Shearling and Shadows

I've always had a tendency to be drawn to the darker sides of life, to the shadows. I'm good at hiding behind a big, bright smile; a useful mask to hide my real feelings. The older I get the more I've realised that the darkness inside of me is just as important as the light, that acknowledging and embracing my sadness and and melancholy doesn't detract from my rainbow fairy-ness!

This shearling however, this brought me smiles and serendipity! Back at my fave car boot sale, I knew there was a regular guy selling shearlings and furs and had said I would buy only if I could find the perfect one at the perfect price. We found the stall and the owner recognised me (as I go back so often). I tried on this coat and it looked great but they were asking for more than my friend had paid when she had bought hers...so I stuck to my guns and left it there. The guy chased after me and said that actually, sometimes it's about matching the right item to the right person and that this coat was made for me...so he was willing to drop the price for me. And so the shearling was mine, all mine!

Chicken Cottage

I tried to get my sister to buy this Chicken Cottage t-shirt we found at a car boot sale for herself, but she bought it for me instead! £2 faux designer, toungue in cheek fabulousness! Thrifting at car boot sales and charity shops turns up the best and most unique items you can find. I won't be seeing anyone else wearing this anytime soon, I'm sure.

I wore it to Chicken Cottage of course...I don't even eat chicken, so I had a veggie wrap.

Oh, and I'm showcasing my new, shorter hair here...finally chopped off a whole bunch of totally destroyed and damaged hair and went for a shoulder grazing 'lob'...I'm loving it so far!

Regular Rollneck

 

Mustard Rollneck: Primark (similar here)

Khaki satin joggers: Blogger event

Nike Roshe Runs

I remember not wearing rollnecks aka polo necks for years because fashion magazines said to avoid them if you have bigger boobs and I had a good sized pair back then (*cries* where have they gone???)
Now, I wear them all the time as they are so easily dressed up or down and are seasonally spot on, especially in this mustard colour, and actually they make your boobs look great and draw attention to a small waist. Win!

My sister took these photos which explains all the laughing shots and also the one below...despite an 11 year age difference we are very close and I definitely act like a kid around her. Ah she keeps me young!

Eat: Dishoom

I finally got to go and try the Dishoom breakfast and catch up with two of my besties, Lou and Nat in the process. Finally!
I've seen it on so many Instagram pages and blogs and had tried to go for dinner (which was vetoed by a friend on a juice diet...yeah) so to actually make it over to the recently re-opened Covent Garden branch was an achievement in itself. Louise got there early and was shown to a table in 10 minutes which was also a result, as by the time we left there was quite the queue outside.

Cups of warm chai tea and watermelon juices were slurped before our food arrived and we basically all tucked in, sharing it between ourselves.

We ordered the Bombay omelette which has chopped tomato, onion and green chilli inside and is served iwth fire toast and grilled tomato, the bacon naan roll, Akuri, which is spicy scrambled egg served with pau pau buns and teh house granola with Kerala-vanilla yoghurt.

The omelette was nice but pretty standard and the fire toast just tasted like burnt toast...wasn't too impressed with this one but the spicy Akuri eggs were delicious and different and the pillowy soft with just the right amount of crunch pau pau buns were delicious.

Granola was gorgeous! The vanilla yoghurt was heavenly and the fruit was light and fresh. A real winner.

Peppermint tea and polished off plates.

Unfortunately we were sat downstairs so didn't get all the lovely Autumn sunlight and the decor is quite dark and grand, but the framed portraits and old Indian advertising is so charming, as were the display cabinets in each toilet of old Indian medicines.

A fine message that you will definitely be thinking after all that nice food. Dinner has to be had next!

Copper Lace

Lace top: Silence + Noise, Urban Outfitters

Skirt: H&M

Boots: H&M

I'm not a huge Autumn fan. I'm not one of those girls who looks great with loads of chic layers. And with the warm weather we've been having, thinking Autumnally has been a bit difficult, when the skies are brilliant blue and the sun is shining down on us. My nod to Autumn this weekend gone, for a trip to Dishoom and gelato in central London, was with shades of copper and brown, and inspired by Kylie Jenner, I'm even wearing brown lipstick. Haven't done that since I was a teenager too.

Recently Reading: The Thing Around Your Neck

This was my introduction to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's writing. I'd heard Bey feature her Ted talk 'We should all be Feminists' on Flawless of course, and seen countless instagram pics of her books Half A Yellow Sun and Americanah (now on my to-read list), but I'd never actually read any of her work. Sytlist Magazine's recent book issue featured The Thing Around Your Neck in their pick of short story collections and said 'Adichie's is an important voice and we want to hear it again and again'. Adichie was the only writer on the list of 100 holiday reads to be featured twice; they love her that much.

And now I can see why. The quote on the cover from the Telegraph 'She makes storyelling seem as easy as birdsong' could not be more accurate, Adichie weaves authentic tales using such lyrical language that stories flow effortlessly. Settings, whether in the city of Lagos, suburbs of America or rural Nigerian towns are painted vividly in this collection of short stories which largely feature female protagonists. It was a delight to feel the strong sense of Nigerian identity that ran through all the stories for example through mentions of different Nigerian languages and customs, whether the stories were set there or in the States. The different facets of the immigrant experience are explored throroughly, from the expectations of family and the presumed grattitude one must exhibit for the help with a visa to trying to find African food or black hairdressers in white neighbourhoods.

Stories of war and homosexuality are handled as delicately as adultery. Adichie's characters are imbued with a subtle intelligence and the only flaw I could find is that although all very different, I found the women mostly to be passive until the very last story, The Headstrong Historian, which featured two strong women, Nwamgba and her grand daughter Grace/Afamefuna.

Divides in Nigeria due to class or education were interesting to discover and having not read much literature by African writers, The Thing Around Your Neck was a polished intorduction. I can't wait to read more of Adichie's work.

Recently Reading: The Hand That Feeds You

 

I was disappointed by this thriller from pretty much the first page unfortunately.

Written as a collaboration between two writers, Amy Hempel and Jill Ciment under the name A J Rich, a lot of the inspiration came from a third writer friend, but unfortunately the blended writing meant that at times it felt distinctly written by different people and neither writer went quite deep enough.

The book opens with 30 year old Morgan Prager who is styudying victimology, who comes home to find her fiancee Bennett unrecognisable, completely mauled by her dogs and very, very dead. Morgan has a soft spot for dogs and her adopted dog Cloud and two fostered pit bulls are covered in blood...when law enforcement eventually arrives, one dog is killed immediately and the other two taken away as dangerous dogs. Morgan is devastated at this multiple loss, but when she tries to notify Bennett's parents she can't find them...the further she looks into the man she thought she knew the more she realises she didn't know him at all. Although, for Morgan this is given weight by the fact that she always goes for unsuitable guys, it just didn't ring true for me. Who in this day and age never meets their partners friends and family, goes to their house or workplace, has them meet the important people in their life and yet says yes to a diamond ring and a wedding? The fact that as Morgan researches further, more women who have had the exact same fake relationship are uncovered rings so false to me. I mean, really? What kinda woman? I just couldn't buy it.

Impeccably researched, I found the information about dog breeds, the process of looking after or fighting for a dangerous dog and also the theories around victims and sociopaths incredibly researched and this is where the book is strongest. Unfortunately, the character of Morgan is not fleshed out enough and as it is a first person narration there never seems to be enough depth to her thoughts or feelings to make us really care about her or to differentiate between the telling of the banal details. It is revealed that Morgan was raped as a young woman with the exact same tone as she would describe doing her shopping or hacking her ex lovers email account. This also hinders the build up of suspense, crucial to a thriller like this. I worked out the killer around 50 pages before the end, which was a definite anti-climax.

All in all, it's not too thrilling when you care more about the dogs than their owner.