Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say

 Dress: Wallis via eBay. Shoes: Autograph at M&S via eBay. Necklace: Etsy. Holdups: Wolford

Strange experience today. I went for lunch with some professional contacts, who are absolutely lovely and really great company, I hasten to add, and found myself knee deep in diet talk.

Now, I’ve never dieted in my life. It’s just not me – I eat pretty healthily and move a reasonable amount as a matter of course, and while I could take either of those things to still-healthier extremes I prefer to stick with what feels like a natural balance to me, something I don’t really have to think about but can instead just enjoy. For me, putting on weight is generally the result of comfort eating, for which the cure lies in dealing with the emotional cause rather than attacking the physical symptom.

I guess what really struck me about the diet under discussion was how complicated it all seemed to be. Now, the ladies in question were approaching it perfectly sensibly – they were viewing it as a short-term kick start to get back to more healthy habits overall, which makes complete sense to me. I can see it being effective if you’re the sort of person that’s able to follow a plan and regard it as a way to develop healthier overall habits rather than thinking of it as a miracle cure, absolutely.  But I think that’s what slightly startled me – I’m really not that sort of person, it would seem!

It was all the rules about specifically what sorts of foods could be eaten on which days, which were banned altogether, when you could start including other types of food, and what you had to eat that confused me.

I realised just how much I’ve developed a habit of as far as possible feeding my body what it seems to want me to feed it – which yesterday happened to be takeout pizza and today seems to be more salady in nature.

And that, most definitely, is a good thing.

You wanna know why all these rivers run dry, and when I see you again I see it there in your eyes.

 Shrug: thrifted. Dress: Fever via eBay. Shoes: Dorothy Perkins via eBay. Necklace: www.mockinghorse.co.uk

As you’ll have a hint of from yesterday’s post, I’ve been doing a lot of pattern recognising and response-poking lately. Mostly in myself, but also in others. Patterns in behaviour, and in responses to things. I’ve learnt amazingly fundamental yet strangely not-quite-admitted things about myself just from stopping and asking myself why I did a particular thing or reacted in a particular way to a particular stimulus. The answer isn’t always immediately forthcoming, but rummaging for it is a useful process in itself.

There’s something decidedly satisfying about it, both in terms of personal growth and from the perspective of someone who likes to understand how things and people work. It’s fascinating how understanding a thing helps to either deal with it or just let it go if for whatever reason it’s not mine to deal with.

It’s time we saw a miracle

 Cardi: thrifted. Dress: Lady V London. Shoes: Dorothy Perkins via eBay. Necklace: Etsy

I’ve had a bit of rough week so far at work, so what I really want to do is climb into a G&T (breaking my ‘no drinking on school nights’ rule, but hey, if I can’t break self-imposed rules once in a while then what’s the point in making them?). But I couldn’t not sing the praises of this lovely LadyVLondon dress. Isn’t it fab?

I’m a smidge on the short-waisted side for it really, so there’s more fabric in the torso than I need, but it works with a belt and I’m really impressed with the quality – you don’t see full cotton linings in many places for that pricepoint! By way of size reference, I ordered my usual size 10, which according to the measurements given should be  about ok on the waist and a couple of inches too small on the bust, and it’s actually a little bit big on the waist and perfectly fine on my bust, so it’s roomier in the bodice than the measurements might suggest.

It’s good to be someone. To feel like you belong.

 Bolero: thrifted. Dress: Wallis via eBay. Shoes: Dorothy Perkins via eBay. Necklace: finestimaginary on Etsy

So, yeah. An easy almost-repeat outfit for my first day back at work after a week off. As you can see from the finally-carpeted stairs, we had the decorators in while we were away – his parents bought us a bedroom & stairs carpet for our birthdays, and supervised the ensuing painting and carpet laying while we were sunning ourselves in Dorset. All we had to do was clear the bedroom and refill it once we got back. Yes, I do have rather awesome not-in-laws!

As for Dorset – it couldn’t have been more relaxing. We had a cottage by the sea, and the weather last week was unseasonably warm and gloriously sunny every single day we were in that lovely part of the country. We forgot to take a proper camera, but I got a few snaps all the same:

She’s the one that keeps the dream alive from the morning past the evening till the end of the night

 Dress: Vintage. Necklace: Dorothy Perkins. Shoes: Dorothy Perkins via eBay. Belt: thrifted

What a strange evening. I left work just late enough to join the traffic bedlam caused by an accident at a roundabout, which inevitably came complete with attendant Numpties Blocking The Rest Of The Roundabout (Y’know how your exit is blocked by a police car? Maybe try and avoid doing that to the people trying to get onto the roundabout by just sitting on it because the next exit is understandably busier than usual?). And then, of course, there were the People Trying To Peer Into The Wreckage.

Seriously, folks, there’s an ambulance and a fire engine and a police car – it ain’t going to be pretty, and it’s none of your fucking business! Let the professionals do their job, keep your eyes on the road and your wits about you to prevent you adding to the problem, and give the poor sod(s) for whom all the blue flashing lights are assembled some privacy.

I got a love that keeps me waiting

 Cardi: thrifted. Top: Warehouse via eBay. Skirt: Wallis. Shoes: Dorothy Perkins. Necklace: Tatty Devine

Ok, so red, white and black are kind of an obvious combination. But I figure that’s for a reason – it just works. I often find that the first time I wear something I tend to go for the most obvious of all the possible ways of styling it that spring to mind. I’m not really sure why – easy way of road-testing something, maybe? Anyway, that’s pretty much all my currently headache-addled, pizza-awaiting brain can come up with for now!

You were like the sun, a hazy day

 Shrug: thrifted. Dress: Fever via eBay. Shoes: Dorothy Perkins via eBay. Necklace: Finestimaginary on Etsy

For some sobering reading, go check out the #ididnotreport hashtag on Twitter. If it’s still around. And if you feel confident that you won’t be triggered by discussion of sexual violence, assault and harassment.

Nothing on there is even slightly surprising. A proportion of it I’ve experienced myself. It’s all so. fucking. common.

Depressing, isn’t it?

He carved you like a stone

 Cardi: thrifted. Dress: Wallis via eBay. Shoes: Dorothy Perkins via eBay. Necklace: www.mockinghorse.co.uk

The thing about driving to work is that you forget the effects of blustery weather conditions on wrap dresses until you’ve flashed your holdups to everyone in the carpark of the retail park you pop into after work.

Doh.