Forte Village Resort, Sardinia; Part 1

Suit – Agnona (via Donne Concept Store at Forte Village)

Suit – Agnona (via Donne Concept Store at Forte Village). Top – DAY Birger et Mikkelsen. Necklace – Noemi Klein. Sunglasses – Couronne.

Floppy straw hat – Claire’s. Straw bag – Chloe. Kaftan as dress – Tallulah & Hope

Floppy straw hat – Claire’s. Straw bag – Chloe. Kaftan as dress & Belt – Tallulah & Hope

Red striped top – Chinti & Parker. White culottes – ASOS. White heels – Zara. Clutch – JinYoo103684. Flower hairclip – H&M

Red striped top –Chinti & Parker.White culottes –ASOS. White heels – Zara. Clutch – JinYoo103684. Flower hairclip – H&M

I’m aware of the fact that I tend to overuse Disneyland as a basis of good, or in other words omg-pee-ze-pants-awesome – for example that cake shop down the road that offers infinite free samples is basically Disneyland to my eyes. However, when I say Forte Village is like Disneyland, its one thing that it is indeed omg-awesome, but technically it’s probably the easiest way to describe the concept of this Sardinian resort.
Once you enter the candy-cane barrier and the pastel-coloured gates smothered in Mediterranean flora, it’s similarly a whole other world inside; one that makes date, news, time irrelevant for the entire duration of your stay. There isn’t a stuffed-mouse posse to greet you, but will a parrot named Mario do? We find out later in the week that watching it fight with two other parrots is one of the best entertainment when slightly drunk. A golf-buggy transports you to a remote bungalow amidst thick vegetation that effectively hides the thousand other guests staying at the resort. Once you’ve unpacked, it’s up to you which ‘rides’ you want to go on – I personally abuse the spinning teacup, which involves my hubby spinning me underwater in the Mediterranean sea while he ingests fish of sorts while I have the time of my life forgetting I’m on the other half of my twenties. By lunchtime you hit the pizzeria to reclaim stolen calories, and depart with a cheesecake to eventually nap with, while the adults (hubby) catch up on a bit of rest themselves. See, I’m sure there was a very rich culture and lots to see in the island of Sardinia, but not once we felt the urge to leave Forte Village. In fact it’s exactly what we wanted in a holiday: being locked in a fortified playground with infinite icecream.

Thank you Forte Village Resort for the warm welcome. Stick around for part Two!

Recipe for a happy weekend: Bikes, cakes, denim skirt and the flower market

Leopard Sweatshirt – ASOS (similar in red). Denim Skirt – ASOS (similar here). Shoes – Nike Free Run. Bag – Marc Jacobs. Sunglasses – Celine via SunglassesShop. Cashmere scarf – Johnstons. Watch – Sekonda. Friendship Bracelet – Lucy Folk. ‘Oui’ ring – Street Bauble. Outfit photos with help from Charlie.

Speaking of good weekends, I’m steeped into World War Z by Max Brooks at the moment and having a blast ignoring off the sun and sitting inside a makeshift tent made out of blankets and pillows while the hubby slides in chicken and cous cous every few hours. I shove out the empty plates, and another one with jell-o gets pushed in. I have a good husband like that. He’s into his online games, and I’m stuck on a zombie book, we’re both happy and apparently the sun is out so technically that ticks another box in the Happy Weekend form. Who knows, tomorrow I might cycle down to the flower market to pick up some blooms for the week and maybe see a friend or two for coffee and cakes. What are your plans for the weekend?

By the way, do check out that book, it’s the best take on the zombie apocalypse I’ve seen/read so far – none of the overdone, emotion-led, soppy stories involving an enigmatic lead character and the journey to a Disney end of humankind, but a clever compilation of interviews and stories by survivors, interlaced with politics, military and all manners of science on a global scale. Everything seems so plausible that it’s terrifying – I keep re-telling some of the stories to my husband as if all of it really happened, it’s that good. Make sure to put it on your summer reading list!

There and back again, 3 minutes in Paris with Kenzo Parfum

Beautiful Aimee of Song of Style

Wearing: Trench – H&M Trend. Navy crop-top – American Apparel. Skirt – ASOS. Heels – Kurt Geiger. Bag – 3.1 Phillip Lim. Sunglasses – Celine via Sunglasses Shop

When I was younger my daddy used to go on these business trips where he’d leave at the crack of dawn and be back for dinner the same day. I never understood it – in my mind a trip that involves trains or planes meant packing puzzles, books and Barbie outfits (we never remembered to take the actual Barbies) and my brother and I would take a nap in the car to the airport and find ourselves in a hotel bed the next morning. Then we’d spend countless days trudging along in mum’s shadow chasing supposedly important, but always broken, buildings, and never actually touched any of the toys we’d packed. Only on my train back from Paris the other week it clicked, how it all worked, how my dad did all that within a day. I’d gotten on a midday train, arrived at 3pm in Paris, and by 6pm I was back in London in time for dinner with the hubby. See, there was  a big ferris wheel with a red Kenzo poppy stuck on the butts of each capsule, and we rode in it, three times. Then after a quick coffee and a nibble of something coconutty inside a little boat decorated with floating poppies, I was back in the cab headed to the train station. (And all that time I played with my Barbie once maybe.) That was it, I’ve cracked it, my daddy’s secret on coming home the same day he left = ferris wheel rides and something coconutty.

Kenzo Parfums are launching something cool in September, and this was a little sneakpeek, but also an ongoing celebration of the Kenzo Flower Wave movement with Every Mother Counts on improving health in pregnancy for every mother around the world. It’s a great cause, and so easy to get involved, pass on the poppy love!

Plum, orange and almond cake slice at CafeAnd

Wearing: Coat – ASOS. Top – Zara. Trousers – Uniqlo. Shoes – Kurt Geiger. Pouch – Kurt Geiger. Thank you Charlie for helping with the photos!

Once you start working from home and the passing days have absolutely no definition other than when the Nutella runs out (every.single.day.yo), outings, even ones where you sit alone in a cafe and order one cake after the other, feels like a big deal. To start with, only when I smear some foundation on my Walking-Dead face and draw on some eyes a hope is rekindled, a small hope that I belong in civilization of some form or another. Sometimes I go out in just an eyeliner and some baggy jeans, because that’s already a step up from whatever I’ve been pickling in the past few days. But then of course I catch a glimpse of myself in a shop window looking like a half-baked pie, or a Transformer that transformed only half-way and basically still looks like a pickup-truck with arms. At least remember to draw some eyebrows, I tell myself. I guess what I’m trying to say, is that it feels good to venture down somewhere that’s a few more bus-stops away from the usual, to dress up a little, and to reach a little further into the closet for exotic-looking things like these ridiculously electric hues of blue that are usually just incompatible with the trip to the Turkish to get more Nutella and Oreos. Unless I don’t have the right change and I need to smuggle out a bag of Oreo’s (that also happens to be blue). I kid. Don’t steal, kids.

The 2013 London Tweed Run

Photo by Yu Fujiwara of Tokyobike

Time for tea!

Tweed blazer – Vintage Gerry Weber, Skirt – ASOS. Floral shirt – Zara. Shoes – Topshop. Bag – Warehouse. Bike – Tokyobike. Thank you Kit for the shots of moi!

One does not simply partake in the Tweed Run among 499 others and not come home with 49,999 photos of tweeded butts, as Boromir might say.

We spilled out into the streets, ushered by the marshals – in no particular order but close enough to each other to hold hands. Mobile boomboxes in bike baskets sang the 50’s, conversations budded up here and there while turning corners. Girls rode in heels, hands-free for some boys, and we bloggers cycled with our elbows while trying to capture every moment… At times it felt like learning to cycle all over again – half scooting, half balancing with momentum – except here when you topple over sideways you take about twenty people down with you. Every single head turned on the streets, traffic stopped, and windows opened in cheer – how exhilarating! So this is what it feels like to be a politician, or blonde. We rode through Marylebone, Oxford Circus, Saville Row, Piccadilly, Whitehall, Westminster… all the postcards of London, then ended up in Lincoln’s Inn Fields just behind Holborn for afternoon tea; then up to King’s Cross to finish the day at a pub, at which point England did what England does best and rained on a parade. Only literally, though.

Many thanks to Tokyobike once again for this wonderful experience! Check out part 1 for more tweed, less buttz.