always mystifies me why, when a medical person wants to test your grip, they ask you to squeeze their fingers. We do this reflexively as babies, but in later life we hardly ever do any kind of grasping or holding quite like that, do we?)

Anyway, so I'm very grateful that this is finally done and that it fits and fits the remit - to expose plenty of skin but not too much flesh, baggage, bulges or bra straps! I also gave thanks that focusing on finishing this task saved me from having to tackle the latest 'breakdown' - a collapsed clothing rail which is what I use(d) instead of a wardrobe. It's already broken once before and for a year of so has been held together with optimism and masking tape. I'm grateful I've plenty more masking tape but I'm not optimistic it'll do the job again...