Will instagram for food, I kid you not

Jenny from the (Swiss) block (of cheese)

(All instagram-style additions in this post shot with the Samsung Galaxy Camera)

Military coat – Zara. Jeans – James Jeans. Shoes – Isabel Marant. Scarf – Highlands tartan scarf. White cashmere turtleneck – Uniqlo. Travel wallet – LV Mon Monogram; Thank you Jen for the shots of moi!

Last weekend my life turned a corner… correction, my crusade for a hyperglossed online representation of my life turned a corner. Berlin had won the Most Photogenic City as part of Samsung’s Life’s a Photo social campaign around the new Samsung Galaxy Camera, and I was part of 45 bloggers that were invited out in celebration. Guys, this camera changes nothing, and absolutely everything – I’m having a whole new instagramming experience with this. See, I’ll still pause a perfectly civil dinner to do Taichi moves over the food with an image-capturing device, but those photos will be crisp and juicy in colour. I’ll still look like a complete douche-baguette fondling my phone at the dinner table but this time I’ll be editing my photos instead of flipping between filters that make the chocolate dessert look like cold poop, or hot poop. I will still get pinched nerves on my shoulder thanks to weight in cameras (nothing replaces the Canon beast), but I’ll have agility with this beauty tucked in my sleeve. And get this, I will still overshare the mundane things of my life, but I may or may not use the 21x zoom to shoot the better looking food across the room because haven’t you heard, bragging about stuff that ain’t yours is the next level, yo. See – nothing, yet EVERYTHING.

On an unrelated note, and I’ve spoken about this before, there it was again – the odd sense of comfort when travelling with a bunch of bloggers where an eyebrow shrug towards a corner means outfit shots, now, and collectively tackling snow in four inch heels until we’re reduced to communicating in 140-character grunts, mostly using words like feet, hurt, hungry, cold, hotel. There were many, many bloggers/photographers/instagrammers (I’ve never seen that many MEN in a press trip) at this event and at the end of the day we were inevitably sat around a round table having to make small talk and seem normal. Of course, being bloggers and inherently introverts – we all kept our head dipped and noses in this amazing new apparatus, affixing clip-art party hats on photos of eachother using the editing software, silently laughing at jokes that was never heard past the salt & pepper shaker point on the table. The waitress thought we were in group-prayer for the entire evening. Best party ever, really.

Also, Most Photogenic City in the world? Discuss.

Uniqlooks January: One item, three looks – Dotted silk blouse

Look 1: Dotted silk blouse – Uniqlo. Shearling leather jacket – Muubaa Phoenix. Khaki pants – Uniqlo. Shoes – Zara. Bag – 3.1 Phillip Lim Pashli. Hat – Gap.

Look 2:   Dotted silk blouse – Uniqlo. Sleeveless trench – YesStyle. Leather shorts – Vintage. Shoes – H&M x MMM. Puffer vest – Uniqlo. Bag – Kurt Geiger.

Look 3:  Dotted silk blouse – Uniqlo. Shearling leather jacket – Muubaa Aurora. Bag – Reiss. Skirt – ASOS. Lace-up booties – Sam Edelman. Headphones – Frends @ Avenue32

Hello, what’s up? My dog ate my keyboard. Once again I got an overwhelmingly positive response for a post and this time I just had to take a step back and bask in that momentary bliss, shedding the occasional hot tear that would fall in the wine glass that I’d drink from while bobbing my head to Alanis Morissette. (Fact: it is actually impossible to bob head to AM) Recycle-chic, you saw it here first. Let’s get back with the program, shall we – and what better way than to let trusty old Uniqlooks to press the resume button! Over to you, dotty blouse. Wish I could fake it and pretend this was shot relatively recently but snow in London – the kind that stays white below the ankles – is so rare that we all know these looks were shot that particular day over a week ago. Not sure which day it was, but I’m pretty sure it’s the one where lots of babies will be born exactly nine months down the line because heck I’ve never seen a city that doesn’t actually clean the snow. Hands up if you live in London and own a snow shovel? Of course, yours truly is out in the streets with the hubby only getting as intimate as getting a snowball in the face. Oh the things I write in this blog to keep it PG-13… (apparently thirteen-year-olds are the key to blogging success, hey)

And chipmunk alert

 (Would you just look at that holding frame, DERP written all over) Wearing: Top – Marc Jacobs. Trousers – Iris & Ink at The Outnet. Shoes – Christian Louboutin

One other thing I generally suck at: speaking. Case in point, see above. And you’d think since it’s one thing you do everyday you get better at it, like walking – in fact, one sucks at walking too. IT’S JUST DIFFICULT OKAY. Scarily, my skills in public speech (or lack thereof) has always been a deal-breaker/maker of almost every junction in life, starting with my English IB orals in high school that single-handedly reduced mighty dreams of Modern History at Oxbridge to colouring at artschool (fun fact: CSM’s IB requirement is 26, which is basically the lowest ‘pass’ point in IB) (of course, one requires a killer portfolio and generally must appear mad-for-art to qualify). If I remember correctly there was a bit of Eminem’s Stan (ft. Dido) lyrics snuck into a Macbeth passage interpretation. Examiner clearly had no sense of humour, or swag, yo. Fast forward to late 2012, I take the exact same bag of skills to the Outnet shoot, fully expecting my character to be killed off in the pilot. What you’re seeing here is hours of painstaking editing, separating of the sane and insane moments, and sewing them seamlessly all together, all courtesy of the video wizards; and let’s not forget Ciara the lovely makeup artist, who eventually had to muster up a pot of peach-coloured acrylic paint to cover up a very scarlet face. So I do realize this is like admitting hey I’m kinda hot after someone’s photoshopped my head onto Jessica Alba’s body, but I quite like how it turned out! Plus, the shop edit they put together for me has rather awesome pieces that makes me look like I belong in Tommy Ton/Nam’s streetstyle snaps. It’s all good fantasizing fun.

My favourite froyo in London, Tutti Frutti in Covent Garden

Military Navy Coat – Zara. Grey Jeans – Urban Outfitters. Waffle-knit Sweater – COS. Structured shirt – Zara. Shoes – Kurt Geiger Ella. Snakeskin Bag – Marc by Marc Jacobs. Cheeeers Kit for the shots!

I’m going to let you in on a secret, and while I know that if I just carried on like this only a small percentage of you who have mastered the skill of reading will be privvy to this information, but I’m just going to need a bit more audience for this one. CATS CATS CATS BOOBS WEINERSCHNITZEL BIGGER BOOBS CATS BACON. There. Welcome, ten new members of the reading club! Back to what I was going to say – believe it or not, I have an ‘editorial schedule’ for this blog. You’re meant to be seeing posts every two days, three if delayed but no longer than that. Yeah but your blog is like Skyping with grandma in Tibet is what you’re saying, and I get it, I go quiet for so long you wonder if I died at the end of the line, or I give out an incoherent cackle at one go…  and I smell of goat urine, I get it. The secret I wanted to share, is that it takes FOREVER to write this blurb and usually the prime cause of post congestion. I have plenty of photographic content, but words don’t come easy. In my defense I wrote my last semi-decent essay six years ago in highschool (dissertation? that thing in art school I wrote in blood?) and my vocabulary basket (made in Tibet) is leaking words. I know I never write anything profane or philosophical, in fact these blurbs should essentially be put in the same category as the noise that modems used to make back in the early days, but I guess the problem arises mainly from the fact that I really am not interested in writing about the outfit above… there’s only so much I can tell you about grey jeans. I plan to wear this next week, what do I say THEN? So there’s that’s the secret, I’m an idiot. Shini had an OK day, and bought a Coke Zero at the gas station… and wore white shoes in January. Raise the roof.

You couldn’t SEO this blog even if you tried.

Pho-buddy Kit

Yu, manager of Tokyobike UK and streetstyle photographer

Wearing: Jacket – Barbour. Puffer down vest – Gap. Shoes – Isabel Marant. Jeans – James Jeans. Gloves – Muji touchscreen gloves

Oy vey, how does one follow up with a car pile-up equivalent of a bi-annual existential ramble? First off, I swear I didn’t mean to come off questioning whether or not to quit blogging entirely, that’s not in the plans. I was meant to valiantly survive an apocalypse along with sexy Emma Stone and some cockroaches, remember? I’m not going anywhere, I happen to like dressing and undressing in public (throw me a penny will ya). I did sit in bed reading your comments though, quivering at times, and at the end thought bit of poop-head, aren’t I – I’ve near-become one of those douche-baguettes that leave their amazing boyfriends for a guy that will only date me for my lumps (or lack thereof). My sincerest apologies, you’re amazing, make-up snog?

Have a bit of Pho, at least. I guess I was saving this post exactly for an occasion like this, for times we can all do with a bit of a pick-me-up. When our Editer.com offices used to be based in Old Street the Pho Cafe on St John street was a guilty indulgence, and on colder days I’d cycle back with the team’s order stuffed in my front-basket, leaving a visible trail of steam in my wake. We’d then open all the windows, stuff a napkin down our collars and slurp down the hot pho, for an indoor picnic was all we could afford during busy times. So this is sort of a fantasy come true. Kit and I rented a couple of Tokyobike bikes for the occasion, and on mentioning ‘pho’, Yu (owner) immediately mounted his own bike and proposed to act as captain guide. It was yum.

BTW, when I really want to close this blog, I won’t dare do it with that kind of a whimper – I thrive from exaggeration (see title), my reasoning will be anything but legitimate. (i.e I need to focus on my career of oiling Iron Man suits)