ninetwelvetwentyfive

my little girl turned three months old last week. and naturally it made me think about how fast the time has gone. in some ways, it’s hard to remember what life was like before she was here; in others, the time has flown past. every day she changes. i took her down to nelson last week for a couple of days so she could meet her little cousins .. we were only away three days but the rockstar said in that time she had grown taller, her hair darker.

it’s kind of de rigueur to include your birth story on your blog these days, i gather. but i’m not going to. not because i think it’s TMI, but it was a very intense experience and summing it up in words still feels hard. but i will tell you about something that happened on the night of L’s second day on this earth.

by this time, i had spent about five days in hospital and i was dying to get home. it was to be our last night in the post-natal ward but my sweet darling L would not settle. at all. she cried and cried inconsolably. something was badly wrong, i feared.

a fabulous midwife came and spoke to me. she asked me to express some milk while she took L for a little walk — ostensibly to calm her but mostly, i suspect, to give me a break. about ten minutes later the midwife returned with a quiet L. “how did you do that?” i asked, in awe. “oh, i just didn’t pay attention,” she said breezily. “she’s pretty annoyed at me now though”. and true enough, i looked at L and she had fixed the midwife with this killer stare. if it’s possible for a two-day-old baby to give someone the evil eye, L was doing it.

but soon she was crying again. a paediatrician came. baby panadol was given. more midwives came. no-one could find anything wrong. by this time it was about four in the morning and L was still crying. and then the first midwife came back. “you know what,” she said, “i think she just wants her mum.”

so we set up my bed so that L could lie beside me rather than in her crib. she lay in the crook of my arm and gradually quieted. curled up like that, we slept.

when i woke, i looked at my little girl’s sleeping face. indeed, it seems like she just did need her mum. and i vowed then and there that whenever she needed me, no matter where or when or how old, i would be there for her.

happy three months, sweet baby girl. we love you xox

1. mother’s day flowers from L. beautiful dragon tulips.

2. me and the baixinha

3. smoked mackerel and potato hash at floridita’s. one of my favourite things to eat.

4. fashionable water at la bella italia, petone.

5. macarons at la cloche, thorndon.

6. water at the chocolate fish cafe, shelly bay.

food, love, our daughter. this is what life has been about lately.

a short trip on good friday.  ice creams and sea air .. and L’s first look at the sea

(hokey pokey. of course. and it was delicious.)

more from our weekend to come. hope yours was delicious, too.  xoxo

so i was invited to attend the launch of the twentysevennames s/s collection.  this sounds fancy but it isn’t really;  the wonderful goodasgold invited their clients to come along for drinks, cupcakes and pretty summer clothes.   seeing as the weather is just about allowing us to think that winter might end — one day, one day — racks of pastel deliciousness were just what was needed.   i grabbed a vitamin water and wandered.

there were pretty cupcakes, although i didn’t get a shot of those.  they were disappearing pretty quick.  fun fact: in new zealand, fashion people actually *eat*. scandal!

but most importantly, the clothes.

(all the above photos by me)

the first, i would happily buy for myself and wear it with cropped khakis and brogues (yes, still).   the second look i think might be a little too pale for me — i am dark-haired with a sort of olivey complexion and i’m not sure i can rock that much pale.   but you know?  this season might be the perfect time to experiment.  cast aside the blacks, the neutrals .. after a long wellington winter full of blacks, greys and the occasional bust-out into dark red, maybe a light shade is just what’s needed.  like a fresh sour sorbet after a too-heavy main course.

anyway.  seeing the collection reminded me of the kind of quirky spin that the best new zealand design is able to put on the overseas trends.   yes, pastels are a clear reference to the northern hemisphere summer trends.  but these clean lines, the perfect proportions with only the merest hint of boho, make me happy.

pretty people, pretty clothes.  thanks, goodasgold and twentysevennames.  really lovely stuff.

it is a beautiful day here in wellington — the sort that makes you feel that spring might one day come.   the sort that makes you forgive the dark and rainy day yesterday.   it’s the kind of day we all need once in a while.   i am not sure what i’m going to do with this lovely day.  but it feels like it might be a day to look forward.  to take a little holiday, even if only for a couple of hours.  and to think about what might come next.

i have so much to tell you that it’s almost hard to know where to start.  but for now, at least a start’s been made.  hi, you guys.  hope you’ve been well.   let’s take this ride together .. what do you say?

something bright and cheerful to finish off a perfect weekend.  you know, in wellington the suburb of newtown has a reputation for being a bit ragged and a bit rubbish.  but its rough edges make it all the more interesting after the relatively low-key bohemia of cuba street etc.  and there is colour.  a lot of colour.

as (sir) paul smith says:  you can find inspiration in everything, and if you can’t, look again.  amen to that.

happy week, everyone xxx

in case you are not a wellingtonian or a new zealander (or, i guess, a rugby fan, tho i’m guessing not many of you who visit here will be) you might not know that once a year wellington hosts the irb rugby sevens tour.  the rugby almost seems like an afterthought, though.  it’s the party that matters.  people dress up in fancy dress, and *boy* do they dress up.  a lot of care, imagination and thought goes into the costumes, which are then often trashed by two days and nights of drinking and debauchery.  this year norman jay played in courtenay place and he said it was the best street party he’d played since the notting hill carnival.

anyway.  i decided it was better to leave my fancy cameras at home this year.  but i did manage to snap a few pix of the revellers:

(these guys were dressed like giant crabs.  or maybe crayfish.  the iphone’s weeny lens couldn’t cope, so it turned out this rather abstract shot instead .. but i still like it.)

(it also didn’t much like the strobe lights at norman jay.  but, happy accidents, etc.)

so, fashion report.

the most popular costume: angels/fairies. male and female.  actually, probably more male than female.  take from that (and new zealand’s oft-quoted maxim of where-men-are-men-and-sheep-are-nervous) what you will.

the best costume: well, my personal favourite were the video-game-inspired groups.  people dressed up as tetris shapes.  as pac-man plus ghosts.  as the mario brothers (there were many, but i never get sick of them).

what i would have gone as, had i been so inclined: a pox on these costumes for women that seem to involve the word “sexy” automatically;  sexy nurse, sexy policewoman, sexy traffic warden, sexy rugby ref, etc.  i’d personally love to be part of a phalanx of anna wintours. or karl lagerfelds. that would rule.

what i felt was sorely lacking: where were the pregnant schoolgirls?  or the local order of the sisters of perpetual indulgence?  personally i don’t think any party’s complete without them.

the sevens party is clearly not about fashion in the strict sense.  but for two days a year, wellingtonians get to let it all hang out.  wear whatever they want, no matter how ridiculous.  act however they want, no matter how outrageous.  grown men get to embrace each other and grab each other’s bums etc in shows of affection which border on the homoerotic.   it’s fantastic.  and then, monday morning .. it was as if nothing had happened.  the streets were clean, the sunlight was bright, the crowds lurching off to work dressed in black and grey and navy.  because, after all, wellington may host a great party .. but at the end, it’s still wellington.  and we love her for it.

hello, my name is ninetwelvetwentyfive and i am addicted to melissa shoes.  seriously.  the clever designs.  the intelligent and forward-thinking selection of collaborators.  the fact they’re vegan and recyclable.  the delicious smell of bubblegum.  the sheer comfort factor, whereby i can wear even the most vertiginous of high heels for hours. all these are huge points in melissa’s favour, but what i love most is the sheer fabulousness.

yes, they’re all vivienne westwood anglomania. left to right: ultragirl II, lady dragon, three straps elevated.

if you are lucky enough to live in brazil, you can get the melissa range in the fabulous galeria melissa in são paulo .. or in shopping centres all over the country.  i like the jelly stores .. they carry the complete range as well as accessories, and the girls in the shops are super-friendly.  if you’re in australasia then the best place to get them is the melissa australia online store.  the discovery that they ship to new zealand may be very damaging to my poor credit card.

and then, there’s these. a top competitor for all-time best vintage shopping score.  i bring you:  my new chloé boots.

found lurking in the footwear section of the ever-fabulous recycle boutique .. taken home, re-soled and re-heeled with new insoles (i think you should always do this with vintage shoes; apart from lengthening the life of the shoes, it makes them new and sparkly-looking and banishes any memories of the previous owner’s feet) and massaged with nourishing polish, they’re just everything wonderful.  i find it hard to track down knee high boots that go all the way up to my knee, but these do.  perfect for banishing cruel southerly breezes in this lovely summer weather we’re having :-/

what are some of your recent finds?

the rockstar and i got back from brazil on the morning of the 31st.  thirty hours of travel and we were wiped out .. valiant efforts to stay awake came to nothing and we slept most of the day, waking in time to see the fireworks in auckland live on bbc world news.  i was really not in the mood to get dressed up and go out but the rockstar insisted.  so at about 3am, we ventured out.  courtenay place was carnage, all the good bars were either full or closing.  but i charmed a bouncer into letting us into a place that seemed pretty jumping, and indeed it was .. full of young drunk people dancing to house music.  i decreed dancing was the order of the evening and so we danced a lot, drinking steinlager pure from long-necked bottles and smiling like crazy people.  another bar, giggling at completely wasted people, nipping into burger king where i had a chicken-pineapple burger bought for me — i ate it because i felt bad, but that’s the first time i’ve eaten chain-store burgers in about 15 years and nothing’s changed :-/  but somehow it felt right, as we wandered home watching the sky get lighter and the sun rising .. not for the first time, thanking the universe for the blackout curtains in the bedroom.   it was an unexpectedly excellent night and was the perfect farewell to a year that’s been crazy delirious fun.   i can’t wait to see what 2010 will bring.

i owe you about a dozen posts about brazil and you shall have them.  i got kind of busy there for a while, but i have a lot to tell you.  for now, though, the rockstar and i are heading to napier for a couple of days.  see you soon.

by the time you read this (isn’t scheduled publishing grand?) i will be on a plane on the way to brazil.  i don’t think i will be taking these shoes, as they are not quite brazil-style, really.  brazil does not encourage dressing like a parisian schoolgirl, in thick black tights and short black skirts;  it is more colourful, more fluid, more relaxed.

things i am looking forward to, in no particular order:

• watermelon smoothies, made with ice and a dash of sweetener
• shopping for melissa shoes, possibly several pairs
• sun-warmed skin, hair going lighter at the ends
• seeing the rockstar in his natural habitat (heh)
• showing my parents around my adopted home (well, one of them) and watching them fall in love with it just like i did
• learning how to cook more brazilian dishes, with a view to a possible project (!!! very exciting)
• seeing my friends!  gorgeous television presenter friend, dashing superstar lecturer friend, hopefully even the bbcbrasil posse at our favourite rio-style bar in são paulo (yeah, i know, contradiction much?)
• seeing my brazilian family!  gosh, i’ve missed them so much
• just being in brazil, the one place on this beautiful blue planet where i feel properly at ease ..
• .. with the rockstar, the one person who could make it even more special.

oh me, oh my.  it’s like the two halves of my life .. the dislocation between which has caused me so much disquiet .. are finally coming together and becoming one.  it’s the strangest and yet the most natural thing.

anyway.  posts will be forthcoming, just as soon as i figure out a good place to post *from*.  there is a lot i want to say about brazilian fashion, about globalisation of style and how brazil seems to firmly resist it .. and, of course, about my beloved melissa shoes.  i’m already dead keen to buy a pair of the vivienne westwood lady dragons .. because, well, come *on*, i resisted when i was in rio in april and i’ve regretted it many times since .. but would i be brave enough to buy the scent?  we shall see .. xoxo