Monthly Archives: April 2010

More wedding photos


Is this the right place to post wedding photos? I don’t know. Is it relevant to someone who wants to know more about writing and publishing? Negatory. If that’s what you’re after, scroll down. I write about writing a lot because that’s what I do most of the time. Just not lately. Lately I’ve been getting mawwied. (Said in Princess Bride voice.)

These are wedding ceremony, post-ceremony bridal party and dancing shots (yes, I am a wanker when I dance. I am at peace with this). If you’re into flowers/invites/decor, I’ll post them too. Let me know.













PS In answer to email questions:

My dress is Max Azria, and the shoe are MiuMiu, my headdress is from www.vintageheaddresses.com.
The venue is Tribeca Rooftops in Manhattan.
The flowers are Matthew Robbins (you can’t really see them, but trust me – the dinner tables etc were like flowerporn).
The photos were the wonderful and amazing Daphne Borowski.

On relaxing

I’m still on honeymoon. But I thought I’d say hello. You see, it’s been three weeks since we left London, and I haven’t gone this long without writing in a decade.

And I really miss it.

I’m just not that great at doing nothing these days. That’s something I’ve realised over the past ten days of honeymoon. (We’re in Anguilla in the Caribbean, and it’s hot and sandy and blissfully five-star with hot and cold running mai tais.)

We got here and for the first two days I marched around, looking for activities, making lists, worrying that I didn’t know how to do nothing. Then on the third day I got back into bed after breakfast and had a nap, and realised that I did know how to do nothing. I just haven’t practiced doing nothing since, well, university.

And I’d forgotten how awesome it is.

What with the two books (and a half a one that died, RIP poor little bookfail), the trailer, the screenplay, my freelance copywriting, the wedding and moving house, it’s been a busy 18 months. And even pre-book life, I never took a long holiday. I didn’t have a gap year, I never saved enough to take time off between jobs (I’d like to blame the pathetic pay of an advertising copywriter for this, but it may also have had something to do with my well-documented fondness for cheap clothes and expensive bars). I guess I could have gone to work in a bar on a beach somewhere, or whatever people do when they’re on a career break, but I was generally paranoid that if I did I might not have a career to come back to. The holidays I did take were broken up into one week chunks over the year so I could pop to Hong Kong to see my folks regularly (which was lovely, but any family holiday is by definition not relaxing, right?), and the odd long weekend somewhere cheap and hot with friends. So you see, all in all, this extended-relaxation honeymoon thing is a bit of a shock to the system.

Not, by the way, that I was a workaholic in my 20s. Very, very far from it.
In fact, for most of my 20s, I focused on having a good time, and tried not to get lost/dumped/broke/drunk before sundown. Then I turned 29, and got a strange ‘I can do more than this’ feeling about, well, everything in my life. It was like someone flicked the ‘on’ switch in my brain. And these days there aren’t enough hours in the day for everything I want to do.

I’ve started to wonder if I enjoy working (by which I mean writing) more than I enjoyed relaxing.

That is probably why I’m here, writing this, like some QWERTY-addicted junkie. Just between you and me, because I know it’s a bit odd, I realised today (as I savored the thought of writing this, thought about what I wanted to say and then sat down in peace and quiet and zoned everything out as I started to type) I really do find writing thrilling. It floods me with those feel-good endorphins you read about in magazines. Like sex, chocolate, coffee, shopping, or smoking cigarettes, I get a strange euphoric rush when I write. I just love it.

Good thing I’m a writer, huh?

On mawwiage

Dearest loveliest everyone – Paul (aka Foxy) and I got married on Friday. Awesome day. I’ve lost my voice from talking and singing and laughing.

For now, just two very quick photos…

This is Friday morning when we got the official marriage thingie at City Hall in downtown Manhattan. It took about 55 seconds. Pretty damn funny. For people who like this sort of detail (chicks): I’m wearing a white silk dress that I picked up at Baby Ceylon on Portobello three weeks ago, and sequined Converses.

This is Friday 5pm – the real wedding ceremony at Tribeca Rooftops surrounded by 150 of our nearest and dearest. Dress is Max Azria.

We were rather fortunate in that only a few people were unable to come because of the volcano; most of our guests are of the show-up-three-days-early-and-start-partying persuasion, thank God. They’re all now stranded stateside and are scattering to Mexico and the Caribbean to make the most of this wierd no-fly period. A group of guys are going to Las Vegas for the week – and yep, Foxy actually flinched with jealousy when he found out…. we’re off to Anguilla tomorrow for the honeymoon – I’ll post more pictures soon… Very tired now. Must sleep. Sleep.

xx

On packing

I am packing for a long long trip away. Wedding, honeymoon, then some work stuff. I’m excited, with a touch of anxiety and a sprinkle of stress. Excietressy.

Anyway.

This is how I feel when I start packing.

This is how I feel at the end of packing.

(I’m the idiot in the middle.)

The Dating Detox book trailer

Daisy Aitkens as Sass, seen from the window of The Only Running Footman.

That’s right! Over Easter we (finally!) filmed the trailer to The Dating Detox. Starring Daisy Aitkens as Sass, Seb Dunn as Rick and Grant Martin as Jake (plus a cast of fabulous extras including moi).

The shoot was a brilliant success, despite London being absurdly freezing, and I’m excited about it. In case you’re wondering: why do it? Well, why not. Sam and I have been talking about it for a few months, and then I wrote a script that we thought might work, and then we found Daisy who is beautiful, hilarious, talented and just the most perfect Sass ever, and then Seb Dunn appeared and was the perfect Rick, and well – bit by bit everything came together. More details: directed by Sam Eastall, director of photography Ross Kirkman, producer Alida Stewart, casting Amy Eastall, makeup and hair artiste Caroline Morrison and special thanks to the staff at The Only Running Footman in Mayfair, who were amazing.

We’ll have the finished trailer edited and scored in the next few weeks – I’m getting married in NYC next Friday so it’s a weeny bit delayed by that I’m afraid – and in the meantime, here are some photos of the day…


Sass in Berkeley Square.


Getting ready: Daisy and Lauren (the infamous Pink Lady…).


Seb Dunn as Rick, and Daisy as Sass. My sister Anika and her young man, Matt Wardle, are in the background. Yellow clutch on the table…


Sass and Rick again.


Grant Martin as Jake, seen from inside the pub.


Philly, Matt and Dan were extras. This mostly involved drinking. They were awesome at it.


Da girls. I’m in the blue scarf. As usual, I’m in the middle of talking.


Sam and his baby Alfred (my godson!).


And in case you’d like to see the actors up close and personal, this is Daisy Aitkens, who plays Sass. She’s an actress and writer and all-round star.


This is Sebastian Dunn, who plays Rick. He, too, is an actor and writer. He captured the dastardly confidence of Rick perfectly – and he’s actually not a bastardo in the least.


And this is Grant Martin, who plays Jake, with just the right amount of ease and charm.

They look spot-on to me, what do you think?

More photos to come from the official photographers Vicky McKillop and Anika Burgess so check back soon…

On Make Up Alley

This post isn’t about writing. It’s about make-up. So if you don’t love make-up, please scroll down. There’s lots about reading and writing in other posts.

I just swapped something on Make Up Alley.

As usual, I’m filled with a very happy glow. I LOVE Make Up Alley.

If you don’t know it, a-ha! You are in for a surprise. Thousands of makeup enthusiasts go on to review make-up items they love/hate/meh. For example, I’ve posted reviews for my HGs (MUA-speak for Holy Grail) like Benefit High Beam highlighter, Dior ShowLash mascara and MAC Cute blush, as well as for meh-items like MAC Bare Study Paintpot. (Don’t bother; Soft Ochre is way better and will keep your eyeshadow in place all the live-long day.)

Apart from being very diverting (the reviews range from highly professional, ie, “the foundation tends to oxidise…” to giddily girly, ie, “OMGF i have finally found it!!! THE PERFECT NON-DEAD PINKY-NUDE LIPSTICK!!!!” to plain hilarious, ie, “If I wanted to look green and chalky all day I would get drunk every night” or “this so-called illuminator is a glitterbomb of Hiroshima proportions”), it’s a great way of picking up application tips, as well as finding out, for example, if the new MAC Limited Edition colour is in fact just a facsimile of a shade from the permanent range, or if a new NARS blush is just a copy of a MAC blush for twice the price. I trust MUAers more than magazines, because – and this is, obviously, not shocking news for any of us – most beauty journalists write what the PR people want them to write.

And the site is great for swapping.

Here’s how it works: you join Make Up Alley and make a ‘Swap List’ of unwanted makeup items – that blush that never quite worked for you, the eyeshadow that won’t stick. Another MUAer will email to ask if you’d like to swap for something they’ve got, making sure that you know how much they’ve used it (ie, ‘x10 swiped’ means it’s been used lightly about 10 times). You both post your items, and that’s it. Every time you make a successful swap, you get a token, so the more tokens you have, the more people will swap with you, and so on and so on. I only swap once every few months. I’m pretty reactive and picky; plus if I really want something, I tend to buy it.

Some of my friends think it’s gross. I can see their point, which is why I only ever swap nearly-unused blushes and eyeshadows and only brands I know really well ie MAC and NARS. In this case, I swapped MAC Shimpagne (it was too dark for me) for MAC Solar White eyeshadow, which sounds interesting. I’ve barely used Shimpagne, she’s barely used Solar White.

Why do I do it? Reason one: because I love makeup. Yup. I do. I am a total girl. When I was five, I stole my mother’s lipsticks and slept with them under my pillow just because I loved them so damn much. My friends say things like ‘I was such a tomboy, always climbing trees’ and I’m perplexed. Why would you climb a tree when you could sew a new dress for your Cabbage Patch Kid? Writing stories, making up plays and dances, reading, drawing, sewing, knitting, baking: I was a pathetically unreconstructed child. Maybe I read Little Women too many times. I always wanted to be Amy but knew I was Beth. Sorry, back to the point.

Reason two: it’s free. No, I’m not exactly poor, but like most women, I probably spend hundreds, if not thousands of pounds a year on make up / creams / hair products, etc. Swapping is a great way of trying new and potentially risky colours for free (I would never have found MAC Bitter without swapping, and it’s awesome – electric yellowygreen, a tiny smidge gives a delicious edge to any taupe).

Have I ever been ripped off (or, to use the MUA-slang, ‘swaplifted’)? No. It does happen, apparently, but it never has to me.

And this is reason three, and the reason I probably keep swapping when, God knows, I don’t need the makeup: I just love the concept. You exchange girly, friendly emails with a total stranger; then you swap products through the mail, often with a nice little note and then you have a new colour to play with. It’s simple and warm-hearted and its success relies entirely on thousands of women being honest and generous. Like Twitter, it kind of makes me fall a little bit more in love with humanity. And yes, I know how retch-inducingly positive that sentence is. But I don’t care. So there.


My sister and I, aged four and six. I’m the ballet dancer, she’s showing off her favourite book. See? Girly-girls. (She was always so much more adorable than me.) I have hilarious photos somewhere of us dressing up our dogs as babies and making them sit in prams, I’ll find them…