The options and perils that come...

 The great thing about shorter skirts is you can experiment with how much bare leg you wish to have on display from none with tights or leggings, over the knee or thigh length socks or ankle socks all of which can send out different signals.

I don't tend to like longer skirts not least they kind of make me look a bit "too old", too died in the wool and really when I'm in a better place mentally I'm not like that being more lively or indeed playful although I can get carried away which is an occupational hazard of being a little.

Of course you still have to keep some modesty if you don't wish to hear off stage "tut-tut's" if not followed by some sort of sanction so you're holding on to the sides if it's windy and having keep you legs together and that when sitting.

On the other hand making it that I just have to might be the kind of thing some would feel was good training.

Past inspired looks

 Wasn't feeling too great to be honest today with a bit of a pain in my leg but something I have been experimenting a little with over the last nine months or so between all the craziness is wearing shorter skirts again which was something I did like around 2008 through 2013.

Back then I was mainly wearing stockings with them but this time I've being mixing thigh high socks and opaque tights (hose to those on the other side of the Atlantic) with them with t shirts or blouses.

It's probably the more minx-like side of me that just feels like coming out from time to time I guess but hey, when I go too far isn't it easier to bring me to heel?

Vacation time

It's that time of the year all ready I guess and I'm thinking back to Summer 2004 which in a way is a along time ago but is still quite vivid with me so this is what it was back then:

 
There's just something about Summer vacationing for me and after last years OCR course I'm thinking about changing work as one thing I found was I didn't feel I was part of the organization, indeed looking back on what I said to one the external course people back then  it's as if I'm very isolated and feel vulnerable.

 
One thing I want to find is where I went, cos it seems to me that I've lost something of who I am and what matters the most to me in the last ten years since I've been working for my current organization.

 
As I've always like the seaside I might just find some clues as it was always a happy place for in the past, you know, my childhood. Can it be that long ago since I saw it? 

 
It sounds silly but I have this pent up feeling inside of me that wants to play with the sand, I don't know why but I just do.

 
One girl I saw seemed so carefree the last time I was on vacation running about with her t shirt and skirt or was it one of these new Skort thingies that look like this.

They're by Gilberts I believe and girls in school I gather wear these rather than the traditional pleated Netball skirts and they have a built in undershort. It's all different from our day but time doesn't stay still does it?

A weekend away

I'm just starting on writing this, an account of sorts of how this last weekend went recovering from the excitement as well as the heat of the last few weeks

For me, time spent in little/middle headspace is time well spent simply for being me with this weekends adventure beginning with catching  the local taxi to our principal rail station.

That made sense as I had some time to kill as the bus and trains don't quite tie in so well so I though I might as well check the destination boards, confirm which platform the train is due in and get there.

My train came in five minutes late which London Northwestern don't usually but as this was the result of a Manchester train being late after a super rapid platform change to manage with my case.

Having arrived I changed into my grey pinafore dress and had a mini code and chips as it was a little late for cooking from a quality local fish and chip shop which was scrumptious.

Sunday was the day of the Ikklespace picnic as organized by the great fantastic Sammy which generally involves a lot of bring various food  such as sandwiches, pies, cake and sausage rolls together with soft drinks to a well known view in South East England to share between ourselves and teddy bears.

We flew colourful kites competing with some massive model airplanes or venue users had, ran around blowing bubbles the size of clouds on the thermals, something I just loved, building massive plushie piles sometimes over people plus one person played an acoustic guitar.

The weather was mild with a mixture of sunshine and odd cloud which meant some did get an ice cream

Just after five as people were for departing we made our way back, dropping of one of our party at their flat before heading back to South Staffordshire where we had a sausage roll and cup of tie before bed.

I was up about a quarter of eight Monday morning to catch the nine fifty-three train to my local rail station which was delayed due to incidents by a half hour before taking a taxi back home for around eleven forty in the morning.

Changed plans II

No sooner than the ink appears to have dried on last weeks entry than things appear to have gone into full reverse.

It now appears we ARE going to the Ikklespace picnic as the things around getting a connection to travel with to the venue have changed although I had said at the outset I was prepared to travel the day before if needed.

Indeed in the past that was looking at my notes, journal entries and that, it was exactly what we did and presumably for that very reason, the difficulty of getting a train that would allow me to be picked up around three hours before the start which is midday.

While due to the person not quite knowing what they were doing in the early evening getting from the station to them could involve getting a taxi rather than them picking me up things are not fully inked in, travel itself is so tickets are here albeit needing special delivery to be sure of being here before travelling.

Changed plans

Things for early next month were going to be different in that what had been an institution in the last decade that had been put on hold for personal reasons - the Ikklescape Picnic in the Home Counties - after 2017 were to resume and indeed I had expressed the view I was very much looking forward to attending.

Sundays on the railway are always a funny thing going back to and in part the reason to the days where anything beyond Monday thru Friday was seen as irregular and so people on the railways were never "rostered" just paid more to work on days off even if it was a fairly popular day for travel.

This tends to mean there are less trains running and often starting later plus engineering work tends to be scheduled just to add chaos so a train is replaced with a bus which is often slower.

Seemingly the train I was to have caught while listed in the current timetable of one operator had been changed by another after publication so rather than starting in Manchester, going to Crewe and then on towards Birmingham now went straight from Manchester, Stockport without stopping at until Stafford missing this area out completely.

Given we needed to at this event for around 1 pm and it was three hours drive just north of Birmingham, I needed to be there by no later than 10 and next train would of got their just before 11 which was far too late.

Thus I had to cancel my plans for it as there was no way an overnight stay on the Saturday would fit with someone else's arrangements.

Return to past little life?

Sunday is in this country Fathers day and usually something reminds me on a daily basis I still have one of them so I have a card and that sorted out which has been a bit of miracle given how the heat of the last few days has affected me.

The whole situation around a certain at one time frequent event, those who are involved around it and those I'd normally see in the last eighteen or so months has been messy, emotional, obtrusive even to the point I had for practical purposes resigned myself to not going or unspoken we'd rather people more like x were around or even drip fed rumours and whispering campaigns suggestion you didn't "make the grade" even if I may of said I'd love to attend.

It appears Cinders may yet be going to the ball albeit on straw mat in small space rather than a grand pumpkin pretty much on somebody else's terms but that doesn't matter at you'll be there, less "cast out".

Something of that sort could of been sorted as one place has one room that is never used for it's purpose just a dumping ground and another is so massive you'd get something like an airbed in with tens of meters spare and indeed people have put in other kind of structures and slept in them.

You are left working just why anything like that wasn't even offered given the circumstances that led to be being dropped.

It's a pleasant surprise to be back "in".