I've moved on...
...to a different domain. Why, what were you thinking? The truth is, I just woke up one day and decided it's time for a change—a metamorphosis, if you will; or, in layman's terms, if Britney can shave her head, then maybe so can I? Nevertheless, it's been a rather handsome 10 years of talking to you, and thank you for putting up with all my moodswings and terrible dad jokes. Fear not! The hormonal imbalance and jokes are more terrible on CUBICLE, see you there.

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The 2013 London Tweed Run

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Photo by Yu Fujiwara of Tokyobike

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Time for tea!

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Tweed blazer – Vintage Gerry Weber, Skirt – ASOS. Floral shirt – Zara. Shoes – Topshop. Bag – Warehouse. Bike – Tokyobike. Thank you Kit for the shots of moi!

One does not simply partake in the Tweed Run among 499 others and not come home with 49,999 photos of tweeded butts, as Boromir might say.

We spilled out into the streets, ushered by the marshals – in no particular order but close enough to each other to hold hands. Mobile boomboxes in bike baskets sang the 50’s, conversations budded up here and there while turning corners. Girls rode in heels, hands-free for some boys, and we bloggers cycled with our elbows while trying to capture every moment… At times it felt like learning to cycle all over again – half scooting, half balancing with momentum – except here when you topple over sideways you take about twenty people down with you. Every single head turned on the streets, traffic stopped, and windows opened in cheer – how exhilarating! So this is what it feels like to be a politician, or blonde. We rode through Marylebone, Oxford Circus, Saville Row, Piccadilly, Whitehall, Westminster… all the postcards of London, then ended up in Lincoln’s Inn Fields just behind Holborn for afternoon tea; then up to King’s Cross to finish the day at a pub, at which point England did what England does best and rained on a parade. Only literally, though.

Many thanks to Tokyobike once again for this wonderful experience! Check out part 1 for more tweed, less buttz.

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The 2013 London Tweed Run, with Tokyobike

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Yu Fujiwara, manager at Tokyobike UK and photographer at 8 and 2 blog

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My ride for the day!

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…then to UCL to meet the rest of the gang and fuel up

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feasting on Vintage Rascal models

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Our good marshalls

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One can not decline a last minute invitation to join a biker gang, now can one.

The Tweed Run is one of those few elusive, fantastic events in London that you only hear about after its all happened, or worse, one you see happening one random Saturday when, just the other day you’d reminded yourself to find out when it’s taking place. So yes, being in a (flash mob) biker gang is pure awesome, but to be in time for it is a small miracle. The bigger miracle of course, is actually having tickets for it as they’re allocated through an auction (ours of which were provided by Yu Fujiwara [Tokyobike UK manager]). At 8am we convened at the Tokyobike shop in Shoreditch, where we were presented our rides for the day – mine, a mushroom-coloured beauty – and had our numbers pinned onto our sleeves. Then we joined the rest of the gang at the UCL courtyard, where the 500-strong mob filed in, dressed in some form of tweed, bumping fists and fueling for the six-hour tour through Central London. Promptly at 11am we were shepherded out by the marshalls and a day of grins-on-wheels (and bum-bruising) would begin.

Stay tuned for part two, the fellowship of the Tweeds, and a journey across middle-London.