an introduction

That one's meant to be fuzzy. ; )

So, let me introduce you to my winter coat! I thought the introductions would take place in London, but it was actually quite chilly a few days in Barcelona, so you get the background of Parc de l'Espanya Industrial instead! Incidentally, I love that park. t has the crazy towers at one end and a tree-shaded café at the other, where I demand to go as often as possible to enjoy my café con leche in the sunshine.

Those of you who read my grumblings about winter coat shopping will remember that I was infuriated by the price/quality non-logic of coats on the high-street: basically, anything with a high wool content was well over £100. At a lot of them were just boring anyway. Then I went Spitalfields Market in the East End, and found a whole new set of problems... there were suddenly loads of coats I wanted, and I could afford them, the problem was choosing.

In the end I was exceptionally bad and bought two (but luckily my mom bailed me out by buying this green one as a late birthday present). I just love this coat. It's 100% wool, handmade in London, (I'm a big fan of handmade) and it reminds me a bit of the Sherlock Holmes style coat I was oogling, but less costumey. It swings when I walk, it spins when I twirl, it keeps me warm, it matches my eyes... it's a good thing we get along so well, because I wear it almost every day.

The other coat I'll introduce you too when it realllly gets cold!





It just encourages a bit of twist and shout:






This year I've really rediscovered the blouse:




And that's all for now folks. See you soon!


Outfit:
coat: Spitalfields Market
blouse: Zara
jeans: Winners
shoes: Ebay
ring: was my grandmother's
earrings: gift

Photos by Albert

salut!

No winery tour would be complete without sampling the goods, and I, characteristically of someone who rarely drives, over-sampled. I'm going to say that that picture of Dionysus whispered in my ear that I should try everything on offer: white, red, rosé and cava. I wouldn't want to accidentally miss out on the best one, would I? Luckily we went for an absolutely enormous typical Catalan meal in Vilafranca to soak it all up!

As before, these photos were taken at Vallformosa.

















Yep. A typical Catalan thing.




Outfit:
dress: Pepe Jeans
orange shirt and jacket: Smart Set
shoes: Camper

Photos by Albert

alcohol fumes and cultural immersion

most photos by Albert

Here we are in semi-sunny Catalonia! Not Barcelona precisely, because I was whisked out of town on Sunday to do one of those things I've always wanted to do... go to a winery. I come from one of those families where no Friday night is complete without a bottle of wine, and no New Years Eve is complete without about six, so to see the process in such a great wine-producing region was just dreamy! It did require a bit of effort, being entirely in Catalan, and with the entire Catalan half of my boyfriend's family. I was gratified to discover that my Catalan understanding hasn't deteriorated too much in the past two years, though I still can't speak it. ***For the uninitiated, Catalan is a language spoken in Barcelona and the surrounding province/country/state/autonomous community/I'm not even getting into that. It's a romance language, like French, Spanish and Italian and has similarities to all of them but it isn't a dialect of Spanish, it's a language. Therefore, though I speak Spanish, Catalan is a fair effort to understand and yeah, I haven't managed to speak it with too much success yet. Maybe one day!***

Anyway, the winery was super-fun, and since we took way too many pictures as usual, I'll split this post. Winery pictures today, outfit (and probably more winery) pictures tomorrow.

The winery, by the way, was Vallformosa, near the village of Vilafranca, about an hour from Barcelona, judging by my carsickness levels when we arrived!















Cava, Catalan sparkling wine

So, do any of the rest of you have some things that you simply must experience?

bloggers in soho!

The second half of my bloggy date with Raquel was fun, blessed with setting sunshine, and well, rather funny. I hadn't been to teh touristy Central London locations yet since I arrived, and my usual routine is so different that it was a bit surrealistic being in Soho and Trafalgar Square again. To add bloggy stereotypes to tourist stereotypes, we also passed by the Hummingbird Bakery in Soho, which I think is a bit renowned for fashion blogger meet-ups. I'm actually not so fond of cupcakes (I don't know why, since I like cake well enough), but neither of us could pass up the red velvet ones. We got take-away and sat eating them in Trafalgar Square and then ran around being even bigger tourists until it got dark.

I'm definitely hoping I get the chance to hang out with Raquel again!



















Photos of me by Raquel, photo of the two of us by a passing stranger!

Outfit:
Skirt: Urban Outfitters
jacket/blazer: Smart set
pashmina scarf: gift
ancient boots: Timberland
tights: Boots
bag: my mother's orginally

bloggers in camden town!

One strange thing with moving to London was the thought that suddenly, there were so many other people with similar interests inhabiting the same space as me. Of course, there were a few other bloggers in Guadalajara, but nothing like the numbers there are here. On top of that, people are always coming and visiting London...

So when I heard that Raquel from Black Sheep was coming to London for a week, I thought it was a great opportunity to meet up. She was a stranger in London, I was almost a stranger in London... we could go and be tourists together. So on Thursday morning, feeling a bit frazzled and certainly not very stylish (Thursday mornings aren't my strong point of the week), I went to meet her in Camden Town. Raquel turned out to be just lovely and easy to talk to, and we had a great time walking by the canal, poking our noses into vintage shops and eating insanely sweet crepes. The light was a bit against us that morning, but we did manage to get a few pictures. We didn't leave it there either, but arranged to meet a second time, later in the day. I'll be posting those pictures later this week (while I'm still building my portfolio of Catalan moments for you)!













Outfit: this is how I dress when I think it's going to be cold in the morning. On this particular day, it wasn't, and I spent a great deal of time taking off my lumberjack shirt and putting it on again with every passing cloud...

Photos of me by Raquel

benvinguts a barcelona!

Hola everybody! There were lots of intelligent (and accurate) guesses on my last post! I am indeed visiting Barcelona, which was my home for a year and a half, once upon a time. I'm hoping to accumulate lots of pictures among the beautiful weather and sights of this city to share with you, but until then, here's my favourite activity. I know, I know. I could be going to the beach, museums, looking at gothic and modernist architecture, or many other things... and yet what I have missed the most about Barcelona is going for a cheap milky coffee and a croissant.

As they say here, "un café amb llet, si us plau!"

leaving, on a jet plane

Hello all! It's currently 1 am and I'm waiting for another hour or so before I leave for my bus to the airport. I'm going away for a week (posting to continue as normal, or at least I think so). Any guesses as to where I'm going? Hint: it's still in Europe; I've spent a lot of time there in the past, and the weather is almost certainly better than here... although that's not entirely fair, because it's been quite nice here...



In other news, look at what happened to my shoes! This falls into the category of, "they don't make stuff the way they used to." Bah, humbug. I can think of no reason why the heel should fall off one of them. True, they were second hand, but they'd hardly been worn. It looks as though they were made more or less of pressed cardboard... useless. I've had them fixed, but still, I resent it, since I only bought them in June. Grrr.

So, where am I going? ; ) Hope everyone has a good weekend!

back-garden loitering

Just a quick post today, ladies and gentlemen. I seem to have gone from being almost ahead of myself in school to being woefully behind in the space of a week. Accordingly, here's a few more pictures of me lurking in my back garden. For those who said last time that they liked it, why thank you! I can't take any credit. And for those who asked if I have any plans to do anything with it... erm, no. I'm not very domestic. And I'm just renting, so I don't really feel that it's my place to plant zucchinis or anything! But it's a nice thought!









Outfit:
grey shirt: Smart Set
dress: H&M (six years ago)
tights: gift
boots: Steve Madden
ring: was my grandmother's