puppy clucky

I'm still running with colour...
This time the colour is natural and dappled across big rolls of puppy fat and soppy loving eyes.
My sister and i are in love with these little munchkins.
British bulldogs. Quite possibly one of the most adorable dog breeds out there.
Perfect for apartment and indoor living, they sleep a lot so if you are out for a day then they'll probably not realise. I could totally imagine one sitting with me wight now at my desk.....snoring through his blocked nasal passage, daydreaming about.... well probably nothing at all.

extra cute: Pankin the chimp with James.

nude shoes

my latest obsession. My pair of the moment are a round toe patent dusty pink pump. Perfect for work and even better with my hounds tooth pencil mini in the weekends. The colour makes your skin luminous and my not so long legs appear longer.

Loves these - esp ones where i can see my red nail polish peeking out. HOT!

1: Pour la victoire - eden nude suede

2: miu miu back seam pump

3: Pour la victoire - elena peep toe shoetie
4: alexander mcqueen 2 tone patent peep pump



These are supposed to be bridal - F that. I think they're perfect for a long ladies lunch overlooking the ocean or a subtly hot date night at home. Just make sure you get the chance to prop your pretty feet over his knee!

xx

slo mo.

the clip says it all. This is my new favourite. It makes me feel reflective, at peace, happy, inspired all at the same time.

Heaven (Fully Flared Intro Video Remix)
Uploaded by UNKLE_UK

For my Dziadek

Dziadek is my grandad...also known as 'Jacket' when i was little as i couldn't pronounce the polish version. These beautiful wood carvings made me think of him. I haven't seen him or my Babcia for way too long. Maybe 3 years, which makes me sad and i'm vowing to go and see them this christmas no matter what.

Dziadek is an amazing wood carver and i remember being about 7 or 8 years old sitting down in the basement of their home watching him carve. Me chatting about all sorts of stuff, drinking his special tea and eating sour plums that he got off the tree earlier that day. Grandads are great aren't they?


It will take him 6months of solid work to complete this table. Someone in Turkey has commisioned this piece to be used in their entertaining area.
Half finished wall piece...
little bit sexy? non?

Old fashioned love

The Taj Mahal. What an incredibly beautiful, awe inspiring memorial. As you walk through the main gate you are semi confronted semi presented to this magical monument. Sitting at the end of perfectly manicured and classic gardens, its size and proportions - it is as wide as high, attribute to it's perfectness. I love the Persian scriptures and perfectly handcrafted symmetrical detailing on it too. Built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to remember his favourite second wife by when she died during childbirth to their 14th child. Obviously not an impotent ruler like a large majority of the other emperors in Indian history! In almost all cases it was never acknowledged, even when they had up to 500 concubines and wives and not a single baby was born. is that a man thing or what?!

My camera died about 10 shots in so unfortunately i don't have the full array of garden, tomb and sunset shots. I'll be back there again soon though...hopefully with the rest of the fam too :-)

Barbers and Bollywood

I'm feeling a bit forted and Palaced out. Like you do when you spend 3 weeks in Europe looking at churches....We have the red fort and the Taj Mahal coming up and i'm definitely hanging for them both but apart from that i'm not going to anymore.
We're now in Jaipur. I had a hectic last day in Udiapur and stupidly thought that i'd be able to get perfumes here. I can't. I'm gutted. Thats one more reason why i need to go back to Udiapur. I don't really like it here. Known as the pink city because the old town was painted all pink as a sign of hospitality in the 1800's when king Edward the IV visited. (i don't know my roman numerals so not sure if that is correct) The shopping is pretty average and the city's just bigger so not as easy to wander around. It just feels like more of a shit fight and my tolerance level is pretty low today so i'm going to go to the museum and art gallery instead. Its just so much more affordable buying art overseas esp cos you can barter them right down. I pretty much get them down to 50% of their asking price and if they don't accept you just walk away and come back later. I wish we could do it at home!

Travis just got his hair cut at a very local barber down the road. It was his best yet and all for 30rupees, so about $10. They guy even gave him a 5min head massage afterwards. It looked seriously good, so much so that I wouldn't mind going back for a trim this afternoon. Or maybe not...
love the chair

hard at work...

Went to a Bollywood film last night. The cinema called the Raj Mandia was big, old and beautiful and right out of the 70's. The film was a new release. An action/love story. It was all good until he proposed, pulled out a sax and did this really cheesy love song....i couldn't help but cringe...no wonder a lot of Indians are so cheesy to westerners....they think that sort of behaviour is normal!

Udaipur...finally a place with water

Thats a little peacock painted on my crappy short nail by a minature artist. For generations his family have painted minature arts for the royal family. Back in the day minature art was like a photograph. When the maharana was celebrating he woul have his artist depict the scene then within a day or 2 he would have it finished for the king to recall.

This place is the most greenest city I have seen so far. I even walked across a palace lawn with grass. It was so nice to feel grass on my feet again! Staying in a pretty hot hotel, overlooking the lake with the famous white palace in it. (Accommodation has become paramount in this country. It’s so mental that you just need a nice place to stay, revitalize and get away from all the craziness. I’m loving the 2 english channels that most of the hotels have to watch friends re-runs or movies on, especially when I have been sick. Nicole Kidman was here yesterday and left the very shop where I am going to get my henna done tomorrow. Something else that was interesting and kinda fun - I randomly starting talking to a local shop owner who turned out to be from the caste that practices face and palm reading….he told me so many things about me and my life, what I am thinking about + that i think way topo much + what’s coming up... It was just a regular conversation then he kinda kept throwing things in…I have never had someone be so direct and correct about my life and my personality. Ask me about it and I’ll tell you all the details!

On the shopping front, I have a coat being made for me (yep i know!)….the design is fucking cool and it’s in a soft pea green colour. Made from merino wool and lined with this pink silk that has a green sheen (when I describe it, it sounds quite awful but believe me, it’s hot!)….here’s hoping for a cold winter when I get back to oz.

Have found some beautiful oils too; Opium, sandalwood, red jasmine and vanilla. I’m going to get a bottle of each so that I can mix them up at home for my own perfume. Anyone else want some?

Had to see the doc again today too. My tummy is still screwed. This time the doc was really thorough and has prescribed me ciproxan which was what my doc prescribed for me back in oz to bring with me on my travels. I just forgot to pick it up. Oops.

So another day here then we’re off on overnight train to Jaipur. Apparently that’s the place to buy shoes….i probably shouldn’t buy anything more though! I seriously don’t know how I can bring it all back. I’m thinking I may have to send a massive bag of stuff + all my hiking gear back from Dehli before Thailand. Though I’m just freaked out that it won’t all get there!

In the middle of nowhere

After Jodhpur we drove south to a small village and stayed in a super nice havalei. I had a gorgeous massage and we went out that night on a local village safari. Basically to see how Sheppard villagers still live today. I felt weird doing this. Kinda intrusive though they were just as interested in us, and the girls even had the cheek to comment on how my skirt and scarf didn’t match. Here I was just trying to be culturally sensitive and cover my shoulders. After that I took it off. Just shows you that no matter where you are in the world, girls in groups can be real bitches. (they obviously weren't really offending me but it was still an interesting insight)
Awesome shots though… I especially love the ones of the kids

Local women carrying their daily water back to their family home in big pots. The married women wear bangles right up their arms.


The Jain temple of XXXXXX (i'll get back to you with this) Dates back to the 15th century. The Jain temples are dedicated to different Jain Tirthankaras or hermits. Various animal or human figures are carved on the marble walls in the famous dilwara style. This one was nestled in the middle of no-where and was so beautiful. All marble and carved to perfection.


Me and Travis in the temple after being blessed by the priest and dotted with an orange dot.

Our Hotel's courtyard
Our room and me all dotted up from the welcome.

The colour scheme was gorgeous. Lots of orange and blue with painted murals with mirrors.

Jodphur

it's only been less than a week but we have already been to 4 new places...from Jaisalmer we took a local bus to Jodhpur, the blue city and home of the horsey pants. The place we stayed at was pretty average and you could tell when we were close cos you could smell sewerage. nice. I was so close to throwing up about 3 times when we'd pull into the driveway on a rickshaw. With our guide totally checked out, we have pretty much done everything on our own and changed the itinerary completely. (We have just learned that this is his last trip as he is going off to live in Spain with his girlfriend of 3 years?!)

So Jodhpur we went to a circus which was pretty much like what they must have been like in the 50's. Full of animals like elephants playing cricket and hitting the ball into the audience...which i caught. weird human acts where 5 girls would hang from steel rings by a piece of cloth and spin around up into the air, dodgy motorbike tricks where i was sure at least 1 person would die, strange dwarfs, ringmasters that look like that famous old porn actor....very odd but lots of fun. We were all pretty over indian food so both nights we ate pizza hut....how bad is that?!!! it was so good though.

We also managed to get into the incredible Unmaid Bahavan Palace hotel. Perched high above the desert capital of Jodhpur, Umaid Bhawan Palace is the last of the great palaces of India and one of the largest residences in the world. It was supposed to be 100$ for us just to get in but for some reason when we decided that it was way too exey for us they just let us in. I officially celebrated my birthday there in the veranda bar/restaurant overlooking the gardens, listening to Rod Stewart crooning away. It is quite possibly one of the MOST beautiful, most opulent places I have ever been too. (i don't haver any pics from the inside) Everything is marble inside and golden sandstone outside. There is a library with the oldest books and massive oils littering the walls, the foyers and halls look up into the main dome of the palace. The flowers are all exquisite, there are stuffed cheetahs positioned up one of the staircases and a trophy room...its all very posh but i love it. You have servants following you around waiting on you hand and foot too….it’s seriously insane. The palace, which served as the principal residence of Jodhpur’s royal family is definitely a place where I would like to be whisked away to for a weekend.

Camel Safari

Alice the camel had only 1 hump...which i don't think really classifies them as camels..
Camels long ostrich neck and my new bracelets

We trekked out about an hour and half into the 'desert'/ middle of nowhere. We had a dinner out there and local nomads entertained us with music and dancing. We slept the night under the stars and i had the company of a local mangy but very adorable dog who slept right next to my bed. I wish i could have touched it but dogs here are seriously mangy. Riding the camels was good fun. They're super comfortable to ride and like dad said, they barely make a sound when they walk. Travis and I even got our trotting enough for us to race...which I won, so that was even better. Con's of camel riding is their stinky breath. It smells like the worst morning breath you've ever smelt mixed with dirty knickers. Sorry it's true.

The camel i won the race with

Me and my buff. I know i'm vain