London

I don't go up to Central London enough. This is a photo I unearthed while sorting through our very untidy photo files on the computer-it made me think how many fantastic photo opportunities there are in this city which I should totally be exploiting. I think I'm spending a few weeks here in the summer-no big holiday plans this year-so perhaps I should use that time constructively...

Summer is A-Coming

This is what I wore over the weekend to combat the sudden heat and my total lack of shorts. This skirt was the staple item of any teenage girl's wardrobe a year ago-it has lost its status since but is still a really versatile thing to own.

Skirt-American Apparel

Vest-Topshop

Heels (my only pair-I know, it's sad!)-John Lewis (even sadder-but they're pretty)

Tortoiseshell

My collection! The middle two are from Mallorca, no idea where the other two come from.

Little Bow Peep

I found this in my dressing up box the other day. I have a root through every now and again-each time I manage to find something that I can wear. This seems like a good way to wear the current sequin trend for a person like me who just doesn't go for sparkly jackets or sequinned harem pants. Would look best in dark hair (silver would probably be best for blonde) but it's still cool. Good hunting skills.

Nutritional Value

After a night out on Saturday (my mum decided to let me go to a party, for once) and a hard rowing session, this was how I replenished my energy. Yummy and high in simple sugars-i.e. just the way I like it.

What Goes Around Comes Around

Proof that fashion is languishing in the doldrums. It was evident in the msot recent collections when the biggest trends were barely-modified references to the '80s and '50s, and now these two photoshoots prove it. The first three photos are from a British Vogue shoot in 2008 by Patrick Demarchelier (which incidentally is one of my favourite shoots ever). The last three are from a short story in the Sunday Telegraph magazine, published one or two weeks ago. I immediately thought of the Vogue story, and it depressed me so much. Is there nothing new in fashion any more?

Vogue 2008

Vogue 2008

Vogue 2008

Sunday Telegraph 2009

Sunday Telegraph 2009

Sunday Telegraph 2009

Emma Watson for Burberry

So, Emma Watson is the new face of Burberry. She's certainly come a long way from her bushy-haired beginnings in the first Harry Potter film! Personally, I think she's a really good face for the brand-she's always seemed to me to be a very English girl (just like Burberry is an English brand) and now she's also a very stylish young lady too, what with all her Chanel connections etc. I think that increasingly celebrity endorsements, especially of high fashion labels, are becoming too commonplace, but many young actresses like Miss Watson are often as commented about for their fashion choices as for their career. Plus she really does look modelesque in these photos-I love all 3 of her coats. As soon as I possible can I'm buying a Burberry trench. There's no other place to get them!

Snail Mail

Today something happened that made my week, if not my month. I came home from rowing to find a letter addressed to me on the table, in a big A4 envelope, in handwriting which looked rather like my sister's. Oh God, what's she got for me now? I thought inwardly. I then noticed that the envelope was stamped with an air mail sign and the return address was Upper West Side, New York. OH MY GOD IT WAS FROM MY NEW YORK EXCHANGE!!

Words cannot express how this made me feel. I actually ripped open the envelope in my excitement. C had sent me a few photos she had taken in London and developed herself, as well as 2 of New York to help 'ease some of my separation anxiety'. Her letter-which was almost 3 sides of typed A4-made me laugh out loud at least 4 times and also moved me close to tears as I realised how much I miss her. Although we were only together for 2 weeks over a 3-week period, I feel like we became so close: we were so similar, and we got on so well-regular, essay-length emails help, but don't cure, the fact that I miss her so much and am unlikely to see her for another year minimum, unless an exciting opportunity turns up soon.

Anyway, just receiving a letter has completely brightened my whole week. It's so sad that no-one sends letters any more (apart from my amazing exchange, of course!)-opening an email just doesn't have that same frisson as opening a real solid letter.

Exams finish tomorrow-after two weeks! I can hardly remember what normal school is like!-and then it's back to the daily grind. Once I'm back on a normal schedule I'll be able to start putting normal posts up :)

Study Leave

After a weekend of very, very minimal revision (for minimal see 'a half-hearted attempt to make some music notes in the last half an hour of babysitting when I realised I'd spent four hours watching tv) I was then blessed with almost the whole day off today, bar an hour when I had to go into school for a French oral (inconvenient, but what can you do, eh?). Granted, I spent the morning inwardly panicking because I suddenly realised that, instead of easily bluffing my way through the practice questions, I was in fact finding it difficult to switch my mind to French and overcome the urge to say everything in German.

Literally, in the B role play I was practising (simple role play where you're given prompts in order to answer the examiner's questions):
'Say what type of job you would like', followed by a picture of either a football, an ice skater or a guy sitting at a desk.
Hm, well I'm guessing the football means I want to work at a sports centre. Not sure what the other two pictures are but never mind, I'll go with the sports centre.
'Je...' hang on, how do you say 'I would like' in French again? 'Ich mochte...no no, that's German! Shit, I would like! Aaah!! Oh yes, 'je voudrais'.
'Je voudrais ins Sport-' no no, French! No confusing word order here, just keep it niice and simple. And it's 'dans', not 'ins'.
'Je voudrais travailler dans un centre sportif''.
Finally, I managed to form a correct sentence in 30 seconds when it should have taken me 3. great work!

You get the idea. Anyway in the end the oral went fine. She asked me more than a couple of questions I had no idea how to answer ('Why did you start rowing?'. Search me, I don't even know how to answer that in English) but at the end she said it was very good. Well look at that, what skills!

Anyway I have tomorrow off too because the art exams take up two days (haha, I knew choosing music was the best idea ever) and then I have Wednesday morning off too because of Russian exams. And even after I finally return to school, the exams (Maths II-which, after getting 87% in Maths I I'm not too worried about-music performance, music listening, Chemistry, and Physics and Biology practical papers) aren't even that difficult. Ah, I feel so happy. I love study leave!

Horst P. Horst (featuring Tim Walker)

Horst P. Horst is another photographer whose work I've seen before but was only given a name when I read the Vogue book. His picture of the girl with the white corset on a bench is genuinely one of my all-time favourite photographs. It just evokes feelings I can't even explain.

However I came across the photo second from the bottom (by Horst) and it immediately reminded me of another photo by Tim Walker (bottom). Just the wall to the right, the monochrome, the two silhouettes, the gauzy clothes, make them very similar (I'm not accusing Tim Walker of copying Horst or anything, it's just funny how two photographers from different centuries can produce such similar photos!).