Magazines

Yesterday I went shopping for a new phone. I was in a flowery kind of mood and so pulled out my trusty colourful primark tunic. Once on though I realised it was pretty short and would probably be indecent on the bike! So again I had to resort to wearing leggings.
I've never really got the whole leggings trend - it seemed to me that if it was too cold for a dress by itself then why would you leave your ankles and feet bare? Or, if it's too hot for tights, why cover up in something that's even thicker? I guess now I'm eating my words. Coz right now, leggings are the perfect biking gear for me - they let me wear my favourite dresses whilst preserving my decency and keeping my vajayjay (God, I love that word - thank you Addison from Grey's Anatomy!) covered.So anyway, I never realised how many phones you could choose from! There are at least 60 of the bloody things! LG, Samsung, Sony etc... Eventually I chose this little one you see to your right, I bought it in blue though as I can't abide girly phones. The poor boy behind the counter at phone warehouse (the Spanish equivalent of the Carphone Warehouse) was very patient with me but I'm sure he was glad to see the back of me too.
After my purchase (which must have taken a good 45 minutes) I thought I deserved a coffee, so I wondered to the magazine shop where I bought this month's Spanish Marie Claire to read. In Spain, at this time of year, actually now I think about it, all year round, they give away presents. Yesterday's gift was a rather fetching pair of sandals (which I promptly broke when I tried them on later that night). Sorry, I've digressed... The whole point of this post was to muse on the fact that every June and July the fashion magazines insist on editorials with super skinny and gorgeous models wearing bikinis. Now, I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but for me there is nothing more discouraging to the purchase of a new bikini than seeing page after page of the aforementioned stunning models (lucky tarts) looking amazing. It makes me feel large and I'm not particularly self-conscious. Don't the fashion industry realise this? I'm sure it can't help them sell swimwear... For me the best bikini editorials are of the bikini laid out, or the ones that tell you the best bikini to suit your shape - the American mags are best at this I reckon, as they actually use readers with different shaped bodies looking fab in all kinds of styles. Ok, rant and post over as my husband is on my back to get off the computer...

Colouring my world...

Spent the weekend at the villa as Jon and my brother-in-law had to paint the pool. The weather was unbelievably hot and sticky! Saturday Jon and I took my nephew down to the port of Valencia to see the first America's Cup race. Unfortunately Team New Zealand were absolutely thrashed by Alinghi (they did manage to equalise on the Sunday though, thank God!) We went down on the bikes which was nice but very sweaty.

On the Sunday I spent the day dreaming about colours for the new flat. I am a person who cannot live with white or cream walls, everything needs to have colour and warmth. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I am married to a minimalist architect who cares nothing for colours and would quite happily live in a white box surrounded by books and drawing boards. He will humour my ideas up to a certain point but I doubt if I'd be allowed to have anything like these photos above (which I got from a Marie Claire). Let the battle begin...

Yesterday was a good day...

It seems that my blog moans were heard. Yesterday I received an email from one of my publishing contacts here in Spain offering me a trial - wahey! Basically I will have to read a manuscript and write a report on it - plot outline, my opinion, etc. I will most probably be given a young adult novel to read which is great as I still feel like a teenager at heart and I have a huge soft-spot for teen novels. This is me having a cold shandy to celebrate...
I have always thought that Children and teens are a much harder audience to please than adults; if a child doesn't enjoy one page of the book, they often won't turn the page whereas an adult is far more likely to give the author another chance. It always bothered me when I worked at Hodder Childrens' Books when people asked me when I would progress into adult publishing, as if one were better than the other!
This is the full length photo of what I was wearing. I never usually wear leggings but I so wanted to wear this dress yesterday on my bike and the last time I did this without leggings was very embarassing - never wear button through dresses on bikes! My husband took this photo.

Clever sis

My lovely sis, on the left with me, studied fashion design at college. She initially studied Business studies but when she was a skint student she started making her own clothes to save money and discovered her true calling. She now has three kids and as they are all in school she decided to get back into doing what she loves best, designing clothes. She sourced some fabulous African print fabrics and is now selling her stuff on etsy.com; http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5087881 and on ebay. The dresses are gorgeous, my favourite I've shown here, and they fit lovely. I can imagine this one layered up over a stripy tee in winter, with woolly tights and boots or just on it's own with some little gold flats for summer. There's also a lovely short green full skirt which I really want as it would just fill a hole in my summer wardrobe. The only problem is she won't let me buy anything off her - very annoying!

Waiting on an email...or two

Not sure if I like being a lady of leisure all that much... At the moment I'm looking for freelance or project work in publishing as a reader or translaor and I've sent out my CV to a few people. I spent 5 years working in Foreign Rights, first at Hodder Chldren's Books and then at a literary agency, Ed Victor Ltd. I gave up this job when we decided to move to Spain. It was basically my dream job but I figured that if we wanted to have a family it would be better to be in Spain. Now I'm not so sure...

Waiting for responses to CVs is a horrible thing; every day I log on and as the computer chuggs into action my mind is in overdrive - "please, please, please let there be an email for me..." Then the dull thud of depression when there's nothing there. I know I should chase up with a follow-up email but at the moment I'm trying to put that off. It's probably the worst time to be looking for work anyway at the moment - the Spaniards are about to close up for the holidays - ok, I'm finding excuses now.

Instead I'm spending my days pottering and sorting out the flat. Last weekend Jon and I went to the Rastro, Valencia's huge flea market. We were incredible lucky and found this beautiful bathroom dresser. It needs a bit of work but I think with some loving care it will look stunning. The basin actually has a drain so we'll be able to plumb it in and use it as our sink. Just have to find some nice taps. We can change the tile at the bottom for one with a bit mor colour - I'm planning on having fuschia tiles on the wall. Sorry about the photo quality; I have the world's shakiest hands!

How to start a blog….?

After 5 years in London, my husband and I decided we wanted to start a family and move to sunnier climes to be nearer my family. So we sold our lovely one bedroom flat in Stoke Newington, North London to our best friends and moved here to Valencia.
This is where we lived. Outside the huge window you can see my beloved Beetle Bernard (second name Butler after the guitarist from Suede!) Bernard was a seventeenth birthday present from my sis, and the beautiful racing green paintjob was a bribe from my father to get me to move back from New Zealand! Bernard is 40 years old now but he's still going strong and we drove him over from the UK. We did however get the ferry to Bilbao coz although he's in good shape I didn't want to put him through such a long drive! The second pic is my old bedroom. On the wall is a thirteeth birthday present from my husband Jon, a limited edition print by Natasha Law. I found Natasha's work when she did the illustrations for a book by an author my old agency used to represent. The book was "How To Walk in High Heels" by Camilla Morton - it's a lovely book and I fell in love with the images in it - so delicate and pretty. I was completely chuffed with my gift to say the least. Also in the pic is our apple Mac without which I would be lost.
These pictures show what we've bought here in Valencia: This is the lounge - we fell in love with the huge bay windows not really realising the work needed to get them looking good. The wood underneath all the layers of white paint is actually rather lovely but I have yet to find someone who will do the job. The first thing we did though was to get rid of the doors... The light now is much better but the place is a building site! We've done quite a bit of work already. What used to be the bathroom and kitchen has had a wall knocked down and is now just the kitchen. As you can see the floor is beautiful and it's given me lots to play with colouur-wise! Very exciting - now all I need is electricity, water and windows...