"i've had the time of my life. . ."

Moving, moving, whoosh!
Moving can be so fun and you can spend hours on end trawling through sites looking for the best bargains to suit your budget (I have sworn I will not go mad). I think I am at least 30% better in bargain-hunting now. Apart from 50-cents clothes and books I was always so proud of in Sing, or the occasional amazing sales haul, I think I am stupendously bad in thinking what a good bargain is. I would pick out something that is 50% cheaper than I thought it would be, present it proudly to my gurlfriends, who would in turn find something even cheaper and. . well, I give up. Maybe it's a Singaporean thang--they give you the best money-saving tips ever lol. Or so I discovered when I moved here and befriended a handful of fellow locals. So I've been too excited I cannot sleep. This is bad. I look for stuff and realise, oh no, it's 4am, so I lay down. But you know how when you're awake life can be so wonderful you don't want to go to sleep (and when you're asleep you enjoy it so much you don't want to wake up!), I get up half an hour later and do more! The day has begun and it is a rare day when I see the sun rise so I dress up and go out and pick up stuff. I move on Friday so I want to set up most of the house over the weekend and therefore have gotten a complete game plan of how and where to store what, and assembled an array of things to deliver over to my current place so I can get crackin' immediately. You know, things like towels, incense, wall hangings and satin sheets. Except that posting suddenly seems slower than I remember. Which is getting me slightly worried.

BUT, this is my first real place (dorm rooms do not count, plus with curtains like that a room will *always* look fugly), where I can burn candles and incense and oils letting the room smell luxurious of say, frankincense or bergamot & patchouli without setting the fire alarm off and where I will no longer sleep on a poky mattress with protruding springs!! I've been planning anally (I mean, meticulously) and doing up loads of sketches. When you rent painting the walls or slabbing on wallpaper is a no-no I realise, because they're fun to put up but a right pain in the arse to remove in order to make the whole house look the way it looked when you first stepped in. So you invariably have to find a way of dressing up the walls. .and of course, hunting for the furnishings of your dreams: velvet Chesterfields, damask chaise lounges, proper thick fluffy Egyptian bath sheets, satin sheets, luxurious mattresses, a whole dedicated shoe display. . .  Oh God, let's all tap into the collective sentiment and chant a little 'deliver on time' for me.

Storage is absolutely important to me to keep organised as I am bent on no longer living out of boxes. College rooms were always going to be a temporary transition for me and so I generally kept it quite ugly with boxes of clothes everywhere (meaning I cannot be arsed to really dress, I have not worn a proper pair of trousers in a year!) and shoes on the shelves where books are supposed to be (I keep them stuffed in the window sill). Today amongst the stuff I got were cans of Shock White and Shock Black spray paint (why are they criminally expensive here!?) so I can spray paint shoe boxes to store my stuff beautifully. Shoe boxes are really handy-- I stuffed loads into my big boxes here and could immediately 'unload' already-organised boxes rather than to stare at a bottomless pit of miscellaneous items in a deep box-- except that they're every colour of the rainbow. Painting is too much of a hassle. Yay for spraying! I've been so inspired drooling at Vix's and Veshoevius' jewelry display and storage I've loads of new ideas now. And, after all, we have to live in beautiful surroundings (sometimes I admit I go a little insane looking at these obnoxiously ugly curtains). . and I also have to add that blogging for this 1.5 months has become more and more enjoyable as I've discovered a community of very real, vintage-loving, eclectic and outspoken women. I do enjoy looking at sites with the latest clothes styled in the latest trends, but . . somehow they lack soul and energy generally. Devilishly Pleasurable is fast turning into Foxhole For Musing (does anyone else love how Machiavelli used the term 'foxhole'? Beyond the bastardisation of how everyone has an immediate association with the derogatory 'Machiavellianism' ), I realise. So, I am still undecided on what to do my next post on as my fingers dance on my keyboard (can't wait to get my MacB Pro soon! yay! okay I'll shut up now). There are a few choices (1) Saturday in London watching Dirty Dancing (2) with D's mother in Cambridge & Ely [few weeks back] (3) my favourite fall/winter looks that I conjured last season, except that I realise I could do entire outfit posts on some of them [they are that good, if I say so myself lol] (4) loads of how-tos I've been meaning to come up with (5) beauty posts (6) cooking posts [I love to cook] (7) don't post at all and moan about how I just realised I have more books than I thought and might need more boxes.

Dirty Dancing!

So, it's gonna be Dirty Dancing after all. Seeing as they were starring at me in one of my Finder windows. The Cousin MQ goes to Germany occasionally for a few weeks of work every few months. The last round saw our plans to meet in Berlin botched, so this time she came over to London. Actually she would have come to Cambridge if not for. . The Hag not facilitating things despite my booking way in advance (another reason why I am so glad to move out). MQ and I grew up together, brought up by my maternal grandparents, and I remember boarding the bus with her on my first day of Primary School (she's four years older). . amongst our memories (with her older sister) include sneaking to other blocks to buy stickers, playing 'camping' whilst trekking across different rooms, playing Beauty Salon where she cut off my eyelashes which never grew back curly again and which she will always remember because she got a good bollocking from her dad, and then later as we grew up, shopping trips and a few holidays together. Time flies and we're no longer innocent kids in frocks with Peter Pan collars (which I have suddenly begun to love) and ugly plastic pink glasses which we were so proud of. This time after my frantic attempts to call her (no reception in Harrod's) on where to meet whilst I was on the train, we finally got through and met at Covent Garden, walked over to Chinatown for authentic dim sum and our £4.50 congee (which really is madness!) and where I taught her How To Choose Asian Food In England-- don't ever go to Yipee! or Wagamama's. Which are heftily overpriced and terrible-tasting. Go to somewhere where you see loads of Asians too! (Although the toilets may not be that clean).

Speaking of Horrible Fake Asian Food-- the kindest description I can give-- I remember telling K to snap a photograph with our atrocious S$20 plate of noodles . something you can get in Sing for $2, despite our high living costs. So good dim sum is always a pleasant treat, as seen from the way I stare lasciviously at my egg tarts; whilst we caught up on our stories as I pigged out and then told her "Okay I've eaten more than half my share. . that's yours". "What? I cannot finish!", she replied, as usual making me feel like a greedy pig (my brother calls me Piggy because I love to sleep). She's getting married in December, and we're both excited about moving into new places! Shopped around a little, I brought her around some places, before we went to watch Dirty Dancing: The Musical with her friend. Oh, do I love that story (and Patrick Swayze). . it's way better than its sequel, and the musical was fantastic. Vibrant, alive, and beyond-awesome. I am secretly itching to watch it again as its soundtrack blasts in my head-- you gotta love having auditory synesthesia of sorts.

And style notes, of course.

• Braving the streets of London in heels (you hafta walk LOADS), nevermind if they were only 2.5-inches. These Topshop leather lace-ups are extremely comfortable.

• LOVE the sheer grey patterned stockings! Only £1 from Primark! Steal! So were the earrings too.

• Black vintage leather jacket & vintage red leather belt, black Marble Ink leather handbag, silver chain from my Celine handbag.

• This Milla Jovovich for Mango dress is luxuriously thick with a beautiful neckline, and is cut in such a way that the skirt swishes when you walk. . making you feel like you are waltzing.

• MQ is yet another victim of Harrod's food department packaging. . buying tins of food because they're too pretty. Oh well, props for posing!

•  Large gold ring's from Diva, snake ring from Aldo and Satyr ring's from Aquanetta Vintage. I bought a job lot of vintage silver zodiac rings, and they are so charming!

• Whilst we were talking photos outside the large DD billboard, large trucks barricaded the road as some work was being done. We stopped some random victim (as K likes to say, "go charm a victim to take photos for us") to take a shot of us. . and whilst he was doing it methodically the barricades went off and the trucks were honking at him. Yet he coolly positioned us in the photograph and went, "one, two, three" matter-of-factly whilst we were a bit shocked (not wanting my Victim to really get knocked down!) my expression in that photo was too. . priceless.

Friend Friday!
1. When it comes to outfit posts on your own blog, be honest are they what you actually wore that day?
Yes of course. Sometimes the main reason why I take photos of my clothes (which conveniently serves as material for a fashion blog) is because I know I'll never repeat that same combination again. At least not in the next three years. I peruse my iPhoto or some online gallery with my shots from time to time and smile at them, whilst getting re-inspired again. Even then I don't take my outfit shots everyday. Sometimes if I do a 'transit' back to my place I might decide on re-styling the look a little. A different pair of shoes (D remarked I go through about three pairs a day), a different belt, a different jacket. Sometimes it's only after you've worn it for a few hours that you realise there are some magical tweaks you could make. So you can see me at 9am in a certain outfit and at 6pm in something else because. . I doctored the look a little. That's also the beauty of sometimes finding spare accessories in your bag. . although, I'm sure I'm answering way beyond that question.

2. For a fashion blogger, working in a corporate environment can be tricky. How do you mesh your day job with your personal style choices?
I've never really worked in an office job save for one in my junior college after my A-Levels. . apart from that my work has always been freelance, running around tutoring with flexible hours and dress codes. Although, there are undoubtedly silent no-nos such as 'no party wear', 'no skanky wear'. . basically I think one should look remotely decent in that job. Working as a tutor actually allowed me to be expressive. . to put together different looks, and to experiment. Plus I realise the students actually are attracted to your clothes, which they will tell you once they become comfortable with you, and you can bribe them that if they spend half an hour doing their assignment or learning some algorithm, you will talk to them about fashion for five minutes. I loved that job alot (of course, I picked who I wanted to tutor!) and it was really sweet when I flew back for a holiday in March and I was swamped with 'Come teach me for a few weeks!', when one of them actually told me, "I didn't like (some other tutor). . she was dead boring and she wears jeans and backpacks and sports shoes". Now that was pure discrimination, but . . well, I loved the freedom of dress code there. I'd actually dress up on most days because I'd go out and meet my friends after that, so I had students reveling in my shoes, forever asking where I got them from, or in my rings, or in. . . Although I must admit that I have a whole collection of officewear too-- I love them. Which I sometimes wear to go out, but I think what sets them apart are little details-- pleats, silk ties around high-waisted wool skirts, transparent billowy sleeves, interesting prints, etcetera. I used to love having presentations as an undergraduate-- perfect excuse to buy those clothes!

3. When you get dressed in the morning, do you think what should I wear to work or what should I wear for the blog?
I think, what do I feel like today? What persona/character do I wake up as? What do I feel like being today? What inspires me today, then I go to The Magical Mystery Wardrobe. Except, as I mentioned above, they're all in boxes for now. Still, everyday is a fashion parade!

4. Do professionals you interact with ever make comments about your clothing choices?
Generally when I have to dress smart I dress really really smart, with impeccable attention to detail and quality. Whenever I have to mingle amongst The Professionals (for a multitude of reasons), I am well, one of the best-dressed. Lol. And generally get loads of compliments. Or catty stares. But hey, some of us have nicer shoes!

5. Some bloggers openly admit to wearing outfits only for the blog post. What's your opinion on that?
I'm fine with that. Some treat their blog as an artistic venue for experimentation or to 'create a lifestyle' or as some sort of alter-ego. Some looks, as I am aware, are not for the faint-hearted. So posting them on the blog might be a daredevil move in itself. Whilst others have generally very wearable styles which translates to loads of everyday outfit posts, some of which are extremely ingenious and bold! Some of us Wear What We Want (and subscribe to Everyday's a Fashion Parade unconsiously ;) ) and really, I'm all for variety. Personally I doubt I'd ever dress for a certain look just for photographs for my blog. I like to live in my clothes, and for my clothes to live life since I have a penchant for anthropomorphosising. Like I always tell Lulu, (insert handbag) is so lucky, it's been all over the world with me, in ancient trains and in the snow and in the seas. . to which she'll tell me, "Lucky? It's been abused!'. Err, righto.


If you'd like to join Friend Friday, do give a shoutout to Katy Rose of ModlyChic.

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