Nothing at all yesterday!
WORD ASSOCIATION - 9th May 2026
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You've been wearing an oxymoron, gracesmum! 
??I take gilet to mean sleeveless thingy - which may or may not be waterproof?? OMG have I been wearing the wrong thing for years? How humiliating
Why? 
Will read the others 'in a mintit' as DD1 used to say, but isn't waterproof gilet an oxymoron?
Oh! I was recently delightfully described by other Gransnetters as willowy which I found charming if confusing. (Photographs of Glasgow meet-up where I look like a man in drag.) I am also blonde, although hardly naturally these days. I am 5 foot 9 inches (with legs up to my armpits) and certainly the right side of 50 in that I am 62. I also sometimes wear a purple top, often with a cream and purple skirt, as well as occasionally going for vertiginous heels.
I don't dress to impress (some hope) or make a statement about who I am. Mostly I live in jeans, but there are times I enjoy dressing up and wearing a pretty frock or an attractive skirt and top. I still have fairly shapely legs (my best feature – in fact, the only good one – all my life) but keep my skirts at knee level or below these days.
I feel comfortable about what I wear and try to follow absentdaughter's advice: "Mum, there is no right time to look frumpish."
Yesterday I found myself giving sideways glances at any ladies of a certain age wearing anything which could remotely be described as purple!!
And on our way back to the station we saw lots of "girlies" up in Brum for a night out with legs up to their armpits ,vertiginous heels (and certainly no vests) looking like they were about to audition for the X factor. This morning I met a rather grand elderly-ish lady in our village shop wearing typical "no nonsense" clothes - sensible shoes, good thick tights/stockings, waterproof gilet and a very serviceable skirt of a very decent length, a bit of a social stereotype.The sort who says "It's getting cold, throw another dog on the bed"
And I wondered how much what we wear is a cliche - or a statement about who or what we perceive ourselves to be? I am also thinking of middle aged (or older) politicians or slebs in jeans while our grandfathers at the same age would have been in suits with hats, female slebs showing far more flesh than they ougher at their age or the ubiquitous teenage uniform of opaque tights under denim shorts,Ugg boots, big hoop earrings and long blonde hair.
What do your clothes say about you? Or do you (maybe unconsciously) dress to a stereotype?
(Willowy blonde, about 5'10 and the right side of 50 apart)
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