Popped up yesterday to Westfield Bondi Junction to meet a lovely lady who bought one of my pieces of LIBERTY by ROBERT GORDON china. I started collecting this set around my 50th birthday …so almost five years ago. I asked DAVID JONES if they would still have it for a few seasons and was assured they would but as always next season there were a few rogue pieces and that was it. So I was stuck with a few pieces and I had been so looking forward to collecting it but apart from my local coffee/homewares shop and occasionally at Vinnies I have not seen it again. It is even scarce on ebay so I am pleased that a piece is going to someone who really wants it.

What is it with these places putting out new ranges…..or several new ranges of china every year? If you cannot buy it all then, including spares, you are really stuck. Not everyone can buy entire sets all at once and like me not everyone wants to…where is the joy in collecting in that?  My son had a similar experience with a gorgeous coloured willow pattern which was on a huge display in the David Jones city store next to the Portmeirion. When he started collecting it every time he went shopping he asked if it would still be available in future. You can guess what happened, he is stuck with one serving of everything and a strangely untraceable brand, PALATE. I mean try googling palate…its ludicrous!

While I was at WESTFIELD I took some time to think about the poor Jewish man who took his life there a few weeks ago. I was also thinking about the appalling response to the tragedy by a member of their upper echelon.  It is in the newspaper reports what Mark Ryan, Westfield Group Director of Corporate Affairs, said about the gawkers …and not moving the gawkers along or shutting the centre. Heaven forbid that someone’s death might get in the way of anyone spending a dollar….or thousand.  Apparently lots of people were filming and texting as I imagine it was unusual to see a fully Orthodox Jewish person in such a situation. Maybe they were interested in seeing how the police handled it. A young chap who caught the whole thing on camera put it on Youtube because he was so appalled by the apathy of the staff. Not the …splatter…but the awful last minutes of this man’s life and the camera person clearly asking why Westfield were not moving the public out of the way. Do pay careful attention to the comments on the first link I have highlighted here…among these comments are those by workers and others who witnessed the event.

While we are talking about Westfield and David Jones, good on the ex CEO of DJ’s resigning today for “inappropriate conduct toward a female staff member” at a function. As regular readers of my blog know, not all companies admit when there is any form of harassment and this guy named and shamed himself. Perhaps it was all about to come out and he got in ahead of time but we know that is not always the case. Some companies turn it around and blame the  victim.  Well done David Jones and let us hope the young lady manages to go back to work and that her case is managed well by her lawyers. Another mistake we made apparently…..not getting lawyers involved before we made our complaints.

Have been super busy selling especially this past week and am almost through my many sizes of clothing which I have had stored in vain hope of getting into them one day! I am so pleased that so many women are wearing and loving my  clothing. This stunning outfit above is a mixture of LAURA ASHLEY USA and STITCHES AUSTRALIA. During the five years I have had this skirt I only wore it once and since I bought the jacket earlier this year my friend borrowed the outfit for an event so it is almost new. Silk and cotton the jacket is fabulous quality as to be expected of LAURA ASHLEY and the skirt is just that little bit different…I think the outfit works well so I am selling it as a set.

I found lots of great things in Vinnies today..it was 50% off clothing which was great and I also bought some fabulous beaded jewellery to gift with my clothing sales…yeah! Ted Noffs was also a success as I found my friend a lovely HOT OPTIONS jacket to go with a PER UNA skirt which arrived today from ebay.uk! I also pointed out to the volunteers at One Noffs some pieces by a designer [VICKY VALE] which I felt would work well in their more exclusive designer store. I found several pieces and they are very current, Victorian Gothic style in black velvet, yum!