Well! So, the French place is closed Mondays, so we switched everything around - and panic! Because I wanted to sleep, not figure out what to wear. And of course I was even more grumpy, because even on a Sunday, I had to leave two and half hours before our reservation to go into the city, fetch my friend, and drive back across town to the restaurant.

When I arrived my friend said he’d just thought of the horror of making me come in, which was thoughtful, so I got over my grump, lol. We had an in depth conversation about the tie on the way back to the restaurant, and we said what the heck, let’s be old fashioned. It was inevitable. Old habits die hard. Lol!

Photos 1-3 were my trials. 4-5 what I wore. I think it was right. I’d been contemplating giving away the overcoat, but it was certainly handy tonight. I stayed warm between it and the OTK boots (I really like the OTKs, which are a wild card for me, esp for the warmth).

Testimony to the rightness of the outfit: First, it was the right amount of wrong, because it made my mum laugh nervously - but then I showed her the Vivienne Westwood inspiration that I could be going out in and she was all for it, lol. And then my friend thanked me for wearing tartan and herring bone. Hahaha! Yes, they both know the real me and what I could have worn I quite like the pink stripes and tartan of my first trial and fully intend to ‘be apalling’ like this at an appropriate time. Ha!

Oh, and after dinner, we passed by a cigar club. We went in and thus managed to fake the going through. For all the decades of friendship, we managed also this evening to make it to the post WWII period as regards philosophy, politics and religion ... with a brief mention of the Napoleonic era.

So there we go! Thanks everybody - esp Angie - and Annagybe for a visual - for the outfit design. Oh, right! And my friend told me to tell you all Thank You from him specifically!