Tonight the plan was to go ‘out out’ to celebrate my fiance’s birthday. (And also mine, as we had to cancel the night out we had planned for my birthday last month …) We made a reservation weeks ago at the swanky cocktail bar and restaurant, Parker’s Tavern. The babysitter was booked, the ‘baby’ (now a feisty 4 year old) prepped and primed. And then, of course, confounding covid factors stepped in and instead we’ll be staying ‘in in’ this evening!

Undeterred, I’ll be ordering in from the delicious Dishoom, brewing up a cauldron of mulled wine and cracking open the fizz. And, I will make the effort to change out of my slippers and into some more fabulous footwear. The photo shows the kaleidoscope of shoes I was considering, depending on the outfit I chose for our night out. The plum coloured strappy ones were an outsider – I can’t really walk in them, so they’ve never actually left the house and would have been a classic ‘car to bar shoe’ gamble. Now their odds have shortened, especially as this deep red wine hue is one of my favourite winter colours … The orangey red ones and the blue and black ones both have cheeky kitten heels and I love their bold statement colours, which co-ordinate nicely with some of my dresses. So at the moment, it’s not quite clear which pair is the bookie’s favourite: place your bets!

And maybe it will be third time lucky at Parker’s next year …