11 Comments
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Pandora Sykes's avatar

I'm sorry how did I not comment on "it's ugly, it's cheap but it works, like you" - this is the kind of thing my husband and I say to each other all day long and is the thing Americans find MOST baffling about British ppl

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The Sophist's avatar

Hahah this is the thing I miss most about coupledom. The stupidest, offensivest private jokes. Those lovely Americans will never understand our modest savagery.

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The Sophist's avatar

Oh bloody hell I can't believe I forgot to thank the most excellent Gillian Orr. How do I tag someone in the comments? It isn't working! Gillian writes the Slouching Towards Bethnal Green newsletter on here and was my guiding light for building the shopping links page.

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Lucy Sweet's avatar

My mum used to send us Fortnum’s stuff (around the £20 mark) during the pandemic and worked out that you can fuck around with the titles on the drop down menu. So you can address your parcel to Captain, Lord, Lady, Princess and also The Very Reverend and nobody will bat an eyelid.

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Tim Harrison's avatar

We had 2 Ektorp sofas when we lived in a terraced house in Finchley. Very comfortable! Had to take the door off the living-room to get them in though 😀

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Pandora Sykes's avatar

a) there is nothing more fun that window shopping someone else's taste (so revealing! so enriching!) b) am I the only person without a shop on Substack?

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Jessica Curry's avatar

This is a quality anecdote. It is both fancy and funny. I also love delft tiles- we have them in our kitchen and Petra Palumbo kindly painted our beloved dog Della on one of them. It does mean we can never move from this house though. I have a post coming out tomorrow with a house pic if you fancy a peek at my gaff- (I'm absolutely obsessed with how people live and their interior decor.) Poet/writer Amy Key shares lovely house and interior stuff if you don't follow her. Love from your number 1 shopper x

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Jessica Curry's avatar

I just bought the bust - you are an influencer! We have very similar taste- I have the Luke Edward Hall sofa in that gorgeous blue/green colourway. (Sadly it did not come with him sitting on it, as I bet he has some tales to tell.) https://www.elledecoration.co.uk/design/people/a29300346/first-look-at-habitats-new-collaboration-with-luke-edward-hall

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The Sophist's avatar

Oh my goodness!

Will it now say "trusted by 1 shopper," I bloody hope so.

To be "trusted by 1 shopper" is all I have ever wanted from life.

We do indeed have the same tastes. I loved that Habitat collab that Luke Edward Hall did. Funnily enough I bumped into him and his husband in Hydra one summer. Think maybe it was before they were married though. "Is all of Greek this beautiful?" they asked. They'd never been before. I said hang on you draw all those incredible Grecian things and you've... never been to Greece? They had not! They always go to Italy.

Incredible scenes.

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Alice Handscomb Retallack's avatar

Thank gods for you! I've been so stuck!

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The Sophist's avatar

Oh YES!!! We have a customer! Feel like yanking my head away from the till and shouting SHOP at some useless assistant in the back room.

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