Italian for beginners- in a weekend, with a phone camera.

The sky is bluer, the drivers crazier, and people really do just casually park their glorious Vespas in the street while they go and get coffee. I went to visit my friend in Milan in March, and I think it would be shameful to have a blog remotely linked to style, and not to have a post about Milan. Even if it is roughly two and a half months on.

Here, with the help of some carefully selected images crucial to your appreciation of Milan, is a potted version of my holiday in the city of style.

 1)-Shortly after I arrived, we drove through a blissfully warm March evening in search of some dinner, and  I decided there and then to move to Italy. This hasn't happened yet, but I can't guarantee it never will. My eyes need more of this blue sky from the passenger side.

2)-Having parked and got some food, we wandered about the balmy streets, and I fell in love.

With someone only a few feet high, shiny, and red. We look so good together, but it was only a holiday romance.

3)-The next day, I found that Prada's European flagship Momma store on Galleria Vittorio, is somewhat intimidating as a fashion Mecca if you show up wearing a jumpsuit, leggings, no makeup, and carrying a rucksack. And to make matters worse, nothing screams "overly impressed tourist"  like someone taking a picture of the shop they're afraid to go into...

(Slightly unnerving fashion statement if you ask me)

4)- Well I can't talk my way out of this one. I 'papped' these Italian guys in a moment of cheeky madness, quite simply because I liked their tanned arms and their cool style. The ultimate in street style photography-quite literally behind the subject's back. If I could speak Italian I would have asked their permission for a proper picture, but I chickened out. Anyway, I love the turn up jeans and sleeveless vest look, on either gender. 

5)- There is a modest bookshop in central Milan, and whilst it does not immediately appear to be anything special, it stocks about three million fashion books. Not only that, it stocks what seems to be the entire world's production of fashion magazines. I didn't have enough suitcase space, weight allowance, or Euros, to buy nearly as much as I wanted. So there's going to have to be a repeat trip. Just warning anyone who has to date me, love me, be friends with me in the future. This shop is going to be a problem. I might go and live there.

6) And finally- despite not really having time to see much of the really cute towns and villages nestling on the hills around the Lake, I discovered from a short evening boat ride that the sun setting on Como is definitely as pretty as I imagined.

Milan, it was a pleasure. 

Jazzy happenings in a jazzy frock...

When I started this blog, life was quite different; in some ways it was quieter. I've been doing a lot more singing lately,and whilst I love blogging, it has taken a backseat due to a whirlwind of rehearsals and learning songs. It has been a shameful 11 weeks or so since I last posted-even if it is only me who has noticed! I still love style and the creativity it affords, but I've only had  the time or inclination to pop in a charity shop when I pass by. This, however, had led to some brilliant one off bargains, and this pink dress, originally from Zara, will always be special because I wore it to sing at Revolucion de Cuba for the first time-from sipping cocktails there, I really didn't think I would ever get the chance to be singing there! I don't really know what other occasion I would wear this dress for other than to sing, because it seems a bit too much for a day in the park, and yet so fitting for the swing songs I am learning. Anyway, whilst the weather is less May/June, and more October drizzle, I'll wear it round my flat feeling rather jazzy...

Why shoe shopping represents my life right now.

Since I last posted, I've been hobbling. In fact I just got up to go to the fridge and winced at the effort of placing my left foot down.
The culprit is a pair of innocent looking flat black patent ballet pumps which I bought a couple of months ago. I would never have imagined they would cause me such pain, but despite nearly falling over in agony if I got up to go to the loo in the night, I procrastinated about buying some more shoes for ages. Firstly, this is because there is so much choice, but also because a lot of what I saw just didn't appeal to me and was neither comfy or stylish. Sometimes one or the other, but never both.
I would find myself to be sort-of-in-the-mood to get some shoes, but then one brief look down the highstreet would put me off, such is the complete absence of anything comfortable but not completely ugly.
It left me wondering why shoes for women are either:
a) Incredibly comfortable and bouncy but absolutely devoid of any flair, whatsoever. Did they TRY to make the shoe look as grim as possible?!
b) Totally flat, dainty, gorgeous and stylish, but with no soles, and instead made what appears to be Medium Density Fibreboard and which offers about as much support as wearing greetings cards on one's feet.

I love to look smart, and well turned out, but I was also starting to limp a bit from all these cute shoes. Something had to give.
Wierdly, all this indecision and mild suffering over footwear got me thinking about some strange parallels with the complete inertia I have been in with my career and personal goals lately. The dainty ballet shoes I bought with high hopes back in February have almost cripped me, just as the career path I anticipated taking in my earlier twenties hasn't panned out. Consequently, my brain is hobbling through the interim whilst I plod on in a job I don't feel right for. My intellect has a limp, and my self esteem has significant aches and pains when I think of my strident, decisive and high achieving contemporaries, powering on in their careers of choice.
Lately, although I love where I work, I am struggling committing to a career path as much as to a damn pair of shoes!
See, I had the limbo of indecision about footwear because I knew this pair of shoes had to tick so many boxes; they needed to solve the pain problem whilst also making me look and feel nice, and it was taking a long time to find something with the right balance of both. I did not know where to turn for a good balance of comfort, flair, and some individuality. Career aspirations are the same.
Perhaps it is my idealistic nature getting to work in situations like this-I have a habit of using more logic more than instinct, until the point where I have absolutely no idea what to do.
 In the end though on Sunday afternoon, I took the plunge with a pair of strange modern bright pink lace ups  with the comfiest support inside. I can wear them with everything but they were not what I had in mind-I would never have gone for them. I realized though, that sometimes life isn't about getting exactly what we had in mind-and that as soon as we stop dwelling on why there isn't enough of what we want, we're open to new things, and they're probably nicer than we thought.
I'm not saying big life decisions are necessarily akin to buying shoes, but I can't help thinking there's a lesson in holding out for the right fit whilst also keeping an open mind. The first step was knowing something was up with my foot and finding something that fits me better. So here's to refusing to be uncomfortable, or even in pain, but being wise enough to accept that sometimes, the right thing isn't in our usual colour.