on taking sartorial advice from one's children

so there I was

getting ready to go out on a Friday night (a novelty for the POVS, usually they go off on a Friday to their father leaving me tucked up on the sofa with my knitting or tapestry or whatever I'm using to keep my fingers occupied) (busy hands, empty brain)

it was freezing outside - so I'd put on my warmest coat

"you look like a bag lady" says The Teen
"that bag doesn't go with your coat" says Teen Too
"not that hat!" says Mini-Teen

now a little history: my warmest coat is one that was left behind at the band's tsunami fund raising gig, five years' earlier; I'd picked it up because it had a Katharine Hamnett label inside, so I figured that it was a favourite coat of someone who hadn't left it behind on purpose; I'd emailed everyone who'd come to the gig (I was in charge of ticket sales, fund raising and claiming back Gift Aid, all in we raised over £10,000 that evening for the victims of the tsunami; and altho this was nothing by comparison, I felt it a shame that someone had lost their favourite coat) and then checked with the other performers (lots of people donated their time and talents that night), the sound guys, the manager and staff of the venue. . .
.

. . .noone had claimed the coat so eventually it became part of my wardrobe

.
as you know, I have a fondness for bag ladies - there, but for the grace of g*d goes I - and on a really really cold night (before I even left the house, there was ice on the puddles in the street) I appreciate their need to stay warm. . . I mention this to The Teen
.

"ok" says he, "well, it also looks as if you're about to draw a Magnum from a hidden inner pocket"

altho I think he means this as a kind of compliment (you know how teens of the C21st are) I take it with a pinch of something akin to worry
.
"that bag really doesn't go with your coat" insists Teen Too
"and not that hat!" demands Mini-Teen

.
they end up persuading me to change my warmest coat for my newest one. . .

(Ed to I,LTV: insert photo of New Vintage Coat,
when you've gotten yourself organised enough
to take a photo)

"that bag doesn't go with that coat" laughs Teen Too

"and NOT that hat!" says an outraged Mini-Teen (outraged, because I listened to A BOY and not her)

(I'm beginning to think that the best part of the evening might be happening before I have even left the house) (little did I know what was going to occur later)