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Chapter 4 part 10 It had been so long since anyone had bought her flowers, she had absolutely no idea where her vase was. Mentally kicking herself for not remembering earlier and so buying a vase in town, the only thing that sprang to mind was the tall asparagus steamer. She took the mesh inner out, filled the steamer up with tap water and added half the packet of supplied plant food. As it stood there ‘steeping’, she turned to the flowers, cutting the bottom inch or so off each stem, poured some boiling water from the kettle into a cup and plunged each rose stem into the boiling water for a second or two. After arranging all the flowers in the asparagus steamer she went and found a spot in the lounge where she could enjoy them, stainless steel vase and all.
Chapter 4, Part 9 Into ‘Girl’ for a good look, and a good deal of excitement as Geraldine found a superb looking black side vent slash bottom off the shoulder dress, and a red low necked strappy silken dress that stopped a decent length down her leg, but only just and as long as she did not have to sit down. Both were stunning and either would do, she couldn’t decide which one, so bought them both, and then headed to the arcade and Debenhams for the other bits and pieces she would need. Into the lingerie department first for some new matching underwear. After a lot of toing and froing she managed to find a thong that would be virtually invisible through which ever dress that she wore, and a lacy lifting and shaping bra that hopefully would make her look good no matter what outfit she went with. A couple of pairs of nude suspender less cling stockings and it was time for makeup. She selected two different colours of Maybeline liquid look high gloss colour and one transparent quic
Chapter 4, Part 8 After driving round the multi story twice she eventually managed to find a place on the open top floor just about as far from the lifts as it was possible to park. Looking at her watch she realised that she really only had about an hour of shopping time available. The weather had started to drizzle and she just prayed, ‘Oh Lord, please don’t let my tan run,’ and made her way onto the Promenade and into ‘Earth,’ a shop run mostly for sizes 8 to 14, although if you were an 8 or 14 you would be hard pressed to find anything that wasn’t either outrageously young (size 8), or depressingly staid (size 14). Fortunately she was a large 10 or small 12 and so had high hopes. Hopes that would of course be dashed. You can only ever find the perfect dress when you don’t actually need it. If you have nowhere to go, are reducing and are a 12 today, but will definitely be a 10 next week, in the first shop that you visit will be a stunning size 12 (small 12) dress sitting on the r
Chapter 4, Part 7 Ping. The chimer went, she turned to the right, and waited for a while, and then a while longer and nothing seemed to happen. She half opened her left eye and tried to peep at the control panel. ‘FINISHED’ it said in calm electric blue letters. “Oh My G…” She had been so preoccupied with what to wear and where to get it that she had not noticed the chimes. Instead of rotating a quarter turn four times and thus getting an even all over all round light tan, she had stood still and taken all four jet sessions to her front. Geraldine now looked like a native of the sub continent from the front, and an Eskimo snow girl from the back. Geraldine took the robe from the compartment, put it on and went out to the girl on the desk. “Don’t ask, don’t look, just give me another programme, right now. I don’t care who is next, if anyone, just delay them, just do it.” Not waiting for an answer, Geraldine went straight back to the booth, de robed and pressed the controls tha
Chapter 4, Part 6 The call had lasted over an hour and Geraldine had thought no more of it, until her monthly telephone bill had arrived a week or so later. That one call alone had cost over forty pounds, nearly twice her usual phone bill – the helpful lady who had connected her to Anne had neglected to tell Geraldine that the call would still be at the premium rate because she had just transferred her. Lesson learned. Flicking through the Parish Magazine, Geraldine found the number for The Tanning Solution in their square quarter page advertisement and dialled the shop. No, they could not fit her in Monday, but they did have a free slot in half an hour. Marvellous, she was on her way she said, dived into the shower, vigorously towelled dry, bra, pants, stockings, dress, coat, purse, keys, alarm, gone. She was only 10 minutes late. The Tanning Solution was actually a clever play on words, because the client would go into a booth and be micro-sprayed with a solution that tan sta
Chapter 4 part 5 Having given up with disdain at the reliability of television adverts, she had decided to have a coffee and catch up on the colour supplement in the weekend paper, Anne would surely phone her at some point, and if not she could always pop round and see her and get the number that way. Having percolated her coffee and strewn the top with freshly grated nutmeg she had sat down for two minutes, ‘and only two minutes’ she said to herself - she had lost enough time already that day, just to flick through the supplement. As always she had started at the fashion pages at the back, before skipping to the ‘who was seen with who’ paparazzi photos at the front. Third page in had been a full page advert for one of the new 118 numbers. So she had rung them and gave the details of her friends address to the helpful lady who unfortunately seemed to have the most difficult dialect to understand. Years ago, you would have said foreign of course, but not now, this accent would have
chapter 4 part 4 Geraldine handed over the information and made a note on her Jotter of the times. Sorted, bit of luck really, they would never believe it at A Cut Above – she hardly believed it herself, and she almost hoped that she would bump into Richard Tuesday night – that would show him, ha. Tuesday then, she had to be at ‘Snips’ for just before 12, and wouldn’t get out much before 2, and from 2 onwards she wanted to just go home and chill and not get her hair messed. Next on the agenda was a top up tan. She hunted around under the coffee table until she found the parish magazine. She could just never remember the number of ‘The Tanning Solution’ and they were too new to be in the phone directory, and as for trying to work out what the number was for directory enquiries these days, well that was all too complicated. She had been caught out before. She had not been able to remember the new number of her best friend Anne who had just moved house. Usually you would expect p