Warm Weather Vixen

Spring in the UK - pretty

I looked up the weather forecast in Port of Spain, Trinidad yesterday and it is forecast to have thundery showers for the next week. Compare this to the warmth and bloom of the London weather and I would swear someone is playing a joke on me. The weather really has been brilliant. I saw the family next door - husband, wife and four-legged son - sunbathing in the backyard 2 days ago and shorts and flip flops are everywhere.

It proved to also be a good sunny weekend for me as was evidenced by compliments from different people of the male variety especially, who commented that the sunny weather really flattered me and I looked so beautiful and glowing. I had to remind them that I am a child of the tropics and I was born in a sunny world. I feed off blue skies and sunshine and while any normal person feels better when the day is bright, for me, after a horrid first winter and 2 long semesters, I guess it just showed. As promised, I ditched the customary jeans outfit for dinner on Friday evening and wore a long summery sundress with a cute lightweight shrug and matching flip flops and accessories, and of course put the MAC and Sacha light eyecolours to work, so I had a fun, youthful and warm look. The reaction from said date was more than I expected, with compliments pouring like London rain, and based on this reaction, I applied similar mojo to my Saturday lunch date get-up. Friends, clearly winter and school life were deterrents to my love life...or at least to dating success! lol. Warm weather Vixen I am! (V for Vixen!)

Speaking of vixen, just indulge my feminine longing for a minute.  I have shared some photos of my recent trip to Bath and Cardiff with you in the previous entry but I forgot to share 2 awesome female sightseeing miracles.

We walked into Dune in Cardiff and there it was - the key to happiness, or at least to fierceness. I dreamt about this bag last night. The duo are a combined £190 - way beyond my student budget but one can live in hope. Very Vixen, don't you think?

Anyway, it is taking me an entire weekend to throw a couple sundresses, 2 pairs of flip flops, 2 pairs of jeans and some t-shirts into a suitcase. The inevitable But I might need this strikes again. Let me get back to that and some breakfast. Now I am not sure what rainy Trinidad is all about, but rainy Trinidad is still as good and better than the London "heatwave". Home is where the heart is, not where the heat is (though rainy Trinidad is still 10 degrees hotter than sunny London).

Read more »

Colour Me Beautiful, Colour Me Fashion

Spring outside my front door this morning

Beautiful day today. I am inside again, with the books. My room is a disaster, with books literally, EVERYWHERE, but it has to be done, right? This dissertation is not going to do itself. Sigh. Bummer.

The SITSgirls are also have a spring photo challenge for the next couple of weeks and I signed up to be part of it. Now I am no photo-take-outer, but I love photos, and I think this may be the only way to force me to walk with my camera and take some photos of London. I have been here more than 6 months and I have taken very few photos. Granted, this is not my first time here and I have loads of London photos I have taken before, but it would be a great aside from the books and Daddy Disso anyway. Good luck to me.

So yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine, who was going to a Caribbean themed party hosted by non-Caribbean people. He said to me "I have nothing Caribbean to wear". I immediately rolled my eyes, shook my head, and told him if he had a nice shirt in anything but grey, black or brown, and some nice casual trousers, he would be fine. I begged him not to wear any loud printed shirts - with coconut trees or sunsets. I told him if he took my advice, he would be the best dressed man in the place because my next words to him, in my best British slang were:

I will bet you that there will be someone in a naff tropical shirt and a straw hat looking like a complete knob!

He emailed me after 9pm, and it simply said "I just walked in to the party. You would laugh".

I should have bet him money. The photo he sent from his BB was worse than I thought - bright, hideous tropical shirts, straw hats, hideous tie dyed sarongs, coconut earrings. Hideous. The typical, scary stereotype of Caribbean fashion that Europeans typically seem to have. It's not funny. It's downright wrong!

If you have ever been to the Caribbean, you would be surprised that we dress pretty much like everyone else. We love style. Love. Style. We do love colour though - I love colour. I know what colours suit me and which don't. Black close to my face does not suit me so I never wear very dark shirts or jackets, without something in my key colours - I would look like a walking shadow. But I look good in reds and yellows especially, though my favourite colours are blues and purples.

Photo credit: Fashion Week of Trinidad and Tobago. Caribbean fashion is modern, fun and vibrant! No tropical shirts!

I am trying to get another Brit, who I shall call, the Nutty Scientist, to abandon his myopic love for brown jumpers, and invest in maybe a blue shirt. He claims he hates blue - blue is for the sky, he says. He also does not wear jeans. At all. I am aiming to get him into a pair of  grown-up jeans, as opposed to ratty, torn, jeans or skinny jeans. A Brad Pitt finish perhaps. If Brad Pitt, a man just a couple years shy of 50 (can you believe it?), can wear some jeans, then a young, 30-something, good looking, albeit nutty scientist can wear a pair. Can't he?

Brad Pitt - just awesome looking in general!

I can see Nutty shaking his head at me, but if not the jeans, then God - a non-brown shirt; a shirt that speaks more spring and less winter. There is nothing wrong with a bit of colour. I am not saying spray paint your entire wardrobe in neon pink, but a touch of it can really liven up your look. Do you hear me England? The browns and greys get old. I can wear a bright yellow sweater without blinking an eye and not care what anyone here thinks about it. It is who I am. Bright, sunny, warm.

With spring here and more sunshine, and thus no need for the ridiculous huge jacket I have been forced to wear since November, I can exercise my love for colour more often hopefully. And show off my ass.

Read more »