New favourite fashion blog - Love Meagan

Apart from the Sartorialist, which I love (oh, and cupcakes and cashmere), I'm pretty fickle about fashion blogs. I love to have an occasional nose at other people's style, but tend to find that fashion bloggers either have 'girl next door' style which is lovely but which I could do myself at home so tend to tire of after a while, or, they are a lot more fashion-forward and nice for a browse but perhaps not wearable for me on a regular basis. So I've been on the lookout for a fashion blog with a real woman wearing wearable stuff that above all fits in with my own ethos of keeping things a bit glam and sexy without going over the top (ok, maybe just a little bit over the top). Enter Love Meagan. I love this LA blogger's clothes, big hair and slightly in-your-face style. If you screw your eyes up small she's kind of got a touch of Kim Basinger. Refreshingly she sometimes gets it wrong, but don't we all? Compared to style Europe-side she could be accused of over matching her accessories (I'm guilty on that charge too) but these minor mishaps are forgiven as she actually manages to look good in fit flops which she assures us she's wearing due to a foot injury but completely gets away with nevertheless. In addition to wearing fab clothes she also does great hair and cute craft project tutorials.

P.s. she has also confirmed the validity of my desparate need for a Louis Vuitton Speedy bag ;P

Meagan's DIY pearl and ribbon concertina necklace

Rocking fit flops

Fellini in Madrid

If you’re in the city and fancy a bit of film culture then check out the free Fellini exhibition at Madrid’s CaixaForum I popped in by chance yesterday and it’s definitely worth stopping by; includes some great photography, stills, sketches and film extracts – with a special focus on the saucy fountain scene with Anita Eckberg in La Dolce Vita and some of the curious fetishes of this Italian director. On till December 26th.

Talk to the hand - feeling silly taking hand photos

Why I feel like a fool I'm not quite sure, 000's of fashion bloggers take photos of their hands, feet and more on a daily basis. But, then again, I'm not a fashion blogger, I'm actually quite camera shy, and the lens only emphasises the fact I've got spider-woman fingers! Speaking of fashion blogs, I've got a new one which I'm going to share with you when I get a moment between the unpacking and hand photography :P Anyway, back to the case in hand (excuse the pun), I'm taking photos of my hand because after much deliberation and blathering on about 'only wearing natural toned nail polishes' I decided to try pale gray polish. I'm not an early adopter when it comes to fashion, I tend to wait and see how everyone else looks in stuff then decide, so about 2 years after it became popular, here I am sporting it! So what's my verdict? I like it but think a paler grey would suit my skintone more... in the photo below I use flash which makes the grey seem lighter, and more attractive I think (it's a Rimmel 60second nail varnish - not very long lasting, but cheap for make up experiments like this). What's your favourite nail colour?

Eat, pray, love - which of these 2 things did I do in Bali?

I'm back in Madrid again after 2 weeks in Bali and a week in the UK, and I have to say, for the moment at least, I feel like a new woman :-)  Re this post title, for those of you who haven't read the book, Eat, pray, love is a book the true story of a woman who goes on a year-long journey of self-discovery after the dissolution of her marriage and a harrowing rebound relationship. Following this ordeal she ate in Italy, prayed in India and loved in Bali, once again finding her footing in life. It is hugely popular but has also been much-maligned as the self indulgent ramblings of a middle class woman who 'had it all'. In any case, I really liked it. Unlike Elizabth Gilbert, I didn't love in Bali - at least not in that way - but I did eat and pray/meditate an awful lot! I have so much to say about that wonderful island that I don't know quite where to begin. Perhaps in a homage to the book that confirmed I should book my trip to Bali it is fitting to do a little eat, pray, love of my own...

Eat

I have great food memories of Bali - delicious banana pancakes for breakfast, made of tiny sweet Balinese bananas. There were also many quick and economical lunches of Nasi Goreng (fried rice with chicken and vegetables) scooped up with prawn crackers that actually taste of prawn and sloshed with the sweet soy sauce known as kecap manis. Delicious satays, fire-hot salads, and black rice pudding with coconut milk were also abound. At the yoga retreat there were carefully prepared organic meals - curried prawns baked in banana leaves, fresh papaya for breakfast and ginger tea on tap. But it wasn't all local fayre and granola - to end the vacation in style my new-found yoga buddies and I dined in Asia's number 7 restaurant - Mosaik - 6 courses of gorgeous food in gorgeous surroundings.

My solo breakfast on my verandah on the 'silent day' at the retreat (the rest of the days we all ate together).

Nasi Goreng and Bintang beer

Banana pancakes at my simple but homely guest house the first 2 nights

Mosaik

Pray

I have never been blessed by 'men of the cloth' so many times in my life. There were visits to temples rarely frequented by westerners with my Madrid yoga friends. Decked out in full Balinese lady gear of a sarong, sash and a slightly sexy lacy tops (not the one in the photo below!) we knelt and prayed; a curious ritual involving the smoking of ones hands with insence, placing coloured flowers behind the ears, and pressing of rice into ones forehead and temples (this is unfortunately a bit of a crude and inaccurate description of this delicate process). We were then blessed by mangkus who anointed us with holy water, which we accepted with upturned palms and even drank (I didn't get Bali belly after consuming this local water - but seeing as it was holy that should come as no surprise :-)). After the trip with my Madrileño friends, I went on a wonderfully restorative yoga retreat in Ubud in central Bali. My week here started with a 2 hour ayurvedic massage, and just got better and better: yoga twice a day, great food, cycling, beauty treatments, meditation and making some great new freinds - all in lush surroundings.  We visited a sacred temple by night where we walked throught deep ancient stone pools dunking our heads under 'purifying' fountains as we went along and were blessed again by a local mangku. Much of the time in a Balinese household is devoted to making elaborate little offerings to the gods comprising of flowers, rice and on ocassion even cigarettes! The streets of Bali are literally paved with these offerings and I did a class on how to make them. In a fitting end to the more spiritual part of my holiday, on the final morning of the retreat we were invited to burn little bits of paper onto which we had written negative thoughts on a pyre of fragrant flower petals then throw them into the river. Adios silly preocupations (for now at least).

Monasteries and ceremonies

Making offerings from coconut leaves and filling them with flowers - each flower has a different significance

Love
I certainly didn't go to Bali to work on my love life - fact is for the past months I have pretty much shunned love as something that was 'for other people' (though my big-mouth bravado may have suggested otherwise). Now I feel that I may be just a little more ready to meet someone, but only just a little, so we'll see. To be honest I found that Bali, for all it's sensuality felt pretty chaste - even the cat calls seem harmless - at least compared to the obscenities I am used to hearing in Lavapies. It was only when I travelled to neighbouring island Nusa Lembongan that I suddenly felt a bit harangued as a woman - luckily I had a male friend accompanying me on this isle which we came to name la isla de los salidos - pervy/horny guy island. So, as I said, Bali was not really about amore for me - though permit me to get a little cheesy and say it was all about self-love and the love of friends.

The princess treatment

My own private beach

Looking back at what I've written here, it really doesn't capture the essence of the island, the things that really struck me. Things like waking up to the smell of frangipani flowers, the way strangers went out of their way to help me, sweet Ketut at the retreat who nervously smiled as he explained to us the ingredients of the latest organic meal to come from his kitchen, spooky tales of black magic, the toothless smile of an old mangku, new friends in far off places, my first time snorkeling, villagers greeting us with om swastiastu, funny lady market vendors claiming they were giving you a good price because you have nice body or insisting that buying this or that sarong bring good luck for you, crazy rides on the back of all manner of motorbikes, trucks and boats. Thank you for the memories Bali :-)

For those of you who I'm friends with on Facebook, sorry that you've seen these pics already! I'll be posting more on the blog soon.

A message from paradise

Bali truly is paradise, and the yoga retreat is better than I could ever have imagined! I'm here blogging on the centre's only computer (the retreat is called 'escape the world' so the whole idea is that you're not blogging and on facebook the whole time hence my near total absence these days!). I'll be back in the UK in a week or so where I'll post some photos from the trip before returning to Madrid. In the meantime here's a link to my 'wanderlist' (travel wishlist) which Alex and Mina have posted on their wonderful blog, Sending Postcards, where they document their travels round the world.

Super express post!

From Changi airport in Singapore - about to board for Bali! Posts might be a bit sparse over the next couple of weeks - will depend if I can get to an internet cafe between all the yoga, massages and eating :-)

I take back everything I said about Primark

I'm in the UK as of several days ago, and I've finally got around to buying some clothes for my Bali trip. I didn't want to spend a fortune on travel wear and despite saying I wouldn't go anywhere near the place, I found myself in cheapo superstore Primark. I don't know what happened, but 1.5 hours later I emerged from there 60 pounds poorer but with approximately 10 new items of clothing bundled into a bag. I've always been a firm believer in 'you get what you pay for', but seeing nicely cut classic white tees at only 2 pounds that rule went straight out of the window. I was like 'who cares if they fall apart in two months!' I sincerely hope they are not made by children - a discreetly placed notice in the shop suggests they aren't, but the very fact the placard is there arouses suspicion. Also in my haul were pumps in black and metallic peach at 4 pounds, long floaty dresses, 2 quid leggings and some housewarming presents for my brother's new place (2 cushions for 6 pounds!) The only thing I'd say is that you have to rummage, you have to get past the idea of shopping being a pleasant experience for all the senses and you have to forget about attractive merchandising. Also, you definitely can't dress head to toe in stuff from here without being a little, er, flammable. But seriously, there is some nice stuff here. Viva bargains!

For Madrid dwellers who are interested there is a Primark in Carabanchel's chavvy Isla Azul shopping centre.