I shouted up the stairs at my husband Toby,
"Tobe, I'm meeting Judy in town to do some Christmas shopping, can you drop me at John Lewis?"
I knew he was planning on going into the Greenways shopping centre to pick up his brother's gift from the wine merchant, they both only ever give each other booze. The joke is they try to find something more unpleasant than the previous effort. Where it falls down as far as I can see is that they inevitably end up drinking some or all of it together.
This year Toby was buying Ralph a two-litre bottle of Algerian Sparkling wine, which would probably be shared by them on Boxing Day, Ralph's wife, Rachel, and I would watch indulgently as they drank it and whichever vile concoction was coming the other way. We would not under any circumstances join them.
A moment later my phone chimed as an affirmative answer popped into my inbox, I texted back with a thumbs up emoji and 'JL coffee shop 11.00?' receiving a reciprocal thumbs up in return.
By half past eleven I was finishing my decaf latte and had caught up on the latest excitement in Judy's life, sadly it was much the same.
as my own. The most exciting thing that happened to us these days was the mortgage rate dropping half a percentage point.
I was feeling a bit introspective and sighed heavily before complaining mildly to Judy.
"It's not that I regret being so conventional, I like my life, Toby is doing well, we have a lovely house, my work's engaging but not stressful. I just wish I had a few wild memories to look back on."
Judy laughed, "This is all since that murder mystery evening when we all spilled our dark secrets isn't it? Come on. Retail therapy. There's a pair of Bibi Lou ankle boots with your name on them."
I followed her out of the coffee shop and spent a happy hour or so trying on boots and shoes in 'Chantal's,' the high-end clothes and footwear boutique and had made the reluctant choice to only buy one pair of the Bibi Lou boots, together with the matching top and skirt. Fortunately, Judy bought the other pair that tempted me and we swap clothes on a regular basis,
To give myself a lift I decided to wear my new outfit for the rest of the trip, once I'd paid I borrowed the shop's scissors to remove the tags and changed in their cubicle.
Judy had bought the same outfit as me and also decided to wear it for the afternoon, her boobs are a bit bigger than mine but at five three she's an inch shorter and if I was being truly catty I'd say her bum's a bit bigger than mine so I thought I looked better. We both had similar coloured blonde highlighted hair so had a bit of a 'Twins' vibe going on.
Once we left 'Chantal's' Judy checked the time and announced it to be Wine o'clock, before dragging me reluctantly, ok, enthusiastically, into the Cork and Bean wine bar where we killed a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc over an hour.
The wine was on an empty stomach so we were both a bit giggly, I checked the time again, it was well past Wine o'clock and getting close to 'I want to be collected' time, so I fired a WhatsApp message off to Toby to say 'Late lunch at the Cork and Bean? See you there in 40?' I may have put some gushy emojis in there, blame the Sauvignon Blanc. He came back with a simple thumbs up emoji and 'K'
I poured the dregs into our glasses and returned to my earlier subject, the wine adding to my angst. "Y'know Jude, I just wish I had a little bit more wildness in my life, 'n' I don' reely care if it's now or in the past. I just want something crazy to remember when I'm an old lady."
Judy poked my upper arm, "Older lady, you mean."
She's six months younger than me, the cow.
I responded channelling all my inner Oscar Wilde, "Piss off big arse." Which set us off laughing like schoolgirls.
A moments clarity followed the hysterics, Judy looked me in the eye and told me there was nothing stopping me being a bit wild and crazy, I just had to bite the bullet.
Judy decided as we had forty minutes to kill we should check out 'Secret Rendezvous' so our husbands could get something nice in Christmas stockings. And maybe I'd get some inspiration. I'll remind you again bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, empty stomach.
On the way there we went past 'Playtimes,' a costume and novelties shop, I dragged Judy in and found a pair of bright red long wigs, the vermillion tresses just added to the twins vibe and set us off into even more giggles. We continued our expedition with them on.
I'll be honest, I always feel slightly intimidated going into 'Secret Rendezvous', I mean the girls that work there are all lovely but they are also mainly one step down from super models and I feel fat and lumpy by comparison, also there's a selection of battery-operated equipment, and to be fair, products that don't need batteries but are used in the same environment. It was just being presented with such an eye watering display normally sent me running out in embarrassment.
Today however, the Sauvignon Blanc continued to do it's sterling work and we mad a bee line for the sports equipment section as we gigglingly referred to the rows of dildoes, vibrators and lubes.
I was holding a ten-inch realistic looking silicon rubber cock and wondering how on earth anyone would fit something that size inside them when I got a jolt of desire through my body the like of which I hadn't experienced in years.