OOTD #1

Rebecca has been teasing me so much about my "OOTD" poses that I started wondering if I could post them again without actually having to appear in front of the camera.  I got to some silly scribbling and...

Voila! 

Blue and gold

Rebecca needed to test her camera lens the other day and requested that I help her by modelling since I was dressed more formally than usual.  (There are days at work when I try to get away with wearing as close to pajamas as possible.  This wasn't one of them.)

It's always a lot of fun to shoot with, or be shot by, Rebecca so I agreed and through some awkward laughter, managed to channel my inner Amanda.  We giggled massively as I attempted some "fashun blogger" poses, then she sent me the pictures and demanded to see them on the blog "ASAP".  It makes me wince a little to be in front of the camera, but I used to keep a site about random things that I wore and for old times' sake, I thought I'd share a couple.

Yeah... I love Rebecca's pictures but I think I'm keeping my day job!

A public service announcement

Uniqlo is basically my favourite shop in the world.  Forgetting the annoying nasal singsong "WecCOME to uNIQLO!", I love the quality, the reasonable prices and the sheer range of clothes for all seasons.  Everything is decently cut and just smart casual enough for both work and play.  

We taught a lesson about Uniqlo's business plan last week and in doing my research, I discovered that they've just unleashed a collaboration with Baskin Robbins.  Yes.  The ice-cream place.  

In the form of summery shorts.  In 31 flavours.  My wallet never stood a chance.

Source: http://www.uniqlo.com/sg/product/women/special/31

I ran right down to the Uniqlo store near my place and grabbed an armload of designs en route to the changing room.  After marshalling some self-restraint, I walked out of the shop with two pairs.  The sweet pink checkered pair is in the "flavour" Ichigo Milk and the Lemon Sherbet shorts have delightfully juicy-looking sliced lemons all over them.

The tag claims that the shorts are knee-length, but they're definitely a more flattering mid-thigh cut.

I love how soft and breezy they are and at $16.90 a pop, you can enjoy your dessert guilt-free.

The Ichigo Milk shorts were my pink clothing item for Pink Dot this year (post coming up) and they were very comfortable.  Still, I think I'd better stay out of Uniqlo for a while. 

A present from my mother

A couple of weeks ago, four pairs of my best work shoes (flat, comfortable, suited to hours of walking) gave out in one fell swoop.  I'd been wearing them throughout my journalist days, walking door to door and in the rain.  One pair even followed me to the UK where I slipped and slid around in slush so I suppose it should've been no surprise that bits of rubber started coming off them and giant holes appeared in the heels.

Thankfully, my mother had vouchers for Isetan and I managed to replace them with three pairs of similarly comfortable kicks!  

I think though, that these are my favourites...

I love the smoking slipper shape and the gold crest on the front makes me feel like I'm the Earl Rothschild of Wickbyshire-upon-Twickenham Spa.

They're by Aerosoles and true to name, the soles are velvety cushions.  I feel like I should have a pipe by the fire and hunting dogs at my feet every time I wear them.

Instead, I took them out with cropped jeans, a cotton shirt and military style jacket to watch Man of Steel.  Well, that's two hours of my life I'll never get back.  Just sayin'.

Worn abroad: Bridesmaid edition

A navy blue dress with a full skirt and white sash detail, wooden shoes and gold jewellery.  I chose the bow earrings and Juicy Couture necklace because there is a sailor theme and you know, ships and chains?  No? 

Wedding ahoy!

Fraternal

So I said that Wei-Yuen and I would totally wear our matching pants to work on the same day...

(Pictures taken by our friend Shirin.)

... and I'm a man of my word. 

I'm not going to say that we whatsapped each other pictures of our outfits in the morning and planned to dress like night and day because... well, I'm not going to say it.  (Please excuse the dopey face, I was overcome with emotion.)

Laffy taffy

I had a really nice day today and I say that without any irony whatsoever.  I'm still sick, but it was the right amount of productive (with work), chilled out and sans cabin fever.  

I bought a ridiculous amount of winter-appropriate clothing for an upcoming work trip (I've been looking for an excuse to buy a fuzzy-inside hoodie for SO long).  

And in the afternoon, I made corn with ideas gleaned from a bunch of online recipes.  Corn is just one of those things it's hard to get wrong and is good with almost all fixings. This variation is amazing - it's sweet, salty, spicy and zingy all in one, and everything goes perfectly together.  

You just boil the ears of corn and while they're cooking, whisk together a spoonful of melted butter and a spoonful of honey.  Stir in some salt.  Douse the corn in the mixture, sprinkle lightly with chilli powder and squeeze a wedge of lime over before eating.  My parents loved it.

In the evening, I grabbed an impromptu early dinner with my friend, Wei-Yuen, from work.  We haven't known each other for very long but we kind of hit it off over general silliness.  We spent the evening laughing like a pair of languid hyenas and nudging each other over way too much food.

She enjoys photography as well, and very obligingly let me try out Big's night-portrait mode on her (check out the sweet background exposure!), though you wouldn't guess that from the face.  Later, we went shopping at that palace of books, Kinokuniya and both bought very cool things that I'll share eventually.

Before dinner, she made me meet her at Uniqlo to help her pick out a poncho (I'm telling you.  They're the next word in fashion).  I have some kind of disease.  Every time I enter Uniqlo, my hands twitch violently in the direction of my wallet.  I was proudly doing quite well this time, waving a haughty arm at the offerings and we were about to drift beatifically out of the store when we saw stacks of elastic waistband pants in crazy prints.

"Ohmigod," I grabbed her elbow.  

We stared at the stacks for several minutes, then at each other.

Those are the same pants in different colours, in case you can't tell.  I'm not even kidding when I tell you that we've planned to wear them to the office on the same day.

Wei-Yuen is leaving the country soon, and for a long time, so this was one of our last meals together.  I'm going to miss her.  The world is big, and our friends so small in them. 

But I'll be happy to stay in touch, see her when she travels, and know that just like all the other special people I love across the globe, sometime, somewhere, a friend may be thinking of me.

Rag week

One thing about getting dumped is that it really does a number on your self-esteem, particularly if there is no ostensible reason for the break up.  

I've never had the best esteem to start with, but I'm pretty good at faking it.  After all, you have to be thick-skinned to have once started a blog about what you wear every day and even more thick skinned to have told people about it.  I don't actually like being in front of the camera a whole lot, but my love of clothes and my interest in dressing better overcame that.  A hugely healthy sense of humour helps.

After the breakup though, I sometimes struggle to feel good about myself or see the humour in things.  I won't lie, I strut through life a lot and people don't realise how affected I am, but large chunks of my day are devoted to an internal monologue along the lines of "What the fuck is wrong with me?".  I'm trying to accept this as part of the healing process and just get on with life.  

It sounds completely frivolous but feeling good in your clothes can be a real boost to your self esteem.  It's not even about fancy clothes or new rags.  It's the difference between lying in bed and crying (which let's face it, I've done my fair share of) and putting on some fabulous armour and blazing out the door and through the day.  

In the spirit of blazing through the week, I took pictures of everything I wore this week to make sure that it was at least semi-presentable and I could go to work with my head held high.  And what d'ya know, I felt better almost instantly.

Last Sunday, I promised my students I would wear my Iron Maiden shirt (I'm quite a big fan) and attempted to make it more formal with a lace blazer, my H and M chinos and Timberland loafers.  Feeling guilty about looking so casual, I slunk around a bit, but then one of the senior teachers stopped me in the corridor and said, "Your outfit is so cute", and I calmed down.

I went Diptic crazy on Christmas Eve - I'd privately agreed with my friends that we'd dress festively for work, so I broke out my pink/red cropped pants from Uniqlo.  The earrings were a present from Becky and have little paintings of birds in them.  So cute!  Balto the sock monkey came with me to class for show and tell.

An overcast Christmas day with wellies, a hooded dress and a gingerbread man my mother got me for my birthday.  (That's me going nuts over the Christmas fern if you can't tell.)

Wednesday was a long day and I was still half asleep in the morning so I just grabbed the zebra shirt off the top of the pile and spent the rest of the day lying low.  The students liked it though.  Those are the same H and M chinos I wore on Sunday, yes.  I have a couple of pairs in different colours and rotate them a lot.  They're functional, super comfortable for bending and tiptoeing and relatively work-worthy.  Plus they cost less than $30.

On Thursday, the last official day of my work week, I went with a maxi dress, see-through sweater and the Zoroastrian farvahar David got me when he was travelling.  I'm not a religious person but I don't mind wearing religious symbols when they come from people with a lot of love and good wishes for protection.  After all, love is the basis of all great religions and something all humans subscribe to.

I do a lot of this cosy sweater over other less cosy stuff thing because the office can be freezing.

And yesterday, I wore this when we went out to watch Les Mis (which I think was hit and miss).  I'm very much a jeans and t-shirt girl and if I could wear them 90 per cent of the time, I would.  I get a lot of flak from people (particularly those in my parents' generation) for wearing these ripped knees and they do look a bit silly but they are so comfortable that they are my go-to jeans.  The wash has long since faded from blue to almost white, the little tears have become huge holes and the fabric is soft and breathes and makes it easy for me to bend and kneel.

I attempted to dress them up a bit with tomato red heels and my beloved LV bag.

Now, we're back at Saturday and I'm about to commence doing some work at the kitchen table in some very unglamorous sweats and a loose cotton tee.  You know.  Because I can.