All of us at Alice Blue would like to wish our customers and blog readers a very Happy Easter. We hope you had a super long weekend; as usual we have been closed for the Bank Holiday and we’ve been spending time putting our heads together and coming up with yet more super ideas for themes and costumes. So watch this space (and watch the shop) for some fabulous new things coming soon!
Alice Blue and staff would like to wish all of our customers a very happy and prosperous 2008… with plenty of dressing up!
I’m writing this whilst laid up in bed feeling full of flu and very sorry for myself. My head is just a marshmallow at present, so what I am about to write will probably be rather less than a piece of quality literature, but go on, why not waste a few minutes of precious life reading it………….
Well done the Wintons! Went to see the opening night of the Winton Players performance of “Don’t Dress For Dinner” the other night, and it was great; it must have been a helluva script to learn, and there wasn’t a single stumble over words. Farce can be a troublesome breed of play, but the whole production was smooth and polished, so that the audience were able to really enjoy the humour of it. Ten out of ten and a gold star to them from this amateur critic!
I love AmDram. I’ve been a member of the Winton Players here in Petersfield for some years, and unfortunately am not able to be as involved as I want to be, because of lack of – guess what – time, but I think we are very lucky in Petersfield to have such a number of AmDram groups offering a variety of shows throughout the year.
Talking of shows, here at Alice Blue, we are looking for people who can sing a bit or dance a bit or act a bit who would like to appear in our Fancy Dress Cabaret shows. We like to put on an annual fundraiser show for our chosen charity, the Rowans Hospice, and we also do the occasional open evening show here at the shop in Liss. Volunteers are asked to commit only to a short series of set up rehearsals, and then very occasional rehearsals, until it is time to change some of the numbers, which are choreographed by yours truly. It’s great fun, so if your’e interested, bung an e-mail to me at alice.blue@virgin.net
Going to take some anadin.
Love
Alice
I used to hate Halloween; it was a standing joke in the Folly that I turned into an old witch at Halloween; I didn’t mind the witch bit but the old part got me down a tad. This year, however, it’s different. We are in our fab new shop, full of light and space and setting up Halloween has been a pleasure, not a harassment. Mind you, it’s been a bit odd clambering around doing a Halloween window, all gloomy and spooky in the brilliant sunlight of the indian summer we have been having; normally it’s dark and grey at this time of year, but last Thursday, I heard a wag standing outside the shop admiring my staging of Dracula’s wedding, and saying “They’ve picked a nice day for it!” Tres amusant. We have space to set up a proper area for the costumes and the accessories and wigs etc etc, and the element of fun has returned to October! But of course, as with any move, things have gone missing. You know when you move house in May, and it is only on Christmas Day that you discover that the box of spare china has gone missing just as you are trying to lay up the table for a dozen relatives? Well the same has happened with a box of costumes; Draculas – got plenty; Executioners, Torturers, Zombies, Morticias, Pumpkins, Draculas’ brides, Frankenstein, Devils – male and female – all present and correct, and loads more spookety gruesome outfits. Traditional versions, saucy versions, Alice Blue exclusive versions, no problem. But no smegging witches! In a box under something, behind something, in something, surely, but we couldn’t smegging find ‘em! So from laid back Alice, enjoying setting up Halloween at her ease, to a frazzled old witch who has been up all night making new witches in one easy step. Larff – I did not. But now we have witches, witches, witches, galore but I am bang sure that the original box will turn up on November 1st.
Happy Halloween Folks!
Or tales from the strange world of Alice Blue. This has been my fourth attempt to get started on this diary, and whatever I write is sounding pompous, which I am not, or at least not very, or rather not often. But I am feeling seriously smegged off and so instead of a light and twinkly piece about the joys of adding to people’s good times and parties, I ‘d like to hit a lawyer. No, that’s not quite accurate; some of my best friends are lawyers (and some of my best customers, come to that) and I guess it is not their personal individual fault that the world is so hard on small business owners. But let me tell you what happened ………….
Wind the film back about six months, and a lad from Liphook comes in with his friends and hires a rather fetching lime green 1970’s style suit with a black frill shirt and gold platform boots. Nice. Well the smegger ran off with the outfit. Spoke to him on the phone, got all sorts of excuses from him, his son was ill, he’d bring it in the next day etc etc. Never saw him again, his girlfriend starts answering the phone and being narky and so the long year rolled on. The problem was, that due to an oversight he had not left a security deposit, so I didn’t even have the wherewithal to replace the costume which had a total value of £150. Finally, I decide to go to the small claims court and try and get him that way. So I rang the court, and a very nice and helpful lady explained the system to me, and advised me to ring the Community Legal Advice Direct service to get some legal guidance. HaHaHa. A bloke called Kenny or Lenny or Benny answered the phone and declared himself unable to help me. It seems that if I was on benefits and in debt he would be very willing and able to help me; or if I had had my fingers in my employers till and didn’t want to be sacked for it, he would be willing and able to help me; or if I wanted to bitch about my child’s school he would be willing and able to help me; or if I had run off with a costume from the local fancy dress shop and didn’t want to give it back he would be willing and able to help me. But because I am a small business owner – no dice. Can’t have small business owners getting any free help, or you risk a world where the shopkeeper gets a fair deal in life, and we wouldn’t want that, would we? (heavy irony here) So guess what: the smegger who took my costume has got away with it. And you don’t give a smeg, do you Mr Knave Diari? Got to be careful about using his real name, ‘cos I might get into trouble. Unlike Dave Rikani. But then that is the world today; poop on others and then move on, no conscience, no guilt.
Rant over. Smile on face. Have a nice day!
Welcome to the Alice Blue Blog… diary of a fancy dress shop owner.