When the The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men Gang aft agley *

I try so hard to be efficient and organised, yet it doesn’t always quite work out that way. Take my cunning plan to mail my luggage ahead of me in two parcels to California. This would have been a brilliant idea - if it had worked. Sure one parcel arrived, but the other has gone astray, with the tracking number telling me only that the parcel was accepted for mailing in New York ten working days ago.

This evening it was updated to say my parcel was misrouted. GAH. To put it into perspective, my sister mailed me a package from London on the same day which took just four days to arrive in San Francisco. Shame on the United States Post Office for being so outrageously USELESS.

I was in too much of a packing whirl to write a list of what I packed in each parcel, so I was pleasantly surprised when I picked up the smaller one in SF to discover my fake tan, suntan lotion, hiking sweater, all my party dresses and a couple of good books.

Unfortunately, it would appear that I had mailed everything I needed for later on in my trip in LA in the big gone astray parcel: that’s most of my bras, all my smart summer shoes (including my YSL heels), another pair of jeans, a huge bottle of Frederic Fekkai conditioner, my stone leather Janet Collin handbag, evening bags, my pearl necklaces & the rest of my books. It’s been like playing bloody Kim's Game trying to remember what’s in there.

I’m presuming that the parcel will arrive in San Francisco eventually and, as I intend to drive back up there in a few weeks, it is not the end of the world to be without it all right now.

However, I do have a couple of very smart dinners & lunches in LA the week after next and I have just one pair of shoes that aren’t these, moccasins, flip flops or hiking boots. I am VERY loathe to spend real money on new shoes when I already have more lovely shoes than a girl has any right to own, and am on a shopping moratorium, so I had a quick squint at the Payless website and came up with these two super-cheap options.

To wear with this dress, I thought these would work ($12.99!!!!):



And to wear with my navy blue cotton short shorts, these espadrilles ($22.99):

What do you think internets?

* The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men
Gang aft agley,
An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

From: Robert Burns, To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough