MNV vol 43

[Drywhiteplease]

Continuing. From here some of us may have jetted off to far flung foreign parts, but we're still friendly, fabulous even in the heat wave and full of frivolous fashion talk. Come and join us

Sounds very stressful Liberty, hope there is no lasting damage

Marking my place for later. Officially I am still on holiday even though we came home on Saturday.

This week is a staycation at home but DH has invited two of his friends and their families (on different days, Thank God) to stay a couple of nights so I won't be relaxing much.

Will try and catch up but so much has been written!

It's not too bad - everything is drying up very fast. Most of the stuff in the sheds is either hanging up or on shelves. We are a bit worried about the tumble dryer and electric lawnmower - leaving them to dry out and will see how they are. Sink is draining normally again - we have been here 8 years and never had this happen before. My next door neighbour who has lived here for 33 years says the road has only flooded once before. At least it didn't come into the house, we had a scary few minutes watching it this morning as if it had lasted 10 mins longer I think we would have had water in the house.

Really bizarre as now it's all bright skies and the road has dried up really quickly but everyone is out the back gardens sorting out the mess. Sirens going off every few minutes as the fire brigade seem to be very busy.

Oh my goodness Lib, poor you.

oh no.poor you liberty hope things dry out quickly and theres no lasting damage

Hope you're ok Liberty - I'm in London too and feels like we might be about to get a downpour in a minute! Hope everything dries out soon!

Sooo - wedding outfit for whoever was asking (got brain like a sieve at the moment)I wore a dress very similar to this but it was a tkmaxx copy with nude heels for the church and then navy wedge boden pumps for the reception as it was in a field and I had the kids with me!

Am finding this weather really hard to dress for still - am also sooo ready for AW now. I always do this though in the middle of one season, can't wait for the next!

Wasnt really happy with the wedge heels but needed to be able to move quickly on grassy ground and didn't have anything else even vaguely suitable!

Felt ok in the dress though, am still aiming to feel good all the time - tell me its possible??? :)

Lovely dress Annie and the wedges look like a good option for an outdoors reception. I find this weather really hard to dress for too. And why not aim to feel good in what you wear all the time - I probably feel good about 80% of the time I think.

It's raining again here but the garden had dried out pretty well in the few hours sunshine. Sheds smell a bit damp but no major damage. I still can't believe how fast it all happened

Hi everyone. Flight home delayed so using the time to catch up. It's useful that Dublin Airport gives unlimited free wifi. I haven't actually minded the delay, so far, as it is meant to be just an hour. When I am travelling by myself I quite enjoy people-watching.

That rain sounds bad Liberty, hope everything is drying out.

Enjoy the holidays to all those travelling.

Boarding now so bye again.

Hello LONDON!!!! I'm in my shorts. Dodged the rain. Slightly chilly but being warmed up by a nice red ...

liberty flood sounds bad. Poor you.
Stokey I ADORE those shoes. Lusted after them last year,v Prada. Love,love,love.

I'm going to adopt the term "throw a potato" bbecause it makes me laugh....."I was so pissed off I could have thrown a potato!"

Welcome Dry!

Topaz hope flight went smoothly after delay.

Liberty oh no!

I could have lobbed a potato today .

Not at the dc I should add. But looking forward to our family break soon.

And Ganni flats are ready to pick up from post office. But the name was slightly wrong on the card, lucky I checked.

Mara how about SW London?

lib you poor thing. I saw the pictures on the web. It looked awful especially the size of the hailstones. Glad everything ok.

annie lovely dress and I agree that wedges are better for outdoor receptions. Dh always thinks it's hilarious to lean on my shoulder when I'm in heels and make me sink into the grass . You can definitely feel that good most of the time, it's just a case of buying stuff that you love and makes you feel great.

I'm pondering buying a hoodie . It was a bit chilly at the beach yesterday and I hadn't taken any cardis/jumpers but I'm not sure that I'd want to wear one of my nice cardis on the beach anyway. Thinking a hooded cardigan (in one of my best colours ) that I can easily shove in a bag may be the way forward.

Hoodies are essential beachwear I find QueenC especially in Cornwall, especially of the washed out, slightly distressed looking kind I find

Liberty flood sounds terrible, scary about the speed it happened too. Glad damage doesn't sound too bad for you though.

Stokey that was an early start, well done you. I am still following Anita and sticking to level one. Love the pointy flats.

Dry enjoy London. Am angry enough with someone tonight to lob a whole sack of potatoes at him (not dh, work-related!)

Marsha did you book a holiday? Going on another recce south of the river this weekend so should get some more ideas.

Annie I generally feel ok when my hair is smooth and straight. Clothes come second and makeup last of all.

Linus welcome home to Vogue! Hope you had fab hols.

Mara I'd recommend a Maris Piper, would be very effective......raw is harder than baked I suspect

Loving the potato-throwing, could it be a new olympic sport?

Pointy flats are only available in a turquoise blue colour in Regent's street - the exact colour of the hand rails on the Victoria line!

Hoodies are essential for beach and summer holiday evenings. American Apparel ones are good in that they don't have logos and are really soft but are quite bright colours. I have a Hollister one that is a great colour and very soft but the massive logo does mean I only wear it round the house.

Apparently Primark ones are good too

QueenC Ive been considering a hoodie too for the park and beach. Will go and check out American Apparel as want one without a huge logo - also am off to Camp Bestival at the weekend with 4 yr old. Have never done camping with her before and havent camped myself for donkeys years, what was I thinking?

mara do you live outside of London at the moment? It must be hard if you can literally pick anywhere! So many choices and so many lovely areas I'd love to live in!! Good luck with the hunt, do you think you'll know 'the one' when you see it??

Thanks for the American apparel suggestion. I'll check them out as I hate logos with a passion unless they are tiny and discreet.

Mara you need to be ruthlessly practical in selecting a part of London to live in. There are good options everywhere but it's searching for a needle in a haystack if you don't narrow it down. For me the most important thing would be transport links. So, where does DH work and what is the closest station? Where are you going to be studying and what is closest station to there? How important is access to airports and which ones? Do you plan to get out of London a lot and if so where will you be going? Then look at something like the maps linked below and use those points to try and map out a suitable patch airports
airports and roads
For me transport makes or breaks city living - there are few worse things than spending hours every day commuting standing up with multiple changes or spending every second weekend stuck on the M25 inching your way around to the junction you need. Once you have figured out whether you need to be south west, or north east or whatever, then you start looking at schools, access to green space, need for parking (ie lots of parts of London where you will struggle to have space to park 2 cars), how do you like to socialise, what do you do at weekends, how important is access to cafes, bars, shopping etc. Actually you need Phil and Kirsty

You sounds like you are Kirsty Liberty

Liberty your advice is better than P&Ks! I agree, start with transport. Make that the easiest it can be. I'm 20 minutes by bus with a five minute walk and I thank my lucky stars every time I go in! I know that any work place just north of Oxford St or west is the very worst for me, so avoid that. Although I avoid the jobs rather than the place to live

Yes to parks and schools.

Wow I did sound like Kirsty bossy there!!

MaxMara skirt has arrived - not sure, it's lovely but hmmmmm not sure, possibly should have gone up a size but also think bigger size might be too big, need to ponder....

Mara meant to say we have booked anything yet! But dh is off work for two weeks soon, so I really need to think about what we are doing. It doesn't help that I'm finding my garden and favourite place we go so good atm. But need to think of the dc - a beach to run around on.

Liberty it has to be really good to keep, do you think? I have not been ruthless enough in my last spree I've decided.

Dry how good is this London weather we put on for you? Hope you're having a fabulous time, I'm sure you are!