Oh, my hat!

I bought a new hat in Stanhope the other day at a lovely shop, which you must visit if you go there, because they have exquisite things to buy, gorgeous handbags in different colours of suede and leather, jewellery, scarves, those lovely smelling candles and the kind of clothes which make women of my age look better than they are, good materials, pretty colours.
It was a winter hat that I wanted. I lose hats.The first one I lost was a lovely black cloche hat which my daughter, Katy, gave to me. They have to be the same style, it's the only one I suit.
Well, I went to the opera at Castle in the big hall which incidentally has no pictures of women on the walls, which makes me want to spit anyway but I think I left it there. They said they didn't have it and I went to the other places I had visited that evening and nobody had found it.
So, as you do when you're in Milan, the last outing I had for my birthday, I spent 45 Euros on an exquisite black cloche hat but when Malcolm was so damned ill at the beginning of the year I was distracted and left it somewhere. I was going to go back to the restaurant where I thought it was but they seemed always to be closed and Malcolm was dying and Joan was nearly out of her mind with worry so I didn't get it back.
However, this spring I acquired another hat from TKMaxx. Purple straw. Katy says that  I must not go out in it, it's too bad. Too late, I wore it constantly when I went to Marjorca and it comes with me to the caravan at Stanhope all the time. But yes, I lost it.
I left it at the Gala theatre and this time I managed to get back for it the following day. They said they didn't think they had it and I said,
'Nobody's going to steal it,' and I was right. My daughter may have wished it a long way from us but to her chagrin it's now back at home.
So, considering the winter is coming I needed a new black cloche hat and I bought it the other day in Stanhope. It fits me perfectly - I have a very small head would you believe -  and has little black and white feathers to one side. Delightful. And only £14.95.  It will go with my two winter coats, one of which I have had for fifteen years, bought it at Next for a hundred pounds, well worth the investment, full length and it goes in the washer, the other is my pretend purple fur which my kids bought me for my sixtieth birthday. ( I get to hug a lot of men because they like my coat! Very good. )
I look forward to a lovely autumn and winter, three nights at the opera, good concerts at St Oswald's with the university orchestras and good meals and drinks with my friends. I shall try not to lose my new  hat but when I said to the lovely woman who sold it to me that it could not expect a long life with me she said,
'Stuff it in your handbag when you take it off.'
She was right. Better a rather dented hat than no hat at all.