It was my birthday last week and as I’ve already documented my thoughts on the whole thing, it’s time to share what I actually did! My birth “day” actually spanned about 5 days as I had gigs before and after the day itself, plus a big meal/pub night with all my pals at the weekend. Continue reading
Welcome to The Dolls House in Dalston, presented by aesthetic wonderkids Dead Dolls Club. I don’t know if you would describe me as a party animal as I tend to be too broke to go out every week, but I do love a good night out dancing with my friends! The Dead Dolls Club have essentially taken over an abandoned house in Hoxton and filled every floor with gorgeous drawings and murals on the walls and ceilings. It really does make you feel like you’re in a life size dolls house! Each floor had a slightly different theme whilst maintaining the unique atmosphere throughout the house. The dining hall (pictured in the above picture) felt very Parisian and art deco whilst the dance floor (top picture) felt a bit more western saloon to me. They had amazing cocktails available on a couple different floors – I really fell for the Admiral Bloom – and though we missed the dining there were burgers down in the basement courtesy of the really lovely Thank Cluck who had some pretty tasty vegetarian options.
I am often jokingly referred to as “the hipster” one amongst this particular group of friends and as we normally hang out in bog standard pubs or theatres, so heading to Hoxton (trend central ever since Hadouken! rocked up) was a bit of a departure. It became a bit of a running joke that we were heading to “my house”, “home territory” and partying with “my kind”; I played up to this by wearing some clear frames as obviously nothing taps into that Hoxton mythology better than a pair of fake frames. I did then hilariously bump into one of my friends unexpectedly which was pretty good punchline to that joke! All in all it was a great night out – would you be up for a party in a giant doll house?
White shirt – River Island, £15. Pinafore – Ark Clothing, £15. Shoes – Comme Des Garcons via charity shop, £6. Gold studded socks – Urban Outfitters, £4 (sale). Fake frames – Camden Market, £1 for two. Pink shoelaces – Camden Market, 75p (haggling!).
Hello! I have just got back from holiday so apologies if you were wondering where regular posts had gone! I tend to blog about things a day or two after they happen; I know some bloggers save photos up for weeks but I find it feels really irrelevant to do so. Something else is bound to happen and I’d rather live in the moment! However, these photos deserved to go up as I keep promising more food posts about my strange diet.
These are actually at Camden “Night Market”: essentially just Camden Market open a bit later on a Thursday, with a slight variation on stalls and a Backyard Cinema residency (including an amazing screening of one of my favourite film, Almost Famous). I don’t follow any listings or event mail outs because in my experience anything advertised or listed as “the place to be” is never the place to be (also who has the time to trawl through all the events in London?!), but presumably Night Market was quite heavily promoted as it was heaving!
So, FOOD. I’m completely obsessed with Chin Chin Labs as you can tell from my hilarious ice-cream face; the staff always have the best recommendations and flavours change every week. I was sampling Walnut Whip ice-cream with peanut brittle in the above photos. Later on we “shared” Dutch Pancakes from this adorable stall I’ve not seen before. Fresh strawberries and warm baked goods is so good! I’ve not had such tiny pancakes before; they were almost like waffles in texture. I also left with a massive bag from Cupcakes and Shhht who make the best crumbly cookies (treat breakfast).
P.S. I’m wearing the mythical cardigan of the sub header and also this new skirt – it doesn’t go but it arrived in the post this morning and I whipped off my other skirt and threw it on. As if I have the time or inclination to change clothes when I’m already wearing them! skirt – Modcloth, gift. Spiked lion cuff – Stella & Dot Limited Edition (similar), gift.
Last Friday was James And Laila Day! Regular readers will probably have read about James before as we spend so much time together. In the absence of any kind of formal anniversary we decided to start James and Laila Day – one day per month devoted to not working together and instead hanging out and having fun. As it was my turn to plan James and Laila Day I decided to share some of my regular haunts with James. I live and work in Camden and it’s always been this bit of London that feels most like home to me, despite being born and raised in the south. I go for a daily walk around the markets and often stop in after work on my way home as well.
We started off the day with an amazing breakfast and then wandered down to the market stopping at all my favourite food shops on the way, including my favourite ice-cream shop. I follow a very weird diet and it can be hard to find foods I can eat, so I’m very lucky we live by some awesome health food shops. The first couple of pictures are taken down this little road with brightly painted houses. There’s about five of these pretty coloured streets on the route from James’ house to the market, in my head I call them rainbow roads and they remind me of the town in Edward Scissorhands.
The rest of these photos are from Camden Market! Camden is divided into about 6 different markets and once upon a time each bit of market had it’s own specific focus; these days they do broadly stock variations of the same thing but there’s still some individual flavour between them. The three biggest markets are Camden Locks (arts and crafts), Stables Market (subcultures and imported fashions) and Horse Tunnel Market (vintage and antiques). It was such a gorgeous sunny day and even though I visit the same places every other day, it was fun sharing that part of my day with James. I should be employed as a tour guide as I know the whole layout so well by now.
After the market we went to Honest Burgers for dinner (no photos!) and whilst the chips and drinks were amazing the no-meat option was essentially a vegetable pakora in a bap; definitely not recommended. We also went to our favourite pub and the cinema, needless to say we were pretty tired when we traipsed home later but happy and content. It’s so important to spend quality time with your friends, especially if (like me) most of your close friends also double as artistic colleagues. It’s easy to fall into the habit of just hanging out post-rehearsal and never doing activities purely for fun so I’m so glad we started this tradition. Here’s to the next James and Laila Day!
Today I thought I’d show you the capital Port-Louis and tell you a bit about Mauritius. Port-Louis is situated on the north west coast in a natural harbour as you can see on this map. The whole island is a very colourful place even without the tropical flowers, as all the buildings are painted bright colours. It’s hard to explain the mix of cultures in Mauritius. Mauritius had no native human population before foreign settlers got there in 1600ish (but a large number of endemic animals, birds and plants) and the population today is roughly of equal parts Chinese, African and Indian origin. The official language is English (meaning the papers, many road signs and education is in English) but the most widely spoken language is Creole (a sort of pidgin French leftover from the time of French colonisation), followed by Hindi, Mandarin, Urdu and Gujarati. Wikipedia actually has a whole article of Mauritian languages…!
It’s crazy to me that everybody seems to speak about 4 languages minimum without fuss. The food, architecture and faith groups are all a kind of mash-up of different cultures as well and I really love the diversity. From an outside perspective there’s no “culture clash”, instead all the different cultures seem to blend together seamlessly in a true display of multiculturalism. Seeing a mosque next to a church next to a temple next to a Buddhist shrine within the same 200m of road is magical.
I love anything with a contrast or fusion of influences and I think this comes across in everything I do. I feel happiest when things are thrown together and mesh in weird ways and I mean that in the broadest way possible. I think it reflects my feelings toward my identity; both my parents are mixed race and I have never really felt aligned to a country or nationality, instead always feeling like a mixture of places and backgrounds. To me Mauritius kind of encompasses this mixed up and diverse existence, whether it’s the mix of people and cultures or the natural geographical diversity between volcanos and rocky mountains, sandy coast and rainforests that have existed for thousands of years before people arrived. For me it’s a real life place of thrown together variety and I’ve not been anywhere else quite like it.
TAPE PARADE 
