hello from london [part thirty-two]

hello friends

how are you? i am well and happy. we have had three long weekends since easter. luxe, no? the english really like summer. it has been so hot i actually thought i was going to melt this weekend, dripping all over the pavement like a scoop of ice-cream in a cone with a flake stuck on top. i had one of those today, it was good.

i had the best day ever yesterday. this best day involved my friend bahbak, both of us riding bikes [on the road for the first time, no less], a guy bourdain exhibition at the wapping project, and a lazy wander through the surrounding 'burbs. have you been to the wapping project? let me take you, it is a diamond in the rough.

the wapping project used to be a power station but it has since been converted into a cafe/ bookstore/ gallery/ theatre space. it is amazing. we went to see 'unseen', a collection of previously unpublished photographs by guy bourdain. the room is very dark but the oversized prints are hung in back-lit frames which make shapes on the astroturf floor. the work shown carried bourdain's signature featuring high-fashion clad models [he did a lot of work for french vogue and advertising for charles jourdan] with a sense of humour [and with that comes intelligence], all well-framed. i mean, who am i to say anything about guy bourdain but w o w !


biking through the back of wapping, it is a bit ghetto and there were groups of young men about. b rode ahead of me and when i whizzed past a young dude by his car he yelled "hey sexy! i like a girl with glasses!" i giggled. i called out to b "did you hear what he said?", bahbak turned around "i knew he would say something to you!"

i finished the catcher in the rye yesterday morning in bed and started sylvia plath's the bell jar whilst lazing in clissold park today with my friend dave. i did not know both books are new-york based.

it is my birthday next saturday. we are going for drinks at the bistrotheque and then a dance at dalston superstore [the new club in town if you believe the hype]. guess who will be wearing her new bernhard willhlem dress [purchased from poepke]? me! i cannot wait to show it off. wheee! also less than three weeks before i see you. double wheee!

love
o

a long overdue hello from london [part thirty-one]

hello friends

every time i think to write to you, i feel i have nothing. i feel i have nothing now but i should say something, if only to let you know i am alive and well. the countdown is on, you know, less than four weeks before i see you. hurruh!

ok let us split this into threes. one, work. two, me. three, the boy.

so, work. a few weeks ago mark called me to the back room where we keep the printed fabric archive, online store stock, excess stock, and i sometimes keep a desk in there for when our sales agent is in.

"olivia, this room is a mess!"
"oh. sorry. i will fix it later today." [please do not hurt me!]
"just kidding!" [laugh]
"ok..."
"do you want to stay?"
"where?"
"here."
"oh. yes."
"ok."

so there you have it. e k is sponsoring me. you know how fickle fashion can be, i mean, this is true for right now but fingers crossed it will still be true in october when the "working" part of my working holiday visa is over. i am excited and happy and i hope it happens.

the other reason mark likes me, other than my ability to pay my own wage with sales from the online store, is that he considers me his walking spell check.

mark asks the room in general "how do you spell eduardo?"
he swivels around to look at me.
"umm e-d-u-a-r-d-o."
"yeah that was what i was thinking."
"sure you were."
"shut up!"

we both burst into giggles. next he is on the phone to someone calling himself a welsh wizard.

ok, me. so what do you want to know? i treated myself to a haircut. the right side of my head is cropped very short and blends into a long left side. i look a little bit eighties. rodrigo has offered to maintain the cropped side for me with a pair of clippers but i do not trust him. what else? oh yes, i am moving house. it is a little bit sad because i love where i live but i am only moving five streets away to a proper share house with two other girls. my new room is bigger and the rent is cheaper. do not fight it, just accept it. i am not sure the area is as safe but it is in shoreditch proper and there are less house rules. one of the girls is rodrigo's friend and studying film, the other girl finished her film studies and just directed a feature. excitement city! fingers crossed the flat will be the creative hub it promises to be.

now, the boy. i will not bore you with too many details. if you can date a music journalist, i highly recommend it. i try not to milk r for too many favours, but he always manages to wrangle a +1 from somewhere. we went to camden crawl [a two-day music festival in camden] and saw the yeah yeah yeahs [w o w !], the big pink [new english band, ok], and echo and the bunnymen. we went to see hot chip play a secret show in shoreditch. i liked hot chip before but, if possible, i like them even more now. their live set was amazing and there was a lot of love in the room when they started a song with the line "i want to be your one-life stand" [obvious play on the concept of one-night stand] and i turn to r and say "oh they are ridiculously romantic." and he explains two of them got married recently [not to each other]. my phone ran out of juice that night but when i charged it the next day, r had sent me a message while we were dancing to hot chip's dj set to say he thinks i am cool and is very happy to be here with me. die. we are seeing the horrors on june 6. i wonder how big i can make my hair?

r is away in san francisco on a road trip with two friends. do you know what that means? my weekends are free! i cleared three jumble sales yesterday [one in a church hall, one in a design studio, and one in a community centre]. i love going through people's junk. i came away with three books [sylvia plath, woody allen, j d salinger], three melamine plates painted with paris street scenes, a plain canvas bag [no logos, rare!], a necklace with a macaroon pendant, two japanese magazines with e k on the covers, and another painted plate i won in a raffle. treasure galore! i had afternoon tea twice in two days. this weekend has made me realise i miss my own company because i spend much of the weekends with r. if i were with him now, i would not have gone to these jumble sales or had afternoon tea adventures with the girls, things i love. there is a lesson in there somewhere.

love
o

hello from london [part thirty]

hello friends

how are you? i am well. there is little to tell, maybe a few things.

i have a feeling i will be leaving london at the end of the year. it makes me so sad. i think i will apply for a working holiday visa for france and intern with bernhard willhelm [fingers crossed] before coming back. i made the mistake of going to b store to fawn over the new b w and i suffered another episode of imaginary feet stamping. i cannot think of anyone i want to work for when i come home. the plan was always to start a label when i return, maybe i will have run out of excuses by then?

i am so over wearing a coat every time i step out. the day i do not have to wear stockings will be a good day. winter, go away! you know how i used to laugh at english people getting excited by the mere hint of sun? well i have become the person i used to laugh at. when the sun delights us with her face, it is very hard not to get giddy. it has been warm [i admit i have lowered my standards] for the past three weeks and i feel my blood has been infused with sun. i still wear stockings but ditch the coat some nights. sometimes i cannot bare to sit at home, i have to be out enjoying my friends and the warm weather. i have not been home much. it is funny how the sun can affect people. we have all turned into whatever the opposite of a werewolf is.

i have been having a ridiculously romantic time with the boy. he bandies the word happy around like it is not a big deal. he will turn to me and say "i am happy. are you?" and i just look at him weird because i think happy is a big word. but you know what? i am happy. it is scary to allow myself to be this happy. it is not just because of rodrigo, i am in love with everything i have right now. so, the boy. i will limit my gushing to this one paragraph. he has very quickly worked out how to push my buttons. one, he winks at me. two, he calls me "o". three, he is not afraid to talk us through our awkward moments. four, he is so well-dressed it melts my knees. i usually do not care about what my squeeze is wearing but it is such a pleasure to be out with someone who can match me [not on a his-and-hers-matching-outfits level, more on a we-both-look-good level].


i wore my stick-on black thick eyebrows out on friday night to the double club and he liked them. sigh. last week he gave me a recommended listening list and i provided him with a recommended reading list. oh nerd-tastic. we have a sunday routine where we wake up late, have a lazy lie-in, then go to breakfast at this kitchen down the street. we order the same thing [eggs with sage for me, eggs and ham for him] every time, hold hands and make eyes across the wooden table. i feel so sorry for whoever is sharing our table, we must make people sick.

last night jonathon, cat [his housemate], ben [her friend], rodrigo, and i ended up at the joiner's arms [a gay bar near where we live].


jonathon [who recently broke up with his boyfriend] spies an eye candy boy and he starts the chase. by this stage cat and i are very messy, dancing up a storm, and unashamedly talking to random strangers. we are both excited j is on the pull and in our combined efforts to help him make a conquest he gets annoyed and tells us if we do not leave him alone, this boy will think he is straight. oh pout.

rodrigo steps in, one arm around the each of us, he ushers us a few steps away and distracts us with a dance. last night i wore a richard nicoll stripy shirt dress i bought at a sample sale with a white blazer, r wore a black jacket, black tux shirt, and black skinny jeans. die! can you imagine rodrigo, all debonair, with a girl on each arm trying to keep us away from jonathon who is making eyes with a boy? r starts to look desperate and tells j he needs to use the bathroom, he is not sure how much longer he can keep us at bay. oh die! needless to say, jonathon took a boy home last night.

love
o

an aside from london [part twenty-nine and 3/4]

ladies,

the boy, see attached. it is not his best picture. he sneers.

my friend, junya, thought he was a gay teenager when they first met [on that hilarious and embarrassing afternoon in the park], but damn, he is one hot gay teenager. also he is not gay.

i included a picture of myself because, well, i look lovely and i know you miss me.

love
o

hello from london [part twenty-nine and a half]

hello friends

be warned, this half installment from london is about my new squeeze so if you want to keep your lunch down, do not proceed.

are you ready to have your knees melted?

last night while r was having drinks with a friend, he called and asked me to go to a gallery opening with him later that evening. he actually asked "does this opening excite you?", i said "no". so we ditched that plan and he asked if we should go for dinner and drinks instead. i said "yes". he calls back and asks me where we should go. he lets me get halfway through my suggestion of thai before he interrupts and tells me he made a booking at the bistrotheque for 9.30, he was hoping i would say yes. what a brute! i cannot believe he made a booking without asking me! but at the same time my knees melted. a man in control is so utterly appealing. also, i love the bistrotheque. did you know he is a very well dressed young man? it is such a pleasure to go out with him because i know my efforts will be returned. on wednesday night we went to see a band and we both rocked up at the tube station in macs. so film noir. sometimes i think he is my doppelganger. last night i wore a cream silk eley kishimoto blouse with an all-over horse print, black pencil skirt, seamed stockings and heels. he wore cigarette trousers, tux shirt and waistcoat. dreamboats ahoy. after dinner while we were umming and ahhing about dessert, i slid a piece of paper across the table. it is my coat check ticket. he does not know why i am passing it to him. "do you want me to get your coat?" he puzzles. "no. it is a note." he turns it over.

r
would you like to stay over tonight?

o

did you know no girl has ever written him a note or letter before? his knees melted, he told me so.

you are all thinking "be careful! remember what happened with the last one!" i know. i am trying really hard not to get excited. i really am.

love
olivia

wave from london [part twenty-nine]

hello friends

about time, you say? same! ready for the round up? can we do this in point form?

01 london fashion week. what do you want to know? our show was on sunday 22, you can see it here. do you think it would be biased if i said i really liked the show and it reaffirmed my love for e k? well i did really like it. i have so much respect for wakako, she is very conceptual and focused. i did not have to dress backstage this season, i got to be front-of-house and direct people to their rows. i thought i would have to contend with people who demanded to sit front row but everyone was pleasant. do you know suzy menkes? like only the fashion editor of the international herald tribune? she was at our show. i love her. she is short and round, alone and did not look affected by the fashionistas around her. i would show you pictures but my friend, b, has my camera. i am expecting at least one naked picture slotted in somewhere when i get it back.

02 the last time i saw stefan was the monday morning after the show. we had a lovely weekend together and i have spent the last three weeks getting over it. i think i am almost there.

03 i have been doing lots of fun things, like getting some culture in my life. i went to see hats: an anthology by stephen jones at the v & a. if eye candy hats are your thing, this is the exhibition for you. i caught some cabaret fever in the form of bourgeois and maurice's 'social work', two people counseling us through tough times with song, numerous costume changes, and tall hair.

03 i just finished a month of internet dating. i know. weird. ok so i was bored! and i wanted to move on from stefan as quickly as possible. it sort of worked. i have a profile on the guardian. there is someone else whom some of us know on there too but i will not name names. so far i have made one friend [we worked out we both know jonathon], went on one terribly boring date, and met an incredibly interesting and handsome boy who i hung out with all weekend [possibly a winner].

04 on thursday night i invited seven friends over for dinner [spinach and ricotta cannelloni, side salad, and flourless chocolate cake]. it was so much fun! that was the day i decided to stop being sad about stefan. most people had never met before but everyone talked and ate and laughed, all merry on wine and conversation. we discussed internet dating, bestiality, cannibalism, you know, the usual. i mention i am going for a drink with a boy from the guardian the next night and we all have a look at his profile and pictures and share a giggle. so i go on the date, he is indeed handsome in a very young east london kind of way. his name is r [born in brazil, raised in wales], he is a music journalist for the bbc and is very well-dressed. i was surprised at how much we had to talk about. we feel the same way about haruki murakami [that he is a chauvinist], love wong kar-wai, and disliked the recent mark rothko retrospective at the tate modern for the exact same reasons. for a minute i get an eerie feeling this boy is my doppelganger and i might have to destroy him. we have a drink at the bistrotheque, go for a bagel on brick lane, drink some more at casa blue, and then he walks me home at 3.30am. on saturday i invite him to join rebecca, jonathon, and i for a picnic at london fields. the sales agent from e k, junya, is in the park with his girlfriend and we wave them over. as soon as junya sits down he goes into an excited frenzy "SO HOW DID YOUR DATE GO ON FRIDAY? TELL ME! TELL ME!" and i nearly die because said date is sitting next to me. i say "i cannot talk about it right now". he says "WHY? TELL ME!". i am blushing and trying to telepathically tell junya to stop it but r saves me, introduces himself, and offers to kiss and tell.

there, are you suitably updated?

love
o

hello from london [part twenty-eight and a half]

hello [again]

i just checked the weather forecast for tomorrow, you know, maybe it will be snowing again and i will not have to go to work. it looks like tuesday will have sunny intervals, ok great. but on friday, it is going to be sunny with highs of 0°C and lows of -6°C. what? how is that sunny? i am laughing as i type this. no wonder people here start dying when it hits the mid to high twenties. weirdos.

love
o