Whenever the sun comes out here, its bone warming alchemy transforms me into a happy slinkin' rinky dink panther.
Celestial rays of joy smoothed my trip to Glasgow and cleared a spotlit path to the best optician's ever, Niche Optical Tailor, no really it is well worth the hyperbole, not only for the range of glasses, the service and bonhomie but for the drop dead gorgeous style of all of the staff. It's wall to wall Marni and 5 inch heels at ten in the morning.
hoofed past Ralph Lauren
The only thing is I am a rubbish blogger with no gall and was too embarrassed to ask if I could take pics of the spectaclista's outfits. I really need to wear a blogger emergency phial around my neck which says " Hey saddo, drink me if you need to grow a pair."
Surreptitiously snapped their ante chamber, and wondered if I could make them an offer they couldn't refuse for this Gerard M Burns painting.
Eenie meenie minie mo...
Lo, the chinoisierie throne of the gilded kraken, all the better to clamber upon to play 'I spy with my little eye', for grown ups. Not a lot down at the bottom of the chart to be honest, it's all a bit murky down there these days.
Ta dah! Swapped out my old green gem encrusted cat's eyes below for similar but bigger from Face a Face Paris.
Talking of the ol' Pink Panther, does anyone remember the Pink Panther bar? It was pepto pink and tasted like sweet germolene but I still bought it every week. Look at him, he's so Roger Moore, might have to make him blog husband.
WHAT A SPECTACLE! Good to see you back Tabs. Just thinkin' my FIL would find that crouching dragon chair Welshie wizard (unlike the grey and beige seat DH.) None of that flash pink candy in these parts :-(
ReplyDeleteOh did that bar not make it over there? It was ...rancid but beautiful looking!
ReplyDeleteIsn't that the best chair in an optician's? I squealed at the upholstery
Wow! I got new glasses this week too but my optician's office looked nothing like that!
ReplyDelete- The Tablescaper
Good day Tabs! Another lovely trip! You sound like me,"rubbish blogger with no gall". I too want to snap pictures at times to share, but I know it's not always allowed. LOVE YOUR Glasses!!!!! So you I believe. Alas, I have 20/20 still, but I do own 6 fake pair of glasses, you know for fashion accessories! Meanwhile visions of you yesterday, as I went to my first opera performance. I wondered what you would have worn?
ReplyDeleteMM: I am such a wuss, so jealous that you have 20/20, send your Fairy Godmother my way please.
DeleteOh I always dress for the opera - I don't get out much!
If the Pink Panther becomes your blog husband then you may have to pay Mr. J.W.'s cousin royalties. :)
ReplyDeleteLucky you…that's quite a Chinoiserie exam chair! I'm trying to picture sitting in it while being hovered over by my optometrist who resembles Einstein.
Really? Well worth it for an audience with his heiney honey the PP.
ReplyDeleteIsn't the chair great? Einstein, so funny, do you bombard him with questions about life, the universe and everything?
Yes, Mr. J.W.'s cousin is one of the originators of the PP, as well as Pepe le Pew , Foghorn Leghorn, etc.
DeleteMy optometrist keeps me too busy straining to see blurry letters for me to pepper him about anything.
Oh what a posh experience. You'd laugh if you stepped into the hole in the wall where I bought mine.
ReplyDeleteThe cost of my specs are staggering so there is no excuse for the shop to be so blah.
Love to see you wearing them.
Like you I am not comfortable snapping shots for my blog especially if it required that I utter the words "I am a blogger!" Give me one of those James Bond cameras in my make up compact and that might be a different scenario.
Oh I know, I miss so many great pics but I just feel so self conscious
DeleteI'm so afraid someone will toss me out on my ear if I snap photos. How do the paparazzi get away with it?
DeleteOh they are Teflon coated.
DeleteWhat a fancy shop and that is great upholstery.
ReplyDeleteI find it embarrassing to take pictures, I was reading an article somewhere about this new problem of food bloggers taking photos in restaurants and disturbing the other diners with their lighting, tripods etc!
Yes, I see that many places are banning that, although I blog, I think it's a good idea, we are all becoming obsessed with 'showing' rather than living in the now and fully experiencing our lives.
DeleteTabs, so true that much of moment is missed when absorbed in documenting vs. living. Do truly appreciate the blog share, but wonder how much joy, connection some find?
DeleteSo very true, Tabitha.
DeleteWelcome back Tabitha-you were missed! You chose wisely on the specs. I also like that Gerard Burns painting which his website reveals to be one in a series of 'red door' pieces. In Mr. Burns & Alexander Stoddart (recently posted) Chicago's sister city has a new set of 'Glasgow Boys' producing great works of Art.
ReplyDeleteThank you GSL, the Glasgow Boys have quite a legacy, will go do a nosy at your end.
DeleteI love the painting. Beautiful. Where was your hubs...you coulda borrowed his balls.
ReplyDeleteBB: Can't comment till I stop laughing!
DeleteWhat a fantastic place to buy glasses, I don't mind paying a premium when it becomes such an event. I have a vague memory of the Panther Bar. Do you remember the heart shaped chocolate icecream with vanilla icecream, sponge and then jam in the middle? No one ever knows it, sometime I think that I dreamed it!
ReplyDeleteFBB - Gasp, yes I do, it was amazing! Oh will wrack my brain to remember what it was called.
DeleteI think you might mean a Walls "Love Heart" from 1970s, brand now sold to Unilever.
DeleteWell you have reminded me that I need to make an Optometrist appointment! I need new glasses and I have basically ready for full-time wear but my current glasses are not strong enough I fear. I am looking for something funky. I am now at the bifocals stage and I am looking for sexy glasses. Are sexy glasses, industrial-strength bras and pants that make me look like I have no belly and a good-sized bottom too much to ask for? Yes, I thought so!! WHat a glam spot!!!! ANd I have never seen a pink panther bar - looks yummy!
ReplyDeleteMe too WMM, it's our age, all of a sudden my contacts and glasses are obsolete, it is now so expensive to look the same!
DeleteI have a post on makeup this week that will make you laugh!
DeleteWhat a marvelous optical boutique! My optometrist's office is sterile and the eyeglasses shop equally so. The eyeglass shops in the malls are worse!
ReplyDeleteMarni and 5 inch heels. Why can't I get a (legal) job here like that?
ReplyDeleteI loved the Pink Panther bars! Are they still available?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it has been proven to be carcinogenic by now but if you find one - halfers?
DeleteI've neve heard if this place and I need new specs! Will need to go have a wee nosy I think!
ReplyDeleteLauren
livinginaboxx
My optician is French and almost renders me unconscious with his garlicky breath.The other one resembles Doogie Howser M.D. I remember that Pink Panther bar! I think it was my first experience of plastic chocolate.
ReplyDeleteluff the new specs.xx
ReplyDeleteMy college mascot looked like the pink panther but he was a cougar. That was for basketball. The one at the football games was a live cougar. lol That's over of course.
ReplyDeleteSheree - that would have been wonderful, ah the joys of life before health and safety took over.
DeleteLove the new specs and couldn't agree more about the sun - although what started out as a lovely Kember and Jones coffee in the sun this afternoon soon turned into coffee in a snowstorm...
ReplyDeleteThankfifi
P.S. Thanks for your lovely comment, so nice to find your blog.x
The Kraken Wakas .. who knew such delights existed at an optometrist?
ReplyDeleteLove the glasses, and the opticians. Very glam. There used to be a place that did handmade specs near me back in Melbourne. I have no idea how they made them, but they were all custom apparently. I don't wear glasses, but have secretly always wanted to. I find the whole taking photos thing difficult too. One, because I forget to take photos anyway, the second because I'm fairly conscious of not intruding on others personal home/ garden and don't like to ask either. xx
ReplyDeleteLove that painting! There is no excuse for the sterile environment at my opticians - the amount I spend there on an annual basis should provide funds for art, and luxury chair! Love your new specs.. Oh, and I am another who goes out with camera in bag, and rarely take it out to snap a shot for blog - don't want to be shouted at, do I. Pink Panther as Roger Moore - he he
ReplyDeleteOh how I wished one of my kid's had been a optician. We've spent a fortune on glasses. How can something so small cost so much? My last set of progressive cost 800.00 and I didn't get the comfort of that chair or the artwork.
ReplyDeleteSo when do we get a glimpse of the glasses?
You know and go to the absolute coolest places!
ReplyDeleteMy optical shop is antiseptic white with plastic chairs. Wonder why we as consumers put up with that...we should demand better...at least, some nice chairs!
The closest I've ever gotten to pink food (?) are the Hostess pink snowballs...yum! Wonder what that PP bar tastes like? Had to look up germolene and it doesn't sound too appetizing, but we can never question the wonders of the food industry these days...wisdom, yes, but wonders, no :)
Don't we all need a pink diamond for a blog husband? I vote yes!
xoxo,
Jane
Jane - It tasted of sickly sweet strawberry flavouring but it looked good.
DeleteMarsha - They are shockingly expensive once you get past the age of 45, I should, my contacts are next for an upgrade. I'm too self conscious for pics - I just throw out the odd one here and there!
smr: Seeing that chair made my day, we need to get lavish upholstery into doctor's surgeries.
Dear Tabitha
ReplyDeleteMy first glasses were bought in a tiny non-glam shop recommended by the eye specialist. Being totally ignorant of frames I picked up a pair that instantly added 100 years. The horrified optometrist instead handed me "the latest pair, in a style worn by international models". He was a sweetie but has since retired. When in France I'm always amazed by how beautiful the opticians' displays are - some windows are works of art! I've taken to buying neck chains for glasses there. Ordinary chains are supposed to add years to your age - but these are so spectacular they're kind of like jewellery. My current favourite is a hugely oversized tortoiseshell (plastic) chain that I love. Another one from one of the Paris Galeries is hot pink and dark purple. Great fun. But probably horrifies the minimalists out there.
Lots of restaurants are happy to take pictures of guests dining as a memento for them and from there it's easy to ask if you can take pics of the food or the restaurant. Also when OS if I buy something really nice in a boutique I always ask if I can take a pic of the the interior and the staff member who served me. They're usually suprised but then quite chuffed. Have only been refused permission once and that was in Serge Lutens in the Palais Royal. Apparently no pics allowed there. But usually the staff, including in good boutiques in Paris, are rather pleased. They think I'm rather quaint I suspect - and have been told that Japanese ladies often do this as a memento of happy shoppping. Best wishes, Pamela
Hermes stopped me a few months ago, I rarely pluck up the courage now.
DeleteOh I can never find my glasses - bring back the chain.
My problem too Tabitha! Hence the chain. Especially as I only need them for reading and so at other times take them off, put them down and then can't find the jolly things. Bad luck about Hermes. Have never tried there. But can imagine they'd take that approach. I guess the ones I'm thinking of in Paris, where I have taken pics with approval in the past, are not quite up there on that scale of chic, but still great fun: Jamin Puech, Mark Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Sonia Rykiel, Agnes B, Souleiado, Mulberry etc. But they probably do think I'm a seriously eccentric/quaint old lady and don't know how to say no to me. Best wishes, Pamela
DeleteLove the chair and the painting is fantastic. I've just spent some time on Mr. Burn's website and he has a whole series with called "Angels and Red Doors" which this painting is part of. I believe this one is still for sale, and maybe just on exhibit at the opticians. Fascinating artist.
ReplyDeleteThought of you today as we took the dogs on a wonderful beach walk in Malibu.
What gorgeous glasses! so glam... Elle x
ReplyDeleteOh fabulous glasses. However, reading your post earlier today, seems to have jinxed my optical situation. My 'at home' pair collapsed, then I forgot to pack my 'work' specs. So, I am at work wearing a pair of pharmacy specs.
ReplyDeleteClaire - sellotape?
DeleteI had the same thing with pics in customs as there was a guy who looked just like the crazy Thai bloke in those tango ads. He was picking his nose with his pinky finger that had a five carat diamond ring. I need to get those stealth cameras like bond. James bond.
ReplyDeleteWhat a glamorous place to get specs. The places here are very "rattle rattle, here come the cattle" I'm embarrassed to say that the last time I bought glasses, I got them at the optical department of Costco. Fashion criminal I am!
ReplyDeleteI love your new glasses, so chic. I am desperate to get a new pair as my current ones are several years old. I can't take photos either while I am out and about. I see it at parties and events, everyone madly tweeting and instagramming everything around them with their smart phones. I must be old-fashioned or something but I can't bring myself to do the same, even if I do have a smart phone.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteFantastic ambience! Here we pay a fortune and sit in a sterile room!glad you are back!meaghan
ReplyDeleteThanks M!
DeleteLove the dove wings in that painting, I think they make it. It must be New Glasses time - Best Beloved wants to get his script checked and I'm having trouble threading needles even with my glasses on. Somewhat disheartening. But to be able to sit in a chair covered with dragons? That would definitely make my day! The place I go is quietly dark and comfy, but no antiques. Amazing and desirable frames! It will have to just be new lenses though - I'm in hock for a painting that I must Pay Off.....
ReplyDeleteCiao Pantera,Hi Panther!...Yes, You're right, when the Sun comes out...haha...
ReplyDeleteGood day!
Ciao ciao
Dorothy Parker got it all wrong with 'Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses'. When I wear mine, I prefer the French take on it...
ReplyDeletefemmes à lunettes, femmes à quéquettes.
C - Oh I like that one, I look better with them on now, they hide my raisin like eyes.
DeleteSigh. I long for an optician with tres chic eyewear that I don't have to sell my liver and kidneys to afford. It's all vinyl and ghastly lighting in my 'hood.
ReplyDeleteLove those glasses, they are perfect!! I am needing a new pair really...I must remember to do this sometime. I would love a pair like these, my husband might say otherwise, but I don't care, I love them!! Hope you are well doll & wish you a great week x
ReplyDeleteWow, I love that painting.
ReplyDeleteI like your new glasses. I searched for mine for well over a year, finally found a pair I liked in Italy. One thing I love about Italian style is that they tend to wear glasses, instead of the contacts mania that exists everywhere else! And of course they look perfectly chic while wearing them, too.
What a pleasure to be spec-ed up in such a place! I agree we need some chic little chain to keep them close.
ReplyDeleteAbby, they really do, I always notice that when I'm there.
ReplyDeleteLane - bring it back!
Ha I need some of that blogger vial of courage too! Love the chinoiserie chair.
ReplyDeleteTabs, Those glasses are lovely. What a fabulous place! Just catching up on all your posts tonight and enjoying it so much.
ReplyDeletexx
Kim
Oh I LOVE your new specs. Mine are burgundy Prada and trapezoid, very handsome, but getting a bit scratched. I was at medical school with a girl who matched her frames to her outfits ... her mum was an optometrist and she had about six pairs. Sigh. One for the if-I-ever-bought-a-lottery-ticket-and-actually-(imagine!)-won pile.
ReplyDeletewhat an amazing place and I adore the chair
ReplyDelete