Still Woven By Hand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nbLe9CGNc&feature=fvst

Whilst visiting my father in France I came across one of his old jackets.

A brown Harris tweed jacket. Beautiful! I actually discovered it last summer but wasn't sure if I should bring it back to London considering the warm weather at the time.

However it was September and as the leaves start to fall and a a simple cardigan no longer does the trick, I thought this would be the perfect in between season jacket.

This jacket actually belonged to his housemate with whom he lived with in London when he was 20. It was always too big for him, so as my dad is very small, it was given as a gift.

How my dad has been able to keep it in such perfect condition, is still a mystery to me.

I feel that I have given a second life to this jacket which has been locked away in a suit bag for the last 10 years in a dusty room. I now cycle away in London wearing the jacket and thinking that it has a past that I will never truly know.

Of course it is just a jacket, but I seem to have a connection with it. Probably because it belonged to my dad and that 20 years ago it also must have been on the back of someone in London, who just like me had the future to look forward to.

Hopefully when I too no longer wear this jacket, it can be passed on to someone who can wear it and truly feel the past literally on their back.

1920's story

So Rich and I had been invited to a 1920's party in a secret location. We were meeting my friend from Lycée in France , Emily and her sister Joanna.

We arrived at the location: an alleyway in Shoreditch. We were greeted by a woman holding a guest list. Once we were in we had to follow another dark alley where the light was yellow and there even seemed to be fog. The atmosphere got me extremely excited. The venue was a very old building with arches. 1920's music was playing by a band and old films were projected onto the stoned wall.

A couple of bars were set up and Rich and I got a cocktail. We finally saw Emily stumble in, obviously had a couple of pre drinks! Both their boyfriends were there, dressed accordingly, 1920's paperboy and gentleman. The Champagne started flowing and the dance moves were ready to be put to use. The night was a tremendous hit, everyone had made an effort and people's behaviours were that of the 1920's, very polite yet fun.

As all of our four friends were smokers, we spent quite a long time outside, were the scene was from a film. I was wearing a dress that my mother had bought me when I was 14. Yes 14! It was always too big on me and now fitted perfectly. It was very long and fringed. Perfect. I had spent a considerable length of time trying to make my hair look like a respectable bob by following a few steps of a women on YouTube. Back to the story.

I bent down, to collect my bag only to be told that my underwear was showing. OOPS! The zip had broken and my raspberry lace underwear was for everyone to see. Thank god it was dark and people were drunk. Joanna, who is costume maker, took me aside and started using tape to stick it back together. And it held, well I think it did. So we continued to dance, and dance, and drink. Next thing I know my strap breaks. Oh well, my fur can cover that up. We leave at 2am.

Not wanting to end this party from the past, José, Joanna's Portuguese boyfriend, takes us to a strip bar across the road. We did not all agree to this, but as he was insisting to pay for all of us, we just couldn't say no. I have never been to one before and there we were, all dressed up very elegantly in a bar where all the men looked as bad as each other and the women were all practically naked and looking pissed off. We left after a drink and headed to José's flat round the corner.

What an amazing flat, just two bedrooms, very spacious and modern. This is what I want I thought, but at £1800 a month I thought otherwise! So the shoes came off, the wigs came off (and were swapped around much to our amusement) and the dancing continued. I was dancing away whilst holding Richards camera and did not see the clear plastic table behind me thus falling backwards and yes dropping the camera and breaking the other remaining strap. Obviously the zoom had to be out and the camera is broken. I on the other hand was not and luckily did not hurt myself. I could see Rich getting very angry but also trying not to say anything. I must point out that this is the second time I have broken HIS camera, last time was at New Years Eve. He was not amused and I felt terrible. But lo and behold, Andrea, Emily's Italian boyfriend had made pasta, with tuna and garlic and it was delicious, obviously he is Italian. This softened the atmosphere and I started to think that after all cameras are just material things and I really could have hurt myself!

After pasta, Rich and I decided to head home as it was 4 am by now. We kind of knew where we were heading, deciding to get the bus home. When we saw a bus saying Tottenham court road, we jumped on. After half an hour I think (by this time I was falling asleep on Richards shoulder), we heard that the next stop would be Brixton. WHAT? We went from Shoreditch to Brixton, ending up where Emily and Joanna live. Oh did I mention it was pouring down, and that as both my straps were broken I had to hold my dress up. We finally found a bus that took us to Kings Cross and climbing into bed I reached to my clock: 6.30. What a night, but what a great night!

Saya's wedding

So me and Rich wne tot stay in my new house near Arcachon for a week (its got a swimming pool, chekc out the pics) anyway and that was really fun, we wnet to the Dune to Pilat and eat loads of yummy french food.




So on Saturday we got the train to Libourne where Mailys and marion picked us up, we also met Thomas Merritt there who missed the train and had to get his mum to drive him all the way to Libourne which took 4 hours cos of the traffic.

We arrived at marions country house which is amazing, massif and beautiful.
Lorelei, Hugo, Ju and her Thomas had just arrived too, Hugo drove them from Bdx in his crappy green twingo!!

Marion’s parents had prepared a lovely lunch for all of us outside, they were so generous. I had never met her parents before, very welcoming! Then Fred arrived and he gave a lift to Sayas friend from Montreal.
After lunch we all got ready for the wedding, and Marion’s parents were invited too and Marion was a witness too. So I started ironing Richards’s suit and my dress and we were all getting very excited. Hugo had a suede jacket which was impossible to iron cos he had stuffed it in his bag and was so creased.

So then we all drove to the church which seemed to take for ever because Marion’s Dad took us through the little roads. We arrived and there was a bike race in the whole village and lots of cars (probably all for the wedding) and we were scared we were going to be late. When we finally parked me and Juliane and Rich desperately needed to go the toilet and we knew the ceremony was going to be 1 hour and a half long and there was no way we could hold it in, the only option was a dodgy bakery on the corner of the square so we went in and I asked the little boy behind the counter if we could use his toilet, he was only 10!! Anyway his mum very kindly let us in the back way to their house which was very dark and scary!!!

So we took some pics in front of the church, lots of people with crazy colourful hats, and Sayas mum was wearing an amazing maxi dress, she looked so pretty!
In the church we got sat in the right corner which was a shame cos we couldn’t see much, we had to keep on getting up to see what was happening. But when saya came in, with her veil, it gave me Goosebumps, its was a really weird experience. Anyway the priest started talking about love and god and blab la bla. I felt sorry for Rich who didn’t understand anything! So I learned that saya has been baptized just 4 months ago and is very religious it seems. So there were lots of prayers and singing things like God is great he is the mighty one…. And Caroline read a poem in English and that was very nice. We didn’t get to see much of her, she didn’t really hang out with us much, but it was still nice to see her.
So then they exchanged the rings and I did cry because it was very much and Saya couldn’t stop smiling, it was beautiful to watch. And just when they were leaving the church it started to rain, so everyone got their umbrellas and it was all a bit of a hoo-ha. The venue where dinner was, was just round the corner, so we got to this massive building whoch was in fact a Moulin a eau, very nice. We were received with champagne and amazing food to start of with, foie gras, oysters, langoustine, coquille st Jacques, salmon…..Then we all sat don at the tables we were assigned to. There was a list of every table (names after a big city) we were New York City! But we know that not all the OIB would be sitting together. But poor Juliane wasn’t even on the list, so obviously Thomas and Fred started taking the piss saying things like she wasn’t even invited, the usual boy stuff! In the end we just added a seat at out table.

The food was lovely, magret de canard and lots of red wine, and profiterole for dessert. So we were all sitting down waiting for the dinner to be served and suddenly the DJ starts playing really loudly that song my David Guetta and Kelly Rowland (when love takes over) and in comes saya and Raphael from the back of the building holding hands and every one starts going mental, cheering, waving their napkins and this sparklers which were on the table and the music gets louder and louder and we all start clapping and standing on our chairs, and then S and R stand on their chairs and we continue waving and screaming, the atmosphere was amazing, we were all happy at the same time, I’ve never experienced something like that before.

And then we all sit down, music goes off and thing guy on crutches comes up in front of everyone and does a little speech (he is a close friend of S and R) and starts brake dancing with this little kid, was amazing, he was using his crutches to balance himself, very inspiring. So then we had the food and talked and got quite pissed. Then the coffee and chocolates arrived and we all got up to get that, I had to down too cups cos I was very tired and full up and needed some energy!
They moved all the tables and the DJ started playing a valse and Saya nad her father started dancing, it was very posh and sophisticated, and then S and R danced and everyone watched. After that the Dj played Rock and Roll music and evrryone started going crazy dancing to 60’s music. Me and Maylis tried but weren’t very good. Marion’s parents were amazing, Marion had warned us about her father loving to dance rock n roll and that we should be careful if we were to dance with him. Marion’s mum got so into it that she feel over on the dance floor, was very funny! Then they played great stuff like Aretha Franklin and Motown stuff that me and Juliane loved and we all started dancing, a part from rich and Thomas, I think they needed a couple of drinks to feel confortable dancing. So we danced and danced and took picture after picture, and then people started leaving, but they brought in spirits and that’s when it got good. We started drinking more and then rich was loving the music and really getting into it. The DJ started playing club stuff and we were rally into it! At 4 oclock the staff brought in some left over food, and we just jumped onto the food, eating cheese, ham and cake…. Felt very sick after. At 5 we decided that maybe we should leave since we were the only ones left in the whole room and that we weren’t quite sure how to get home. Luckily mailys had a satnav that took us all safely home/

When we arrived there was drama about who was sleeping where. Me and Rich had already planned to stay in Marions room which had an ensuite bathroom, so that was sorted. But Lorelei and Higo were supposed to stay in a tent, that they had already set up before we left but because it had rained and that they only had on sac de couchage (that was silly) Lorelei was really drunk and made a big fuss and so she and Hugo ended up sharing a single bed and mailys slept on the floor, which wasn’t too bad apparently!

Rich and I had to get up at 10 the next day to get the train back to Bordeaux to then get the navette to the airport to get the plane back to Luton airport and then get the train to Kings cross. We felt very ruff but happy that we had such a good time.

Volunteering for the Holy Cross Centre

So recently I have decided to help the homeless.... Why??? Well I think I've always wanted to help others but I never knew how or when. So as I now have a job, I feel that I can start thinking about others and start helping others.

So I now help out at the Holy Cross centre based just near Kings Cross. Today I went and helped in the kitchen serving food and cleaning etc..

I also talked with the "service-users" (as they like to call the people who come there) about random stuff really, but I think they come there for food and to socialize. There is also a TV room and a ping-pong table (I lost against some Scottish guy). I think it's a good place but some people who come there have mental problems and as I have never worked with people who suffer mental illnesses I was a bit worried. But it was fine (a part from nearly being groped by one guy).

As the center is a dry center IE: no drinking before or at the center, they are very strict on who is aloud in. Today I was on the door and had to ask every one's name. One guy had been drinking and I had to send him away, but we do give advice on where to go if we don't let people in.

Anyway so my first day was very interesting and I enjoyed every moment (well maybe not the near-groping moment!) but I am going back on friday evening to their open mic night where there will be a band and people singing and food.... so I will be there and I am sure it will be great!



Here is the link if you want to find out more: http://www.hcct.org.uk/

First pair.. second one??

So have been speaking with my friend who is a big trainre fan and these are defo on our wish list for this month, I think i prefer the patent ones, coming to Size in July.. can't wait....

New balance