High Street shopping

A lot of my recent shopping trips for Becky have been unsuccessful. As I've said before, last year's trend for bold prints in ghastly colours did absolutely nothing for me. So I've been really pleased to see a funkier metallic and punky vibe coming in with the autumn fashions.

Jane and I took a trip into town today, ostensibly to look for clothes to take on honeymoon in the outgoing summer sales, but also to look for something to wear next weekend at Angelic. I've always felt more comfortable buying stuff on the High Street, as opposed from out of catalogues. I just find the "hit rate" a bit better, even if I'm nearly always shopping in Boy Mode and never try things on.

We started off in the Matalan on the outskirts of town, which used to occasionally have some great deals but now seems to be suffering from everyone copying their cheap-as-chips clothes and homewares aesthetic. Although I did find a couple of nice short-ish skirts (one black, one a kind of tweed), and a roasting dish (er, for lasagnes, not as some kind of fashion statement).

Then it was on to the High Street proper. We skimmed through Next (still trying to flog last year's fashions) and River Island (better, but not much), and spent a bit longer in Dorothy Perkins, which had some great stuff in the window that didn't seem to be sold anywhere in the shop. Don't you hate that?

Then we tried Top Shop (maybe after a bit more dieting) and MKone (better, but nothing "sang" to me) and I was beginning to think that maybe I wasn't going to have any luck. Then we popped into Peacocks where Jane spotted a fab black asymmetric top with a chain shoulder detail and silver motif which just "said Becky" to her, and I agreed immediately.

Feeling bolstered by this find we went on to New Look, and by now it was Jane's turn to feel unblessed by the Shopping Fairy, with nothing really catching her eye. I however was in the Zone, and found a fabulous gold-flecked dress in the "tall" section and quickly matched it with a wide gold stretchy belt and a gold necklace.

The trip finished in Sainsbury's. While I made a start on the week's shopping list, Jane popped in to their clothes department, emerging a few minutes later clutching a small bag and grinning from ear to ear. She'd found a fab shawl/scarf in a tasteful leopard print that suited her to a tee. Only a few pounds in the sale, but I would have paid £100 to see that smile. :-)

So I'm now two outfits ahead of the game, which means we can have a casual shop around Milton Keynes next weekend without having to panic about what I'm going to wear that night. Excellent!

I hope you won't think less of me...

...but there is actually less of me. Less than there was a month ago, when I started dieting with Jane.

A whole eight and a half imperial pounds less, to be exact. A fact that I'm quite inordinately proud of.

I've been wanting to lose weight generally for a while, but there's a difference between wanting and actually doing anything about it. The impending wedding (plus the fact that a lot of the skirts I'd bought a couple of years ago really weren't fitting any more) was enough of an impetus to really knuckle down and do something.

That "something" turned out to be visiting a weekly slimming group, complete with a jolly lady called Jean who tells us all creative uses for cottage cheese and how to make a pizza out of bran.

Don't laugh, it's working!

I even got my "half stone" sticker tonight, and a bag of fruit for being Slimmer of the Week. Yay me!

Jean says she wants us all to fit into our sexy little black cocktail dresses by Christmas, "except Simon and Pete of course, ahahahaha."

I dunno about Pete, but I might just surprise them all. ;-)