Great expectations- click on image to view video

“I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.” Charles Dickens





I watched the BBC 2011 version of Great Expectations (based on the book by Charles Dickens) over the past three days. I love the opening credits :)
Yesterday I thought more about the story and feel it resonates for us human beings. It highlights how bitterness and revenge (and wallowing in self pity) can make people blind and ruin others. It highlights not to make assumptions about unknown matters which one has no control or knowledge about. And it reminds us that everyone has a heart.

Goodbye 2011- may you live in interesting times

Have a read of this http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/dec/28/charlie-brooker-guide-2011-buzzwords

Dreams

I've decided to join a book club. I used to love reading when I was very young, being absorbed in other worlds and places. I feel as though I have become lost and blank not discovering new things and being in limbo over the past few years.
I hope to read Rebecca and Handmaid's tale early in the new year. Oh no!! actually Rebecca is out of the question now as I have missed the late Jan slot and cannot miss my sisters 20th birthday evening on 9th January. So it will be Fight Club and Handmaid's tale in February & March. I am really looking forward to this.

Ahh its over

Now we have to wait until 2013?? here in the UK for The Kiling 3 :(

New years resolutions

Maybe a little early but we all know that 2012 is round the corner...
My new years resolutions are

1) Do more creative things- Paint, read, photograph and write more. I am going on a saturday day film course- Raindance film school in 2012 :) !!!
2) Look after myself- this year has been so stressful with work, studies and time has flown and I have become less caring towards myself
3) Eat good food and eat well
4) Join a book club
5) Pass my driving test
6) Pass my masters well
7) Get a better job
8) Start on my portfolio

Maybe too ambitious?? hope I achieve these over the next coming 12 months :)

Aesop Thinking- December 2011

December 2011

DECEMBER NEWSLETTER

Scientists and artists nurture us in deeply connected ways. The intricate wall drawings by Sol LeWitt on display at Dia:Beacon conjure wonder out of simple geometry. Patterns of arithmetical precision trace the walls of Connock & Lockie, a tailor on London’s Lambs Conduit Street (a rewarding stroll from our friends at Folk, should you mark your clothier by his regard for Resurrection Aromatique Hand Wash ). At Connock & Lockie, Mr Yusuke Nagashima, his inclination to excellence honed during his apprenticeship on the premises, cuts, sews and fits old-fashioned but ageless suits. Not that there’s anything outdated about “old”; the accretion of experience should be celebrated rather than masked, and we are grateful to the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, whose learned luminaries illuminate our understanding. Certain medical interventions may promise to erase the score of years from your face but - please - avoid them unless you’re also willing to cloud the mirror of your secret wishes. Paul Ekman's Emotions Revealed explains how and why our feelings activate the minute muscles of our eyes and mouth, revealing our unsuspected prowess in this silent, profound intimacy. However, even Ekman cannot tell us why our mouths water when we consider the Dhaba food trucks idling on the outskirts of Melbourne. Tincture of North Indian village, the air misted with fish curry and green mango crispy rolls...on the march to our fate we cannot live only on food for thought.

LEARN FROM SMART WOMEN
As president of the Downtown Alliance, Elizabeth Berger supervises lower Manhattan’s ongoing renaissance, which began long before the construction work at Ground Zero. Berger, thirty years a local, is focusing the creative energy of New York to encourage the business district in welcoming people and families, not just corporations. (The corporations will always have Delaware.) Punctuate the trip with a stop at our latest New York venture, on University Place – part of our small contribution to the renewal of this most wonderful of towns.

SLEEP
When the grey world of the city is too much with you, late and soon, choose the white and boundless views from the Chalet Zannier near Megève. These traditional log cabins in the French Alps present time-polished materials: raw wood, stone and iron. Consider packing the calfskin travel case we have created with Isaac Reina for the French edition of Architectural Digest. Its unisex selection of skin, hair and body essentials is available exclusively at our Rue Bonaparte store in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The discreet elegance of M Reina's chemical-free patina is comfortably at home in the Alps and everywhere else.

EAT
Fresh market produce and a generous selection of Jerez wines are the sirens that keep drawing us to José on Bermondsey Street SE1, a careless toss of an olive pit away from our new London office. There are no bookings, the place is mostly standing room and one must negotiate for elbow space and the waiters’ attention. The tapas are so delicious that all is justified. (Chef José Pizarro will open a full-size restaurant just down the street in mid-December). After dinner, look for our store in Soho, next door to Fernandez and Wells which expresses Britain's best espresso.

VISIT
The Emily Dickinson Museum dwells in the brick house where the poet was born and spent most of her reclusive life in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her tiny bedchamber was the portal to the limitless, “undiscovered continent” of the mind that Dickinson mapped in verse. No month, or wine, should be consumed without poetry, so we've unveiled an installation at I.T Hysan One in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Designed by Cheungvogl Architects, eight hundred resin boxes that might be impelled upward by their own pure form recollect Wallace Stevens's reader who became the book.

DRINK
If you are a registered Aesop customer, please join us for a glass of fine red at one of our December customer evenings while we introduce our 2011 gift kits. This year we’ve reflected on the women and men who have shaped our lives through science. If entropy prevents your reaching an Aesop store, could we suggest viewing www.aesop.com whilst enjoying a glass of 2004 Cabernet Merlot from Fighting Gully Road ? Our scents are yet to infuse the World Wide Web, but the cacao notes of this sophisticated, under-rated Beechworth red should more than compensate.

WATCH
Recent DVDs release Hiroshi Shimizu from the daunting shadow cast by his friend Yasujiro Ozu. Shimizu's visual style alternates between the naturalistic and the symbolic, as displayed in Ornamental Hairpin (Kanzashi , 1941). This record of doomed love, equally formed of lyricism and cynicism, is set in a resort town which is but an ephemeral shelter from the war - the protagonist is a soldier on leave - and the fire that would soon issue from the skies. The kiln-formed interior of our new store in Ginza recalls another sadness in Japanese history: this district was enkindled in the great fire of 1872 and rebuilt in brick. It is perhaps self-indulgent but, after many years serving customers across Tokyo, we are quietly proud to join this street's shotengai.

READ
Four decades after teaching a generation to fine-tune the optic nerve in Ways of Seeing (1972), John Berger underwent (successful) binocular cataract surgery. Fortunately he has recorded his reunion with the joys and sheer physicality of observation in the monograph Cataract, illustrated with scintillating wit by Selçuk Demirel. The text and drawings inform each other and the volume is handsomely bound. It may be foolhardy to launch an essay-oriented publishing house in this age of false friending but Notting Hill Editions has essayed a promising start. Holiday shoppers should be grateful: e-books will never make such beautiful gifts.

PLAY
The path to self-knowledge may be accessible on horseback, especially when the mount is as intelligent and willing as the South American Criollo. Ride one across the slopes of the Argentinian Andes from the Jujuy province to San Miguel de Tucuman, where the Criollo is our ancestral partner in farming and herding (and, lately, in polo). The long, regular stride of the horse. The encompassing prospect of the canyons and pampas. The red earth of the salt mines. Breathe in. Exhale slowly and satisfyingly. Repeat.

‘All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.’ Galileo Galilei

Sherlock 2

This afternoon, I watched Sherlock 2 at the Empire cinema in Leicester square, London. I didn't know what to expect but found Robert Downey Jr to be a great actor- I think he make the film tick. Also I recommend Empire cinema, its a nice venue.

A Dream dress

I rather liked the miu miu dresses on show a few months back. So I was pleased when I found this dress. It's not miu miu but from Warehouse in the UK. I'd love to learn dressmaking so I can make some dresses like these. Such dresses will be hard to find once the trend has left the catwalks and the fashion industry moves on to the next big trends, which naturally most high street brands try to imitate- which may not to be everyones taste.
I think its great that some brands and stores are able to recreate some wearable catwalk looks as we can all inject some creativity, fun and imagination into our lifestyle through clothes and accessories. I wasn't such a fan of catwalk and haute coture but I was inspired by miu miu's dresses which led me to buy this one.

Jade

You brighten my day and make me smile
rather vain you are but you are a beauty
and beauty whether in landscapes, paintings, objects, and so forth makes the world a brighter and life affirming place.

"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could."

— Louise Erdrich

Aesop ~ November 2011 thinking

November 2011

NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER

Our universe, this set of logarithms visible and fused, continues to surprise us. Researchers at CERN in Geneva have timed neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light – findings which, if confirmed, may invalidate Einstein's theory of Special Relativity. We applaud their work but wish that they had consulted us before releasing the news, since one of our new gift kits is named after the theory. Our decision to explore science in this year's kits and support a renaissance of wonder is better timed in other ways, though. Three scientists who proved that the expansion of the universe is accelerating have recently been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. On behalf of our Accelerating Universe kit, we congratulate and thank them.

EAT
The freshest organic produce in Berlin is available at the farmers' market held every Thursday on Kollwitzplatz in Prenzlauer Berg. This ecomarket doesn't open before noon allowing local growers time to harvest their produce in the morning and sell it the same day, all in the name of maximising flavour. Some of the stalls offer prepared food to enjoy with the live music at the market. For an after-lunch espresso without the cloying cosiness of the typical 21st century café, head towards Mitte and visit neighbourly, sofa-free NoMoreSleep Coffee. Instead of maintaining the division between patrons and baristas, the counter faces the wall. It feels like walking in on an old friend brewing coffee in his open-plan kitchen. While in Mitte, take a stroll to nearby Tiergarten and stop by the expansive Andreas Murkudis concept store and gallery, which carries your favourite Aesop products.

LISTEN
Sax-player-turned-poet Jason Crane conducts in-depth interviews with seriously swinging musicians at The Jazz Session. Young talents such as pianist Carmen Staaf prove as salient and inspiring as living legends like Ron Carter. But if you don't know zip about hip, perhaps you should start with NPR's Jazz Profiles, where singer Nancy Wilson weaves together conversations with the greats of jazz history and foot-tapping performances – from big band to bebop and beyond. Both series suggest that through the podcast, modern technology may yet save the endangered art of oral history.

PLAY
On the tennis court, always bear in mind the laws of physics behind Rafael Nadal's lethal forehand and superlative topspin. While the ball is rotating, its felt lining drags some of the surrounding air along with it, which causes the air to travel faster around the ball on one side than on the other. According to Bernoulli's principle, this creates an imbalance of pressure between the two sides, which deflects the ball's trajectory. To get a good view of this cornerstone of fluid dynamics in action, you can now pre-order tickets for the 2012 Australian Open. And should you need convincing that tennis is anything more than a glorified grunting contest, read the much lauded David Foster Wallace piece: Roger Federer as Religious Experience.

WATCH
Zhang Yuan's film Little Red Flowers (2006) is loosely based on Wang Shuo's autobiographical novel, Could Be Beautiful. Zhang is part of China's 'Sixth Generation' of film-makers, who evade the censors by using limited budgets or international funding. Little Red Flowers follows Qiang, a four-year-old boy at boarding school. Unable to meet the teachers' standards for proper behaviour, Qiang realises the only way he can survive is as a dissident. This film may be less ideologically combative than Zhang's early underground works, but the creative energy and pictorial beauty remain undiluted.

VISIT
The Whitechapel Gallery offers Rothko in Britain, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the artist's first solo show in the UK. The exhibition revolves around a single canvas, Light Red Over Black (1957), supplemented with archival and documentary material. This particular painting paved the way for the original exhibition (also at the Whitechapel), as it was the first of Rothko's works to be purchased by the Tate. The artist had previously travelled to Europe in 1950, finding inspiration in the galleries of London's premier museum and forming enduring friendships with several British artists. Grainy black-and-white photographs of the 1961 exhibition's awe-struck visitors testify to the importance of having artworks travel around the globe, spreading wonder from one port to the next – whether the artist is travelling with them or long since departed.

SLEEP
Well-protected from the hot winds that sweep through the semi-desert near Tudela in Spain is Hotel Aire de Bardenas. This collection of one-storey boxes achieves a kind of quiet poetry in the Bardenas Reales National Park. Monica Rivera and Emiliano Lopez, the young Barcelona-based architects responsible for the project, had hitherto focused on works such as public housing and schools. They have taken simple, local materials and given them a light, sure touch: produce crates discarded by nearby farms have become windbreaks and outdoor bathtubs were salvaged from a steelworker friend of the owners'. For Europeans, this is as good a place as any to catch one last glimpse of the sun before winter really settles in.

GAZE
Artcurial's yearly celebration of design, Intérieurs, has reinforced our admiration for India Mahdavi. In her installation In Bed with Mark, the Iranian-born architect reinterprets some of Mark Rothko's later work as silky velvet wallpaper for a room containing a steel four-poster bed. Rothko favoured large canvases because of their ability to gently envelop both the artist and the viewer, and Mahdavi's wallpaper does this quite literally. The psychedelically patterned bed linen and carpet clash with the artist's rectangular abstractions, resulting perhaps in something of Rothko's famously dark psyche instead of the peaceful and serene atmosphere of a typical bedroom.

READ
Enjoy a café crème or a madeleine, each served with appropriate literary context at the café inside McNally Jackson Books. Around the corner from our own Nolita store, this establishment aspires to be 'the centre of Manhattan's literary culture.' With guest speakers including Ariel Levy, Henry Rollins, André Aciman and Thurston Moore, that centre may not be too far away indeed. It all may sound very highbrow, but at least they have a sense of humour about it: the store's signature trivia nights are derisively called Nerd Jeopardy.

'The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason.' Charles Darwin

Aesop Thinking- October 2011

October 2011

OCTOBER NEWSLETTER

To make anything of worth requires intelligence, imagination and persistence. The people we celebrate this month have those qualities in spades. We encourage you to read about architect Berthold Lubetkin and listen to Stirling Prize winning Zaha Hadid speak on design and social responsibility. Then, consider those who create the built environment when visiting Grupo Habita's Hotel Americano in New York's Chelsea. The hotel is designed by Enrique Norten, principal of TEN Arquitectos; the interior is the work of MCH. Ponder your own projects while swimming outdoors at the Bronte Baths in Sydney. In Melbourne, let your thoughts take shape as you drink a short black at Market Lane Coffee at Prahran or Victoria Market. Should you prefer to think at home, morning grooming offers the ideal opportunity. For those who shave, we offer our Moroccan Neroli Shaving Duet to make the experience all the more pleasurable.

LEARN FROM SMART WOMEN
Dr Tara Shears, particle physicist and Reader at the University of Liverpool, joined a team working at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in 2004 to work on an experiment exploring where the universe's antimatter has gone. On 19 October Ms Shears will speak in London about the latest findings. Also, read Jennifer Jacquet 's essay on shame and its relationship to our misuse of the world's resources. Ms Jacquet is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia and a member of the Sea Around Us Project where she researches conservation issues and their association with human emotion.

READ THE BEST MAGAZINES
When in Hong Kong, we source our magazines from Mr Wong, Proprietor at Chaip Coin, Shop 233, Second Floor, World Wide House, 19 Des Voeux Road, Central, Hong Kong. The tiny shop (which does not have a website) is in a less-than-salubrious location, sitting in a crowded, shabby mall, but the depth and range of foreign titles it stocks is irresistible. Among the many magazines Chaip Coin carries are Finland's Kasino A4, Italy's Fantom, the journal of the Palais de Tokyo, Palais, and UK publication .Cent. While in Central, visit Aesop at 52-60 Lyndhurst Terrace. Our two other Hong Kong stores can be found in Causeway Bay and Sheung Wan.

LISTEN TO DIVERSE MUSIC
Enjoy the Baroque tracks of Jan Dismas Zelenka. Infused with the lively spirit of eighteenth-century Bohemia, counterpointed by dark and brooding undertones, they have somehow made our days seem more intense. Zelenka's sheet music was long hidden away by the Dresden court after his death, for reasons which remain unclear to this day. This may explain why he fell off the radar for nearly two hundred years, and was so unjustly overlooked by Monty Python in their ode to the world's great Decomposing Composers.

EAT WELL
Since opening our first standalone store in the United States at 232 Elizabeth Street, Nolita (yes, we have mentioned this before, but we're terribly proud of our newest progeny), we've been seeking out the best of New York. Trusted locals directed us to 15 East Restaurant in Gramercy for fresh traditional Japanese sushi and sashimi as well as slow-poached octopus and home-made tofu. If choosing seems impossible, just say omakase and the chef will do it for you. The floor space is small and the sushi bar seats only nine people, so go early. Should you live in New York, visit our Thirty Views blog for the inside take on other hidden delights of the city.

WATCH GOOD FILMS
We're looking forward to viewing David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method. Set shortly before the First World War, the film examines the real-life relationship between Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and their shared patient Sabina Spielrein. The story focuses on the tussle between the two ambitious intellectuals on how to treat the 19-year-old Russian girl, diagnosed as 'hysterical'. History records that Spielrein goes on to be a psychoanalyst in her own right, though details about what happened between her and Jung are foggy. The film features Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley and Michael Fassbender, and is written by Christopher Hampton.

LEARN FROM SMART MEN
David Lynch creates intriguing work across many mediums, as a man of his talent is wont to do. The writer, director, painter and furniture maker has released his first album, Crazy Clown Time, on which he sings and plays guitar. Lynch's music can be heard in the Paris-based nightclub he initially dreamed of as a set for his film Mulholland Drive. The private club and salon Silencio is now a real venue where celebrated artists can relax and meet. Despite Lynch saying, 'I don't want to appear like some all-round talent... I just inevitably get involved with different things,' we would describe him as uncommonly versatile.

DISCOVER RISING TALENTS
William O'Brien Jnr's Boston-based architectural firm has created a private haven in upstate New York. In the clearing of a woodland area, the firm has built two houses for two brothers and titled the constructions Twins: Houses in Five Parts. While the buildings aren't exactly the same (one is a hexagon, one is a square), they echo one another internally, based on the mathematical principle of dissection. Both homes are clean-lined and confident, appearing to float above the ground despite their thick black stucco exteriors and squat shapes. When your life is most stressful make time to look at these photographs – they offer thoughtful, serene and original examples of the human mind working at its best.

SUPPORT WORTHWHILE CAUSES
We have all read about the horrific situation in Somalia. The only response is to recognise our own good fortune and assist in whatever way we can. For most of us, that means contributing to a legitimate charity. We suggest you give to any or all of these worthy groups: Médecins Sans Frontières, CARE International, Oxfam International, SOS Children's Village, Aid for Africa, World Food Programme, Unicef and The Red Cross. Everyone has a preferred charity, but the important thing is to act with generosity and compassion.

SEE & TELL
Broached Commissions creates limited edition design collections based on events in Australian history. The company, founded by Melbourne-based creative director Lou Weis, has three permanent designers in Trent Jansen, Charles Wilson and Adam Goodrum. The Broached Colonial collection, the company's first release, will include work by guest artist Lucy McRae, who is also making a short film for Aesop later this year. The Broached Colonial Collection can be viewed in a temporary gallery from 27 October in Melbourne and 10 November in Sydney. Their website contains venue details.

SHARE WITH FRIENDS
Until we read 'Writing Up a Storm' in the Wall Street Journal we'd been unaware of the 1703 storm that shook London. In this article, John J. Miller argues the event is responsible for the beginnings of modern journalism. In brief, writer Daniel Defoe almost died during the storm when part of a house collapsed around him. He decided to write about it and called upon other survivors – through newspaper ads – to share their accounts, all of which he compiled into a book. This may seem a commonplace form of publishing now but in Defoe's life it was extraordinary. There's more to the tale than that, so we recommend you make time to read the piece in full.

'Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.' William Plomer

Dress - Twisted tube dress by Zara

"Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing."
— Georgia O'Keeffe

End of summer

Images from http://montmarte.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-07-26T10%3A39%3A00-07%3A00

Joni Mitchell

Blue by Joni Mitchell

Blue songs are like tattoos
You know I've been to sea before
Crown and anchor me
Or let me sail away
Hey Blue, here is a song for you
Ink on a pin
Underneath the skin
An empty space to fill in
Well there're so many sinking now
You've got to keep thinking
You can make it thru these waves
Acid, booze, and ass
Needles, guns, and grass
Lots of laughs lots of laughs
Everybody's saying that hell's the hippest way to go
Well I don't think so
But I'm gonna take a look around it though
Blue I love you

Blue here is a shell for you
Inside you'll hear a sigh
A foggy lullaby
There is your song from me

Penguin great Loves ❤ ❤❤ ❤❤❤❤

Aesop- September newsletter

September 2011

SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER

In 1966, Robert F. Kennedy quoted the curse 'May you live in interesting times,' explaining he and his contemporaries did just that. We'd argue that times are always interesting, but, to mangle the Anna Karenina Principle, every time is interesting in its own way. Without diminishing the world's troubles, we guide you here towards that which is uplifting. Consider the stunning retrospective of Louise Bourgeois' (1911-2010) work at the National Gallery of Iceland, an exhibition of twenty-eight refined pieces including the spider sculpture Maman. In Melbourne, the NGV show Vienna: Art & Design also leans towards beautiful provocation. Equally lyrical is Wim Wender's Pina, a film made for celebrated German choreographer Pina Bausch. Keen readers should attend Jonathan Franzen's one-night-only talk at the Sydney Writers Festival, then follow this by perusing Christopher Turner's Adventures in the Orgasmatron: How the Sexual Revolution Came to America, a biography of controversial psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich. For an altogether different form of creativity, visit Dries Van Noten men's store in Paris, which has the most distinctive retail interior, alongside Aesop's of course. Interesting times call for interesting measures.

READ
Transparent Things (1972) by Vladimir Nabokov. If ever there was an author who polarised readers, Nabokov is the one. We have no wish to weigh into the debate, but we would suggest that if a book is judged on its merit as a standalone object, separate from the chatter that circles the author, the melancholic novella Transparent Things makes the grade. The narrator walks us through four trips to a village in Switzerland, each one forming part of a tale saturated in skilfully articulated nostalgia, regret and uncomfortable attraction.

ATTEND
The latest production of Macbeth at The Royal Shakespeare Company's newly rebuilt theatre. The story is, as we all know, one of ambition, bloody murder and human baseness (tempered with a gruesome recipe featuring newts), so enjoy may not be the right word. However, there is pleasure to be had from watching talented actors, and from all accounts Jonathan Slinger is a terrifying Macbeth, and the desperation and horror he evinces is utterly convincing. Aislin Mcguckin (Lady Macbeth) and Aidan Kelly (Macduff) are also receiving plaudits, though we remain perplexed by the decision to cast children as the wicked witches.

EAT
Fresh produce prepared with ingenuity at Magnus Nilsson's restaurant Fäviken in northern Sweden. Nilsson sources ingredients harvested from the surrounding area and estate – Fäviken has been a farm since the late 1800s – including wild vegetables and herbs, and fish caught on single lines. The set menu is built around seasonal produce, but Fäviken promises, rather intriguingly: 'if you visit us regularly, you have more influence over your evening.' Given the calibre of the chef we're not convinced we want any such control. Fäviken is considered serious competition for Copenhagen's Noma so book well in advance. Consider making it a Nordic triad and add Mathias Dahlgren in Stockholm to your wish list of delicious dining. Should you choose to stay overnight, there is accommodation at both Mathias Dahlgren and Fäviken.

DISCOVER
Domus Architecture Guides. There are many smartphone apps that guide us through the world's great cities and enlighten us as to their finest attributes, but the Domus interpretations are pleasing to the eye and mind, offering accurate information about buildings and architects as well as suggested itineraries, including a walking route of the 1920s for Shanghai, Unorthodox Modern for New York, and New Life in the East End for London. Plus they draw upon the expertise of a magazine we admire for its consistently high standard of theoretical writing and photography.

ENJOY
Aesop's inspired Petitgrain Hydrating Body Gel, which provides light hydration to soothe and cool the skin throughout the warmer months. Petitgrain Hydrating Body Gel absorbs quickly, and assists skin suffering from sun exposure, waxing or shaving. Enhanced with Witch Hazel, Grapefruit and Lemon Peel oils it offers a crisp citrus scent, and is the ideal way to relieve and calm the skin. Petitgrain Hydrating Body Gel – our first body gel - is available in Australia and New Zealand from September.

SUPPORT
The Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), renowned for its support not only of visual artists but also dance, theatre and experimental projects. We enjoy the light and expansive exhibition spaces within this heritage-listed building. We're also impressed with their Spark_lab program that offers students and teachers the chance to be involved with artists, musicians and dancers in the hope of inspiring the next generation's innovative creations. Everyone benefits from that. While in Perth, be sure to stock up on your favourite Aesop products at our Claremont store, our small contribution to the cityscape.

SHARE
A bottle of Tramonti Bianco Per Eva 2009 – Tenuta San Francesco. Wine may not be life-changing but it is undeniably life-enhancing, and this is one of the most impressive whites we've sampled this year. If possible, drink it now in the general vicinity of Naples or while watching your favourite Italian Neo Realist films wherever you may be. Enjoy while eating something fresh and line-caught from the sea.

'All I can say to the kids is if you've a problem in fishing or life, if you talk to an older person, you're gonna end up alright, because nine times out of ten, they've been through the same thing.' Rex Hunt

Image supplied courtesy of Sruli Recht
When Gravity Fails, FW2011
Photographer: Marinó Thorlacius
Model: Emil Þór Guðmundsson
Stylist: Arash Arfazadeh
For more information, visit Sruli Recht

End of a chapter

I recently bought Psychologies magazine as it featured Sofie Gråbøl from the Danish hit thriller
series Forbrydelsen- "The Killing" It was aired in Spring 2011 and is being aired again on BBC 4.

There is a second series which is out in the UK soon :)

On another note have reached the end of a chapter.....regarding friendships.
I've decided not waste time opening my heart to people who frankly don't care and wear masks to show they do, such people forget you when you are not in sight for long.

I went to a friend's (he used to work in the same organisation where I currently am) birthday and leaving home back to Oz bash (Clapham Saturday evening). I hardly knew any of his friends so didn't linger for long (I left at 11pm). He was the "glue" which "held" me to some other previously friends-acquaintances, which dissolved rapidly after he left the organisation. I feel they didn't really respect me and just considered me to be sweet and rather simple.

I've learnt a lot from this experience and guess it has made less thin skinned. I should really follow my heart regarding friendships and not battle on just to seem happy and to make others happy where its not an equal friendship.

V&A museum London

Confidence

Can clothes dramatically change ones mood and confidence? I used to belong to the school of thought that it doesn't matter what you wear it's what you are.
However in recent years especially since working for large blue chip companies I'm afraid to say appearances do matter.
People do judge how well your hair is brushed, how smart your clothes are...... I neglected myself for a few years as I have been unhappy in my job and have become apathetic, which is really really bad. I musn't let others get to me and should feel good about myself and dress well.