Red-carpet ready
I have bought the perfect outfit. I'd have loved colour, but I don't wear a lot of black by day, so what the hey.
I chose an elegant evening skirt in overlapping layers of satin. I'm trying hard to describe it without mentioning scales but, ultimately, that's what comes to mind. But not frills or flounces, heaven forbid. It's narrow, flares gently out from beneath the knee and, viewed from the side, fits neatly under the backside and then sweeps out in a sort of subtly Edwardian profile. Very me.
With it I've chosen a neat velvet camisole with quite a low neck, which is worn under a fitted devore velvet evening jacket in much the same style as Helen's (see post a couple below this) but with velvet revere lapels and cuffs. One velvet button under the bust.
No alterations needed at all.

:: I had a great day out shopping, with Amanda, one of our managers at the Bondi, who is coming to the galah with us. She's perfectly gorgeous and snapped up an exquisite Calvin Klein gown in a ridiculous size (2), and I have spent the morning shortening it for her by a whopping 13 cm — including train and lining.
This is Amanda's apartment block downtown in the early morning sunshine — i just love that part of the city.
This is the view across the road from her building ...
:: In Macy's, I was looking at one of the make-up stands, wondering why the manufacturer made only two colors of nail polish — brown and pink — when I realised these were, in fact, cosmetics for dogs. Honest ...
... I suppose the picture should have alerted me, but I just wasn't expecting this in among all the scents and cosmetics!
Then, at the end of the handbag section, there's this neat little contraption ...
... an iPod vending machine! God, I love this crazy place!

:: Dave and I have been working our way through the entire series of The West Wing, on DVD from Netflix, interspersed with lots of MSNBC coverage of the (real) presidential election — it's riveting now we are into the primaries and caucuses! I feel I am at last getting some inkling of the way it all happens — and it's fascinating watching the candidates' debates.
All of which has been useful in these long, slow weeks of the screenwriters' strike (over royalties from online distribution). The strike has meant there have been no new episodes of a lot of popular and high-rating series, like Grey's Anatomy (which I love but Dave can't stand), and even the late-night talk shows. So TV has been more or less at a standstill, apart from re-runs of old episodes of House, which my TV is programmed automatically to record whenever it shows, and on whatever channel. Suits me down to the ground!
The strike has also had an effect on this year's season of American Idol, which started this week. So huge is this show that, with prime-time advertising time at a premium because of the writers' strike, a thirty-second ad slot on the show costs $1 million. Imagine!