Carpe Diem.

My blog is going on hiatus and I won't be blogging until after September 2012 because I'm going to be spending 10 weeks in Malawi doing voluntary work. I'm not sure if I'll even have any followers by then or when exactly I'll resume blogging but I'll definitely do a blog post about my experience.

Thank you to all those that have been following me! I've posted the above video because I'd like to think it perfectly encapsulates my philosophy on life (ignoring the Red Bull endorsement) which I'd like to pass onto you: never stop challenging yourself! x

Love can be found in...

I'm not really a romantic but I do have my Cinderella-thought moments.

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I want a motorbike by Blitz Motorcycles!! This isn't my first post on the motorbike (and motorbikes in general)...

Girls

I've just read about this new T.V drama, entitled Girls, in The New York Times and I'm intrigued! According to The NY Times:

The show is drawing inevitable — and apt — comparisons to “Sex and the City,” in whose long shadow it blooms. “Girls,” too, is a half-hour comedy (of sorts) about four women finding themselves and fortifying one another in the daunting, libidinous wilds of New York City. But it’s a recession-era adjustment. The gloss of Manhattan is traded for the mild grit of Brooklyn’s more affordable neighborhoods. The anxieties are as much economic as erotic. The colors are duller, the mood is dourer and the clothes aren’t much. It’s “Sex and the City” in a charcoal gray Salvation Army overcoat.

On the road to nowhere.

I've just finished reading Barack Obama's book: Dreams From My Father. It's beautifully written and slightly reminiscent of On The Road by Jack Kerouac but set in Africa. Running heavily throughout the book is Obama's quest to find out who he is, but more precisely, who his father was and how, as a man of mixed-heritage, he's to make sense of a racially divided world.

Listening to: Ray Lamotagne's cover of Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.

Take ownership of your tomorrow.

I've just finished reading a brilliant book by Herta Von Stiegal, entitled The Mountain Within: Leadership lessons and inspiration for your climb to the top, which is where all the above quotes have been taken from. I would advise everybody and anybody to read it regardless of where you see your life heading. The book offers timeless advise on how to metaphorically conquer the mountain within. Stiegal uses her experience of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for the first time and failing and then taking on the challenge again but with a group of disabled people and succeeding as a backdrop to her leadership lessons of conquering the mountain within.

The leadership lessons are also supported with accounts from her own professional experience as a global business executive. Alongside this are a number of conversations with many of the world's most influential business leaders by the way the book is written in a very simple way and is organised in an easily readable way.

Don't be predictable.

The most interesting people live interesting lives because they are not one-dimensional.

Those interesting people then become intriguing when you can tell that they selectively choose who to share their private world with.

Reworded text in the above image: The woman had two sides - and he liked how he had to discover both.

Listening to: Ed Sheeran - Drunk (Rudimental Remix).

Flawless.

Another person who rocked the Grammys was Adele; who always dresses beautifully. I think she plays it a bit too safe -always wearing dark colours- but I've heard that she wants to be recognised for her music and not her style.

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Brad Pitt uttered those very words and said that peace is what we should be striving for.
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My view is that happiness is a fleeting emotion that is over-glorified. Call me a cynic but this over-glorified emotion works wonders for consumerism. On the right-hand side of my blog I've added a beautiful quote by Arthur Schopenhauer who, according to Alain De Botton, is one of the greatest pessimists in the history of philosophy. I think the quote helps bring a sense of clarity (or reality) to the fashion element of my blog.

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I'll now leave you to ponder on Brad Pitt's words and absorb Schopenhauer's words.

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Great documentary!

How to...

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A how-to-pictorial-guide on looking fashionably chic on a cold evening.

Her life was hard.

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Every girl's fashion dream is to collect all the best fashion pieces to create the perfect wardrobe.

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Fashion is like art: subjective, constantly changing and sometimes timeless.

Music: Drake ft. Nicki Minaj - Make Me Proud

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

View speech in its entirety here.

Accessories.

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I want new accessories but I've been really busy these past few months that I've just been food shopping.

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I really like the yellow skirt paired with the polka dot blouse look!

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I love this song at the moment: Story Board - The Album Leaf.

It's October, right?

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"The summer wind, came blowin' in - from across the sea

It lingered there, so warm and fair - to walk with me

All summer long, we sang a song - and strolled on golden sand

Two sweethearts, and the summer wind." -Frank Sinatra

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(1) Unknown: (2) Hedi Silmane

Odd summer weather we're having in England but it would be very British of me to complain...

Trends

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The above collage is taken from The Times on Saturday . I can't say the bright colours and the amazing array of patterns fits in with my current style but I find the overall idea inspiring, plus I like a some of the items as single pieces.

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The above words of wisdom are for anyone who is embarking on something new, something testing and potentially challenging. In such moments there is always an element of fear attached to the task, but I try to remind myself of that inspiring saying: feel the fear and do it anyway.

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I'm in the process of applying to various places for a graduate job with a well established property firm. It's a dauting process from the filling out of application forms to the rounds of interviews I will have to go through depending on how far I move up the recruitment process.

Live as...

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"All through the season I saw a great deal of her, and the atmosphere of mystery never left her. Sometimes I thought that she was in the power of some man, but she looked so unapproachable that I could not believe it. It was really very difficult for me to come to any conclusion for she was like one of those strange crystals that one sees in museums, which are at one moment clear, and at another clouded." -Oscar Wilde, The Complete Short Stories.

One, two, three.

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"My one terrible consolation is that my beloved has an undying, basically undeviating love for the institution of marriage itself. She has a primal urge to play house permanently. Her marital goals are so absurd and touching." -J.D.Salinger, Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters.