MY BLOG:

I am sorry to say that I have recently fallen behind in keeping up with my previously regular BLOG.

A question of health is the cause – a long overdue hernia operation – which has now thankfully put the matter right , although I am not fully operational just yet and must take things easy for another 3 or 4 weeks.  Not that this will make much difference to my everyday life as I tend not to do very much physical stuff nowadays in any case.

We are currently engaged on a vast clearing out operation. I have already binned a lot of paper stuff , and am hoping to sell a reasonable amount of my completed albums covering the subjects of Art, Erotica, the Eccentric  and etc;. which I will put on e-bay as soon as I get round to it.   But there is still a vast amount of archive material to go through , photograph and list in order to get it onto e-bay.  It’s a lot of work but it has to be done and at the end of the day a fair bit of cash will have been raised and the office will look a lot tidier.  The next clear up will be the computer and the accumulation of files on it that are no longer needed.

My Books:

I have already written the two volumes of my autobiography and with the help of Peter May ( who described himself as “ my editor “ ) they have been put on Lulu and so far one of each has been printed. I don’t know quite what has gone on lately as I can’t seem to get any info from Peter May but I am going to try to persuade Bloomsbury Publishing to publish them.  

Fashion in Shoes.

Unlike dear Barbara I am not really much of a fashionista, although I do like to wear nice well made clothes and shoes. But like Barbara I also have different styles of clothing to go with the lives we lead in three different places – London , Suffolk and The south of France.  Some of it is new , modern and up to date , but the rest of my wardrobe is quite old or even ancient although well kept , looks good and is still very serviceable.  A good example are my brown leather boots with a Cuban heel.

 Hand made in Portugal by an old wizened man of an indecipherable age , I actually watched him at work sat outside his tiny shop at an ancient glue encrusted bench before ordering a pair from him.   All this took place 41 years ago and they cost me the equivalent of £4 in English money.  The leather used was of the quality of hand made shoes which in the UK would have cost even in those days around £600 a pair – nowadays around £2000.

The boots still shine up beautifully and its easy to see the quality of both the materials used and the skills of the maker.  I have only once needed to have them attended to apart from regular cleaning and a good spit and polish.   Last year I succumbed to modernity and had a thin rubber sole and heel stuck on but it hasn’t altered the overall appearance. 

I can’t remember which is the oldest – my superb Italian overcoat, made in Rome and bought in Milan – made of alpaca – or my boots ?. The alpaca lives in the high mountains of South America – The Andes – so no wonder its wool is practically impenetrable.  Wrapped up tightly in this coat which is mid calf length and fits me like a glove I can withstand  just about any weather conditions in this country as long as my head is well covered.