Tailor Made

There's one item in my wardrobe that seems to be dictating my fashion choices lately, and that's my blazer. Trying to find a tweed blazer that isn't too expensive and isn't so "countryside" that you need a whippet and a flat cap to wear one is pretty difficult.

Originally, I had a blue blazer with very fine white pinstripes and a brassy/gold ancor button; only an £18 purchase from Primark, it surprised me by being my most complimented item of clothing at the time. A year or two later and over a stone lighter, I needed a replacement. I ended up obsessing over a £200 beauty from Jack Wills– not exactly within my price range. And when I had just-about convinced myself to save up the money to buy it, my Dad booked our holiday to Bangkok.

And what, you say, does this have to do with a tweed blazer?

Tailors.

Thailand is well known for having some of the best tailors and textiles in the world. Having been to Thailand before, my dad was pretty familiar with the process of getting something made, so after days of being mischievously deviated into unexpected tailors by ALL of our tuk tuk drivers and walking past tailor after tailor on our way out of our hotel, we were eventually persuaded by Buno (our private taxi driver for three-ish days) to use his "cousin" in Silom.

Buno's cousin was no more his cousin than Audrey Hepburn is mine. Nonetheless, we found styles that we liked and good materials resulting in two very happy customers and one bored sister who had to put up with several trips for extra fittings– sorry!

Luckily for me, dad paid for mine as a Christmas gift. So that's £300 saved on the JW jacket, plus £80 on the one from the tailors. Not bad, I say.

Now that Christmas has come and gone I can finally wear and accessorize my tweed wonder. Due to the lack of choice in tweed at Buno's cousins' I had to opt for a pattern with a pink stripe when I would have preffered red or burgundy. To my surprise, I think the pink has actually proved the better option.

Those black boots are my absolute favourites, the pandora I got for christmas (added the charms from another bracelet and got the airplane and butterflies brought back from a skiing trip by my mum and pappa). Can you guess how much that clutch was? £3. Primark. Never thought I'd go in there again but I'm glad I did. Found the scarf amongst the chaos in TK Maxx- finding something in there always feels rewarding because it takes so much effort to do it!

Jensen.

P.s. That's my cat, Quincy. She's mental.

J'habite en Angleterre

It has been overcast, dull and gloomy in Newcastle for what seems like an eon. I usually just get on with it, live with it, forget about it. But on Tuesday, my cousins who moved to Australia two years ago, came back to visit.

The nice thing is that they're not completely "Aussie-fied", they may have picked up the twang and developed a highly sought after skin condition known as "The Golden Effect" but they are surprisingly pro-England. I like that. Makes me feel like my patriotism isn't unjustified. 

However, it did not alter my hopes for a change of climate. 

I live fairly close to the beach and I try and frequent it as often as I can: the sea is pretty ambiguous to me. It acts as an end or a stop, by which I mean that when I go there I'm satisfied that unless I start swimming I can't go any further. So if something is at an end, it's becomes a nothingness, right? Well, imagine that in this situation it does. Having such a vast nothingness in front of me allows me to really think. Hard. And then a raindrop falls on my face.

Longsands, Tynemouth

Refreshing though raindrops may be, during periods of hard thinking they're not exactly helpful. I do like rain, for lots of reasons, but when you see the forecast is rain for two weeks with the chance of floods that "like" is preceded by a "dis" and those peaceful walks on the beach give you a head cold. 

Which brings me back to my Anglo-Australian cousins, who tried to bring the sun back with them only to have it hidden by the clouds. According to them it's 39 degrees in Brisbane right now. 39 degrees! The last time I felt heat like that I was in Egypt– nearly 5 years ago. My adventures in Europe usually don't exceed 32 degrees and as I mentioned in my last blog post, Thailand was rainy (our own fault– we went during rainy season). So this piece of information triggered the part of my brain that was handed down to me directly from my mother: I want to live somewhere hot.

Amalfi coast, Italy

Now of course, when the sun is at least kind-of out and I'm visiting some jolly old English village in Northumberland, I could not think of a better place on Earth to be. But that doesn't happen enough, which is starting to make that part of my brain get a little out of control. 

Eventually, I have come up with a plan. 

I'm going to travel (obviously). But now I'm starting to decide where to and why. First and foremost, I have two very close friends who have an obsession with Italy. I've been before a few times and fell in love with the place so have no objection in going back; I fancy living on a vineyard and picking grapes in the summer! Then I'm going to save up and repay the visit to the Anglo-Australians. Word is that there's a spare bed with my name on it and jobs paying twice as much as over here– an offer I am more than willing to take up for a few months. Either after I've finished my next college course or a degree at university, me and my Anglo-Australian cousin (and possibly her little brother) are going to travel as much of the world as we can together. Hopefully, when we're jet-setting around the globe, we'll also be doing voluntary and charity work to help wildlife, communities and the environment. 

Problem = Solved. 

It might never happen, but it feels good to have a plan.

Jensen

Pictures-

Amalfi Coast, taken from beautiful town of Ravello

Tynemouth Beach