Saturday 25 August 2012

Life is a Highway


Monday morning 11.30am. We’d just had our weekly editorial meeting and everyone had rushed back to their various articles / beauty reviews / fashion collaborations. I had met the deadlines that I had been set and was waiting to hear from my editor what format he wanted me to write the next article in, so couldn’t really start anything. My ever so brief moment of pondering on what to do was quickly forgotten, when said editor questions: “Lisa is your afternoon today really busy?” Um no. “Ok, could you pick up the car for me?” Now before you label me the magazine minion / Meryl Streep’s bitch in The Devil Wears Prada, I think it’s important to point out, that in every issue of the magazine someone test drives a car and reviews it, a job I was secretly hoping to get, but that doesn’t go to the interns. So obviously I was being sent to fetch this car.

An hours train journey later I was at the Toyota dealership sat in a sparkling brand new Toyota Yaris Hybrid. Easy. Not so much. The car had so many functions and features I barely knew where to look. But it was only then that the situation became clear in my naïve mind… Picture little Lisa: proud owner of a British driving licence for 3-and-a-bit years. I drive a manual, 52 reg VW Polo (class of 2002) on the deserted country lanes of the Cotswolds. Here I was in a so-new-it-still-smelt-new fully automatic Hybrid and being told to just drive into Zurich; i.e. motorway AND inner city driving all on the right hand side of the road. Un-ideal at the best of times.

I just figured that the more I thought about it, the more I would freak out, so I may as well just drive and drive I did! Whilst I’ll spare you all the technical jargon, it was a surprisingly smooth drive and the male satnav voice was very friendly…I fo sho trust this guy!

Apart from the odd panic here and there, I made it back to the office in one piece. I was SO relieved to arrive at my designated bay in the multi-storey, that I pretty much just left the car and got out… to probably the worst parking ever committed. I definitely couldn’t leave the car like this. Sadly, getting back into the car, I couldn’t turn it back on. I kid you not. I pressed the button, put it from ‘Parking’ into ‘Natural’ into ‘Driving’ and back into ‘Natural’ mode. Nothing. For about 15 minutes this continued. I even read the owner’s manual!! Then I experienced the enlightenment when I lifted my foot off the pedal and the car moved...it had been on the whole time!! Hybrid = silent engine. Simple.

By now I am drained of all energy and emotion. I storm back into the office, banged the keys onto my editor’s desk and snarl “What a load of hybrid @!?$” His reply? “I look forward to reading the article.”

I guess I got the job.

Tuesday 21 August 2012

My arm party was about 7 years ago!!

Following on from my earlier fashion related post, I'd like to take this moment to congratulate myself. And my fashion savvy friends. The fashion craze de jour on fashion blogs covering all corners of the world wide web is, without a shadow of a doubtarm party. 

Let me explain: this is simply the fash-term of choice for stacking various bracelets and watches on your wrists, the more the merrier. Brownie points go to fashionistas with 'mixed textures' e.g. preferably a DIY bracelet made from biological twig (i.e. your back garden) and rope, coupled with a classic rose-gold plated Rolex Datejust II.


So here come my congratulations. My friends and I have been doing this / have done so for the best part of the last 7 years! I distinctly remember receiving my first Tiffany & Co. bracelet and my mother's subsequent horror when I promptly whacked  it onto my wrist and proudly displayed it next to the 2 year-old friendship bracelet handcrafted from bits of string!


Fashion bloggers 2k12..you're so Autumn / Winter 2004!







Del Rey ready to play

So today, for the first time, I saw the Lana del Rey for H&M Autumn/Winter '12 campaign photos.
Classic Lana: a bit bored, a bit retro.
I do like the peplum top though!




Saturday 11 August 2012

Munney munney munney


A while ago, I read Sebastian Faulks’ novel A Week in December and surprisingly enjoyed it. When people saw what I was reading the usual comment was ‘oh it’s no way near as good as Birdsong’ and perhaps it’s not as good to some, but it’s kind of in a different league. But that’s not the point of why I’m writing this. The novel deals with various characters and their storylines, all set in London and inevitably all overlapping, all taking place within a December week in 2007. Pretty much 99% of the characters are exceptionally wealthy. While I think it’s fair to say I know a fair share of well-off folk, the lot in this novel are of a whole other league; apparently if you have under £10 million in the bank, you’re not the ‘norm’. Fairs to them I guess, as most of these characters made their millions themselves. No sign of inheritance. 
What’s sad though, is the fact that of these 99% of smug millionaires about 2% are happy. They have all the luxuries of the world at their fingertips and still they’re alcoholics, drug addicts and quite honestly complete freaks. Usually I wouldn’t have thought twice about it and put it down to the whole money can’t buy happiness blah blah cliché. This time however, it was a bit different. As I was reading A Week in December, Eva Rausing’s death was being splattered all over the media. Especially the Daily Mail absolutely LOVED telling us all about how ‘out of control’ and quite simply ‘a state’ she was, and this made me think that here is (was!) a woman, who quite literally had it all and definitely was not a happy bunny. I guess it’s sad isn’t it? Money just doesn’t buy happiness! 

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Taking out the trash

I now live in a flat. I have a job. I do the 9-5 (...or 10-6 or 9-6) I commute daily and I read my Kindle on the train. So far so good. I send out emails from my work outlook, attend board meetings, pitch topics to my colleagues and go to post-work drinks. Oh and I have to do the grocery shopping. But realistically, I'm still Little Lise who would rather frolic in the meadow with buttercups.
This whole becoming an adult / joining the Rat Race thing still seems rather dubious... When I was at school, I remember thinking I'd do A-levels, I'd go to uni and then wham! I'd be an adult and go to work. Somehow this has definitely passed me by! Although I have now joined the Real World I guess, I still feel like I child! But then today our Editor-in-Chief (who I definitely consider to be an adult) waltzed in wearing a Sienna Miller t-shirt and announced that she wants a dip-dye. So I guess we all just remain children inside?!

Wednesday 1 August 2012

It's been a while!

So I haven't posted on here in a long while, simply due to the fact that a lot has been changing and I guess that my student bubble has well and truly been burst with an almighty bang. The post-uni holiday was amazing, graduation was a blast and lazing in the Hyde Park sun has been dreamy. A small sum of money had been residing in my Nat West Student (recently turned 'Graduate') account left over from the incredibly brilliant student loan and I've been able to enjoy a couple of weeks of being a smug graduate.

Sadly Mr. Realworld was inevitably going to come knocking, and knocking he did! 

So I packed my (many) bags and headed for Switzerland, which for a couple of months, I would be calling home in order to do an internship with a magazine... Fun and games, non? Oh the glamour of journalism, exciting projects, post-work drinks etc etc... While I'm sure that this will still happen (to some degree), primarily there was the small but omnipotent affair of  financial matters. Without mentioning the fact that I owe someone somewhere a BIG amount of money and will probably be in debt for a while (I'd like to think uni was worth it...), the painful and distinct fact that I no longer have this babe of a student loan ultimately hit me square in the face. Living costs and my income, albeit an income, is minimal.

So while I count myself extremely lucky that a) I have managed to bag myself an internship that will actually pay me and b) I have the incredible support of my parents, I have finally woken up and smelt the coffee (it was quite a strong one this morning). 

So let's see how this real life role play goes..