the only way out is to sleep and to dream

Sorry about the radio silence chaps, i've been mucho busy visiting the almost better half and just generally faffing around, being a sod *eats jelly bean*.

Anyway, it's st. valentine's day and even though i have a hearty ball and chain, the day still sucks be-hind. The old "i don't celebrate valentine's day, i don't need just one day to show you i love you" jarg made a full appearance, like as if all the people who do celebrate it are complete and utter bastards to eachother, except on that day - nah. Anyway, i haven't celebrated our bearded saint's holiday for almost five years now, so it doesn't really bother me as i've never had anyone special enough around, it's just the other people talking about what they'll be doing - not even the money side of it - just spending together and yadda yadda yadda, which jack and i did over the weekend, so i'm a satisfied bunny. This is not me being a bitter, old, werther's originals chewer, it's just me expressing my hate for that weak, generic 'reason' for not celebrating it that more and more people use. I think, after it was mentioned by sarah on burn the blonde, ashton kutcher has the right idea "i think every day should be a day of romance, then, on valentine's day, you should get to tell whoever you hate that you cannot stand them. There would be one day of hating, and 364 days of love".

*blog post mood uplift*

Zoe, once again, came to visit moi on london. We had garfunkle's for lunch, i ate tons of sweeties and danced in public, she collected numerous tourist-y photos, like so (didn't quite work, but you get the idea);

 

So that was wednesday down, i get very bored in london in the week because jack's in work until five, so i try to see as many friends who are in close proximity as possible. I didn't do anything on thursday though because there was major sky-wee, so i played plants vs. zombies, worms and watched arrested development then jack was off work on the friday. A rad weekend closely followed, i  dug into yet another garfunkle's meal, courtesy of the jackster and he spent the whole weekend just generally being a good boyfriend. He gets a mental gold star, what a dude. 

I hope you are all good, sorry again about the blog lapse, there'll be a giveaway soon on voodle to say sorry AND to thank you to all of you, you good looking bunch, you.

Peace out.

headrush in the bush

Shirt - Urban Outfitters    |   Skirt - New Look   |   Necklaces 1 & 2 (present from jack) - Lazy Oaf   |   Headband - vintage - off my nan init.

Hola kimosabes, sorry about the long gap, here's a cookie. I'm here in london, and after a totally subtle hint from Amaris ("where are you?! you need to update us"), i thought i best update you lovely buggers. I have asked quite a few of you, over the last week or whatever, to enlighten me on how your glorious brains conjured up the names of your blogs, the content of which have become a rather huge part of our totally glam lives *drinks £3 wine*. The pictures above, were taken on Tuesday, but i was so frickin' tired after doing an all nighter, i konked out and didn't post it and the next day i went to Bristol. But anyway, it's what i wore to uni, and please (as i always say) excuse my massively benderish face.

I've been trying my darnedest this visit to our cap, to not spend moneys, but urban outfitters raked me in from my street roaming badly clothed way, into a paradise of sale items and pretty frills. So obviously 'till-time' was verging on the horizon. I only parted with £70, and i got about five things, plus a leopard print cross tee i've been drooling over for the past few weeks. Infact, i'm wearing it right now, smooth operator. Many pictures to come.

If you want to be featured in 'say my name sunday' (the blog name explanation jobby) e-mail me at wallaseyemma@yahoo.co.uk with a paragraph about where your blog name came from, and what it means. I'll feature everyone i receive, as long as it's not like "oh hi, my name's tina, so i called my blog 'tina-blog", i don't want to waste space on this here interweb.

P & L

below zero

Okay, i've been totally MIA this week due to the fact i was fannying around in our busy capital. This post; basically a catch up on recent events which have caused me to abandon all of your beautiful faces for far too long, don't slap my wrist too hard though, i bruise like a peach. 

My housemate from zante, zoe, whizzed all the way from humble bristol to gloriously spend the day with me in london (while jack was in work). Zoe's a planner, she literally had the whole day planned out to the minute, but i'm a plan ruiner so i dragged her back down to dawdle-ville safe and sound. Even though we went jet-setting in september we had so much to catch up on, including people watching, which is an art the zoester and i have perfected. We had hoped to be complete tourists, zoe whipping out her London A-Z at inappropriately located times, snapping pointless pics of ourselves next to monuments and even spoke in a made up language in public on several victorious occasions. How frickin' cool are we? Anyway; maddam tussauds plans got scrapped; chinese all-you-can-eat plans were tossed; london eye plans were positively discarded; but that did not make our rendezvous a failure.

le ice bar

For those of you who don't know or have never heard of what an ice bar is, it's basically a bar-like room where everything is made of ice, even the chairs and the glasses. This little event was aces, if not a little falsely publicised, a definite must-go-to. You're only allowed in for half an hour, and it's not like a normal bar, you have to book in advance and pay an entrance fee. It's definitely more of a tourist attraction than a bar that you could become a regular in, there is a bar attached with some rather tasty barmen, i could become a regular there but it's full of people just wanting a go in the icey add-on. The drinks were exceptionally cheap too, considering i paid a fiver for a glass of wine near victoria station the day before, a bottle of rosé wine there was ten pounds and five little squids for cocktails which were very strong. I'd just like to point out that in the second picture, i may look completely sloshed, but i wasn't(ish). Me and my little blonde bombshell only stayed for twenty minutes because we didn't want to hit rush hour, i wanted a ben's cookie and she wanted to meet my jack for the first time at clapham who got there at six. So off we trotted and HURRAH, we get to Oxford circus and they decide to shut the gates and not let anybody else in, great choice at five-thirty. FEAR NOT young readers, for i got my ben's cookie, and zoe got to meet my squeeze (sounded like the end of airline) all thanks to good old 'swearing at and pushing strangers' and running. 

So we all lived happily ever after, but that's not all we got up to, i'll tell you in my next post about what else 'went down' including my H&M escapades and what not.

P & L

Search ResultsOn the second picture i look positively smashed, but i assure you i wasn't(ish), just a little tired and windswept. 

sil vous plait?

Anyone who who knows me, knows i have a book which never leaves my side, that i've had since i was thirteen. although it's falling apart, covered in stains from all different continents over the years, losing it would feel like losing a limb. i use it for all kinds, from mindless rambles and noting quotes, to drawing things i love and letting others have a doodle. not just anyone can write in my orange chum though, because i believe handwriting is a personal stamp, and to write in my book would be making a permanent move into my life.

i go to London again next thursday, i'm quite excited about it, but not as much as previous. i have until five o'clock on sunday, that can only mean one thing, shoreditch! since the student loan company are being complete unorganised twats, my mother duck has kindly agreed to lend me some money for the trip, obviously she's sick of me moaning about my wardrobe. having zero dollar all week has meant uni and absolutely nothing else apart from internet browsing, leading to me mentally spending my temporary tender, and i used my little paper pal to document the list of things i want/need desperately to survive (dramatisation).

P & L

London shmondon.

Sometimes two days just isn't enough, but four days is too much.

After my last trip, i'm sort of beginning to tire of London; maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the fact i had no money, perhaps it was my state of mind when i was leaving or maybe it was just because the novelty has worn off, i don't know.

Anyway, i arrived at clapham junction at 10.45 on monday night, i was half high off of a litre of red bull and happy to see my bearded male-amigo (stalk him here -> Breadline Hypebeast). i didn't have much money with me because it was a spur of the moment visit, so tuesday was spent walking around the city centre, voluntarily torturing ourselves - me hugging lavish items and Jack fashioning jackets valued at a months rent. there was uno purchase that i was over the moon with; in a previous fashion related post, i declared my love for a leopard print beret, priced at £22 though, it was out of my reach. which was why, in H&M on tuesday, the sheer sight of my beloved beret's twin on a mannequin for a fraction of the price made me "eep" - ask Jack, he was there. see for yourself the uncanny-ness;

H&M £7.99 -
Purchased.

Urban Outfitters £22

Throughout the day, hints were thrown about that i should stay longer, assessing my bank balance after the hat adoption - it was a yes. after giving up my last £17.50, my new train was saturday morning instead of thursday morning - and we were both quite happy about it. that pretty much concluded tuesday, knackered, we retired back to clapham and pretty much vegged for the rest of the night. this continued throughout wednesday, apart from the odd trip to ASDA, we were pretty much actual vegetables.

Thursday morning dawned, and although i had zero dollar left, i wanted to scope out the charity shops in London - as if i hadn't been tortured enough the previous day. we took a ridiculously long walk through clapham town, bobbing in and out of any second hand clothing stores we saw, which sounds weird considering about three years ago, saying such filth would have had you labelled a 'tramp'. there were a few cute garms and feet huggers, but i had my leopard print angora covered mind set on some vintage brogues, which i failed to find. we returned home feeling quite satisfied that we'd done some exploring, had some hawaiian pizza, a dose of Mystery Science Theatre and watched Finding Nemo; we're not hermits, it's just the joys of having no stable income. thursday night was pretty rough for me, the next day was six months since Faye went to heaven, i spent most of the night texting my Mum and trying to hold back tears (failing).

I woke up friday morning so happy though, i had my first dream where Faye came to visit, and it seemed so real - like she'd never gone, i'd missed her so much. what followed was a glorious day; we watched Matilda and How I Met Your Mother until we burst with sheer visual glory. then friday night, after lights out, pretty much mimicked thursday.

By friday, i was all set to go and couldn't wait to get home, but hated saying bye to beardy - as always.

So yeah, i don't know what tainted my London adventure this time, but i'm willing to give it a second chance. student loan wednesday somewhat translates into shoreditch, so i'll figure out soon if our capital and i can work it out.

P & L

vintage haven.

I'm not an England person. although i was born and bred in England, i don't like England, and whenever i'm in England i like to make my stay as short as possible. ever since i quit my full time job at the age of 17 to go to Europe for two months, i can't stand to be in England unless i know i'm going to be leaving in the near future, and summer 2010 was my first summer in England for four years - i was miserable and even my friends said it felt like there was something missing. that being said, i have found a place in England that i actually LOVE and if for some reason i am ever condemned to England for the rest of my life, shoreditch is where i'd want to live.

Brick Lane

During my six day adventure around the big smoke, i was introduced to glorious locations such as camden, chelsea, the city centre and my favourite place of all, shoreditch vintage fair.


It took about half an hour on the train from Clapham Junction, but boy was it worth it; as soon as we turned the corner onto brick lane, it was like stepping out of a time machine into the pre 90s. there is not a starbucks or gap in sight, it's wall-to-wall authentic market stalls,  'floordrobes' and vintage coves, all of which bursting with retro goodies - all of the clothes involved are genuine, vintage, urban renewals and you're never too far away from a bargain. Although i didn't buy anything apart from food because of a serious lack of dollar, but if my bank balance was as big as my eyes, i would have bought my body weight in fabric, therefore the planning of trip number two when i have money is in progress. i would definitely need the whole day to sort through all of the racks in the market and in the stores, and probably about a thousand pound to accommodate my findings, but definitely a job worth doing!


Although the retro garms are the backbone of the vintage fair, there is just something else about the area in which my fabric fairy-tale is set. it's the authentic, rustic, cobbled streets; it's the mazes of golden oldie frocks; it's the double decker bus, converted into a cafe; it's the artsy fartsy rapport about the place; but most of all, it's the sheer coolness and laid back attitude of all the attendees, who are all there to have a good time while they shop. most places in the UK would look down on buying second hand clothing, but here it's encouraged, to the point it's almost fashionable not to be wearing a box fresh garm.


I bloody love high street stores, i think they're essential, but after my little visit to brick lane, they will never match up and i will always find myself comparing possible purchases on the high street to what i could get in shoreditch for the same money.


Thanks shoreditch, you've set the bar high and i'll be back soon, after i've sold my right arm.


P & L