life - and other dramas

Busy Busy Busy

2009-07-21T04:54:00.000-07:00

Ive been a busy bee with my fashion blog www.fashionbehindthescenes.com and have been neglecting my travel blog due too, basically, lack of travel. last week i ran around frantically interviewing people for various publications including hot new fashion website www.designerdirection.co.nz. the star of my interviews is kiwi designer Vicki Taylor and the collection review can be seen here http://designerdirection.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/taylor-spring-2009-collection-review/
the good/bad news is that in less than two weeks time I will be traveling again, the bad news is I will be traveling to Palmerston North on a one week internship. It is questionable whether this small town masquerading as a city will offer more than a rubbish dump named after John Cleese, but I'll reserve judgement till then.

Journalism Hui

2009-04-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

in a completly un-fashion related post -Ive had a cultural Renaissance this past week, on a journey all the way to west Auckland for a journalism Hui (meeting) with my new graduate diploma in journalism class. we spent 72 hours on a marae in west Auckland listening to endless speakers who included, the head of the human rights commission, editors from the western leader, spacifx magazine, mana magazine, the Fiji times, Maori television etc. the final highlight of the day was speaker pita sharples , head of the Maori party , minister of Maori affairs and a few other things. hes hugely inspirational , and yes i have enough sense not to trust a politician outright but to be fair hes extremely honest , very down to earth, not annoyingly PC, and can laugh at himself. We were lucky In that this was probaly one of teh best times to talk to him given the uproar over the national government deciding not to make three Maori seats on the new Auckland supercity council.
he was pissed to say the least. we also got the inside scoop on another hui with all of Auckland's Maori tribes on Wednesday which will discuss the decision. politics aside pita's work with the very marae we sat in and the te reo school next door was incredible. he told us how in the 80's when he planned the marae , which was meant for all Auckland tribes to use and for school education ( groups like ourselves) he was constantly told it could work. but that he put the money up himself for buildings and teachers salaries until he finally convinced the council to support him. The complex wa sthe first of its kind in auckland - a marae for all people.

Harajukus grease boy=HOT

2009-04-05T01:45:00.000-07:00

IM IN LOVE- with the grease style boys at HARUJUKU they are everywhere- probably keeping the gel companies in business single handed- I must say its refreshing for boys to be making an effort- Ive come to the conclusion that KIWI boys are just lazy when it comes to fashion!

TOKYO

2009-04-05T01:38:00.001-07:00

three days in a city like TOKYO and this New Zealand Girl is feeling mighty boring in her standard black- matching and un-themed outfits, i have never before suffered from plain jane syndrome so severely. Tokyo is like the vending machines it loves so much, bright, sparkling with lights, and with many many options, in short its madness! here's just a snippet of a variety of different shops from the cities busiest centres shiboya and harujuku. on the minimalist side is cult Japanese convenience style shop MUJI (which FYI is also widely available inHong Kong).
on the bright and wacky side of things is this shop in Harujuku whose name I cannot tell you asI speak not a word of Japanese, heres the catch though, what looks like a costume shop is not- its actually clothes people wear on the streets of harajuku. In shaboya -the hippest shopping area- it has THAT infamous intersection (as seen in lost in translation) which sees the most people in the world crossing it every hour - high fashion stores like COACH sit alongside CONDOMMANIA- no joke its a boutique condom store !- only in japan!

The Curse has lifted

2009-03-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

The curse has lifted, its official, two weeks 6 destinations and5 flights later Its safe to conclude my travelers curse is lifted- touch wood, for the first time ever my luggage and person have both arrived safely and on time.
So why then the delay in fashion news from Asia? alas! lack of Internet or should I say PC Internet- so advanced are Singapore and Hong Kong that the entire country is wireless and I find my self a cyber cripple traveling sans laptop.so where in the world is fashion behind the scenes when I finally gain Internet access? TOKYO!!!But before I send all the fashionistas into Japanese fashion bliss I must backtrack to Singapore ..............I arrive smoothly at (the recently trumped for best airport award) Changi airport in Singapore, I'm greeted by bfff and fellow up and coming fashion journalist Victoria who will be my uber fashionable guide for the next 5 days, the exit feels like walking into a sauna.
Despite being the rainy season (no such concept as `winter` in　Singapore) its sweltering hot and the temperature plays a key part in the city's overall fashion sense. Singapore fashion is reasonably tropical although many residents seem to be immune to the heat and stroll around in jeans and long sleeve tops, true- there is air con but only in stores and the underground -what about the transit areas? don't they die? my questions on such things are yet to　answered- local Vick can offer no explanation for this insanity. like Singapore in general local fashion style is fragmented on one hand there is the largely tropical look colourful sundresses and beads for girls, shorts and jandals (slippers in local slang) for guys, most of these clothes seem to come from Thailand, many Singaporeans head yearly to Thailand for shopping trips and if they don't, most of the lower level clothing available is Thailand imported at jacked up prices, therefore if traveling around Asia wait and shop for these tropical styles in Thailand.

Alongside the tropical look is a growing UK influence in style due to an ever increasing amount of `Top Shop` stores. much of this look seems ridiculous to tourists eg* leather jackets in 30degree weather? tights? really is it cold? so despite its popularity the London look does not translate practically to Singapore's climate. rivaling Top Shop in the `London look` stakes are several concept stores that are popping up in less well known shopping areas particularly on the edges of China town, most have in house design studios underneath or above their shops.In terms of high end fashion Singapore's infamous Orchard road is the place to head, all the top designers are here, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Balenciaga, you name it its there- at least once. further down Orchard Road most of the street fronts are merely mall entrances and the street could not possibly be scoured in one day even by the most determined speed shoppers. "far east" mall offers boutiques of many fresh designers and younger Korean and Japanese imported fashion.

Under Victoria's tuition I am now capable of glancing at a shop and distinguishing whether its is Korean, Japanese or Chinese. tell tale signs I can offer you are these- the Japanese shops favour what kiwis would consider an EMO look, heavy on red tartan, leather and satchels, Koreans on the other hand champion an ACUTE style (singlish for ACT- CUTE) , lots of pink, pom poms, fur, Chanel style quilt bags in pastel tones with lots of imitation pearl embellishments on everything.

Shoe lovers will be in stiletto heaven in Singapore - its ridiculously cheap- even with the current economy, but heed my warning, should u be so unlucky as my self as to possess a shoe size over a NZ 7/8 don't get your hopes up, even if lucky enough to find your size in length the shoes are invariably narrow in cut and you are likely to find yourself severely disappointed.

dressing- life skills

2008-04-17T01:30:00.000-07:00

It’s the life of the fashion student and more or less the life of everyone whose working their way from bottom to top, to be treated like dirt. You are, in the words of that immortal ‘trainspotting’ character, Renton,
“The lowest of the low the scum of the earth”.

None the less you enter an industry at the very bottom rung of the ladder and although you may hope to be treated like the genius you secretly think you are, you are aware it is unlikely.

It is for this reason I had a surprising experience dressing for a fashion show of late.
The common side profession of fashion students – dressing models – (literally)
Is dangled in front of us as an opportunity to ‘make contacts’ and ‘gain experience’. Essentially its expendable free labour. Although most fashion students realise this after their first dressing experience some of us continue to work as dressers because we hold the flickering candle of hope we will be discovered.
Naive much?

It was for this reason the actions of one Alexander Owen so surprised me, the up and coming designer from small New Zealand town Gisbourne was in our corner of the country showing her collection at showroom 22 last week.
Unlike most designers who rarely ordain to speak to dressers (and if they do its to ask them to fetch coffee or water) the delightful miss Owen made time to speak to the 6 students who were helping her and ask with general interest about our own collections.

Perhaps it is because Miss Owen lives away from the urban nightmare that is Auckland with its fashion snobbery and pretentiousness that she does not realise that designers are far too high and mighty to talk to lowly dressers. I hope she remains uninformed even though her designers are so interesting they will undoubtedly gain her increasing publicity.

The entire experience of her collection was surprising starting with her down to earth nature. Dressers were surprised to see on their models racks sleeves that detached and were then switched with other models and attached to other garments. Whilst this was a nightmare for those of us dressing models for rapid changes in a small area, the collection was intellectually interesting in a way that is rarely seen in New Zealand and seldom seen anywhere but the collections of the likes of Anne Demulemester and ‘Avante Garde’ international designers.

It’s the sort of designs I wished we saw more of in our fashion industry, we have a lot to learn from international designers, and perhaps certain international designers like those I dressed for at London fashion week (who shall go unnamed) could learn something from Alexandra Owen on how to treat volunteer dressers.

smashing pumpkins and queens of the stone age gig.

2008-03-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

Smashing Pumpkins are the best live act ever its official!! having been a huge fan since i was all of 8 years old when everyone else liked Hanson and the spice girls, I finally had the chance to see them live. I went with Jessie and was in a state of mega excitement going "Billy Billy Billy" in the car and very much annoying her. even though there is only two original members , Billy Crogan - vocals and lead guitar and jimmy Chambirland - drums, it was the two most important members so who cares. billy was amazing so much stage presence in a silver men's skirt. hes a giant actually like 6'4 at least , it doesn't make him look any shorter next to the bassist who is a tiny little girl. arghhhhh I'm even more obsessed now than i ever was!!

quarter life crisis

2008-03-04T20:17:00.000-08:00

going back to uni has been teribile. my first day hadent even started and i wanted to drop out.
the first blow should have been expected.
id been waiting years to discover it.
it was taken
taken gone
stupid italain shoe designer.
the brand name i spent 10 years developing and nurtiring. has been taken. all is lost the world is over.
things got no better , day two of uni and we have our first crituque.
slammed
may as well have been wrestling the bashing i took.
were mostly in the same boat
but were sinking none the less.
tomorow had better be a better day - or else
mala brajcavich and little brother fashion show - free tickets
and a light on the horizon i may be reunitted with my bfff sonner than i cud have imagined ! reuninion!

getting away for some good ole craziness

2008-02-19T12:41:00.000-08:00

Every one of life’s events has a soundtrack, our kitchen in the UK had the theme song glamorous (fergie) our trip to green which had ‘all the leaves are brown and the sky is grey”.
Our quintessential kiwi road trip to the beach at Whangamata had the theme song LOLA – it’s about a transsexual, I love this song and I only just figured that out!
We left Auckland around ten and with a good supply of candy and a large coffee in hand made a start on our three-hour drive. Coming into our destination we stopped to by fruit and veggies at a country store. On the way to the avocado aisle we spotted a peculiar looking specimen. A metre long green thing with a sign saying
“Free to a good home”
Who ever heard of a vegetable being free to a good home? Well we decided we were that good home and took our newly adopted overgrown courgette home with us. My father informed us it’s a called a marrow, but we insisted it was a giant courgette – much more dramatic! And spent the rest of the week correcting each other. Who would have thought u could have so much fun with a vegetable! That thing lasted 4 meals! For 3! We scooped out the inside and stuffed it with rice and tomatoes – delicious oh! In between all our eating me and my friends Jessie and shevaun had an amazing time, swimming four times a day, vintage shopping at the town’s treasure troves of second hand stores. At low tide we walked across the sand bar to a nearby island and nearly died of a heart attack from all the crabs. We spent our nights eating guacamole and nachos and sitting drinking gin tonics on the deck. Trying to avoid the swarms of insects. One unforgettable night we were literally attacked by ants it was like a sea off moving black carpet. After some energetic spraying we had to vacuum them all up – disgusting! Our last day we decided to take a leisurely drive back via a nearby beach – Waihi where my aunt lives and is building an actual mansion – seriously, seriously. Her place is right right on the water seriously! So we went for a swim there and went to Athenre pancake parlour for breakfast and had lavender chocolate pancakes on a deck overhanging a steam. The pancake parlour is in the middle of nowhere in the bush and the stream is notorious for is eel inhabitants. Gorgeous setting to start the day!
We hit the local vintage stores in Waihi and I bought Jessie a really cute purple ‘ Daphne’ of Scooby doo style sixties dress for her birthday. We stopped for ice cream and candy several times on the way home and spent the day taking endless tiki tours. Scattered throughout our week wheather we were swimming shopping – sitting driving we were singing LOLA ! l-o-l-a lola.
We drank champane and danced all night – under electrics candelight!
We drank champane and it tastes just like cherry cola! C-o-l-a Cola!
LOLLLLLLAAAAAAA

leaving my troubles behind

2008-02-09T12:49:00.000-08:00

leaving the city for the beach is one of the things i love best about new zealand , hopefully doing so will put me in a better frame of mind about being back in my own country.
typically the day i head down to the beach with two of my girlfriends it decided for the first time in 6 weeks , to rain. oh well swimming in the rain is one of lifes little known treasures as vick might say. severly hung over from a birthday party last night i am packing the beach essentials, alcahol, avacados, sunblock , sunblock , sunblock , sunburn spray.
time to go!
ciao!

CULTURE SHOCK COMES AS A SHOCK

2008-01-30T12:41:00.000-08:00

So I'm gone, and I’m back, depending on where the story begins. I’ve been “home” about a week now. With some teary goodbyes I left the UK. After 10 hours in Heathrow airport (entertaining myself with a little lift riding) 2 hours to Munich. One hour plus 2 hours delays in Munich and then 12 hours to LAX and then 5 hours in the most confusing non sensical airport in the world before my final 16 hour flight to NZ.
I arrived. It was hot, I was wearing half my winter wardrobe – including but not limited too one coat and two jackets. I stood sweating In line at customs with my three bottles of gin and 5 carry on bags weighing at least 20kgs – how I got away with this I don’t know I had amazing luck with my overweight luggage.
I get home having not slept in about 50 hours probably more because of that last wild night in London.
Its weird everything’s changed. My mum’s hair is blonde and our cat got really skinny. My rooms a different colour and Wendy’s frosties are vanilla not chocolate. I had been craving that frostie and the discovery almost reduced me too tears.
I came home to find out you have to pay for most clubs now – I had complained bitterly of club prices in London only to discover my own countries jumped on the bandwagon that is ripping people off. We have sharks now – more shark sightings this summer than ever before. I cant go anywhere for fear of getting sunburnt. I had defiantly been suffering from culture shock symptom #5 idealisation of the old country. Its ridiculously hot I’m sure it must have always been this hot but its come as a shock. It freaks me out to discover its 9pm and still brightly sunny outside when it had been pitch black by 3 30 in UK. I’m freaking out! Some sort of major culture shock is going on here. I don’t feel at home in my own country. I’m pretty sure everyone is getting sick of me saying “ in Italy…” or “when we were in Paris….”.The one good thing is seeing my friends again, I went out to my friend Scots 21st last night and caught up with most of my friends who believe I've joined a cult due to my new hair band obsession. Tonight ill catch up with my high school friends at a picnic my friend Frankie is hosting in my honour. A picnic? When my mind is in the middle of winter? Seasonal madness.

2008-01-17T06:43:00.000-08:00

its over unis finaly over - for a whole month and then i have to start all over agin first week back with a whole assignemnt done -hell when am i gunna have time to catch up with any of my freinds , work find a new job first and do this assignment.

soemhow i lose several days of my life on a aeroplane crossing a billion timelines. its 56 hours from getting to heathrow airport to getting home . cry cry cry dosent sound fun and only one of the 16 hour flights has tv. to distract myself i thinka bout going to chicago the msuical tomrow with my friends , im gunna mis them so much

assignemnts

2008-01-16T01:17:00.000-08:00

one assignment down , two presntations to go , i feel liek i wanna die i am so tired and not even from working just from watching gossip girl 9 episodes straight untill the wee hours of teh morning so now i ahev to finsih my assignemnts in my lunch break 10 mins before there due (i know im bad send me to my room) i leave in just a few days and were going to chicago the musical for my last non sleeping in the airport night - so excited

new years- a big mess

2008-01-04T08:05:00.001-08:00

new years was a mess, thought i was gunna stay at home and have a lame old time and then last minute miriam said i should go to london with her and meet up with some dutch friends of hers.
for the first time in my life i have TOO MUCH to wear i just got 7 new dresses- im out of controll with my spending. so end up going for the sensibile option because its cold and i arrive in london and the girls are wearing just miniscule dresses and heels not even a coat or a cardiagn they must be freezing! the dutch people are evry fun its a international mix . i havent been drinking much and was quite ashamed to be quite drunk after 4 glasses of wine we headed soemwhere - i dont rember where - blame the wine- to go watch fireworks and then to a pub called the camel in pimlico - how we got to pimlico i dont know , last i knew we were in north acton(dont ask)
next thing you know its 5 am and a big bunch of us have gone to a random guys house for the afterparty and one of the dutch asks if he has cocaine and sure enough he wips some out and starts cutting up their and then - im innocently shocked! cocaine! what is going on normal nice people doing first class drugs in their posh pimlico apartment , they are pretty casual about it - its no biggie in england it appears. me and miriam catch a 7 40 train home and fall alseep and only just get off at the right spot. a pretty good night over all even if extremly random

its been awhile and paris belgium and new years have happend

2008-01-02T05:06:00.001-08:00

I lost track of what happened when and where, I can summarise a few events but as for chronological order- it’s just beyond me. I’m listening to tiny dancer - the 'almost famous 'version and I hear the quote "I have to go home" and then penny lane says "you are home". I’m not sure; i’m back in UK now and excited to go home but also loving travelling and never wanting to leave. I think I last left this blog in Belgium headed back to the dreaded Paris - i’m not sure what put me in such a bad frame of mind about Paris but whatever it was it soon wore of and looking back it was great, but Paris is a city of great expectations and in many ways it failed to live up to these - we went to Belgium with a open mind knowing little about the country and so everything was a surprise, I wont go as far as to say Paris is overrated because its worth going but it was the unexpected small events that I treasure most. we arrived back in Paris late at night and headed to a new hostel in the montemare district - i.e. the red light district, we got so lost and it was not a good place to be lost in the middle of the night with a big suitcase each, eventually we found our hostel and made our way into the smallest room in the world. we had wondered on our reservation how their could be a uneven number of beds in a room , I had my suspicions but couldn’t believe it - 3 story bunks , me on the the bottom bed on the floor literally and lili sleeping somewhere up near heaven , I had to yell up to her. The hostel is one of the worst possible and actually most expensive, the door doesn’t lock, close, or have a key no hot water it’s a mess we were scared to go out at night. luckily we were here just three nights, we headed to Versailles for a day trip and its the highlight of my trip ,the palace of Versailles are somewhat mediocre after the Vatican but the gardens are to die for , i’m saving up to buy a little patch somewhere. You can get completely lost there, all the grass trees and ponds were frozen it was a winter wonderland. the palace tour is reasonably spectacular , we were not a serious as we should perhaps have been in such a historical place but we had been given the most hilarious audio guides which were extremely pompous and had a overdose of the word 'sumptuous' it was the sumptuous tableware in its sumptuous surrounds covered with sumptuously decorated lace coverings ... you get the drift , they also spontaneously broke out into re-enactments of what the king ‘might’ have said here or what visiting dignitaries might have seen , its really very hard to observe seriously with such comedy in your ears. The next day we went to the Louvre - the Mona Lisa is a let down, tiny and miles away behind a glass wall and a crowd of people. Other paintings with spectacular though, we also visited the grand palace and the mode exhibition. About this time we changed hostels returning to our first Paris stop - aubergine international - very cheap very good. we went this day to the Notre dam and had a hard time avoiding all the fake begers who ask innocently - "do you speak English" I wish like lili I could just pretend I spoke Chinese , I tried to put a sort of confused look on my face - it wasn’t hard, I've had 20 years practice. Inside the Notre dam are spectacular glass stained windows and candles galore. next we headed to the Pompidou museum , i’m not sure what this is,we were very confused , the architecture is a eclectic futuristic mess and the only art we saw was a video with subtitles in which a polish guy yells to a empty stadium that he wants 10 000 Jews to return to Poland , i’m sure it has cultural significance but i’m unsure what it is, we made some friends in the hostel that night in discussion about this video which they didn’t understand either , two guys and a girl one guy from Poland one Ukrainian &one Turkish , even the polish guy didn’t get it.
The next day..... I think was xmas - yay we had a party of two and all the restaurants we closed so with the hostels meagre recourses - a microwave- we had snails- escargots and what I thought was French champagne but due to a language breakdown was actually apple cider, we ate some of our xmas presents - (toblerone). we explored the shops and took all our photos of shop windows for our assignments without the hassle of pesky security guards.... who cares about intellectual property... the shop displays at printemps department store are works of art , they move and hundreds crowd round to see them , they are like live puppet shows.
Next day we went to the museum de orssay - the museum of modern art which was more interesting than the Louvre, lots of my favourite artists and works, the huge Toulouse lautrec's were the highlight, van gohs portrait - the crowd puller paled in comparison to Monet’s waterlillies. We next visited the Luxemburg gardens which are very tranquil and in the same area the pantheon, which is a roman rip off.
we went to the new arch - a big metal square which apparently is a window to the world and sits on a axes that runs from Paris to new Zealand , whilst here we went to a giant mall and got lost only to find Europe’s biggest supermarket - its big really big! We visited a market that was full of Christmassy stuff and I bought real (expensive) French nougat which is heavenly worth every Euro (there was many). Fashion student highlight – we went to all the designer stores and accidentally stumbled across the workroom of comme des garcons, we slipped past the security and peered into the windows and took a few sneaky pics.
we climbed the Eifel tower around 4pm to get the best view at day and night, its a hike but well worth it for the views, we could see the whole of Paris lit up and there was snow all over the first and second floors of the tower so snow shoes were available., our last night in Paris we went for dinner locally at a wonderful Italian restaurant where I had the best chocolate mouse ever! My favourite, we had learnt it was easier to go for Italian than attempt to decipher a French menu only to discover you had ordered sushi or something and not a French meal at all. Italian menus are universal. our last day in Paris we took a lazy option and spent a relaxing few hours on a river cruise up and down the seine seeing the Louvre Notre dam Eifel tower , concord and orsay from the river. it was very relaxing as we ached all over from our hike up the tower the night before, we revived enough to drag our suitcases from the hostel to the train station and then up and down and up and down and up again all the metro stairs, we arrived in London at 11pm and had a hour to catch the last train at nearby Victoria station. however London transport spited us and half the lines were closed, the Victoria line didn’t stop at Victoria and the ticket machine ate our money, and so we arrived in time - to see our train leave, and spent a very cold night sitting outside the station until it opened at 6am and then a further 3 hours sitting in the cold station waiting for the first train back to Rochester, we were needless to say - over it. I am not tom hanks I do not make the best out of living in a terminal.

2007-12-26T07:26:00.000-08:00

it costs two euros for fifteen minutes at a interent cafe in paris thats six nz so i will blog later when its cheaper heres a few pics though

belgium baby land of plenty= of beer and chocolate

2007-12-23T10:43:00.000-08:00

brussels day two = 20th birthday in brussels

2007-12-20T03:31:00.000-08:00

woke up in belgium on my 20th birthday and had half a packet of instant noodels for brekfast to try save money for dinner. we headed out chocolate shopping = the rumors are true belgium has the worlds best chocolate streets are simply lined with glorious chocolate shops , choclate fountains in the windows, belgium is food central , frites and waffles are sold from vendors along the streets and christmas markets sell hot cinamon wine and hot beer. we were leisurly with our sightseeing in brussels , not knowing about any of the cites we were not disapointed to miss any, brussels is very small and easy to complete in a few days , we saw the grand palace and surrounding square of old buildings. we saw manekin piss = yes piss. which is the cities trademark, its a small statue of a little boy peeing, natuarlly you can buy all sorts of hilarious memorabilia to do with this , little boy corkscrews where the screw comes from.......well you can guess use ur imagination. lots of lovely sites in belgium and a little bit of snow. we headed out in teh evening for birthday celebrations = party of two, we ate a three course meal for just 12 euros drinks included. the street where we ate is packed full of sefood resturants which are famous in brussels and the waiters haggle with you to get you in. we ate , oysters, smoked salmon salad and bread for starters, then mussels and poached salmon with frites and then flan with caramalised alcahol on top, all washed down with cherry beer.yummmmmmm
after dinner we got a tad lost trying to find the pub that holds the guinness world record for most flavours of beer and absinth = their working on tequila. its overwhelming the choices, we settles on chocolate and coconut beers, although we were excited about our chocolate beer it turned out to be undrinkable and quite nasty , cocount beer is to die for and tastes like pina colada but better, we headed back to teh hostel to find there was a couple on the bunk beneth me sharing a bunk grosss and very illegal in the hostel lol yuck yuck

brussels day one = chocolate chocolate chocolate

2007-12-20T00:43:00.000-08:00

Paris nord train station nearly killed us at 5am it was so cold i have never experienced anything like it i thought my nose would turn black and fall off at any second , frostbite was imminent, i need earmuffs for sure screw looking stupid.
after two hours on the train we arrived in Brussels and found our first impression to be clean and organised unlike Rome and Paris , escalators and lifts for luggage and friendly personal willing to speak English and not resenting you for not speaking french, joy.
caught a tram to our hostel , kind men and women helped us with out suitcases and directions , Paris shoved us outa France and Brussels has welcomed us with open arms, due to booking late we are staying in a more expensive hostel called 2 go 4 which i recommend, free Internet and big screen surround sound TV , i havent seen let alone watched a TV in 5 months wow. we were in a 14 person room with allot of snorers first night but managed to sleep like a baby and woke up to unlimited hot drinks and a kitchen = best hostel yet. we explored Belgium a bit our first night Brussels is quite small in the centre easy walking distance to everything , we got chocolate waffles and frites, their are beautiful Christmas decorations everywhere i loooooooovvveee Brussels.

paris day two = scamed and ripped off = does paris hate me?

2007-12-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

we headed out early day two to the montemare district and went first to the sacre cour we walked up what felt like a million steps and explored and enjoyed the beautiful views across all of Paris, next to the various museums in the area and the square that host all the portrait painters some good some my cat could do better. as we headed back down from sacre cour we saw some men heading towards us asking us to do a magic trick with string = having gotten the gist of scams in Rome we turned the other direction saying no Merci non Merci , one followed us insisting we try his magic trick , we continued to refuse and walked briskly away from him unfortunately another of his friends came from this direction and they cornered us insisting we try their magic trick and grabbing our hands, they then made crappy woven bracelet things on our hands and tried to charge us 10 euros 30nz dollars for them , we refused saying we never wanted them and had said so several times , they insisted on a donation and we quite scary and force full so we tried to pay them 2 euros but they we so close to us peering into our wallets that they pointed to another euro and insisted we had plenty for a 'donation'. so we ended up paying 3 euros each $9 nz for the sort of thing u make in primary school, no a pleasant experience , i believe Paris hates me. angry at being ripped of we headed into montemares red light district in hunt of the moulin rouge which is not the beautiful theatre seen in the movie unfortunately, the day was freezing and appeared that little was going right for us. we headed to the Arc De Triompe that symbolises Napoleons victory somewhere, as we are in Europe for longer things begin to look more and more the same and the neo classical buildings in Paris are somewhat disappointing after Rome. Paris has its unexpected delights though i am not entirely pessimistic , there are musicians = buskers in the trains that are very talented and it makes using the metro allot more pleasant, i am highly complemented that Parisians or at least french people keep asking me for directions in french , i believe this means i look Parisian yay;
we strolled down the cities most expensive boulevard and back to the concord and Madeline, we attempted to save and make dinner from teh supermarket so bought bread salami and tomato. disaster ensued. we have paper plates and a suitcase as a table. the meal was crude with badly cut plastic knife hacked tomato and dry bread, hilarity, we have a photo, to make up for this a defeating the purpose of trying to save we went and bought cake = lili tiramisu and me flan = like custard. its yum. we woke up at 5am next morning to go to Brussels

paris day two = scamed

2007-12-18T13:40:00.000-08:00

ripped off even though i tried to run away it sucks stupid paris

camenbert cheese , paris part one

2007-12-18T12:15:00.000-08:00

arrived in france around 6pm on staurday night , freezing weather which only got worse, got very lost trying to find hostel which was cruely just off the map i had paid for at great price. had a chance to paractice my french tho asking for directions. first night in teh hostel we were staying with a south african lady who is a teacher , the hostel turns a blind eye to the fact is for under 25s. paris seemed to spite us from the very begining, no lifts or escalators and pointless stairs that go up and then down again straight away and then up with no particular purpose. not enjoyable with heavy suitcases, like rome i found that paris was very dirty and there are alot of homeless people sleeping in the metro stations, not as many beggers but still more than this small kiwi girl is used to. im off two minds weather to belive the travel books and ignore them or give them change and have faith that its not a scam. i was all on my lonesome sightseeing first day in paris, we are staying inbetween the area bastile and the latin quarter, i walked along a long wide boulivard that is called haussaman and stoped at the food markets and sites along the way, including a beatiful church whos name i have no idea where a cute father and son where playing patonk of the frosty grass, so cute, the madeline whcih looks alot like the parthenon in rome, concorde which is a huge area with stautes and stuff along teh river seine, i walked leisury along the river on that beutifully sunny but cold day past the lourve and other sites and buy camenbert to munch on

when in rome part two

2007-12-16T11:33:00.000-08:00

Friends Romans, countrymen.
Rome day two:
We woke up early ready and eager to explore Rome , after a dismal breakfast at the hostel we headed out on foot. First we returned to the area around the colosseum with the buildings tempio di saturno, via sacra, basilica giulia, I rostri, arco di settmio severo, la cura, basilica emilia, basilica di massenzio, tempio di Antonio e faustina, colesseo, palatino, colonna di foca, tempio di giulo cesare, arco di tito, tempio di vesta, casa dei vestalli, tempio di castore e polluce. (Deep breath) we went photo crazy as you can image, and took photos of the police on horses and of me hugging columns. We came across the ruins of some building that is full of cats I now understand why there are cats in the all the postcards, literally hundreds of them just prancing about it made me miss my cat tigga so much. We tackled the map rather unsuccessfully and headed towards some outdoor markets, people on the streets start talking to you and the easy answer is simply

‘no palo italaiano’

(I don’t speak Italian) however one such man (who I thought was drunk at ten am as he was waving a glass of red wine round) reacted very angrily when I said ‘no palo italiano’ and swore (I assume) at me in Italian. We later deduced he wasn’t talking to us but was perhaps praying or something and we had disrupted his prayers.
We came across an outdoor market (piazza novona) where we browsed at marzipan, street performers and various souvenirs. Next we headed to the pantheon, which is ridiculously stunning it’s almost too much to handle. There is a hole it the ceiling and surprisingly no rain gets in despite the fact it is about 4 metres wide in diameter. We passed the tempio Adriano and the st ignazio church which is literally the most stunning building I’ve ever seen and by far surpassed both st peters and the Vatican. Next, to the mall palazzo montecitorio a rather up market affair in a grandeur building, we got lost trying to find the Trevi fountain and I had to ask several times

‘dovet fountain trevi’

eventually we found it and its stunning, there was a momentary lapse in the rain that had plagued us all day so the photos from the trevi look almost sunny, naturally it was swamped by tourists such as ourselves but we did our best to get photos. Next to the Spanish steps, which unfortunately are not that interesting in the winter and certainly not one of my favourites from the trip. It was absolutely pouring by this stage. Luckily one of Rome's oddities is that men selling umbrellas pop up the second a single raindrop falls they walk around the streets arms laden with umbrellas of various colours, they make a mad dash when police drive by and jostle and hustle with their competitors. I haggled for a 3euro umbrella and headed up the stairs. With two umbrellas between three, taking photos was a very wet affair, but a kindly old man held his umbrella over me while I took photos. We hunted around for a cheap lunch in the poshest district of Rome with designer stores that surround the Spanish steps. Unsuccessful in our hunt due to the fact there are always service charges and on top of this many resturants require a further fee for a table. With the rain everything was packed but we found a darling little restaurant of average price. 16euros for a pizza advertised for two but big enough for ten. Vic and me tackled our pizza, which was a combination of eggplant (my new obsession), olives and many other exciting ingredients. We all had expresso afterwards to warm ourselves up in preparation for heading outside it was almost 3pm and already getting dark as we made our way to piazza del popolo which was my favourite site of the whole trip. It was twig light and gorgeous. Statues and fountains and small temples around an open circular stadium of sorts. We walked uphill in the near darkness to a small temple with gushing water coming down it and looked out across the view of the piazza and Rome. We had walked between 3/6 km I estimate and it had taken us 6 hours Vic and I had completely ruined our new boots on Romes cobbled streets. We headed back along Via Del Corso the main road that has lots of nice shops, some with funny names like ‘expensive’ and ‘ok’. I bought a tourist poster of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory peck in roman holiday (vacazione roma), it had to be done I couldn’t help myself. We swung by the trevi fountain again to see it at night when it is even more spectacular. It took us just over two hours to come back directly but we were exhausted and rested at the hostel for a few hours waking up around 11pm to forage for food. Because Rome seems to be open 24/7 we had no trouble finding an open nearby restaurant of a reasonable price. Not as spectacular as lunch but satisfactory. We had brushetta for 3 euros and expresso once again. We tried to communicate as much as possible in Italian but only achieved to say pepe (pepper) not exactly difficult. We browsed some of the boutique stores around the hostel before heading home just past midnight. Lili wasn’t feeling well so she settled in for an early night while me and Victoria headed once again to the libera café/bar. We didn’t know the guests this night so chatted happily to each other whist drinking margaritas that were literally pure alcohol, no ice! Which took us a bout 2 hours to drink just one. We started chatting to leather jacket guy and some other guys who were brazillain and worked in nearby hostels. Leather jacket guy’s sister is living on a marae somewhere in NZ – small world huh. He asked me confusingly why she kept calling him a pakeha and laughing at him. We had a very multicultural conversation for a few hours with people of various nationalities swapping travel stories and attempting to learn some Italian. The hostel workers laughed their heads off at my phrase book and wouldn’t stop teasing my pronunciation. I learned that Italian has the same vowels as Maori. (Ae ei I ow ou.), Vic believes I’ve become very patriotic. It was a really great-relaxed night out. We declined to go clubbing around 3am knowing we had a big day ahead of us.

Vacazione Roma
Day three in Rome:
We accidentally slept in and were late getting to the Vatican; we headed to st Peters cathedral first which was a blessing (excuse the pun) as we arrived in time to see the pope on a rare appearance during winter. He was blessing what appeared to be the higher rankings of the Italian army. About 300 men in very grand uniforms. It was a beautiful ceremony, choirs, organs, orchestra, incense. Vic and me were both a bit teary from the intensity of it despite neither of us being catholic. St peters is almost scary there’s a glass case with one of the dead popes in it, But the architecture and such is breathtaking. We were disappointed to learns that the Vatican itself closed at 12 30 during winter so we were too late to go that day. But discovered instead the castel sant Angelo. A kind of fort/castle – it has a moat and runs along the river Fiume Tevere. The views are spectacular and its very fun winding your way through the tunnels and bumping into people you met at the hostel the night before. From the fort you can see the whole of Rome with st Peters in the forground. The weather was starting to brighten as we crossed a beautiful bridge the Ponte St Angelo. We walked along the river back to the hostel, which took about 4 hours. We went to many sites along the river like the St Giovanni dei florentini chapel, the palazzo spado and the synagogue. The best was the teatro Marcello that is very similar in architecture to the colosseum but less famous and therefore more tranquil because of the lack of tourists.
Just next to this is a small island in the middle of the river (connected by bridges to both banks) called Isola on which clusters of villas are built. In the sun it was very pretty, I have my future house picked out. By now we were back in the area of the colosseum and hiked up to Capitol Hill to look over Areo Di Tito (the collection of ruins). Stopping for more gelato we headed back to the Roma Inn for another late afternoon nap. Before heading out for our last night in Rome. We hit the tourist shops and gathered up a collection of junk. Then went and sat outdoors at a cute restaurant in a street that resembled an alleyway just a few minutes from roma inn. We had to fight off the hawkers from our table, men playing musical instruments, selling roses and other tourist junk. Some were nice like the musicians but others forceful and had to be shooed away by our waitress in Italian. We found a nice fair trade store and bought Italian coffee, pasta and hot chocolate at more reasonable prices than the tourist shops, and I believe more authentic. We couldn’t help ourselves and went again to get more gelato around midnight before heading back once more to the hostel.

We were all getting the flu from walking in the wet weather in damp clothing so
tried to get a good nights sleep.

When faced with poverty do as the Romans do.
Day four in Rome
The next morning we woke early determined not to miss the Vatican on our last day. We caught the metro and arrived at 8am even though it didn’t open till ten. We had a very expensive breakfast of pure melted hot chocolate with hazelnuts and pastries at a boutique café near the Vatican. We arrived at the Vatican at 8 30ish to discover the line was all ready around the block. The poverty we had seen coming into the city is most obvious around tourist spots like this. Beggars sit along the Vatican walls. In the rest of the city they are mainly scarved women begging on their hands and knees but here they are people with obvious deformities, amputees, with little clothing and no shoes, and one man who had what appeared to be tumours (about 3 or four and bigger than a tennis ball) growing out of his neck and head. The tourists- overtly cautious from guide books, try their best to ignore these beggars assuming that, like the beggars in London they do not need to be on the streets- that the government will provide for them. The Italians however give the beggars notes not just change and give their coffees or food to the beggars or even just say kind words which are obviously appreciated, I realise the tourists are naïve and that the Italians know that their government is not providing for these people who have to hobble away when the police drive by. Victoria and I both regretted not having Euro coins to give to these beggars and in retrospect I wished we had given notes. We had to que over an hour to get into the Vatican and I felt that it was not as beautiful as St Peters. Unfortunately flash is forbidden in most rooms but the tapestries paintings and especially ceilings were worth the whole trip. Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel is in our opinion not the best of the murals in the Vatican (see bebo or facebook for the ones we liked the best) but it is nonetheless very grand. It is very easy to get lost following the non sensical signs that eternally point to the Sistine chapel and you go up and down and up again on the levels. We left the Vatican around 12 and went to a nearby resturant for lunch. We had a wonderful reception there, the restaurant is run by a family who were constantly checking if we were ok, gave us free bread and olive oil a free pizza and free desert, no service charge no table charge. They are great I have the name somewhere if you go to Rome you have to go there it’s the warmest reception in Italy. Sadly we had to leave Rome and go sit at the airport for 4 hours waiting for our flight. In London we

literally ran

with our backpacks to catch the Gatwick express to Victoria station, we had just 5 mins to spare to catch the last train back to Rochester – dreading the prospect of sleeping at the station. We made it just in time and arrived home around 12 30 for some much needed sleep.

when in rome.... do the romans day one in rome

2007-12-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

when in rome do the romans- i wish they are gorgeous!!!! we arrived in rome around 11am local time and caught a bus to the airport with minimal language dificulties. vic and lili fell asleep - probably for the best because the first impresion of rome is not the nicest slums as far as you can see all painted a bright orange but nonetheless not disguising the poverty. whole 'villages' of shacks stretch for hundreds of metres along the moterway, made of cardbored ,couragated iron and other junk where people huddled over fires in garbage bins trying to keep warm in the minus degree temperatures. our impression of rome didnt get much better at the main metro staion 'termini' where trains are completly covered in grafiti and windows are so covered in dirt you cant see inside ,we didnt dare sit down it here even if there had been space, and cramed in as we were we held tightly to our bags having been severly and frequently warned about pickpockets. we arrived at 'cavour' and attempted to follow instructions to our hostel and eventually gave up and bought a map for four euros ($12!) we later discovered we had been decidedly ripped of. once in possesion of our map we realised our hostel was about a minutes walk down the road from the station when we had initailly gotten of. feeling a little ashamed and downhearted by our first impressions of rome we headed up a cobbled street with beautiful old buildings of varying shades of orange - i later realised this typified all of rome, the entire city is orange. our hostel 'roma inn' was barley identifiyable with the tinest of plauques on a green door, we got stuck in a weird european style lift and had to drag our weary feet up the marble stairs. the hostel is in the oldest part of the city literally 5mins walk from the collesium and the veiws are amazing. its a weird layout but wonderfully vibrant. we were given a free map which is avaliable almost everywhere.( mr cute glasses as we named him) who was behind the desk was shocked to discover we had paid 4 euros for a much more inadequate map. there was no power at the hostel at that time a power cut i assume, quite hilarious in retrospect and added to the flavour of the trip so he lead us towards the best icecream in town -the sicilian icecream and pointed us in the direction of the collesum. rome may be dirty at first but the sights around the colluseum are to die for , you have not lived till you have seen rome. we almost didint want to take photographs because it looked like a movie set or a postcard and just couldnt be belived , the essence of the city cannot be captured on film. around the colluseum are many many ancient bulidings and we explored these for hours till we could ignore our hunger pains no longer. we headed back to our hostel for dinner which was three euros. eveyrone sits around on square red seats in the reception as there is no comon area and the dorms doors are all in this tiny room. due to the power shortage the chef (mr chef man we nicknamed him i cant keep up with the italian names ) had attempted to cook with candellight with no succes so dinner was late. while we waited we chatted to the remaining two members of staff mr cute glasses and leather jacket guy who gave me and vic some italian wine which i think is very similar to tequilla as it has worms in it and which u drink in shots , its very strong but quite nice on the throat, they were using it in the dinner and it is wonderfull in cooking. we had apatisesers of a 5 star quality of bread with olive oil, basil avacado (which we have been mising in the uk ) and prawns and mini quiche with ham and tomatoe. the dinner was as promised one of the best in rome and much much cheaper. and consited of a pasta bar with fetuchini , raviolli and tortalinii of various flavors. after dinner the three staff members (chef ,leather jacket ,and glasses ) took whoever wanted to come -(most of the guests) to the nearby 'libera' bar/cafe, much to the italians amusement we misheard and thought they said they would take us to the libary and were quite confused. the cafe is just a second up the road and is very picturesque, it has a upstairs and downstairs with various oddities in the decor such a scarves and beads hanging from the celing , broken couches , books ,mismatched coffe tables. we thought it was fabulous , so cute and bohemian. the area is quite a musical and arty scene and there were musicians and people carying instruments in the surounding streets. we had tequila shots and expresso(short black ) at libera with some of the guests and for the second time i got into a fight with some australians who had been imitating the kiwi accent not having realised i was one. the australian couple were very emabrassed and actually quite nice , the other guests were mainly american or spanish speaking from various countries and all very friendly. we left the cafe around 2 am and went to find icecream , everything is still open and all the shops seem to be open almost 24 hours. we went back to the scicillian icecream shop we had visitied that afternoon and i returned to my new found obsession (almond gelato)which tastes like marzipan. i attempted some italian and got laughed at but most people are willing to speak english so no problems there. outside the icecream store at the guiness pub there was a lage group of about 50-60 italian skin heads who were quite scary and who looked at vic and lili quite menacingly as they are asian , i hurried vic along as she hadnt been aware of the significance and with the inocence i love about her said 'alot of people with shaved heads around arent there'. we arrived home around 3 am and fell straight to sleep barley meeting our american dorm mates, who are are studing in madrid belguim and barcelona on exchange, one of them who is asian-american warned us that he had seen many neo-nazi skin head rallies in his travels around europe and cautioned us to be wary in particular of the italian skin heads, luckliy being blonde in italy is a blessing.

all roads lead to rome

2007-12-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

we left our house friday night quite drunk to go and celebrate vics 21st birthday and went clubbing in leister square, fun fun partyed in teh vip room which had a chess borad and a mini libary - weird , we left around 2 30am and went to our friend alexs house to pick up our backpackes for rome and then grabbed a taxi and literally RAN to victoria station to catch the gatwick express to the airport which we reached at 3. 30 we then did all that customs buisness and finnally caught our plan to rome!

2007-12-03T04:16:00.000-08:00

this week in Amanda (aka peanut sunshine) land.....

Saturday i went to London to do my Christmas shopping , made a start at Shepperd's bush where i was disappointed to find a severe lack of squirrels. next we went in search of the Kenzo store which has eluded us thrice before - this time- great success! kenzo was found however it was completely useless because we needed to take photos and because life just hatttttesss me - there was scaffolding and i couldn't see anything. next we went to Camden - i officially love Camden there is no crazier place in the world we were starving so i has a spring roll and the sugariest fattest and best ever doughnut - Bavarian cream with chocolate topping with nuts and white chocolate. crazy! there was no seating so we perched on pot plants with what must have been every other tourist in London. we scoured the markets and shops for a blissful few hours before there was a huge down pour - oh dear and so thousands of tourists tried to leave Camden at the same time - tube mayhem. eventually we made it to oxford street the high street mecca of London where we happened apon the oxford street festival - i love London you just stumble across things happening! so there where sales! and there was street performers and the whole street was closed and there was beautiful fake snow which quickly became annoying and lili and i were soon shouting "lili help! its in my eye" "Amanda !some went in my mouth ew ew". lili went to meet a friend so i went shopping on my own buying gifts and things for people and having a grand old time despite the pouring rain and violent mob that is the Christmas shopping crowd. i almost caught the wrong train home and panicked because i had run to catch a train that was leaving, luckily i had panicked for nothing and rather embarrassed myself.

Sunday there was a Charles dickens Christmas festival in our town (Rochester) home of Charles dickens!. there was a parade where all the local dressed up in what was supposed to be Victorian time dress but which got a bit historically confused as im sure there was some elizabethan in there but fabulous all the same , next to the fair where there were Ferris wheels and carasols all with the castle in the back ground - gorgeous! bagpipers and carolers , candy floss and crepes and hot chocolate - all my favorite fair time fun! we explored Charles dickens house with has a a cats of characters pretending to be Victorian , very funny the maid got fired in our viewing slot. hilarious

hit me baby

2007-11-30T16:04:00.000-08:00

we have boxing gloves and hit pads in our flat now , were boxing in the kitchen- fun times

photoshoot , grey squirels , ruby blue , penthouse!, attacked by promoters i was!

2007-11-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

the squirels have turned grey its official winter is here and it is absoultly freezing.this we discovered in the most unpleasent of ways. thursday night we wnet clubing in london for my flatmates birthday (see photos on bebo and facebook) she knows a promoter who goes by the alias mike jones (seriosly) we went clubing leister square by china town which is a big clubing area and boy did i get a shock , attacked by promoter was innocent I!, the are sneaky people promoters they dress like average folka dn sorta grab u with this fast talking attampt to gte u into there club. luckily angie rescued me. we headed to the uber exclusive 'penthouse' club first which has the best bathroom ever. seriously there is a bathroom attendant and then there is like a store in there! candy! FOOD! every brand of cosmetics and hairspray! hair straighterners! 4 kinds! hair dryers! you want it - they got it! next stop the club ruby blue which is covered with paintings of bond girls - very cool. we were her etill about four and couldnt catch a train till 6 so we went to get food at a really cool american style dinner where we got very expensive food - but it wa sok we justified to oursleves because we got in for free to two very expensive clubs. around 5 we bussed (still love the double decker- not yet over it) to victoria station and waited in teh frezing cold in dresses and tights for it to open. then to our dismay or trains were - DELAYED - cry i was actually frozen i swear i had hypothermia ive never been anywhere near as cold as that in my entire life. we got starbux and mc donalds for brekfast in a attempt to warm ourselves up - no such luck it just wasnt gunna happen. finaly got a atrain back around 7 and got home at 8 for a total of 45 minutes sleep before our first lecture that morning , so for the second week in arow we were slightly tiddly at friday morning lecture. sunday night we had a pre pre pre christams party at love and denais - super yummi greek food. then worked hard on alllll our manannanananany assignemnts-not cool. weds we had our photo shoots for our tailoring project- see photos which love and deani modeled for us , so much fun throwing leaves and doing hair and make up and dancing round to elvis songs! this time next week ill be in rome!!!

jesus, prince, tate and a crack - whats the link?

2007-11-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

ive completly lost track of what happens when and if i have written about it, last wednesday we went to london thought and had "a rite ole time" made a start in berrick st (spelling probli wrong) the material mecca of london but also very expensive. get this ! 18£ thats like 48$ for a metre of calico. and this is not special calico just standard. i brought dupion silk for ten pounds a metre else where so it really says something. luckily we wernt buying just sampling . we then tried unsucesfuly for the most part part to take photos of designer shops for our research. i was wearing my new turban from h &M

yes u read rite- a turban!

and got nicknamed the turbanator for the whole day. luckily thought my self confidence was re ignighted when in issey miyake a super stylish merchandiser said he liked my hat. thats my 5£ hat from h&M when the guy was wearing thousands of dollars worth of issey miyake clothes (smug smile)
we stumbled across carnaby street by accident! somewhere i had been meaning to go but had typically forgoten about , naturaly the things you find by accident are the best! shoppping heaven retro boutiques galore and lots of up and coming designers , i had to use some serious restraint.
next lili and i headed off to the tate britan which is a absoloute snooze fest we left in about 5 mins. it advertises itself as free but has about two rooms which are not paid acces exhibitions. never mind i didnt have much desire to see stiff english men riding horses. the architecture is quite gorgeous though. next we headed to tate modern to meet up with vic and dervin. in comparison to its brother tate modern is absoloutly fantastic , i actually became quite emotional walking around the pictures i had seen my whole life and studied. i almost cryed in a wing dedicated to mark rothko it was just so overwhelming. i have to say the biggest let down was mondrains work , up close

the lines are not even straight

and its really not that great!. naturally we were all amazed by the crack! for those who didnt know its a instilation in tate moderns entrance and is essentially a giant crack in concrete running for about 100metres. aparanetly the museun keeps getting sued by people who twist their ankles. poor vic thought the crack had been caused by some natural disater and was disapointed to learn a few days later that its actually a art work. i supose then that nature is always the most amazing thing.
by now it was dark - at 4pm. thats right were living in darkness these days. we took a leisurly stroll in the freezing cold along the bank of the thames , past the milenium bridge, shakespeares globe theatre and the london dungeon. its moments like that when i feel i never want to leave london.
we went back to mine and lilis first love -

chop chop

the noodle bar we ate at in kings cross our first night here , its extremly cheap and the meals are huge, i took mine away -Da Bao(my new found multicultral side asked to takeaway in chinese) and ate laksa for 3 meals - food poising heaven but i have a iron clad stomach now from 2 minute noodles. anyway we had our wonderful meal in kings cross and headed back to victoria station. naturally some of the lines were closed because someone had fallen under a train. this is just casually announced on the speakers -

"the picadilly serive is not in operation due to someone falling under the
train, there will be no service on the picadilly line - please use other modes
of transport"

and then crudley writen up on the whiteboards at each station

victoria line - good service
central line - minor delays
picadilly line -
person under train - suspended.
thats london life for you!

thursday - extremly tired from wednesday i got up extra early to help vic with a photoshoot she was doing a styling exercise for peirre et giles and the model was our friend dervin.the concept was two photos one jesus and the other prince - or the artist formally known as.
hilarity ensued,
fisrt there was the styling of the loin cloth- no explanation needed. next as the unofical make up artist i needed to make dervin looked starved and dying so i was grotesquely makeuping dervins stomach to make it look like his ribs were protruding, convieniantly at this time when everyone is a bit akward about the almost naked man aspect the song

" we have to take our CLOTHES OFF"

-gym class heros came on and broke down the atmosphere. after jesus dervin was ready to become prince - in tights , pink tights. thankfully hes not at all self concious. we had a fun time dancing around to prince which the photographer convieniantly had on his laptop.
friday was my flatmate naz's birthday so we stayed up late and decorate dthe whole flat pink (her favorite colour) we got lots of danish pastries and crosonts and made a pink cake - pink confetti pink everything! she was really suprised it was super cute! she then had her first drink- at 21! good girl! anyway and we were all a little tiddly by the time we headed of to the mornings lecture.

the frustration of creativity

2007-11-20T09:15:00.000-08:00

who would have thought i would be so hard to be creative as a fashion student. by our teachers definition the only way to be creative is to make something with no resemblance to a garment. then naturally you fail if its not athestically wearable. ive spent the last two days being critisised for making armholes or things that fit the body! im out of my league here ! i just wanna go party in brighton and never come back

2007-11-16T04:32:00.001-08:00

http://www.myspace.com/mandibile

some of the best shoppig in london

2007-11-15T05:51:00.000-08:00

im a fashion girl living in a very fashionable world. spent a lazy wedensday inlondon yesterday shop shop shoping mainly ind around conduict street , lts ofgreat retro or up a comig dsigner shops. on berwick street there are wholesale jewelery stores with cheap acsesories

yay! well worth a visit if your in london

2007-11-13T05:15:00.000-08:00

Blue water and green which – fondly known as the adventures of Charlie and his angels

2007-11-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

Blue water and green which – fondly known as the adventures of Charlie and his angels

A busy weekend for us kiwi girls here in England, Saturday we headed to bluewater which we had been told was the biggest mall in Britain. – Its not that big. We got told you can’t see the whole thing in one day. You can. You can see it all in two hours.
What they didn’t tell us was that there is an artificial lake outside with swans and a kind of amusement parks! We may have bigger malls in NZ but they do not have features like that. Nor do we have H&M my favourite UK shop, I went a bit crazy…….
Sunday myself lili and Victoria headed to greenwhich to meet Dervin , getting only “slightly” confused by the trains and being a little bit illegal and not paying .. Not our fault I swear we intended too but lili felt guilty all day I'm sure.
So we arrived in greenwhich and were hit with super freezing winds, most unexpected considering we have had a good spell of weather and so I was wearing my new H&M summer dress and a light jacket, we were all unprepared without our gloves scarves or hats and spent most of the day complaining about the cold and alternately buying hot food and drinks to try warm ourselves up. Nonetheless we had a fantastic day, I decided the day’s theme song was, “I went for a walk, on a winter’s day….all the leaves are brown and the sky is grey…….” Dervin (Charlie) our “tour guide” used to live in greenwhich so he showed us the ins and outs starting with the indoor (but just as cold) markets which have everything from “ye olde drinks” –cider, egg nog and many more, food stalls – we got yummy Danishes almond croissants sushi couscous salad and more! Lots of up and coming designer stores, (Dervin managed to sweet talk me and him some work experience from a local label) and all kinds of other market stuff. We visited a beautiful café called “George of England” which had a really cool interior lots of paintings from the Victorian era all crammed into the walls. Next we headed to the port where unfortunately the famous cutty sark burnt down earlier this year and so could not be seen, we had a little adventure in a tunnel that runs under the Thames joining greenwhich to central London. Climbing up those stairs gives exercise a new meaning! From the port we hiked up to the meridian line museum thingy visiting various fabulous vintage and quirky stores on the way. The meridian centre is located atop a hill in a beautiful park, we did the typical touristy standing in each hemisphere photos before roaming around the park for a bit being stupid , vic kept wanting to play hide and seek , something in the air this weekend has had us all wanting to revisit our childhood. From the park we headed to the queens house, I don’t know which queen lived there but she sure lived in style, gorgeous neoclassical architecture in the surrounding buildings. we created quite a stir posing for photos atop the columns as Charlie’s angels or climbing the ornate fences, a random Italian tourist openly stopped and laughed at our escapades. From this point in the day onwards we lost a little faith in our tour guide as he seemed set on killing us all, screaming instructions like, when I say cross, cross, cross!!!!!!!!!! And then we would all put our lives in peril, greenwhich may be a village but village roads it has not! And the roads are wider and scarier here than in central London -they make New Zealand’s roads look like the footpath. We headed back through the shops to more markets to get MORE food, I’m surprised we are all not huge the amount we are eating. After a lot more food and a lot more shopping at the outdoor markets (I’m still defrosting) we headed to starbux for crème Brule lattes which I feel start the Christmas season. Then we attempted to head home braving the complicated rail system. At least we paid this time but karma seemed to be taking its revenge and we had a few hiccups but arrived home safe and sound ready and waiting for our next adventure.

GEISHA GIRL PHOTOSHOOT- and other adventures

2007-11-09T05:31:00.000-08:00

blog : friday 9th november.A crazy busy week for me , it started with all out panic monday to wednesday as we approached our deadline for uni so no sleep for two days came home wednesday at 4pm and sleep for 16 hours. thursday we had our photo shoot for practice styling our designer was john Galliano (lili had topshop) so we ha to try get a john Galliano look. i suggested - surprise surprise a geisha theme like he did a year or two ago , so managed to convince poor vic to model and be a geisha for us - having transformed my friend jessey peng into a geisha two years ago i had a vague idea of what to do but for john Galliano we had to do a more severe less pretty look so we decided she more like hirajuku geisha (vic said and i quote -"i look like a raped japanese prostitute" she was mortified to say the least but as a good friend she went through with it , horror of horrors in the middle of making her up the fire drill went of (epsom girls you should no its is even more frequent here than it was at high school) and there was not even a fire at all the purpose of vic's humiliation was to check everyone had their student IDs because our school has gone on High terrorist alert because there was some "intruders". typically i didn't have my ID its lost somewhere in my room so i was made to stand to a segregated group , but as i was in the middle of my assignment i gave in to the peer pressure (of vic and lili beckoning me to make a run for it) and made a mad dash. now we have to wear our IDs pinned to us at all times , its the height of shame but at least were all shamed together. back at the photo shoot vic was a excellent poser , our styling tutor yohanus had a few raised eyebrows at our creative direction which included instructions like "your a drunken harajuku girl- work it " and "your so vain" . i made helpful comments like "be lazy - i want a lazy geisha". its surprised vic managed to make a lot of great poses without getting confused by this - the mark of a model in making.
later that evening we went out with big group for a cheap dinner at our local "spoons" it was a big fun mix of people from germany , greece , cypress , england , bangladesh , india , new zealand , hong kong , singapore ,and Philippians. lots of fun :) i love my international friends !
mandi