Scarf – Nazanin Rose Matin

It’s difficult to write an account of an experience in the Maldives without an introductory flailing of the arms and a bit of gurgling, followed by something that’s spelt a little bit like this. It’s all very professional, really. In fact, the world should celebrate that I’m not on Youtube because it all looks and sounds like Tom Hanks in Cast Away with a bit of spirit fingers sprinkled in the mix. (I am on Snapchat however, making the same noises at brownies and puppies on Broadway Market: Sparkncube) Even re-living the Maldives through these photos puts me on a high.

As mentioned in Part 1, the main attraction at Conrad Maldives – once you’ve gotten over (warning: this may take forever) the milky-white beach, azure skies and the most translucent water since bottled Fiji – is the sense of privacy and isolation. I’d fully embraced this inside my Water villa (with thumping rap music on the first night), with a tinge of suspicion that perhaps it was to be expected given the nature of architecture, but was promptly proven otherwise as we moved into a Deluxe Beach villa two nights later. In theory, your neighbours are close by, but the minute the gates click shut, you feel like a homeowner. And it’s a big home – larger in fact, than most of my previous London flats, and I don’t recall ever having an outdoors bath-pavilion (unless you count the one where water leaked from the ceiling). So there, yet another reason to move to the Indian Ocean.

Lingerie – Triangl. Serum – Estee Lauder. Sandals – Pour la Victoire. Watch – Daniel Wellington. Sunnies – Westweard Leaning

Romper – ASOS. Necklace – EFFRA

Speaking of reasons to move, add these too – ten restaurants where one is 5m (16 ft) under water, and another inside a wine cellar; an extensive list of DVDs and snacks that can be ordered through room service for rainy afternoons after lunch; and a spa that is set on stilts with glass floors so that you can drift off counting the stripes of a family of clownfish (“three”) while your back gets some much-needed TLC. So yes, I would jump ship and go Tom Hanks for/at Conrad Maldives any day, as long as Wilson can pour me some bubbly at pink sunset, I’d be happily cast away for ever.

Park & Cube was a guest of Conrad Maldives, all views and opinions are my own. Shots of me with the help of Mr Tripod.

Caudalie Beauty Elixir. Sabon Body Lotion. Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Cream. Skyn Eye cooling gel. Kiehls Avocado Eye cream. Pai Avocado & Jojoba Day cream

Watch – Daniel Wellington. Ring – Elizabeth & James

The over-water spa

Hotel Amour

‘Astralis’ exhibit at Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton

Børre Sæthre – Untitled (Arches of Solaris)

Jean-luc Favero – Stag-Transformed

Chloe Piene – Untitled (CB)

Dome-Vanity by Charley Case

Four Angels by Siobhan Hapaska

Damien Deroubaix – Astralis; Life; Death; South of Heaven; Time; Messaiah

Myriam Mechita

Art Oriente Objet – Not Yet

Rina Banerjee – A Mad Woman

Instagram @parkncube

Cape – LV. Jeans – MiH Jeans. Heels – Kurt Geiger. Bag – LV Sophia Coppola. Luggage – LV. Watch – Daniel Wellington. Rings – Monica Vinader.

Paris and I got along famously as we reunited under the blessing of Louis Vuitton for a 24-hour-long fling in the middle of February, which was in fact a mere 2 days before the beginning of London Fashion Week and naturally a perfect escape before the hurdle. We arrived late morning to celebrate LV’s latest artist collaboration that once again brings the street onto silk – this time with Andre B and his beloved Mr A character (who I’m sure Parisians will have seen spray-sketched in many crevices around the city), tagged in zingy pink on a massive, soft shawl (more pics of this later).We set up camp in Hotel Amour – owned also by Andre (alongside the Le Baron clubs for those still unfamiliar), counted the number of explicit photos that were hanging in each of our rooms (three in mine, enough to get this old lady excited) and waited for dinner with the man himself.

Speaking of escape, I had a couple hours to burn before dinner and decided it was good a time as any to visit the Espace Culturel atop the LV flagship store on Champs Élysées. I don’t always have good ideas, so this one gets a special mention, because it’s definitely a must-go when in Paris. The current exhibit, ‘Astralis’ (available until May 11), brings together twelve artists that explore concepts behind celestial, elusive, and otherworldly themes prompting visitors to temporarily escape from their minds/bodies. Even numpties like me will understand and appreciate the curation, which – I won’t lie – is occasionally chilling/creepy. But then again I find the lack of nutella in the pantry chilling/creepy, so.

Many thanks to LV for the short but sweet journey.

Bag – Furla

Coat – Zara. Knit – Goodnight Macaroon. Jeans – James Jeans. Sneakers – New Balance. Bag – Furla. Sunglasses – Celine. Watch – Daniel Wellington.

I’ve gone and dug my own grave this past holiday, I think. I played in the same chair I sit to work in, for like, ten whole days straight. We’re in a fresh new year on self-declared clean slate and all I can smell is 2013 wafting from the leather of the wheely desk chair because as we all know the entire year was peanut butter cookies and pizza, in a nutshell. Especially the last few days during which I successfully transformed my workstation into a food-smeared playstation. I got up early on the first working day of the year, got dressed, hosed down the chair with a febreeze and sat down, ready to do an honest day’s work and found myself clicking on the Call of Duty icon without thinking, then proceeded to tour Mother Russia in a tank to defeat the Nazis. Hooray for stupid. Well, to start with, it took several attempts to get dressed because I kept putting shoes on before any pants, and had to Youtube how to tie shoelaces. It’s like when you sit on your hand for too long and it goes so numb it forgets how to be a hand. Except I haven’t set a foot outside the house for the past two weeks and have forgotten how to human. Anyway, back to the grind, shoelaces flailing and all.

Speaking of cookies, I baked a whole new batch last night for some reason. Screw the new year, I’m staying in 2013 until they’re gone.

Pattern from Kim Hargreaves Scarlet pattern book, called ‘Craft‘.

C2B, C2F, KTBL, P2…

…which is not an encoded call to Starfleet, but nonetheless a new language for me this season as I enter a new domain that is sweaters and cable knitting. Before I delve into the complexity of this sort of pattern, let me just say: if I can knit, a mattress can knit. A fingerless mattress. A blind, fingerless mattress. So don’t be discouraged when I say my eyeballs were bleeding and it took literally 32 hours to do a mere 6 inches. Cable knitting follows a grid pattern, and I’m not sure if you’ve tried doing geometry homework while watching a BAZILLION movies, but it sure slows you down (duh). Especially if some of them are Italian (La vita e bella) or French (Amelie) and you get your subtitles and knitting pattern confused and end up knitting “Bongiorno principessa“, then undo the entire row afterwards. It’s all good fun though, and not at all hard if you have Youtube and some time handy, which is exactly what this Christmas was, spending it quietly in London just with the hubby.

Ballerina flats – Josefinas

Ryan G

These navy classic ballerinas are from a Portugese brand called Josefinas, but considering how much I fondle them and dream of spring-time dates by the riverside I’ve decided to name it ‘Ryan G’ so that when the times comes I can say ‘I’m taking Ryan out for a ride’ and confuse the crap out of hubby. For now Ryan G’s in winter hibernation in a snug silk dust bag that smells like Eucalyptus.

White candle – Diptyque ‘Cypres’. Dark candle – Dior 30 Montaigne. Cuff – Chanel ‘boy’ lego brick cuff. Rings – Monica Vinader stacking rings

I’ll count, you hide.

A couple firm favourites from 2013 that I’ll be taking into 2014: a Mikimoto circle pearl necklace that used to be my mother’s, Monica Vinader stacking rings (Baja and Diamond pave), and Chanel ‘boy’ lego brick cuff from the Cruise 13 collection. The cuff is actually on loan from the Chanel press office to ‘play’ with (their words, not mine), although the most ‘playing’ I’ve done so far with it was wrapping it with bubble-wrap and placing it in a 6-digit-code safe. Which is what I used to do with my prettier looking Barbies anyway so I guess that does count as playing.  

Necklace – FHH Accessories via Lulu Guiness. (Similar here)

Come on baby light my fire

When this arrived in the mail my pyromaniac husband put it around his neck and ran around the flat giggling. I’m afraid I’m not even kidding. I swear one day he will burst into flames from sheer girliness.

Striped top – c/o Gudrun Sjoden. PJ Bottoms – Gift from mummy (from Oysho, I believe)

A new surface

Ever since spilling beer all over my slightly more ‘agile’ laptop (aka not a tank) I’ve had to get out of bed, walk a meter, sit in a chair, and start my day on the internet like a normal human being. However, thanks to the recent acquisition of Microsoft Surface 2, a tablet with a handy keypad/cover that snaps onto the side, I’ve been able to return to my blissful lifestyle of a single-cell organism, that is: wake up, troll online, sleep. Some kidding aside, so far it really has boosted my level of productivity, although if you’ve e-mailed me in the past couple of months and didn’t receive a response, MY DOG ATE MY PURPLE KEYBOARD OKAY.

Wool & the Gang ‘Ashleigh’ sweater knit kit, with custom elongated sleeves.

Chunky monkey

World, meet my first ever hand-knitted sweater! All thanks to Wool & the Gang, who generously supplied with the pattern, wool and constant cheering throughout. Their HQ happens to be located about 2 minutes walk from where I live, so sometimes I hear a ‘GO SHINI!’ which usually just turns out to be one of the teachers in the school behind my building yelling ‘NO SHITTING!’. Which, don’t get me wrong, is pretty good encouragement too because one mustn’t poop in the living room. This particular pattern didn’t take long to do (6-8 hours in total?) as the yarn is super chunky, so I’d say it’s perfect for first time sweater knitters!

Perfume – Kenzo Flower in the Air

In the air

A whiff of the Flower in the Air takes me back to that one day in June when I took a train to Paris, rode a ferris wheel by the river, and again, then hopped back on a train and came home. A fleeting moment, that’s what it smells like, which is surprisingly lyrical compared to the usual scent pairing with my sarcastic temperament. On the skin, it’s a clean, modern scent, quite sharp at first, but settles into a comfortable floral blend of rose, gardenia… almost berry-like. I can’t wait for it to snow a little actually, I have a feeling this might be a great pairing, albeit slightly ironic.

Time machine

Watch & straps – Daniel Wellington

Somehow the folks over at Daniel Wellington know about the unfortunate vintage watch I cracked with a plier three years ago, I think. Then again, it was a plier that usually does the pipes under the sink, I don’t know what I was expecting. My hand slipped and crack, a spiderweb on the watch face. A roll of duct tape was the only adhesive tapey thingy I had in the flat, and for a week I’d only know when it was 2:15. This DW set, however, comes with a tool that sings finesse: a firm nudge and it dislodges the bar from the hinges, which you then slide out the leather, and back on the hinges again. The grosgrain ribbon (that comes with a rose-gold buckle) slides through the bars, then secured. I can probably duct tape my eyes shut and do it again. Curse you plier!