There are about 3 days left until the end of January
2013 and I have only just realised, that I haven’t actually made any New Years
resolutions. Now I don’t normally make any serious
resolutions such as learn fluent French / read a novel a week / go to the gym
5x a week. It’s usually more along the lines of ‘try and be a nice person’…
However this year I don’t even seem to have got round to thinking about that! So I instead I decided that I’ll
think of something I’d genuinely quite like to do at some point. Perhaps not
this year, perhaps not even next year, but something that I want to do and
hopefully will do!
I have no idea whatsoever why this is the idea
that sprung to mind… Why not plan a holiday with my paternal grandparents?
Before you quote me as mad, hear me out. My grandparents (i.e. my dear
daddy’s parents) are divorced. Both are remarried. As the word
‘grandparent’ insinuates, both are retired. Therefore they have a lot of time
on their hands. Both are for me an embodiment of cultural citizens; something
to aspire to. She attends book clubs, sings in a choir, regularly plays in
concerts on grand pianos, is a regular at art galleries and even took up the
violin. He is an avid reader, foodie and lecturer. Not of the university variety,
but of the kinsfolk kind – the slightest reference to politics and we’re off…
Nonetheless it is without a shadow of a doubt that I feel that both of them see
travelling as their ultimate hobby.
Of course they’ve both done the obligatory retirement
cruise round the Med, but what impresses me a whole lot more are their
respective destinations within the last 5 years: Europe, North America, South
America, Thailand, Japan, the Antarctic, Australia… However both have a distinctly different travelling appetite.
Granny dear is a wild one. She’ll go and
befriend the outback Koalas and chase some penguins around the South Pole. I
reckon she can show me some riveting places and spaces. The Grandfather on the
other hand travels differently. The hotels are exquisite and the service benign.
Russian heiresses descend to brunch in their Louboutins and the food is divine!
Granny and Gramps don’t go to the ‘in’ places,
but simply where they absolutely want to and more importantly how they want to,
each loyal to their style. Both of which I want to experience… and who better
to show me the world than my cultured grandparents?!
(Obviously I’m also hoping they’ll cover my
costs, but whatevs…)
A fair while ago I blew my own trumpet and
proclaimed that I was in fact very much ahead of the ‘arm candy’ fashion trend
du moment. I am very pretentiously going to tootle on the same trumpet again.. 
About 2 years ago, in the summer of 2010, my dear friend @anna_bee20 and
myself were enjoying a shopping spree. We waltzed into H&M and whilst
paying, I fell into the intended consumer trap of H&M: strategically place
some products at the till which the customer will innocently glance at while
paying… and hopefully buy. Scrunchies. Simply thrown into a little box, for a
mere £1.99 for two. I fell into the trap and purchased said scrunchies. 
I’ve always been one to shove all of my hair ontop of my head as opposed
to elegantly style it, therefore the scrunchies were a godsend for me.
Obviously I did have to endure a wee bit of teasing… “ahaha you’re actually
wearing a scrunchie?! Are you 5?”
Fast forward to the fashion weeks of S/S 13 and the catwalks are going
wild for the scrunchie! Not only Ashish paraded them down their runway, but
Vivienne Westwood even commissioned bespoke styles from MCS (My Crazy Scrunchie
– Cara Delevingne and Suki Suki Waterhouse are fans). Elle, Cosmopolitan and
Company magazines have all commented on them as have, of course, fashion
bloggers en masse. 
There are about 3 days left until the end of January
2013 and I have only just realised, that I haven’t actually made any New Years
resolutions. Now I don’t normally make any serious
resolutions such as learn fluent French / read a novel a week / go to the gym
5x a week. It’s usually more along the lines of ‘try and be a nice person’…
However this year I don’t even seem to have got round to thinking about that! So I instead I decided that I’ll
think of something I’d genuinely quite like to do at some point. Perhaps not
this year, perhaps not even next year, but something that I want to do and
hopefully will do!
Of course they’ve both done the obligatory retirement
cruise round the Med, but what impresses me a whole lot more are their
respective destinations within the last 5 years: Europe, North America, South
America, Thailand, Japan, the Antarctic, Australia… However both have a distinctly different travelling appetite.
Granny dear is a wild one. She’ll go and
befriend the outback Koalas and chase some penguins around the South Pole. I
reckon she can show me some riveting places and spaces. The Grandfather on the
other hand travels differently. The hotels are exquisite and the service benign.
Russian heiresses descend to brunch in their Louboutins and the food is divine!
The Literary Salon – Damian Barr’s Shoreditch
House Literary salon... I get some crackin’ reading suggestions from this. Plus
it’s always nice to know what’s actually going through an author’s head!
*‘Kimye’ – it’s fine, I get it, they’re dating
and they’re happy. Oh and in case you didn’t know, they’re having a baby. Which
I incidentally feel should be named ‘PR Stunt Kardashian-West.’ This poor child
is going to be splattered across the media so much so that it’s face will
almost probably become more familiar to me than my own reflection…while earning
mummy and daddy Kimye sweet sweet $$$$$$s
*Bern: the picturesque capital of Switzerland.
Idyllic, charming and endearing. Superb for shopping it is not, but nonetheless
well worth a visit. Japanese / Spanish / American tourists or locals, all bumble
along the cobbled streets or gracefully meander through the arcades, stopping
to ooh and ah at the delightful displays of local artefacts in the windows…
Here two worlds collide. I am an excessively fast walker, I have places to go
and people to see.. But no-one in Berne seems to share my mentality! And the
arcades are so narrow. So narrow! I can’t get past!
