Friday 28 December 2012

Suited and booted

Firstly, I'm going to write about something I didn't write about last night because, quite frankly, I find it all a bit embarrassing. Last night as I came back from the Crouch household, full of soup and cheese and companionship, I encountered at Orpington station a young lady who seemed the worse for a drink and in the company of two officers of the Transport Police. They had managed to wring from her that she was getting off at Tonbridge, and since it is on my way I volunteered myself to them and promised that I would ensure that the girl - Cassidy - would get off at Tonbridge, as they were understandably a little worried that she was going to pass out on the train and find herself in Hastings.

For this small act of kindness, we were allowed to sit in First Class, and Cassidy rambled at length about her family, her studies, what she hoped to do with her life - and before long we had arrived at Tonbridge. We disembarked, I handed her to her mother, who seemed equal parts suspicious and grateful, and then I caught a train five minutes later which brought me home. Entirely unremarkable, but having mentioned this to my mother, she mentioned that this girl was probably known to my sister. It is constantly startling how small the world is.

Today has been an absolutely brilliant day; I confess this at the beginning because some of the feedback I have received have used words like "negative" and "ranty", and so I am laying my cards upon the cliché and saying that this could well be a cheerful and positive blog.

The reason for this is because I went suit shopping with my parents, and am now better off to the score of a gorgeous charcoal three-piece suit, four shirts and three ties. And one of the ties is a white paisley pattern. They look absolutely spiffing. We also bought my dad a new suit, which was brilliant, and both suits came from Suit Direct at Ashford Designer Outlet. We were served by a guy called Jack, who was fantastic and also liked my new tie knot. He mentioned that it looked "different" to his boss, who loudly pooh-poohed him, and since the guy was absolutely right I strolled over and showed my lovely knot off. There was universal bewilderment and an apology was rightly offered to Jack. They are all, apparently, resolved to working out how to do it, as is Francis, and I promised a video demonstration.

So here it is.




I should point out that this knot works best with a thinner tie; not narrower, but thinner. Avoid stripes as well; they tend to go in all sorts of weird directions and before you know it you're wearing something around your neck which would give Escher a migraine. Otherwise, as I said, have fun with it, and if you wear it in your office or out and about do let me know, because I'd love to get feedback.

That's how my day went; it started with coffee and a chat with an old friend again (I arrived dressed normally, she dressed ready for the gym. She was going straight to the gym after seeing me, but I should love to know what anyone watching thought.) and ended with new clothes and an explanation of my aesthetically pleasing necktie knot. And there was fried fish in between.

How could there be ranty or negative after that?




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