BNY Mellon

I've been looking forward to this all year. It's one of my favourite events in the Spring calendar and considering I hadn't been back to The Crabtree since last years race, I was looking forward to it.

For those unfamiliar, the BNY Mellon is an annual boat race along the Thames between the rowing teams of Oxford and Cambridge, and this year was the 160th year the rival teams were to race. And with Melissa unable to be involved, it was down to Pippa and I to carry the tradition. Which was just fine with us.

So we began the day with one of our favourite bottles of Rose, animatedly throwing clothes across the room at one another. Sadly our pre picked summer dresses were quickly discarded to the back of our wardrobes once more as mother nature forced us to return to outfits slightly more appropriate for the not so mild temperatures.

Shirt- Zara

Jeans- Jack Wills

Shoes- Topshop, similar here

Finally ready, we headed into W6. While the boatrace website highlights a whole host of bars and restaurants along the river to catch a glimpse of the race, The Crabtree is almost perfectly in the middle, plus it does the meanest jug of Pimms. It also has a large garden overlooking the Thames laden with tables and benches to sit a small army. Which is the perfect description for the hoards of people filling the pub that afternoon. Pippa and I quickly found ourselves a spot right by the hog roast and ordered a jug for two. Amy and Sophia joined us soon after and the afternoon quickly turned into the ideal combination on drinking and gossip while we awaited the race. 

I've never really had an Oxbridge preference, but considering I was team Cambridge last year, I decided I would root for them again this year. So as 6pm drew around, laden with flags, we slowly and not so elegantly made our way to the waters edge. Everyone gathered around to eagerly await the first glimpse of the teams and erupted into elation as the first boat came round the corner ten minutes in. 

Sadly Oxford lead from the beginning and rode to an easy victory, but our spirits were certainly not dampened as we tumbled out of the bar. And we're already looking forward to next year… 

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Dear Daddy,

It was my dad's birthday this weekend. Sadly, with a packed work schedule and other commitments tying me to London I couldn't make it home. But we've got to the stage now where it doesn't matter if we can't all be together for birthdays or anniversaries or holidays, we always make time to be altogether at a later date. It's just as special.

Anyone who knows me well knows how incredibly close I am to my daddy. My favourite phrases as a child were "DADIEEEEEEE" or "look at me" and very little has changed in the twenty years that have followed.

Through everything I have done and all the choices that I've made, my dad has always been at my side, encouraging me and believing in me, and I know I would be simply lost without him. Through learning to ride a bike, going to high school, the first time I brought a boy home to the day I moved out, my dad has always been there with a smile as warm and knowing as you could ever picture. We still talk almost every day, whether its about the documentary he's making about his chickens, or the outfit I'm wearing on tomorrow night's date, he is animated and entertaining in every word.

My whole family is, as many people are aware, the closest and most unusual bunch of people you could imagine. And our dad is the glue to that. So because I couldn't celebrate his birthday with him, I thought I would share it with you.

So Happy Birthday Daddy, thank you for showering every day of my life with love. I will always be your little woman

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What's The Point of It?

I am hopeless when it comes to art. I don't appreciate the meaning behind artwork, I'm never moved by an image, and I rarely know how a painting makes me feel.

So thankfully I have Pippa to interpret these things for me. She is so much more creative than I am, with an equally wild imagination. So she's the perfect companion for an afternoon of art appreciation. Plus I'd been dying to go to Martin Creed's What's the point of it? since it opened at the end of January. Rather than being an exhibition solely based on visuals, it is a multi-sensorial celebration of interactivity and invention that intended to play as many games with your mind as it did with your eyes. Pippa and I were in.

I also realise I haven't done an outfit post for a while. So I thought I would include it here. Spending all week wearing fifty shades of indigo and black has reminded me how much I love experimenting with colour. And with the promise of up to nineteen degrees, I picked out the perfect spring look using every shade of pink.

I'm in almost head to toe Topshop, and nearly all some of my favourite pieces from last summer. But fear not, I've managed to find near-identical pieces in this years SS collections:

Blazer: Tailored peach blazer

Top: Crepe tee

Skirt: Pink skort

The shoes are New Look Limited edition, and the bag a Vintage piece I've had for years, but eBay always do some fantastic ones. 

So we headed to The Hayward Gallery on the Southbank. As I'm constantly saying, the Southbank holds such fond memories for the girls and I, and it is always so good to head back to some of our favourite haunts there. 

The exhibition begins with a large-scale instillation of the word "Mothers", a representation of how in youth, your mother always appears big (and sometimes a little bit scary) that spins around the whole room at varying speeds. Pippa and I were quick to duck as it span our way and scurried through the exhibition. 

While you're not supposed to take photographs, I managed to sneak a couple of my favourite pieces, and Broccoli prints had to be one of them. A thousand half heads of broccoli graced the wall of room three of the Hayward gallery and each one was made from a different head of broccoli, and each one in a different colour. It was a celebration of Creed's favourite vegetable (strange choice if you ask me), as well as a celebration of colour, youth and imagination. And that I couldn't disagree with. 

But the best part of this exhibition is the balloon room. I'm not much of a gallery person usually, as I said earlier I just cannot appreciate the beauty and emotion in an image the way I know the artist would wish. But what I can do is recognise the fun in a 7 foot tall room half filled with seven thousand balloons. 

Pippa and I wasted no time in experiencing the room described as 'both playful and claustrophobic', diving straight into a game of hide and seek. 

 Finally finding each other again and deciding we had ran round the room enough times, we decided to take our static hair and claustrophobic minds through the rest of the exhibition, stumbling upon a giant instillation of a moving penis on the roof terrace. And rather than appreciate the exploration of rhythm and repetition, like the mature adults we are, we decided to giggle like children and take photos petting it. You can't grow up too fast.

You can buy tickets for £9 from the box office, or just turn up on the day for the exact same price. Or add a pre-exhibiton glass of champers for £3.50. It's well worth a visit, and has just been extended until the 5th May due to popular demand! So get your tickets here http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/

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Fashion Internships and Week One at Armani HQ

Fashion internships are one of those things that divide opinion almost right down the middle. Some say it's slave labour, exploiting passionate students without offering any stability or promise of a future. While others say it's an invaluable opportunity that gives you an insight into one of the worlds richest and most glamorous industries and allows you to begin paving your future. I simply see it as a right of passage.

But like with any new job, I was nervous to be starting my first day in a new office. It's always intimidating being the new girl, and with going to somewhere as infamous as, Armani I was expecting cold shoulders, even colder words and a constant demand for the coffee run. In fact I was sort of dreading it.

But I couldn't have been more wrong.

Everyone in the office is friendly, welcoming and most importantly really eager and passionate about the company. The PR department, which is where I will be calling home for the next three months, is in the main offices, next to VIP relations, marketing, HR, customer services and even the UK director. Everyone is eager to make a good impression and in turn make sure every area of the company is at its best.

I jumped straight into work, with a week shadowing Amy, the current PR intern who finished her term at the end of the week. She admits there's days been days she was ready to never return to the office again, but at the same time assured me it's been the best and most valuable three months of her life.

From packing and delivering invitations for the impending press day, to monitoring and sending samples to shoots across the world, to sitting in on VIP meetings with A listers, every moment of my first week was different, crazy and exciting.

And soon enough it was Friday. With a busy week of press day fun ahead, I was looking forward to a couple of days of recuperation before I begin one of the most important weeks in the Armani calendar alone.

Even in the first week, I have grown and learnt incredible amounts and am excited to see what is to come in the upcoming months. 

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Picnic in the Park.

You can imagine how happy I was to wake up to this morning. 

Don't get me wrong, I love winter. Cosy nights in front of a log fire with old re runs and the Christmas fridge only an arms-length away are some of my fondest memories. But my true love is summer. Somehow everything is better when the tights are off and the sun is out. 

And what better way to spend the afternoon than with a picnic in the park. I managed to convince my rather reluctant and somewhat hungover best friends to join me, and each laden with afternoon treats, Jack, Gemma and I headed to Hyde Park.

One of the biggest arguments about living in the city (this centrally comes from my mum) is that there's no fresh air, grass or water. But in fact London is one of the greenest cities in the world and the nearest park is only a stones throw away if I begin to crave some feelings of home.

So we made a camp among the other sun revellers, pulled out a bottle of Lanson I'd been waiting to open since my birthday, and drank and chatted our way through the afternoon, soaking up the sun and watching the world go by.

It was also the perfect opportunity to take my dream dress out for a spin (previously blogged about here Spring Sunshine and a little celebration)

It's set to be a beautiful week, and with an incredibly busy week of work ahead, sadly I don't think I'll be seeing even a ray of it. So it's definitely set to be a weekend of making the most of it. I hope you all will be too!

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