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Well just over a week ago I went to a school reunion so before the occasion I thought to myself I don’t want to appear poor to my old classmates so thought I best invest in some new apparel. In days of old I used to buy clothes in local mens clothing shops and occasionally M & S but recently I’ve discovered that large department stores sell mens clothes. So I headed off to Oxford Street to see if I could get outfitted, the remit was a new pair of black Levi 501’s and a sweatshirt.
Into Debenhams, they had the Levis and a possible sweatshirt, noted price and on to House Of Fraser. They ain’t got nothing. Next stop John Lewis, they have the Levis as well but they cost a fiver more than at Debenhams so I go back and buy me Levis from Debenhams. No sweatshirts took my fancy but I later got one at M & S Charlton, locally, on the day of the reunion.
Observations on these large Oxford Street Department stores, they have loads of posh people in ‘em, they look as if they go horse riding most days of the week when at home on the estate and their clothes just smell of money. Some interesting people-watching. On every ground floor of each store is a large perfume department with every kind of display and promotional appratus you can imagine to flog a particular pong. These stands are manned by females of various sizes, shapes, colours and ages who aren’t all necessarily glamour babes nor are they of a certain age, they is all sorts.
This is not to say that Mr Flops did not cast an appreciative eye at many of the female forms waving odd shaped bottles of weird coloured liquid about in the hope that you may part with 80 guineas for their product. Quite surprising the whole areas didn’t smell disgusting actually but oddly enough all it smells of is fresh and clean. Perhaps they have hidden fans above them extracting, dunno.
And in House Of Fraser on the ground floor it was well weird, all sortta low lighting and there were a bank of about 5 lifts all shiny black that looked as they though could have come straight out of the film ‘Dune’ all kinda steam punk, discharging and sucking in passengers to whisk them to heights above. Only needed a hissing sound and some steam and it couldda been Disneyland or summat.
I would have visited M& S but it was further down the road and it started pouring persistently.
But before I disappeared into the bowels of Bond Street tube station I visited the HMV store, upstairs, to look at the vinyl records. So I had to buy one and it came down to a choice between these: 1) Leftism – Leftfield; 2) Progeny – Yes Live 1972 3) The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance. Well I have My Chemical Romance and Leftfield on FLAC files to I bought the Yes LP. 3 LP’s, over 2 hours of music and it cost £36
But I like it a lot, I saw the band a few times around this time, they were good imo but after around ’73 they went seriously crap.
And so home again. I went to the reunion on Saturday, there were only 9 of us all together and it was very surreal, seeing people I hadn’t seen for – wait for it – 46 years. It was far too short though, it was held at some posh tennis club and they shut the bar at 10:15. At school there was this girl named Eileen who I fancied like mad, she was a babe and I think I would have walked hot coals to get a date with her. Well on Saturday night Eileen gave me a lift home. Hey. And yes, I still would, lol, though nothings arranged for a meeting up.
Eileen has the same colour hair as me now and she’s a little wider round the hips. Sexist? Moi? Mebbe
She’s also had two husbands, both of whom have died. Maybe it was just as well me not becoming an item with her eh?
Most of my peers from that schooltime (62-68) have done well, most have started their own companies and we were known as ‘baby-boomers’. Dunno where I went wrong then, lol. I think the next reunion should be at a Greenwich pub. Of course.
To get to this tennis club I took a train and then a mini cab. I saw the trains went from London Bridge so I got the main line train 2 stops and on arriving at London Bridge missed a train to my destination and the next one was half hour. So I went walkabout to waste time and rattled off a few snaps, I will post a few in the next post but here’s a pic of the reunion which one of the bar staff took on Dave’s mobile phone, not very good quality. I’m 4th from the right.
Oh, and travelling on my train I noticed it went through Lewisham which is closer to me (3 stops on DLR) and would have shortened the journey time. Doh.
Into Debenhams, they had the Levis and a possible sweatshirt, noted price and on to House Of Fraser. They ain’t got nothing. Next stop John Lewis, they have the Levis as well but they cost a fiver more than at Debenhams so I go back and buy me Levis from Debenhams. No sweatshirts took my fancy but I later got one at M & S Charlton, locally, on the day of the reunion.
Observations on these large Oxford Street Department stores, they have loads of posh people in ‘em, they look as if they go horse riding most days of the week when at home on the estate and their clothes just smell of money. Some interesting people-watching. On every ground floor of each store is a large perfume department with every kind of display and promotional appratus you can imagine to flog a particular pong. These stands are manned by females of various sizes, shapes, colours and ages who aren’t all necessarily glamour babes nor are they of a certain age, they is all sorts.
This is not to say that Mr Flops did not cast an appreciative eye at many of the female forms waving odd shaped bottles of weird coloured liquid about in the hope that you may part with 80 guineas for their product. Quite surprising the whole areas didn’t smell disgusting actually but oddly enough all it smells of is fresh and clean. Perhaps they have hidden fans above them extracting, dunno.
And in House Of Fraser on the ground floor it was well weird, all sortta low lighting and there were a bank of about 5 lifts all shiny black that looked as they though could have come straight out of the film ‘Dune’ all kinda steam punk, discharging and sucking in passengers to whisk them to heights above. Only needed a hissing sound and some steam and it couldda been Disneyland or summat.
I would have visited M& S but it was further down the road and it started pouring persistently.
But before I disappeared into the bowels of Bond Street tube station I visited the HMV store, upstairs, to look at the vinyl records. So I had to buy one and it came down to a choice between these: 1) Leftism – Leftfield; 2) Progeny – Yes Live 1972 3) The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance. Well I have My Chemical Romance and Leftfield on FLAC files to I bought the Yes LP. 3 LP’s, over 2 hours of music and it cost £36
But I like it a lot, I saw the band a few times around this time, they were good imo but after around ’73 they went seriously crap.
And so home again. I went to the reunion on Saturday, there were only 9 of us all together and it was very surreal, seeing people I hadn’t seen for – wait for it – 46 years. It was far too short though, it was held at some posh tennis club and they shut the bar at 10:15. At school there was this girl named Eileen who I fancied like mad, she was a babe and I think I would have walked hot coals to get a date with her. Well on Saturday night Eileen gave me a lift home. Hey. And yes, I still would, lol, though nothings arranged for a meeting up.
Eileen has the same colour hair as me now and she’s a little wider round the hips. Sexist? Moi? Mebbe
She’s also had two husbands, both of whom have died. Maybe it was just as well me not becoming an item with her eh?Most of my peers from that schooltime (62-68) have done well, most have started their own companies and we were known as ‘baby-boomers’. Dunno where I went wrong then, lol. I think the next reunion should be at a Greenwich pub. Of course.
To get to this tennis club I took a train and then a mini cab. I saw the trains went from London Bridge so I got the main line train 2 stops and on arriving at London Bridge missed a train to my destination and the next one was half hour. So I went walkabout to waste time and rattled off a few snaps, I will post a few in the next post but here’s a pic of the reunion which one of the bar staff took on Dave’s mobile phone, not very good quality. I’m 4th from the right.
Oh, and travelling on my train I noticed it went through Lewisham which is closer to me (3 stops on DLR) and would have shortened the journey time. Doh.
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Oh which one is Eileen
)
