Calisse, I love New York City!

Happy Monday!

If you’ve been following, you’ll know I was in NYC last week. Gosh it was cold and gosh I love that city and here is why.

First of all you can have a shower with a view:

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Seriously, a view like that makes the jetlag worth it, it makes you want to get up and seize the day, how can one not feel a bit “carpe diem” when one wakes up to that? I would stand in the bath tube morning and night and just stare out the window. Who are the people who live in those buildings, what kind of lives do they lead, do they go to SoulCycle at 6AM? 🙂

Secondly, they have the High Line, one of my favourite places in the world:

 

 

 

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The first time I went there was one very hot evening last July, it was packed and really inspiring, I will never forget because that was also the first time I wore my favourite shoes bought in NYC, they epitomize the city, cool, bright and fun:

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Also, they seriously know how to do salads in NYC, I went to “Cafeteria”, the one from SATC and it was packed with half super trendy people, half super orange girls who must have come up for the day from New Jersey (no , I don’t have a picture of them, a cat fight could have followed):

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There are some things that Americans just do better, no matter what. For example blow drys, this lasted 5 days, 5 days! and only cost $40, the Dry Bar is amazing:

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For me, you can’t spend a week in NYC with messy hair, it’s JUST NOT RIGHT!

I saw a 12 year old girl walking around Soho with an amazing bag on her arm like she owned the place, you don’t get that anywhere else. Nor do you get very hot guys in lifts delivering rugs , who with one smile can make your day, yes I went bright red but forgot about my lack of sleep in a New York Minute.

Talking of hot guys, meet Henrik:

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This one does him more justice:

Yep, only in NYC do they have super hot ice hockey players! Talking of which “calisse” is ice hockey exciting! These guys basically sprint on ice and whack each against hard glass, it doesn’t really get more manly than this, I know how hard the glass is as I touched it:

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They even give you blankets to keep warm, good old American customer service:

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It was blast, so is ending up in a very dodgy total dive of a karaoke bar (Winnies for those of you interested) in China Town but much fun was had. There was an amazing guy who did 2 songs and I kept thinking to myself, only in NYC:

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As for “Calisse”, some guy kept saying this throughout the game and I asked “What language is that?” , “Hick” I was told, turns out it’s French Canadian, these Texans so uneducated…

So long NYC, next time I hope I will be doing this again:

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Flashbacks of Hurricane Sandy

Hello from New York City!
I’m here for the week for work and am staying at Mondrian Soho hotel, where I stayed during hurricane Sandy 18 months ago.
I love this hotel, especially because they greeted me with this:

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Also because everything is blue

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And the restaurant is beautiful as well as the view

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I will never forget waking up to no electricity, no heating and most frightening no water. That’s when I started to think “I need to get out of here”. I can deal with no TV but not being able to flush the toilet or brush your teeth is something else!
Another thing I will never forget is the noise of the Storm on the Monday night. I kept thinking these windows are going to break or swing open, these windows are going to break…
I actually considered sleeping on the floor between the bed and the wall, making a little protective cave basically!
The worse was probably the building moving, I was sat on the bed and said to myself ” relax, you are hallucinating, the building is not moving!”
One of my colleagues saved me on the Tuesday and drove down to pick me up and take me to her house, I will be forever grateful.
Every time I come to NYC something happens, storms, celebrities, unexpected births so let’s see what happens this time!

Maman

As next week is Mother’s Day in the UK and today is my mum’s birthday, I thought I would dedicate this post to ma maman with 20 pretty amazing facts about her.
1. She left home in her teens to go around the world on a boat and follow a much older man she was in love with
2. On said “years abroad”, she caught sharks and wore her bra top as a bikini ( the seventies were not the consumerism years we experience nowadays)
3. She has had 5 children and they all get on and they all love her very much
4. She used to pile us all into her Renaud 5, if the car would not start she had a chant that she would repeat, the car always started
5. She has a talent for drawing and painting
6. Talking of which the best present she ever gave me was a few years ago when she gave me a drawing she had made of me as a baby, even diamonds (and I love diamonds) don’t come close
7. I inherited the “worrying” genes from her but …
8. I also inherited the open minded genes from her
9. Without her help I would not have left France and gone to university, she helped with a complicated student loan situation
10. Before I left for university, she taught me to cook, now that I ( and my husband) am forever grateful for
11. If she was rich, she would have the most beautiful house and clothes
12. She always finds a way, she can make anything out of anything. She even changed a glass window pane once on her own
13. She is not a scared of anything
14. She will win tons of money betting on horses one day 🙂
15. She has at least one kir a night
16. She does not know who the Kardashians are
16. She has lived in the Seychelles and one day I will take her back
17. She has lived in France for over 20 years and still answers the phone with “hello”
18. When I was stuck in NYC during Sandy, she is the only person who wanted to be there with me “for the life experience because it was exciting”
19. She has a passion for horses and used to get up at the crack of dawn when she was young to go riding. One day I will buy her one.
20. She’s always there for all of us and we will always be there for her

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My International Women’s Day

On Saturday,  spring finally sprung in London and the sun was out! It’s funny how coffee, afternoon tea and dinner can actually be exhausting, clearly I’m getting old! First I went back to SW1 to meet a friend for coffee in Duke’s of York square, it was so nice to sit outside, admire the serious chic people and just chat. We actually chatted so much (it may have been International Women’s day but the topic was mainly men…)I ended up being 5 mins late for afternoon tea. This friend of mine is one of the smartest most beautiful women I know , she went straight from a BA to a PhD, yes it’s possible. Anyway, only in SW1 do people sit on a terrace drinking coffee and then ask the waiter if they can hold their dog whilst they go to the bathroom…clearly I don’t belong there.

Off to Haymarket for a baby shower/afternoon tea at the Haymarket Hotel, I have had a few afternoon teas in my time and I have to say this one was of the best because it was so relaxed, the sandwiches were unlimited (sandwiches and scones are my favourite part of afternoon tea, no interest in the cakes) and the staff really friendly. After the usual cream or jam first debate, it was time for presents. I have decided that anything for babies with ears is seriously cute!
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The shower was for one of my colleagues, again another genius of a woman whose brain works so fast, she has seriously kept me on toes since she joined my team. I am lucky to work with some amazing women, funny, sweet, independent, tenacious, generous, unique and lovely women. They make it all bearable. After a ton of sandwiches and scones, we left mum-to-be with a pile of presents to take home in her E class Mercedes ( thanks Kabbee app!) After a wander round the shops (note to self, Oxford Street on a sunny Saturday is hell, how did I not realise this after 14 years in London! You think you can cope and then it’s miserable), I had some time to kill before dinner so off I went to the National Portrait Gallery and came across this woman:

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I love Kate but I certainly do not love this painting, it makes her look old, the only thing that is true to life is the hair, looks even better than the real thing ( not that I have actually ever met Kate!).  Anyway I would not be impressed if I were her. Clearly I’m never going to have a portrait in the NP Gallery…

Finally  I met up with Mister B in Covent Garden before dinner and came across another Kate, Kate Spade, now I LOVE all things Kate Spade and particularly this, which I came very close to buying, I think it sums quite a few of the fun (but naughty women) in the world up:

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Clearly much more fun that the other Kate….probably best to stop at 3 though…

SW1 wears Moncler

On Saturday, C, C and myself went down to the other end of the Piccadilly line for some shopping and here’s what we discovered:
Only in Harvey Nicks do you sit next to a guy in his 20s wearing sunglasses  and a diamond rolex, naturally he did not know how to use a knife and fork properly, always a giveaway of the nouveau riche

Only in Harvey Nicks do you come across a family of what appeared to be lottery winning chavs, we’re talking juicy couture tracksuit bottoms, teenage girls with permanent eyebrows and yet they had been shopping there and at Chanel (no I’m not jealous)
Only in the HN toilets, do you see women of all shapes and styles including one who looked like she was off to get married at “my little chapel” in Vegas in her tiny white dress and horrible high white cheap looking shoes

Only at Prada do handbags come in “any colour you want”, yes seriously, I would be quite happy with a yellow one, green one, blue one or grey one

imageOnly at Miu Miu do you leave your gap and muji shopping bags in the middle of the floor and make the Colombian German sales assistant laugh and admit he was happy to be entertained by us and our crazy comments about the “weird coloured” bags because “it gets a bit boring in here”.

 

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Only on the Kings Road do 6 year olds (as well as what seemed like 70% of the adult population) run around in Moncler coats (no I’m not jealous)

Only on the Kings road do glamourous looking beautiful couples drink prosecco on benches in the sun (no I’m not jealous)

Only in Miu Miu do women covered in diamond rings looking soooo bored, ask if they sell sandals closed at the front and open at the back, not exactly Miuccia Prada’s style I don’t think…

I think this is what they were after:

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Only at Anya Hindmarch are there very funny and willing to help Italian salesmen as opposed to the woman in Chloe who looked at us like we did not exactly belong there, to be fair she did eventually “friendly” up a bit. Bloody muji and Gap bags, always a giveaway…

And back up the Piccadilly line in Kings cross, we go to dinner in restaurants next door to the coolest school in London, Central Saint Martins of course and we even have choreographed fountains:

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