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Autumn Days

Tuesday 25 September 2012



I wish my school uniform had been more fun. It was navy. Lots of navy - navy skirt, navy jumper, navy tie with white and yellow stripes. Oh and a sky blue shirt. The only plus points were a) they introduced blazers for the years below us and we didn't have to wear them and b) it was better than our hideous gym kit. Yellow Aertex shirt and bright blue gym skirt and gym knickers... *shudders*

Luckily I am old now and school was a long time ago.  Those gym knickers are no more, even if the memory of running laps round the track wearing just them and the Aertex shirt will live with me forever.  I am convinced my PE teacher was a sadist.  Why weren't we allowed to wear our skirts as well?  Why weren't we allowed to wear tracksuit bottoms?!

*thinks determinedly happy thoughts instead*

There's still something very fun about starting off autumn with lots of new pens and pencils and notebooks - I don't think I'll ever grow out of that habit. And I rather like dressing in a vaguely schoolish fashion every now and then.  Blouse, blazer, kilt, sensible shoes, cableknit tights: this outfit could be appropriate school wear.  It's clearly not - I'd love to see kids in stag print shirts with collar tips on them - but this is my take on it.  I'm not ironic enough to wear a boater and a Head Girl badge without looking like I'm living out some naughty fantasy.

Blouse - Dorothy Perkins sale
Kilt - Oasis via charity shop
Blazer- vintage Betty Barclay
Shoes - New Look

The distinct advantage this has over proper school uniform is that you don't have to get changed when you get home.  You can zoom straight into town and do fun stuff instead.  Like being invited along to La Tasca for a paella making masterclass and a chance to sample some of the food and wines on their new autumn/winter menu.  I took Ffion along with me and we had such a lovely evening. Honestly, work was horrendous yesterday - floods and alarms going off all the time and everything electronic deciding to break at once and endless rain - so it was a real treat to go out and socialise with lots of really nice people.


We even got to make our own Sangria - apparently I'm very good at pouring measures.  Considering I've never done bar work, I am quite pleased with this!

I was rather too busy eating the food to take many pictures of it (bad blogger alert) but ohhhhhh my god, the slow-cooked pork cheeks were divine.  And I could have eaten their Spanish egg and chips (or huevos cabreaos if you want me to get all Catalonian) until I actually exploded.  You should definitely try those two if you go along there for a meal soon.

That Freixenet Mia is one of the nicest white wines I've ever had.  It definitely comes with the Odd Socks seal of approval.

21 comments:

  1. gym knickers -- ick!
    My uniform was navy skirt, navy jumper, blue shirt and navy tie with white stripes. I got told off for wearing a skirt that was too long. My Mum said she'd take it up when she stopped seeing the gussets of other girl's as she drove into work. Strangely I was never told off about it again. Go Mum!!

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  2. Loving the look Alex. Mine was navy blue too, horrid! Thankfullly we got to wear our pe skirts. No wonder that image has stayed with you.

    X x

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  3. Such a good the paella making class, I would love to be able to create one (and eat it all myself)
    My uniform was seasonal, checked summer dress, then grey pinafore and purple tie (complete with purple ribbons in hair) for winter. Not keen on the jumper/sweatshirt style with polo shirts kids wear these days - bring back the starched shirt. :)
    Love those tights and shoes.
    xx

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  4. Haha! I JUST took some photos of what I am wearing and was thinking that a lot of what I was wearing looked like schoolwear!!!! I had virtually the same uniform as you (no, really, everything including the tie!) except for the addition of the navy blazer!

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  5. Oh please, I'd have loved a navy uniform but had the horrendous maroon blazer, skirt & jumper matched with yellow shirt.

    There is no way that maroon & yellow will ever go.

    She'll x

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  6. I hated my uniform too, it was black and although this may seem perfect for a teen goth, it was so shapeless and boring. I managed to make it my own though ;) I hated gym, we had the most disgusting rugby shirts for PE in the winter!

    Now I look at pinafores and wish I could wear them and pleated skirts without looking like a 12 year old.

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  7. Gym knicker evilness from hell. We had skirt deprivation too. And see through aertex - wtf?
    Perv central. I started a revolution in 5 th year. Cycling shorts under gym skirt and footy top. When called to account, my dad came to school and said when the boys had to wear gym knickers and see through tops then he would make me, and if they weren't happy they could send me home. They didn't.

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  8. I don't know what gym knickers are but it sounds like a device used by pedo teachers. xxx

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  9. Twenty years since I left school and I'm only just able to wear navy again.

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  10. mmmm sangria mmmm tapas. I want booze and Tapas now and I've not long had breakfast!
    Gym knickers, what was that all about? I would always be 'sick' for PE ;) I'm sure normal shorts would have done the job. I was lucky, my uniform was black with a white shirt and a purple and blue tie. Rather nice really, I used to wear Dr Martens and loads of eyeliner and tippex Placebo and Muse quotes on everything, coolest teen ever really...

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  11. You look amazing, I may have to steal this entire outfit (thanks!) my school uniform was pretty dull, until I became a prefect and was able to wear a bright green tie! :)

    Maria xxx

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  12. Haha, oh my gosh, gym knickers are evil. I swear they wouldn't even go over my wrist these days, the elasticated legs were tiny and thankfully my thighs were too in those days, although they still stopped the blood circulation! We never had to wear only gym pants and I only had to wear them with the skirt for hockey (remember getting hell for attempting to wear jogging bottoms to a match in the dead of winter). I hated PE with a passion and all the gear that went with it!

    School uniform wasn't much better, ours was also navy with a white shirt and navy and white striped tie. I do not suit a shirt, especially when buttoned up to the neck and that with a tie still fills me with dread. My Mum 'made' me wear official school jumpers waaaay longer than anyone else too, which I hated her for! My last couple of years I generally pushed the school rules as much as I could and had all sorts of cute skirts and shoes and platform boots which I had to buy myself if I 'wanted to wear cool things'!! I like to think I paved the way for the way the school kids dress these days!

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  13. We didn't have school uniform at either Junior or Senior school, it was the 70s/80s and this was the norm. They re-introduced uniform as we were leaving.

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  14. I didn't comment already? huh. Love this outfit, allsorts of autumn wondrousness.
    Gym knickers and skirts were our PE kit too. Who the hell would make young girls run around playing sports in a skirt + knickers EXCEPT a pervert? Christ. Such bad times.

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  15. Love those oufit photos! We also had to wear 'knicker shorts' for PE, although they were definitely more knickers than shorts. Apart from the obvious disadvantages, they were bloody freezing.

    xx

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  16. I loathed my school uniform and PE kit with a passion, but strangely miss it in a way...only slightly though xxx

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  17. I recall wearing my navy blue pe knickers for gym and later skirt then leotard came on school scene .i did not mind pe knickers at least we all got same kit and boys always wore white nylon shorts no under pants . I had 6 of the slipper on my navy blue pe knickers in gym often for messing about.happy days

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  18. I still wear navy blue pe knickers and skirt or leotard they turn my dad on Gareth Hyde in llanbradach south Wales UK

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