MMMMMmmmm

I love sweets, sugar and cake. I also love baking, hence I totally love this ad. My giant box of Geisha choc's is almost over. Sugar buzz, cavities and happy highs.

Rainy Saturday Evenin

This is one of the rare Saturday evenings when I'm not doing anything. I spent an afternoon with tea and biscuits at my aunts. Next week hopefully I get do help with some DIY! Its exciting working on a house. I've spent so many mornings watching home shows, I feel like a property pro. From away in the sun or whatevar to the auction shows on BBC1. Britain is obsessed with makeover reality tele. It could be your wife, your home, your car, your skin, your wardrobe, your kid's school - make it all over. Experience the greener side to things. Maybe I should switch from fashion to interiors and lifestyle. Become and consultant. Who would hire me? Maybe become a London return in Bollywood and make-over their houses from leopard print Las Vegas to spiritual rustic retreats with a zen like appeal or then bring Palm Beach pink and greens to a Lokhanwala pallazo.
It's raining outside. The horrible drippy rain that makes you cringe. My internet connection has crashed as usual, the terrace is no use cos of the drippy rain so here I am, typing away in Cafe Amore waiting for a call on skype.
I could sleep, and yet I still have laundry to do! Alas... the harsh realities of life. Had no idea the colour from my pretty pink knickers would run, now my pleated Cos top in pristine white has streaks of shocking pink. Almost like I went mad playing holi in something white. Imagine that. I'm going to experiment with all sorts of colour run/protect liquid detergents tommorow. Will post results then.
Also have no idea whats happening with internship. I'm playing it cool, but secretly flipping out. Why won't the people at Vogue mail me!!!Not like am such a terrible writer. Sometimes, I regret giving it all up, but then, my life -
Still senior stylist at Elle
Still hanging out at Zenzi
Still eating at Out of the Blue
Still meeting same people crying I have no friends
Still battling torrential floods in july
Instead now
I have a totally insecure future
I have a new set of friends from around the world
I have a new food joint to try out at Soho
I have the riverside in the sunshine
I have depression in the rain
I have to practice my newly acquired writing skills
Which means
I have you dear blog
I also have someone super special (you know who you are!)

You are me and I am you
- VS

Old habits die hard

This is a confession to my earlier posts, where i declared war on consumerism, starbucks and my favourite thing to do - shopping.
I bought -

1> Black dress with cut work details for the summer 39 quid
2> Gladiator sandals (they were made in India, bigger guilt trip) - 29 quid
3> V necked my favourite t from Zara - 5 quid (I have same in grape and sea blue)
4> Red tee with a keyhole detail on the back from Neu Look - 7 quid (student discount)
5> Black camisole from Neu Look- 3 quid (to replace black gap one i lost)

I did go to Primark, but the queues killed me. Hence read edited why I despise Primark post.
Now I have too much black for summer!

I'm also fighting addiction to the Banana Java Frappuccino at Starbucks. It is divine with crushed choco chips. I indulge only once a week, when the class has our post class gossip/discussion sessions.

Jesus loves me now ;)

Surrealism at V&A

Dali fan's will love the new surrealism exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum. The exhibition isn't just about paintings but talks about the surrealist way of life. Everyday objects like the lobster telephone, the lip -sofa, billionaire homes with strange perspectives - you get the general idea. Also costumes and set designs by Chirico and lots of Miro paintings.
Freudian sexual theories - the works. Meaningless gossip: Gala, who lived with her surrealist poet husband, inspired her lover Max Ernst who happened to be the husband's friend later married Salvador Dali.
The fashion history enthusiast in me loved the Schiaparelli dresses. The one with butterfly print was divine for summer. She collaborated on a lot of prints with Dali, the famous lobster print dress was chosen by Wallis Simpson for her trousseau and Cecil Beaton shot it! Surprisingly Vogue and Harpers Bazaar also dedicated a lot of covers and fashion pages to surrealism. Amazing example of a period when fashion met art. I was very inspired by Man Ray's photograph of a beautiful woman in the wheelbarrow.



Model wearing Vionnet evening gown with wheelbarrow by Oscar Dominguez
1937

http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1558_surrealthings/about.php

Nearest tube: South Kensington

Cost : 5 pounds concession 9 pounds adult and leave 3.75 for a cuppa English Breakfast tea and banana date cake in the courtyard under a blue sky.

Rave Rave

Went to a rave in London last night. Very hush hush, my friend's friend who got the link from another friend said. The website gives you a phone no. and at 10 pm you get the address.
And so it was that I found myself calling a mini cab to Streatham station looking for a Safeway supermarket parking lot at 11.30 pm. Round and round up the stairs, and then full on psy.
I was in my element or so I think, very sad at having none of my Goa gear! But it does get chilly in London. So ended up wearing jeans, black tee and shiny bindi's on my face. Yes I was also a wannabe, bought neon eye shadow and painted my eyes fluro green.
Simon played from 2.30 -4. V v trippy. People came up and whispered bizarre stuff. It was like being stuck in a school prom,in a tiny assembly room with lots of digital art work and the bar was an old refrigerator that had a ganesha bed sheet to tell it apart.

Rhyme for the evening -
I learnt to dance
when i discovered trance.

Danced I did!!!
Came home, at 4 or something in a mini cab that had a gps speaking in German.

German reminds me, new complication on visa scene. I have a german schengen visa, but want to go to spain first now. Can I ? Solve this.

Today is gonna be the day
That they're gonna throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you gotta do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do about you now

Backbeat the word was on the street
That the fire in your heart is out
I'm sure you've heard it all before
But you never really had a doubt
I don't believe that anybody feels
The way I do about you now

And all the roads we have to walk along are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would
Like to say to you
I don't know how

Because maybe
You're gonna be the one who saves me ?
And after all
You're my wonderwall

Today was gonna be the day?
But they'll never throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you're not to do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do
About you now

My shrink, my blog.

It is amazing how when you love someone, that you are willing to accept all their errors, look beyond and find any excuse to stay together.
Is this really any illusion?
Just want simple things.
I only want to be happy, but I am looking for it with all the wrong people. I always have.
I have grown up suddenly. Learning to make peace with life and other people. It is hard to let go.
So many months full of memories, all fit into a brown A4 cardboard box. Now they hold no place in your space.
The ones who loved me the most, they were the one's I ran away from fastest. It's nature's cruel game this one. Like a cycle of leaving and loving.
I thought I found my moment, just as I was boarding my flight to Zurich in July. I thought I had truly left everything behind. I wanted to start a new life. Enjoy my vacation, live it up, have my fun. Start clean.
I left the web of lies and anger that we created behind. And then when I genuinely gave it my all, it was my past's way of catching up.
It's amazing how this never leaves. I want it all to go away.
I want to be back in my own room, spread out on my reading chair, lost in a travelogue , drinking a cup of chai, thats true happiness.
A place that is your's alone. No one can disturb this peace.

There is no difference between me and her. We asked the same question to the same lover.

Beautiful sun outside/My best friends

This morning is beautiful, all my best friends have been online, one is off to the himalayas, the other figuring out a new career path.
The biblical boy is celebrating his birthday today. I'm sure he's going to begin shrinking soon. :) I'm missing a party this evening! Bangalore, mad house, lots of people mostly drunk, some other rolling very bad J's, some rolling good ones... trying to play random party games.

The most beautiful view is the one I share with you. ~Author Unknown

Moss @ Topshop

Hundreds of eager shoppers lined up patiently for several hours to buy Kate Moss’s first collection for Topshop. The flagship store was surrounded by a huge crowd on all sides on the 1st of May. The hype was fuelled by previews of dresses, hot shorts, skinny jeans and waistcoats in magazines like Grazia and Vogue.
First in queue was Yasmin Kate, 16, from South London, who had been waiting for the doors to open since 12.30 that afternoon. Shivering, she said, “I love Kate Moss; I’m going to grab whatever I can.” Moss’s younger pre teen fans, (Amy, Molly and Lalage), specially missed school for K-day and had foreheads painted neon declaring their adoration for the model.
Chaotic as it seemed, the queue was well organised with everyone getting a coloured band stating what time they could get in. The crowd was allowed 20 minutes browsing time and could only buy eight items to avoid e-bay sales at inflated prices. Topshop staff distributed sweets, water and popcorn, all in special Kate Moss packaging.
The real excitement was bang outside the store windows on the pavement. Photographers and fans elbowed each other trying to get a glimpse of what lay behind the velvet curtain. Moss was scheduled to appear at 8 pm; however, every time the curtain moved even a little, a roar of anticipation went around.
Moss posed like a mannequin for exactly 10 seconds in a red maxi looking oblivious to the mayhem outside. Waiting paparazzi and media made snide comments about this brief appearance, angering teenage fans. One of the girls passionately yelled, “I don’t care if she came for a few seconds. This has been the best day of my life. I go to the same school she went to, I take the same bus home everyday. You people waiting to photograph her love her too.”
Inside the store, it was back to an organised shopping experience in a specially allocated section. There were several pieces available in many sizes ranging from 6-16. The floral pixie dress was a favourite, with many girls vying for it.
The fact that, these styles would suit someone with the same body shape as Kate Moss was oblivious to the crowd. It was ‘grab what you can while you can.’ 50-something, Ann, who claimed to be 29 years old was delighted with her shopping. “I love the buzz here. I bought the metallic vest because it was the same one that Moss wore on her 30th birthday.”
A few days later, while the crowds had died out, the rails in the store were still full. One could even buy online on Topshop.com. Limited edition pieces were completely sold out and can be found on E-bay if one wishes to pay the price for something that looks just like anything the high street retailer may have sold for spring.
Kate Moss can be assured that her fans still worship her. She is set to design three more collections for the brand, and is reportedly being paid 3 million pounds for each one. Will the public line-up again for Sir Philip Green’s experiment? We have to wait and watch. With the number of celebrity high street links ups launching everyday, it may be just another boring afternoon at the stores.

British breakfast

Cold Porridge is the most disgusting thing on this planet.

Primark – Cheaper and Chicer

Shopping at Primark is an experience. This is a store where trendy things are available at unbelievably low prices. The process begins the minute one walks in, across the road from Marble Arch tube station, right up to the moment when one steps out, with the booty in a brown paper bag.
I needed to see what the media fuss was all about. A store launch that required policemen to hold the mob would have to be fantastic. With is cheap is chic formula given the all clear by fashion bible, Vogue, Primark is an extremely popular shopping destination.
Walking in with a slight trepidation and excitement that a shopping treat holds, I made a mental check list of all the things I needed to buy. The yellow Maxi in the beautiful window display looked especially promising.
I was obviously not the only one who felt like a visit to Primark at an off-peak shopping hour, around 2.30 pm in the afternoon. Women, children, teenagers, their boyfriends, granny’s – they were all there throwing things by the dozen into big blue cylindrical baskets.
The night market in Bangkok felt like a simpler place to bargain hunt. Clothes were strewn all around. The yellow maxi was nowhere to be found, although there were hundreds of other styles to try out. A madras cotton shirt was cheaper than a sandwich at Starbucks.
With all these racks full of clothes, finding your size shouldn’t be that hard. But no, every single size 12 was sold out on most rails, with gigantic size 18 pieces crying out for someone to pick them up. When I made my way to the changing room; the queue was longer than the one outside London Eye with supervisors yelling like army generals.
Giving in to impatience, I, like most, tried on clothes in front of the mirror on the shop floor balancing my bag between my knees. Twenty minutes waiting time at the cash counter, clothes and a pair of cheap shoes chucked into a bag, I stepped outside and finally breathed.
Wearing the clothes for real was a disappointment. The blouse clung at all the wrong places, the shoe bite stung and the threads from a Gucci look-alike print dress were already unraveling. The thought of standing in another line to return these items was enough to think of the 45 pounds spent, as a bad debt.
Cheap prices come at a cost, lower quality. The labels do not carry the country of manufacturing. Primark has come under criticism from various campaigners for working conditions in their factories overseas.
Charity group, War on Want published a report ‘Fashion Victims’, in December 2006 on their findings, “Workers in Bangladesh are regularly working 80 hours a week for just 5p an hour, in potential death trap factories, to produce cheap clothes for British consumers of Primark. Employees interviewed for the report said their managers had been given prior notice of these companies’ social audits.”
Since then, Primark is doing everything it can to improve its image to the public. In a statement to their customers, they say, “Primark want to work with developing countries, not least because our business is very important to some of the poorest people in the world.” They have also signed an international trade agreement, whereby they state that they do not use child labour. Even the packaging has changed from plastic to paper bags.

Throw-in-the-bin fast fashion helps most fashion followers keep their wardrobe up to date without breaking the bank. Spending ten pounds more, being able to try what I buy, a feeling of happiness while browsing and purchasing something I would actually wear thrice feels like a more hassle free option. Would I ever do this again? Not unless I am forced to write another story.

Sense and Sensibility

Watched the wonderful movie last night. I am besotted with romance. A magical countryside with sheep, rain and endless meadows.
Heartbreak, love and happily ever afters!!!

Excuse my beauty!!

Excuse my beauty on COPS!!