How much is that dress in the window?

....£1080. Yeah so that was a new high for me in terms of having expensive taste... !!! I had been watching this dress for weeks - every morning I go running past this shop and it's right on Portobello Road, where most things are pretty reasonable, but lots of fun clothes. So I thought, when I get paid on the 15th, I'll go check it out. They had taken the dress down, but I went in to ask anyway, and when he answered it was one of those moments where I would have spewed coffee on the guy's face if I'd been drinking anything. I laughed and said well I won't be doing that today!! He said do you want to try it on anyway? (I'm thinking NO! I don't WANT to know if this dress looks good on me!) So I tried to shrug off, but he insisted, saying he hadn't seen it on anyone, so I caved, and he went to get it, and I very, very carefully tried on the dress - and of course it was beautiful and fit perfectly. So not fair. It was fun though, to prance around in and try to think of some reason I would ever need a gorgeous pale pink shift with real pearls sewn into it in the shape of necklaces and delicate sequin detail...but there really isn't one. Especially not for a cool grand. Thus, I wandered down to the market and found a not quite so glamorous but still cool pink dress for £10, making today the first time I have spent 100 times less on an item I wanted.

In other news, I FLY TO THE US TOMORROW! I can't believe I'm so excited - last trip was, honestly, awful. The one weekend I spent up in Richmond was great, but work was just a nightmare, and I could not wait to get back to London. And I must confess I'm starting to understand why people don't like traveling all the time for work - just when I start to get into a rhythm of seeing friends and meeting people, I disrupt it for two weeks and it takes a while to get back in the swing of things.

This trip may turn out the same, but I've got two fun-packed weekends planned, so hopefully that will make up for any other stress. It's crazy how lucky I am though, I get to do this and not lose more than one holiday (vacation day). So even if the US office is painful, I should just take it in stride - it's a small price to pay for all the benefits on the other side of the pond! :)