They told me you missed school today
So what I suggest you just throw them all away
the handbags and the gladrags
that your poor old Granddad had to sweat to buy you

Rod Stewart – Handbags and Gladrags, written by Mike D’Abo

It seemed an appropriate lyric for me today – I’m still ‘missing school’ and we’ve been on a marathon clean out today.

I’ve read, filed and shredded two years of bills and other correspondence and can now see the floor and the shelves in my office – it’s kind of scary how much there was!!! I found stuff going right back to 2002 that had not even been taken out of its envelope. I think I’m picking up bad habits from DM. When I met him, I was constantly amazed at how anyone could climb over the piles of post inside his front door without even the mildest of curiosity about what the envelopes contained. I soon discovered he was the absolute archetypal ‘head in the sand’ guy – unless it actually came up and bit him, he just hoped it would go away.

We’ve also been clearing stuff from elsewhere, including David sorting a few niggly things on the Beetle and getting my car serviced and some new tyres sorted after my puncture earlier this week. I’m glad that it’s all done but I must say it doesn’t feel much like a holiday.

With only a short break to deliver David’s Dad’s birthday pressie, we haven’t stopped since 7.30am.

I have to confess to a sneaking admiration for Rod Stewart, well, his early recordings anyway – up to and including Atlantic Crossing, from then on they go into a sort of depressing mass of semi-disco and spandex that seems very dated now. I love Handbags and Gladrags and also loved the Stereophonics rendition of it even though I’m normally of the view that if you must cover a song, at least make it different from the original. To me it has always seemed slightly odd that people want to copy originals….why on earth did Simply Red ever just copy ‘Money’s too tight to mention’ – it’s a poor imitation of the original. Why did Phil Collins do ‘You can’t hurry love’ again dire in comparison to the original.

I can see the point in making a completely new version of a song – so Paul Young’s ‘Wherever I Lay My Hat’ and ‘Playhouse’ were absolutely fine yet his ‘don’t dream it’s over’ was not. I love EmmyLou Harris’ version of ‘Here there and everywhere’ for the same reason – it’s different (well actually it could just be her voice that makes this one different). The Beatles and the Stones were masters at taking classic blues numbers and updating them. That’s cool.

Anyway, the ‘just throw them all away’ was going through my mind as I chucked dusty pile after dusty pile so I decided that had to be my PotD. Oh and yes, I am anal enough to have some school books still, but in my favour only recipe books from my ‘Domestic Science’ classes. I had to scour my wardrobe for some ‘designer stuff’ to put in and it took me a few goes to get the Paul Smith label showing! I didn’t even know who Paul Smith was when I bought the top at a factory outlet – I only realised I’d accidentally bought a designer label a few weeks later. There is also a handbag by Charles and Olivier that I’ve never used (it’s beige) and was bought as a gift by someone who proudly declared – ‘it’s OK – I got it off someone down the pub!’.

So…this is next into my new gallery!

BTW - I've not gone soft on B&W - it's just a colourless photo!