Father's Menswear Woes

Father was once a huge fan of the high street behemoth, Fosters Menswear.  He absolutely worshipped the place, but as we all know, it's now long gone and according to my internet-based research, disappeared in 1999 when it was subsumed into the Sears group:



It seems as though all of Father's favourite places to shop have fallen by the wayside, for example Wikipedia has this to say about the former men's fashion chain, Dunn and Co:

In its final year of trading as an independent company, 1996, Dunn & Co. had 130 shops and 429 staff, with a head office in Swansea employing a further 75 workers. It was losing £1m a year on sales of £25m a year, and when its debts reached £6.4m (with £4m owed to unsecured creditors), CinVen, who by then owned 86% of the company, called in the receivers KPMG, on 19 December 1996^[1]The brand name was purchased by Ciro Citterio. However, they also went into administration in 2003. 

Ciro Citterio was far too flash for Father.  He didn't and still doesn't approve of people wearing denim jeans.  With this in mind, we decided to visit the Marks and Spencer website to 'click and collect' some new threads, such as these rather lovely beige trousers:

Emma The Martyr

Emma came over yesterday for her monthly visit, clutching a bottle of Asti Spumante and a box containing the mint variety of the frozen 1980s retro dessert, Viennetta.  Now, don't get me wrong, whilst I fully admire the way that Emma is able to drag herself out of her 2ft 6in single bed every morning at 05:30am, I don't really appreicate the way that she feels the need to lecture me about my current employment status.  I have recently signed up to be the communications officer for a local charity and it's a voluntary position.

My cousin Eleanor (who doesn't seem to blog any longer ...) used to regale me of stories of colleagues who were very snitty about her taking time off to attend her son Sebastian's various school assemblies, and having to leave on time to go and pick him up from nursery or after school club.  Yes, as she stated, she'd decided to have a child, but the snooty disregard she experienced from certain (but, by no means all!) colleagues used to really get her down.  As for working from home - if it doesn't suit the 'business need' then so be it, but if you're able to do certain aspects of your job whilst sitting in your dining room tapping away at at laptop, why do you have to be based in central London anyway?

Rant over!

Father's New Dog

Since Mother died poor old Father has been somewhat lonely and doubly so since Auntie Barb shackled up her caravan and vamooshed.  Anyway, last week he collected his new housemate, an adopted retired racing greyhound called Sir Jeremy Bentham and he's now obsessed with the sleek sighthound. Unfortunately he can no longer sit on his favourite two seater sofa as the beast has taken almost permanent residence on there and now there's little or no room for Father's posterior next to the spindly hound.  Oh dear.

I took Jeremy for a walk yesterday and I must admit that I didn't particularly enjoy cleaning up his stinky 'jobbies', although, as a responsible owner, it's a must.  They are far too runny and rather disgusting.