I've got a meeting in Cardiff on Wednesday with the company I contract for (and happily work away from the office!). This was arranged before we went to Paris when I figured everything would be fine, we'd have returned home etc. However due our ADSL being down … still, we're still at my parents where I have a very limited selection of clothes besides the ones I bought (ie. Jeans and t'shirts!). So my Mum and I went off out to Watford shopping on friday to get some smart clothes for the meeting – my attempt at trying to start to destress after last week's illness.

I'm meeting with my new boss who's been assigned head of admin at work. They're completely restructuring the company, I've lost track of what's going on to be honest! However jeans and a t'shirt ain't gonna look good! So I hit BHS for the trousers as I knew the nice long boot cut trousers that I wanted which I already have a pair of. These make my legs look longer especially with heels on. Found those so that was half the job done, next job was a shirt. A nice crisp white shirt is all I wanted – the hardest job of the afternoon was finding even a small selection!

There are certain shops I just don't bother going into as I know they won't fit me. Unfortunately clothing makers don't make clothes for correct proportions these days and one size definitely doesn't fit all. Some shirts I've tried on the past fit around my chest but not my arms or hips, others fit my hips but clearly believes I should have several inches extra on my chest. Some shops I can fit into a 14 (actually my leather coat is a size 10! Okay I can't do it up but it still looks good!!) other shops I need a 22 (a black cardigan type jacket I bought from Next in April was a 22 – ridiculous). Then of course you try the shirt on, it looks good until you sit down and the little extra that doesn't show when you stand up suddenly appears around your stomach!

So we went through every shop I've ever shopped in before and also had a good look into others as walking past. I like shopping in Watford as there's a massive shopping centre there of two floors with all of the high street stores, plus it's undercover. I think I found less than 10 white shirts in total. Here are my gripes… What's with the 3/4 length arms? I find something halfway down my forearms just so annoying. Either make them short sleeved or long sleeved. The second gripe is the fashionable pleat on the front of the shirt – I think it looks horrible and old fashioned. I tried of of these shirts on and it just didn't look right especially as the pleat comes over your chest, it just makes the shirt look too tight for you! Out of the 4 shirts I tried on, one I really liked from Next but it was too tight around my stomach and a larger size would have meant larger all over and look daft. I also found a shirt in Marks and Spencers which was also nice and very bright white. This fits me perfectly.

Some women's shirts seem to be using cufflinks more and more these days. The one from M & S has a kind of woven style cufflink which I'm not really fond of, however one of the shirts in Next had a nice small metal chain with two square metal ends to link the cuff. However Next don't sell these separately which is annoying as I really like the metal cufflinks. The assistant I asked suggested looking at the men's ones which were just far too big and flashy – I don't think he grasped how a small cufflink was much more feminine. To be honest, not that I've every really looked but I cannot recall seeing women's cufflinks for sale yet more and more shirts have them. If anyone knows of a high street chain that sells them I've still got time to pop into town and pick some better ones up

Anyone going to Watford shopping – get a cone from the frozen Yoghurt section upstairs, it tastes as good as icecream and virtually no fat