hello from london [part thirty-eight]

hello friends

how are you? i am well. there is much to tell you. where to start?

i really liked our show for london fashion week [you can watch it here]. wakako played me the show music a few days before and i got excited the opening track is from the life aquatic with steve zissou. i asked her if that is one of her favourite films and she shrugged, she just likes the music.

i love the aquamarine dot top worn underneath this check and crest print dress. when the model did her turn and started stalking back, the split sleeves took my breath away [not seen here]. this look just keeps on giving! i love it! my guests at the show were bahbak [i invited him last season], serena, and chris [my new beau, yes, that is right]. after the show chris [his first] said he felt like he was in sex and the city. my little boss' daughter [aged three, nearly four] asked her father "are they real peoples?" referring to the models. oh, fashion! no proper show gossip, sorry.

what else? oh yes, paris. i hope my big boss is not reading this. he surprised me in the paris showroom by making reference to the polaroid project from 2005. if he can find that, he can find this. paris was such a surreal experience. we woke up at 3.30am on a thursday morning to catch the 5.20am eurostar. that pretty much set the tone for the trip. it felt like time raced ahead and my brain was doing its best to keep up. sometimes i did not know which day it was. it was a major head spin but having said that, we worked all day [talking customers through the range and collecting their orders, you know, selling] and ate and drank and danced all night on company pounds. n i c e. on our first night we went out to celebrate alexis' birthday and ended up at cafe de flore drinking with sophie calle [mark's friend], sitting near wes anderson [sophie's friend] who was with lou dillon, and walking past karl lagerfeld who was sitting outside. i was so starstruck, i did not know where to look.

the absolute highlight of the entire trip was when annie, my old boss from poepke, came in for an appointment.

i was so homesick i wanted to cry when she left but annie stayed for more than an hour chatting with mark and i so i totes got a decent fix. i am not saying this because i am biased or anything but of all our customers i thought annie made the best selection. she chose print heavy pieces that reflect the true nature of e k. i was so proud of her if that makes sense. sydney friends, you are so in for a treat come february. okay so it will be summertime and you will all be beachside and as if that is not exciting enough but the e k range will be instore and colour exploding all over itself. i asked mark if he will fly me home so i can visual merchandise the poepke window. he thinks i am joking but secretly i am not.

other things that happened in paris, umm. on a night out with esme's friend who works for jean-charles de castelbajac, he invited us back to his hotel room to try on some de castelbajac's dresses. i know what you are thinking but it was not like that at all.

this is alexis. how amazing is the michael jackson dress? he said we were only one of twenty people who will ever try it on.

here i am looking like an expensive chicken.

after, we all pile into a taxi and head to le baron for a dance. i hit on a ridiculously hot french girl [for the first time in a very long time] with little luck and alexis is plied with free drinks and makes out with a french boy. some people have all the luck. sigh. i am not really sore because...

we officially finished work in paris on thursday october 8th but alexis and i decided to stay on [separately] for the weekend. chris came down on the eurostar on friday night. we were both seriously giddy with excitement. i take him out to dinner and we go for drinks at le perle in the marais. all week i have been pocketing these absolut vodka tumblers from le perle. i like the blue type on the front of the tumbler. i was hoping for a set of four but only walked away with three. we visit the lourve, walk through the tuileries [a public park behind the lourve], stand on the champs elysees roundabout, visit two other galleries [one with a maison martin margiela exhibition, the other showed guy bourdin films], and eat candle-lit dinners with a bottle of the house red.

the eiffel tower and i.

so, chris. you do not know much about him. he is english, a motion graphics designer, and used to work with my friend jonathon. this will be the first time jon has been told about this [he lives in sydney now, you lucky people]. surprise, jon! we went on two dates in february this year before chris backs off and tells me he only wants to be friends. okay, no probs. we date other people in the following seven months while maintaining an easy friendship. then last month when we are both properly single, he surprises me with a "you know, i like you" at the petit mal #3 launch. oh. really? the penny drops. he never lets me pay for anything [which i resist], he always walks me home after a night out, when we went for a swim at hampstead heath last summer he was a complete gentleman, and the week before his declaration he gave me a mix cd full of subliminal messages. i thought we were only friends! anyway, here we are, dating. sometimes if the light is right, he looks like brad pitt, but not very often.

what else? i had a day off yesterday and c planned the best adventure day ever. we had lunch at the whitecross street market, it is only open on weekdays. when edwina was here [you know her, she used to work at incu] she gushed about the burritos from whitecross and how she would get one everyday. sure, how good can a vegetarian burrito be? well, let me tell you, it was truly amazing. please come visit me just so i can take you and watch your face when you take the first bite? if i was an office worker around there, i would save on public transport fares and just roll to and from work because i would be that fat.

we are eating our burritos on park benches with a group on pigeons doing whatever it is they do on the patch of grass in front of us. chris comes up with this gem

"what makes their head do that? is it connected to their legs?"

we went to see the anish kapoor exhibition at the royal academy of arts. are you bored yet? i just realised the length of this update. okay just quickly, i really enjoyed the anish kapoor show. i liked the scale of his works, their simplicity and inherent genius. i walked past yoko ono and chris laughed when he saw my awestruck face.

this is 'shooting into the corner'. a canon shoots a wax canon ball into the next room every twenty minutes.

we had hot beverages at the wolseley [a cappuccino for him, a hot chocolate for me] after and then went to dinner in the root master [a big red bus converted into a vegan restaurant just off brick lane]. i rolled into bed after that. it was the best day.

it is saturday night and i am in bed typing to you. after this i am going to start a big felt owl for c's future niece or nephew [due in december]. i guess i could be doing something more, you know, fun but this is my first night in since paris. crazy times!

also i see florence and the machine [or flo mac as some people call her here] is playing st jerome's laneway festival in sydney come january. you should see her if you can, that lady can sing. and the xx! oh my, they are my most favourite band in the world right now. die. i went to see the big pink the other night. i like them, maybe you will too? you know how teenage boys like the work of john donne when they are in high school because he is a bit dark and writes about love? i think those same boys like the big pink for the same reason. their debut album is about girls and not being in love with them. uh-huh. next week we are seeing phoenix and then the dirty three in december. i am back to paying to see bands but the trade-off is not so bad.

love

o

hello from sydney [part three of four]

hello friends

at the airport [last saturday] doris was totally ribbing me, insisting i was going home. she made me realise london is not my true home, i just live there. sydney is where my family and everyone i love are. it took a while, but i know it now.

ready for a recount of my last week in sydney?

a few stray rays on sun broke through on sunday morning so lils, tadz, and i pile into the car and try for rozelle markets again. we came away empty-handed but no matter, tadzio dug deep and proud to produce this nugget of comedy gold.

i met up with mira and ameli [my mad cortes bosses] and their girls at their house. i used to baby-sit milla and lola from when they were 1. milla would give me a hard time and howl at the sight of me, the idea of her parents leaving upset her. it was such a revelation when she tells me "i like your t-shirt with the horses". why, thank you! i love it when kids talk. patiently waiting for my young cousins to start conversations has been worth it. i cannot remember anything funny they have said but i like it they can tell me what they are thinking.

come evening time, doris and i head to hurstville to have dinner at our parents' with our uncles, aunts, and cousins.

do not be fooled, my cousins are only pretending to be camera-shy.


here they are showing their faces.


who is the cutest cousin of them all? that is right, the baby!


i feel for her parents. how are they going to say "no" to this face?

on monday i see samson and delilah on my own. whatever it was i thought i was bracing myself for did not compare to what i got. does that make sense? you should see it. 

do you know who these women are? you should be ashamed of yourselves! they are part of team poepke. i met up with millie, grace, and a bicycle-riding amelia on tuesday afternoon for tea and cake at yellow in potts point. after, we visited juliet and her baby, beatrix. i am sure everyone has heard this story already but it still makes me melt a little just thinking about it. in juliet's living room sit a pair of bongos and beatrix is hitting them with her hand and laughing. i am saying something to her and, mid-sentence, she takes my hand and places it on a bongo. i hit it and she laughs. die! it is so silly but for a second there, her acknowledgement of my existence made me so happy. 

the late afternoon sees me back at my parents' rummaging through my boxes of clothes [i am so over wearing the same wardrobe for the last ten months] and i take up my mother's offer of new underwear. why are undies so expensive now? we head to k-mart in hurstville westfield to stock up on some bonds and i think the three pack is cheaper than buying singles but it is not really. i can feel myself internalising a tantrum again but then i remember who is buying them and everything is ok. sometimes i cannot believe i am twenty-eight. 

for dinner, lily, mayor of dumpling town, makes [from scratch] steamed vegetarian dumplings with chilli soy dipping sauce and stir-fried vegetables. 

witness the magic for yourselves.

my uncle, who is a dentist, cleans my teeth on wednesday morning. i open wide, he does nothing. 

"what is wrong?" 

his silence sounds expensive. 

"there is nothing to clean", he sighs. 

there is a lesson in there, kids. yes, you can make friends with salad and vegetarians have cleaner teeth. 

later, i meet caryl for lunch and we head to chinatown to a new noodle bar. halfway through slurping my hot and sour noodle soup with tofu, dave calls saying he has locked himself out of doris' apartment. he wants to meet me to get the spare set of keys i am holding. when he meets us, dave is noticeably uncomfortable and a little bit sheepish. ok, nothing too strange, i mean, locking oneself out of a flat can be very annoying. when i see doris later that day, she asks me if dave was weird. i nod. she laughs and explains he was in his pyjamas and had not had a cigarette yet that morning. he looked the same to me! 

while caryl and i window shop our way to dinnertime, this sign gives us the giggles.

my cousin and her new groom host a dinner for my parents, doris, and i at a seafood restaurant where we eat ourselves silly. this giant lobster was the main attraction.

love

o

hello from sydney [part one of four]

hello friends

i am in sydney, i have been here a week. how are we going to do this? it might take a while.

my parents picked me up from the airport last sunday night. i was a bit disappointed my mother did not greet me with tears on her lashes. for someone who always manages to slip in a "i do not understand why you are in london. when are you coming home?" in every phone call, she was very composed. i did feel a little guilty when i spied my father dab dab at his eyes. we went to dinner with doris at chat thai in chinatown. you know, it is easy to find cheap bad food and expensive good food in london, but cheap good food is a diamond in the rough. i miss sydney for its culinary delights, thai and japanese on every corner. one can eat out twice a week here and not break the bank. the upside to being food poor in london is that it forces one to be a creative cook. back at d's apartment, dave comes over and we watch the 1984 hit, splash. remember? daryl hannah is a mermaid and tom hanks falls for her. i forgot what it is like to watch a film with doris. five minutes in and the questions start.

monday late lunchtime sees yvette, dave, d, and i scoffing vegie rolls, pizzas and tarts down bourke street bakery way. i can already tell this sydney trip will be my own personal food safari. i am staying with lily and tadzio for the rest of my trip and lily kicks off with a delicious vegetable broth. i am not sure what it is called but it has greens in it. so good!


doris, at the surry hills vinnie's, stocks up on party supplies for her office party themed birthday do.


dave does his bit to boost the economy.

tuesday i venture into the city before my lunch date with caryl. maybe just maybe i was a bit awestruck by kinokuniya [london is a bit chain store crazy so it is easy enough to find borders but a design book wonderland is harder to come by]. my knees melted at the sight of an a5 sized book featuring japanese wood prints categorised into seasons, isetatsu collection. then i made the mistake of peeking into incu and my knees melted, again! i have never been a fan of lover but there is this black sleeveless number with a white double collar, generously draped top, cinched in waist, and pencil skirt. die! it is sort of a tuxedo dress, sort of sexy novice nun. if you want to see it, take me out.

arm in arm, caryl and i head towards this vietnamese eatery we used to lunch at when i still worked in sydney. it is not there anymore, replaced by a new vietnamese eatery. an old man standing out the front waves us in, a good sign. i end my food tour for the day at dinner with andy at the chinese dumpling and noodle place in potts point. again, yum!

do you know jonathon has left london and is returning to sydney by way of san francisco and los angeles? sigh. you are lucky to have him back. before he left, rodrigo, kt [r's friend, my new flatmate], and i made him a goodbye film based on actual events. i showed it to andy, he watched it about five times rolling on the floor laughing. i thought he was going to die.

wednesday i had lunch with dominik at the korean cafe on the side of the metro theatre, afternoon tea with doris and my mother at the tea room, and dinner at din tai fung with the girls. when i warned rodrigo i might come back roly poly, he drily suggested a gym membership.


afternoon tea with my mother and doris, before


and after.


dinner at din tai fung with brides-to-be, viola and cass.


i sat next to caryl and staedtler at dinner. the dumplings and noodles fueled my fight against their wave upon wave of love energy.

i worked my first of four shifts at poepke on thursday. do you know what has been such a comfort about being back in sydney? its familiarity. of course this can be a curse and that is why i needed to stretch my legs in london but it is good to know i can come back and sydney will still be her usual charming, laid-back self. the life here is so good. it is certainly easier to be poor here than it is in london. back at poepke, i slipped into my old shopgirl self. spacing the hangers evenly, straightening the shelves, folding and refolding tshirts on the bassike concession stand [i say that lovingly], attending to customers, and having a dance in front of the mirror when no one is looking. i tried on a pair of dries van noten heels and a bernhard willhelm jacket. die!

love
o