Away in a manger

Have a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS

XXXX

Profligacy V Serendipity

So, I am still here, despite our..well, his best efforts we failed to get re-booked. The next flight we were offered after 4 days of hanging on the phone was the 28th, I would have taken it but he has decided to try for half term. Instead I am attempting to head north for a bickering family Christmas, the problem being that our Christmas holiday comes out of our joint savings, this sojourn will be paid for by me and since I blew all my money and some on two handsome meals out I am broke, and even broker after what should have been a brief trip to Bromley to meet Kitty and swap cases for a more train friendly one. She was late, I was early, so I killed time drinking a coffee from Pret which happened to be opposite GAP, well they had a sale on and who am I to turn my nose up at cut price tat? Even the sales assistant marvelled at what good value for money my haul was!! 2 black dresses, one oh so Yojhi and one a cross breed 60's frump with Celine, plus two merino wool jumpers both working that Margaret Howell vibe. Some Picture later but my swag bag totalled £50. Not bad eh?

However seeing family means a token gift so money saved has been blown on trinkets and fripperies, but how weird that I should find so much that fitted and looked good in a shop I would never visit but for the lateness of Kitty, who arrived escorted by her step mum...ouch.

PS My sister made her connecting train from niece to Marseilles with 5 mins to spare, she took a full 30mins to catch her breath!! They then got to Paris to scenes of utter bedlam verging on hysteria, but she is 6 feet and all woman and somehow got on her train the last one that night, they arrived in London at 3.30am it was so cold the doors had frozen shut and had to be opened manually! She was at her desk the following day, that must be some bonus.

Thank you to you all for your commiseration's

XXXX

Be careful for what you wish for....

Or 3 degrees of disappointment.

Last Sunday Emin made the mistake of promising Leyla a trip to the cinema to see Narnia, he does this a lot, but the reality of a day lost in a cinema watching a mediocre 3D film then dawned on him and he decided not to go. The mistake, as I always tell him is to make the promise, better to keep it to yourself until you are ready to go, that way disappointment is avoided.

BIG fat juicy tears rolled down her cheek, it was heart breaking. He cheered her up by taking her shopping to spend her Christmas vouchers, so she scratched a small itch a bought some clothes for the holiday. In fact this last week we have all replenished supplies of undies and various sundries to take*.

Then her cousin said she would take her to the film AND a bite to eat after school on Wednesday as a Christmas treat, only her cousin came down with flu, more BIG fat tears so unbeknownst to me he only went and promised her again, this time Friday. Well it was my turn to piss on that parade, I wanted to pack and get an early night as we had to be up a 4am. So no tears this time just the weary resignation of a perpetually disappointed 9 year old.

We so nearly missed the bus to the station but made it to the airport, the queues to drop our bag off snaked around the hall and took so long I could see my duty free stroll time vanishing. I rarely fly and even rarer fly BA so I actually wanted to swan around terminal 5 but no by the time we made it we had just enough time left to spend stupid money on perfume and a lippy. Actually a lovely Clinique lippy and my favourite perfume Rose by Paul Smith, we then grabbed some food and looked up to check our boarding gate.......Well you know what happens next...Cancelled, BIG fat tears rolled down her cheeks and mine this time. I HATE BA really really hate them. Why let us get so close? We then had to wait ages to retrieve our bags and get through passport control, it was like the walk of shame. 6 hours it took to get home every time I think if where I should be and what I should be doing I get a small dull ache in the pit of my stomach. We tried all day yesterday and today to rebook but BA have taken the phone off the hook, what makes me mad is they have space on later flights but they will not transfer us. We had a cooked meal waiting for us in Istanbul now it's back to the bump and grind of life here in Blighty.

I have booked a ticket to go to York, but poor Kitty only made it as far as Peterborough today before being turned back, she too has lost a cooked meal my mother had waiting for her, plus missed a very disappointed sister.

Little sister AGAIN got stuck in a 5* hotel in Cannes this time, seriously she has all the luck, only she too was close to tears as she was stuck in Cannes with her boss plus 2 couples and could not get any flights home before Christmas, so Emin on his white stallion booked them a train to Marseilles from Nice, then on to Paris where with a shed load of luck they might make a connecting train to London.

This is Leyla's first ever Christmas in England! and my first for 10 years how weird is that?

* what a monumental waste of time and money that turned out to be.

Farewell, untill next year...

So my little bloguettes when you read this I will be on a plane to Cyprus via Istanbul. Well weather permitting of course, we could also equally have missed our plane having got stuck in snow, or I could be stuck at Heathrow waiting for a delayed flight or we could be schlepping back home after a cancelled flight, so many options!!
I have, to oil the wheels of stress, bought some books to read, I can't face a massive tome so I have bought some light reading for the journey....and long wait.

I am currently totally absorbed by The Ultimate Guide to Mad Men, when the final credits rolled I had a huge MM hole in my life which this will plug a little, it is difficult to explain why this more then many other series rocks my boat but it does, I LOVE the music, the attention to detail, the fashion, the fact most of the characters are so flawed yet ultimately forgivable.. I could go on.. but the book is great in a very self indulgent way.

Next up Peter Bogdanovich's Who The Hell's In It
I love books about films and film stars, it's a world that fascinates me and horrifies me at the same time, that such magical world's can be created by such shallow people. I have read many, many books about Hollywood so I am looking forward to this one.

I may get inspired to cook in Cyprus by reading Elizabeth David's Is There a Nutmeg in the House? Although sadly there won't be as we are unable to leave any food in between visits for fear of cockroaches. The house is unsecure at present because of some ridiculous shutters his mother had installed, this means we have walls covered in lizard shit because they live in the space above the shutters roller mechanism, and the odd dead husk of a cockroach that accidentally wanders in.
Finally my airport lounge indulgence, I thought I would try a Peter James novel, although now it has arrived I can quickly see a PD James he aint!
These plus Orhan Pamuk's Museum of Innocence should cover most delays and the early dark nights without a television.

I always get very, very melancholic at this time of year, I wistfully gaze at the decked trees of others and wish I could stay and for once enjoy a traditional family Christmas replete with crap television and family squabbles. Churlish I know since I will instead bask in warmer climes. Once I'm there I will be less irritable I hope.

Mmmm Trees, so where are this years photographs, well best laid plans as always. The intention was to crack it using my SLR, Kitty was to be my assistant and hold the dog, we were waiting until this week for the tree's to go up and low, Kitty is in bed with flu, the weather is atrocious and already it is Friday, I could cry, still always next year and at least I will be around for longer as we are unable to fly until the 23rd, although having looked at the temperatures in Helsinki ( next years Christmas holiday destination) he may be having second thoughts!

So Mwah, Mwah, back before you know it and I may even manage to avoid a stay in hospital this time!!

Wardrobe Watch

Well I have just about cracked the self portrait using the timer, sadly I had a flat battery on Wednesday and so had to use the SLR which as I so rarely RTFM I clearly failed to put the camera on the right setting, hence the hideous orange hue.
It is quite liberating going back to choosing the clothes day by day instead of checking to see if I have a photograph in my folder already, plus you get to see the right colour tights and which jewellery I chose.

Monday

I was still a little unsure as to whether my room would still be warm so layered up, by break the spotty thermal was off and it finally meant I could dress for a normal temperature rather than the arctic conditions I have endured since moving to the new school. Just as I was about to write the list I realised it is all from COS apart from the thermal which is Uniqlo, well at least it is not all from one season! You can just see a very pretty Murano glass necklace with it.

Tuesday

Probably my most flattering silhouette although the button straining on the skirt might suggest otherwise, it was because I was pulling the pocket...honest!

Jumper Next

Skirt H&M

Boots Wolky

Wednesday

So I finally glam it up for the school Christmas dinner, the highlight of my festive social calender and the bloody battery is flat so you can't see how amazing this top looks.

I am so eating a smallish slice of humble pie here as it is from Zara! I returned the skirt on Saturday and I have amazing peripheral vision so standing at the till I catch a glimpse of spots, remember how much I coveted a D&G spotty chiffon shirt? Well I had given it little thought but spying this on the hanger my radar went mad. But NO, I thought I am not going to be sucked into the vortex of Zara's disappointing web again, NO. So I casual flick through the rack and spy XL, BOLLOCKS, NO, I walked away and decided no more the spell of Zara......So Yes I went back and thought HA, I know, try it on, it will look crap....BOLLOCKS, it looks lovely so I bought it.

Humble pie consumed.

I have read very little about Zara until this week when I had to research some information for Kitty's D&T project. It is amazing how that company operates and I have to admire their strategy. Did you know they don't advertise? and they deliberately don't produce much of each item so as to create a sense of when it;s gone it's gone so people always grab their size when they see it (hey if the cap fits) knowing it won't stay there long. This of course makes people visit more often as they have a much greater turn over of styles plus 50% of the clothes are not out sourced so they can go from sketch to shop much quicker too.

So I will be sucked into the vortex once more, but just a little wiser!

Shirt Zara

Trousers Toast

Necklace EB

Thursday

I love this jumper and realised to see it in all it's glory I would have to artfully raise my arm

Jumper COS

Skirt Jigsaw

Shoes Beautifeel

Necklace Noa Noa

Friday

Well sorry this is so not very flattering, yet it is, I guess the photograph emphasises my somewhat triangular shape, but I love this retro batwing top it is a dark navy blue with some wonderful pattern cutting that creates a very narrow bottom.

Of course you see a very different image to me, I work on a wide screen monitor that stretches my photographs, I once checked my blog on Leyla's apple and could not believe how much slimmer I looked on a normal monitor!

Top COS

Trousers Uniqlo

Silver rope necklace Toast

A view Interupted

I have since the holiday to Scotland been experimenting, This time last year I was happy enough to use my Lumix but the Cyprus holiday made realise just how limiting it was and having used the SLR I realised there was no going back. However my eyesight is not what it was so I had a tendency to use the auto focus not trusting what I saw. Yes, I know there is a setting on the view finder but call me lazy so I seemed happy enough with my results.

I then read a book about one of my favourite photographers Uta Barth and in it she discusses the need to control your field of focus, it was like a veil being lifted I realised that digital photography had made me lazy and that when I was using my original Pentak K1000 I had to do everything manually and that is what made taking the photographs challenging and fun. So I turned off the AF and I have never looked back. It helps that I have two awesome lenses to help me but on the whole I am 100% happier with finding a clearer voice through the lens.

These are some experiments, my fixation with colour will never leave me I think my training in textiles is always evident as in my mind I see these as fabric designs made into skirts or shift dresses. Maybe Paul Smith would be interested!! Clearly digital imaging has transformed fashion you only have to look at the work of Peter Pilotto to see why.

I am almost in shock at the speed the end of term arrived at. Unlike last year I have no painting classes to look forward to, but in a sense that is not a problem because I feel happy enough to move forward by myself. I am taking a shed load of painting to complete in Cyprus just in case it rains every day, if it is sunny, well all the better for my photography.

I keep saying it but I really want to produce two blurb books by the end of the year, if I have resolutions that has to be one.

My sartorial style too has improved beyond all recognition thanks to the camera which rally has helped to focus my mind on what works and what just looks like a lazy dogs dinner. I would like to think I make less mistakes and I have learnt the value of using jewellery in a bolder way. It is definitely my new squeeze.

A second resolution should be to buy less and focus on better pieces, but most important of all I really should get to grips with my bank balance and stop being so pathetic as to avoid even a cursory glance at my balance but actually look at where all the money goes each month, especially with a summer holiday to pay for.

Matt Stuart

Some light relief from Matt Stuart, the whole website is amazing go see.