The 12 Piece Travel Capsule Exposé !!

Hi peeps, I've travelled to the UK for a few weeks' break.
So what does any self-respecting blogger do?  Yup, here comes the travel case post!

I travelled in black jeans and jumper, ivory sleeveless top, ecru jacardi and leoprint scarf, black boots.

Now here's a fun story.  On arrival at London Gatwick, I found myself lurking outside the mens' toilets, as you do (calm down, I was waiting for The Photographer!).  A lady came towards me and we spotted immediately that we were wearing the same coat. So we smiled in recognition of this coincidence as she walked past, then she turned back and we started chatting. Turns out the jacardi is on sale and my pretty Irish new BFF had bought the grey version too (which I was torn over when buying my ecru version).
Funny how a piece of clothing gets complete strangers chatting together like old friends.

 The thing about this jacardi, as I call it, is that it's quite distinctive.  As well as the airport anecdote, I walked into my double cousin's kitchen the other day.  She looked at me and instantly said "Zara!  Looked at it at the airport shop back in November, wish I'd bought it." 
It's a sort of once-seen-never-forgotten piece.

So, fired by the carrot my BFF had dangled, a sale price of 13 Euro, I went on to the Zara website.  No sign of it, so it must be sold out already.  Sorry peeps, but no surprise really.  But there may be some left "physically" in a Zara store near you ...

But, I digress, bigly (sic).  In my little carry-on I packed this little lot.

Grey and white jumpers, grey cardi, pink and leoprint sleeveless tops, black and grey jersey tops,black cami, grey jeans; down coat (bagged up and out of shot), scarf, brown boots, snakeprint flatties, beret and gloves, just in case it gets chilly, notebook, spare specs and filofax as, evidently, I haven't yet left the 90s - and you should see the size of my mobile!


So that's 12 capsule items, in blogger-accounting.

And my Wild Card - the item you can bung in at the last minute without counting it per blogger-accounting.  It's the black pink and taupe splodgy jersey top.  I threw it in because it's coming up for its 4th summer and I have worn it 0 times.  So I am challenging myself to wear it this holiday.
Wish me luck!

So that's Exposé No. 1, the truth behind the "12" piece travel capsule.


Here's some of what I've been wearing so far.  The first reveal is a bit of a shocker actually. 

Shocker, you ask?  Well, here's the first wearing of a M&S tie top, bought recently in the sales.

Grey jersey.  Long sleeves.  High neck.  What's to shock?

Well, it was how I tied the knot at the bottom.  Without looking in the mirror I tied a simple knot, with the ends dangling.  You will have to use you're imagination at this point, for I've now popped the photo in my bloopers file.

 I went out for the day wearing the top. The. Whole. Day.

Only when downloading the photos for this post did I spot that the tie arrangement looked a bit, errr, embarrassing! 

Why oh why did I not check myself out in the mirror?!  There ensued Tiegate (and that's putting it genteelly!).  TP now tells me he'd given me the heads up when photographing.  He delicately suggested I might want to "re-tie" as it was "bunched up".  Too subtle for me.  Maybe he should have asked which side I "dressed".

No matter, as I did what I always do - I ignored him.  To my detriment, it now seems.

And the top's no longer on their website so I can't see how it's supposed to be tied, decently.  Anyone else having problems with tie tops?  

That's Exposé No. 2, nuff said on that one - so moving swiftly on ...

And here I'm wearing a pretty reserved mix but I must point out the beads.  I hit my fave charity shop in Battle on Saturday and found three necklaces that mix perfectly with what I've brought over.  £1 a-piece.  Bargain!

And finally ...

Although I bring a core capsule over with me when I come to Sussex, I do also have what I call a "visiting wardrobe" that I can tapp (sic) into.  The visiting wardrobe came about by an unfortunate event a few years ago.  TP was held at the NHS' pleasure - not HM's, I am pleased to say!

We were over for a few weeks and I had packed an appropriate travel capsule.  But TP ended up unexpectedly in hospital for a few weeks, poor thing,  And he then convalesced for a few more weeks.  By which time, we'd moved from late summer into early autumn. 

What's a girl to do?  I hit the shops in the area!  Primark, M&S, Next  ...

I picked up some disparate items, like undies and socks, a few tops, some boots and outerwear. 

You get the picture - I'm an opportunist!

Quite understandably I hadn't packed these things for what started out as a 2 week August holiday and ended up as a mid-October departure.  

Simply put, I'd packed for the wrong trip.

I tell you all of this in the spirit of transparency and openness.  For although I show you my little carry-on's contents, this wasn't in it ...

Another rogue item will pop up in my next post too, whilst I'm fessing up ... and probably in many more posts to come!

You see, I don't always restrict myself to my 12 piece.  I augment.

And that, dear reader, is Exposé No. 3.

So on those blogger's travel capsule bombshells, I bid you adieu,

A la perchoine.