Fame at last!

The new issue of Liverpool.com magazine is out and lo and behold an article about the hot new talent features my lovely self! Brilliant you may say, but given the fact they've spelt my name wrong I'm not sure what benefit this may have to my impending book sales, unless I have a pen name Sharkley... Hmm, not so bad...

The pictures nice, the photographer Mark McNulty did the shots and I look alright for 5pm on a Friday straight from work! Remind me to ditch the smock dresses asap - comfy does not equal looking hot.

However, as I am creating 'ripples of excitement among creative types' I think it's job well done! You can see the full article in the magazine available in the North West UK and online at liverpool.com.

I can count the hours...

Ah so the countdown really begins for the departure date. Having fought with hair bleaching, tanning and waxing etc over the last few days there best be tonnes of sun in Rio or else the pain would be all in vain!

Having already said my goodbyes to the boys and girls in Uniform and said the words see you in October it's really sinking in that I'm off! I have no job, I have no flat and am merely a vagabond roaming this fair planet - or at least the nearest bar.

This packing malarkey is awful, I don't think I'm made for sensible clothes, it makes me sad to see a bag stuffed with cargo pants and hiking boots and nothing shiny in sight (maybe I'll slip in a few sparkly bits!)

Stress, stress, stress!

Website of the Week

A long time favourite of mine Thorsten Van Elten has every piece of gorgeous design you would ever want. With cutting edge design furniture and home-ware you'll never look at an Ikea catalogue again! My favourites include the World Map rug by Barnaby Barford, War Bowl by Dominic Wilcox and of course the knitted doughnuts and cupcakes by Donna Wilson.
Pricey? Quite. Worth it? Absolutely!

Check out all the wonderful-ness here.

The Only Calendar You Would Ever Want

Today I came across the most beautiful desk calendar I have ever seen! Since the Font Clock by Sebastian Wrong there has been a long wait for the next typographic-themed item, but now the wait is over. The d31 hand-made perpetual calendar by serio for Nava Milano is a silk-screened hand-made calendar featuring gorgeous crops of numbers on each board page, making it weigh over 10 pounds but so so desirable. Get yours here.

Unfortunately yet another item I can't even imagine to afford (or need on my travels), coming in at a mere $325, but I can gaze at the picture anyhow and imagine it on my desk...

Pre-Travel Hazzards

In the run up to my round the world adventure, one has to acquire a huge amount of anti-malarial tablets for those wild and hot counties, such as India, Cambodia and possibly Liverpool (can’t be too careful around these parts).

On my recent frequent visits to the chemist - frequent because I actually cleared Liverpool’s supply of anti-malarial tablets out - I have had to pick up the massive amount of tablets (stupidly they put 8 to a box and I needed 200). The only problem with this large a quantity is the look the pharmacist and customers around you give you for having this huge white paper sack full of tablets. I either had some nasty disease, or was an insane hypochondriac (both of which caused people to stare).
On my second visit I felt the need to loudly proclaim ‘its for malaria, for my trip to India’ which not only made people more scared of me, the pharmacist just stared at me in a ‘just pick up your drugs and leave’ sort of manner.

I hope to never return to that pharmacist as long as I live, and will now have to spend the next two weeks cutting up the pill packets into reasonable size - at present I need a separate back pack just for my tablets!

Make it Tonight

Morning campers!

During some serious design research I stumbled cross an amazing project on the brilliant site www.readymademag.com
As I have a relatives' birthday looming I was trying to come up with a present without eating into my travel budget. Voila! It appeared before me in all it's orange glory. Click Here.

If anyone has already given it a go, let me know.


Photo credit: Aya Brackett

Disaster Strikes!

With less than 2 weeks to go until the day of departure disaster has struck!
On a weekend visit to the lovely city of Edinburgh to visit my friend, the sub zero temperatures of the area caused me to slip on the pavement and tear a ligament in my ankle. The head sized bruise on my knee - not a problem. The inability to walk without looking like Tiny Tim - massive problem. (This is beginning to sound like a personal injury claim advert.)


All is not lost you say, with two weeks of R&R I can be back to fighting fit in time for the joys of Rio carnival?
Not quite - I have been partaking in an obsessive (and fairly successful) regime of exercise at the gym, at least 4 times a week. Being laid up and not being able to shift that last lot of jelly thigh-ed badness is not what I really hoped for.

My only option is now to eat (a lot) less in the hopes I’ve done enough exercise to see me into my red bikini...

Here’s hoping, or hopping more like.

14 days - how did that happen?

With the 14 day (or two week as some prefer to call it) countdown in progress the panic has set in like you couldn’t imagine!
Do we get more worried with age or are we not supposed to grow more confident?

The more I plan, book, read up and think about my trip the more my heart lurches with the kind of fear one only gets when you find yourself at the front of the queue at Alton Towers theme park. The more I worry the more likely it is I’ll become the dumpy English backpacker with cargo pants and a bumbag. Noooo the dreaded frumpy English girl!

One gets to meet this particular breed of backpacker on a regular occasion. Easily identified from the pale skin (factor 50, they’re here to travel not to have fun god forbid tan), frumpy cargo pants cargo hat combo and endlessly look up their lonely planet. Pros: Will ALWAYS have every medical item/cure known to man in their massive backpacks, will always make you look tanned, fun and hilarious.
Cons: Will stare at you with steely disapproval every time you; drink, party, sleep in, have fun etc..., also make us Brits look bad.

The Australians & NZlanders always make it look so effortless to be tanned, toned and put away endless beers whilst remaining upright. The Irish can be an transparent as acetate (like my other half’s ghostly legs) as they’re ‘just so much fun’.

Conclusion: Tan, tan, tan and pack short shorts.