Friday, September 23, 2011

Girls Night Out

So I'm in Melbourne for two days to do some buying for my store and a little bit of shopping and relaxation for me. I organised with my an old friend to meet up for dinner and drinks last night, a bit of a girls night out without the worry of kiddies and hubby's. We decided to start with some entrees at a Chapel Street well known Italian restaurant, move on to St Kilda for our mains and finish with drinks at a nearby bar.

My first dilemma  was what to wear. When you've been a Mummy for the last year and preggers for 9 months before that, you don't exactly have the cool Chappel st killer outfit or body for that matter. I did my best with an oversized T-shirt with sequin trim and a pair of skinny black jeans and heels. My girlfriend turned up as usual looking stunning. She wore a gorgeous Aztec print dress that came just above the knee and brown cowboy boots. Did I mention she's Italian, long black hair to her waist, about a size 8, stunning! So feeling slightly frumpy I followed her into the restaurant where we enjoyed the best plate of Olives I've ever had, and polished of a lovely glass of wine. My favourite part was when we were leaving and the waiter took her hand and said "chow Bella" and then just looked at me as we walked out the door.

Heading to St Kilda we ended up at another Italian restaurant for our mains and we decided on a mixture of seafood entrees to share. This time we had a young female waitress who seemed to think we'd ordered too much food and was determined to stare us down with a "yes you should feel guilty about eating all that" look. After we paid and used their bathroom to freshen up she seemed almost glad and she cheerily waived us out the door. My friend and I do tend to talk a lot and we did stay for a long time after we finished out meals, but she could have come and offered us more drinks or even a desert menu rather than her looks of distaste.

Final stop was a little bar two doors up from the restaurant where we intended on enjoying a drink. My friend has been there before and said it was great. The age group was around 25-30 so better than going to a bar filled with 18 year olds. There were a lot of men on mobile phones and a lot of women trying to look disinterested but who were clearly there to find a mate. It got me thinking, the last time I went out to meet a man you used to have to beg the barman for a pen and took down there number on a piece of paper. Now we just whip out our iPhone or Galaxy and not only can we put their number in but we can snap a photo and save it against the number and name just in case we have a few too many and can't remember if he was worth calling the next day.

Still an overall enjoyable night but by the time I got back to the hotel at the very early hour of 10:30pm I was so glad to see my bed and hit the pillow that I didn't bat my eyelids until 6:30am the next morning. Why is it when your baby free you still can't sleep in? Now that's another blog all together.....

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Sometimes I Just Love My Job!

Sometimes I just love my job! This morning I opened up a box of stock and it was like Christmas! All the shoes...... I may have a bit of a fetish for shoes......

The thing I find the hardest about working in fashion and having a gorgeous 1 year old daughter is to NOT raid my stock. It would be so easy for me to say "hey I'll just take that pair of Walnut ballet flats and that Eeni Meeni dress". Taking all the good stock means that customers only see your worst and won't bother coming back.

So now I have a rule, it stays on the shelf for at least a month, and if it hasn't sold I can buy it for my little fashionista!