mothers on the verge

MM's post about how a day in Gotham creates an echo in her wallet got me thinking about my own expenditure on the other side of the Pond. OK, here goes. Travel on the Tube - £1.50 in to work, one-way. And may I add that this vaguely reasonable price is only because I have an Oyster card, otherwise it would be a ridiculous £4.00 - and all for the 'pleasure' of being herded into a sweaty hot train and forced to inhale someones body odour while having my personal space invaded by all and sundry. Bah. Rip-off Britain. Etc. Starbucks Mocha F rappuccino - £3.15 (or thereabouts). Every morning, there I am, queuing up and handing over my cash like a good consumer mug. The sad fact is that I am totally dependent on my daily Frappuccino, even though I have been told that they don't even contain much in the way of actual caffeine. M y suspicion is that Starbucks Frappuccinos have a special secret super-addictive ingredient, something along the lines of Oxycontin or possibly...

I am in the midst of a dilemma. Admittedly, it's not much of a dilemma in the great scheme of things, nor is it causing me much in the way of sleepless nights (that honour goes to Alpha's snoring alongside the noctural adventures of the Small(er) One) but it is a dilemma nontheless. It's about jeans, you see. For years now I have been quite happy with basic Gap jeans. They are fairly cheap, come in a bigger range of styles, colours and sizes than anywhere else I can think of on the high street, and there are Gap stores everywhere, making a new purchase simple and fast. But recently my head is slowly but irreversibly being turned by all those swanky so-called designer jeans that have landed with a bang over the past few years - Seven, Citizens Of Humanity, True Religion, Sass & Bide, J Brand... ooh the list goes on and on and on... But the problem is that the very idea of paying between £150 and £200 for a pair of jeans seems somewhat decadent. There is, I think, someth...