Antibes and Monaco

We spent one day and one night in the South of France last weekend. We flew to Nice early on Saturday morning and got back midday on Sunday. Mum had flown over to see Baby and was basically pushing us out of the door to go and leave her alone with her! The weather in France was beautiful even though cold. It reminded me once again why I love it there so much.

This is what Antibes looked in the December sunshine. I have to say those sailors were brave... it was seriously cold!

After Antibes we headed over to Monte Carlo for the rest of the day and night. We stayed in the very old school but very glamorous Hotel De Paris.

This was the view from our room balcony. I definitely wasn't complaining!

We had lunch at the super casual Le Bistroquet. Food was fine.... We fancied some low key Italian so it hit the spot.

And this is what I wore... J Brand jeans, Maje wedge boots, Missoni cardi, Gucci belt and a Joseph sheepskin coat, which kept me nice and warm! And I just realised that my flies are undone in this picture, how classy! :-)

34

On Friday night we had an early dinner at the new Richard Caring restaurant 34. I loved it! Richard Caring just always gets it right... Everything is right; decor, atmoshere, food and service. None of his restaurants try too hard; they are old school and quite glamorous instead of trendy and minimalistic. The atmosphere is so good you want to stay all night. I think 34 is now in my top five favourite London restaurants! I ate a soup, a fillet steak and the most amazing mint and chocolate dessert... As good as the honeycomb ice cream with chocolate sauce in Scott's and that's to say something! Oh, and Bernie Ecclestone sat at the table next to us. He was with a dark haired lady and another couple. They gave us a few not so friendly glances, think we were talking a touch too loud...

Picture from 34 website.

Sponsoring a Child

I've been wondering for a while what the best way is to donate to charity... I mean how do you know, which charity is the one that gets most of the donations through to its actual targets. You hear so many stories about every layer of the process skimming the donation down so that when it finally reaches the ones in need there is not much left. I've had a direct debit to Oxfam for a few years now but as it's such a big organisation I know very little about how my  money has been used. I therefore today decided that I want to sponsor a child. I've just signed up with Plan. I want to sponsor a child in Latin America. After seeing the Favelas in Rio and Sao Paulo a few years ago it shocked me so much that somehow I'd love to help a child in that part of the world. I'm very excited about this and can't wait to find out who I'll be sponsoring!

Another thing that occurred to me recently is that I have so much "stuff"... Stuff that I don't need at all and often just throw away. If only I could send all that stuff to somewhere, to somebody, who needs it. I might just ask Plan about it, maybe they will be able to help me to help.

Picture from Plan website.

After a Break; Net-A-Porter Wishlist Update

I haven't even so much as looked at Net-A-Porter for a while because I've been feeling very undeserving and ashamed after my shopping madness in New York last month... But today I finally dared to take a little peak. My eye is now scanning through the items with a totally different criteria than usually; must not be fitted. For that reason it's now accessories that catch my eye most. Here is what I put on my Wishlist.

The most beautiful Erdem silk blouse. Not sure if any good with a big tummy so will probably stay on the Wishlist forever, or until it sells out, which is probably not that long...

Chloe boots. Can't get enough of Chloe, so chic!

Gucci bag. I actually NEED one.. I don't have a black bag that you could wear messenger style. Gucci have really upped their stakes, such cool stuff!

Gucci sunglasses. Something a bit different to my forever faithful aviators.

Now this is just gorgeous... A Pucci clutch. Totally unwearable with most things I own of course but it looks so yummy I can't stop looking at it!

What I Wore Today

Today I wore a couple of my favourite things... A Celine bag that I carry to work most days and my Jimmy Choo Gilbert pumps in tan / black snakeskin. I love them because the heel is not high so they're actually very comfortable to walk in. I don't know why I ever buy heels that are super high as I always end up wearing my lower ones a lot more. The rest of my outfit was a plain white silk shirt, black skinny jeans and a camel coat.

Eating, eating and eating...

Last night I had a work dinner in Nobu, Park Lane. The food was delicious and everyone had a fun evening, we were a table of eight people. Afterwards a few people continued for drinks but I made my excuses and escaped home and to bed.

Tonight I had my department's Christmas drinks in a wine bar in the City. I went straight from work for a couple of hours to be sociable and was so happy when I was able to sneak out before 8pm! I'm finding it hard going out now that I'm pregnant and not able to drink. What a shameful thing to admit! I'm finding it especially hard at this early stage when I'm still hiding my pregnancy and therefore having to pretend that I'm in fact drinking... Holding the same warm wine glass for hours on end taking the smallest of sips... or pretending that I'm drinking an exotic cocktail when in fact it's just orange juice and dreading that someone is going to want to taste it! Ordering a soft drink is difficult too as most of the time it's someone from the group asking everyone what they want to drink. Tonight I was able to sneakily speak to a friendly waitress and explain my situation to her and she became my secret alliance carrying me soft drinks that looked like cocktails. She saved me! The problem is that I never say no to a glass of wine and that is why anyone who knows me will immediately know that something is going on if I refuse it...

I'm already expanding even though I'm only 8 weeks pregnant. My boobs and bottom are growing at record speed. Last night I had to change my outfit at the last minute because I realised I looked ridiculous in a fitted dress. The reason for this fast expansion is obviously not the baby who is about 10mm long at the moment... It is my eating that has got totally out of hand. Let's see what I ate today; I started the morning by having two bowls of the most sugary, fattening, roasted granola. At lunch time I had "sushi", which actually meant a couple of pieces of sushi and a lot of greasy prawn tempura. In the afternoon I had one and a half cupcakes, which someone kindly offered to me and then in the wine bar I stuffed my face with cheese, bread and sausages. If nobody has noticed the changes in my eating habits then I'm very surprised... Everyone normally takes the mickey out of me for eating so healthy and now I've gone totally to the other extreme. The thing is that I feel nauseous most of the time and the eating, at least temporarily, helps! Because of the nausea I just crave something very specific to make me feel better and that something is never anything healthy.

Christmas Feeling

We took Baby to see Father Christmas at the kids' Ralph Lauren on Bond Street over the weekend. I don't think she understood much about it but at least we got a few nice pics to show her when she's older.

We have a beautiful Christmas Tree! It's made me feel even more Christmassy. 

I can't wait for the actual Christmas; for the first time ever we're spending it in our own home in London. Will be so fun. Mr W's family will be joining us here. 

One Year Older

It was my birthday this weekend. Mr W gave me the most amazing present and even better was that he chose it totally on his own! I am very lucky. 

On the evening of my birthday we had dinner with a group of friends in Petit Maison. It was as good as always! However pregnancy has put me off my favourite food fish... It now makes me feel nauseous even thinking about it! After Petit Maison we had drinks at The Arts Club. I love that place, I'm glad I got the membership as it's the perfect place for pre or post dinner drinks in the West End.

Baby II

As my blog is safely lost in the cyper space (none of my friends or family know it exists and I have no idea how to get it to appear in search engine results) I can share with you, my extremely few readers, that I'm pregnant with our second child. Baby II is expected to arrive in this world in late July. I had my first scan this week and everything is fine but as it's only week 7 anything could happen... I feel sicker than I did with Baby and I'm constantly tired. I'm ashamed to even admit it as I always thought sickness and tiredness was only for women who like to moan... I was wrong! I think from week 12 I will start a picture series of my tummy; first of the way up and then finally, of the way down (taken that it does go down this time...). This explains my constant craving of carbs! I've already put on 4 pounds... Last time I put on 3 stone in total and I swore that I wouldn't repeat that but looks like I'm gonna have to eat those words amongst all those carbs... I can't believe that we're going to have two Babies. I had severe baby blues first time around. I'm hoping that this time around I'll be saved from them by the knowledge that the hardest times only last for a short period of time.

Put a Ring On it

Mr W finally did it... In fact he did it already in Barbados but the ring was way too big for me so only now that it's been altered I'm able to start wearing it. I had totally accepted the fact that we would never marry but live happily ever after the way we are but clearly I don't have to accept that after all. I couldn't be happier! I have to pinch myself!

Girls' Dinner in Cipriani

I had such a fun dinner tonight in Cipriani with my friends V and R. V is a Russian model turned a talented Interior Designer. R is a successful City -girl, originally from Poland. We drank some Bellinis and ate a lot of wonderful food. The crowd was as interesting as always in Cipriani; the most beautiful women, slick looking men, Chanel handbags hanging from most shoulders and some rather interesting looking surgically enhanced faces. It's always a fun night out to go there and I actually really like the food even though some don't rate it much. They try to rush you a bit too much but equally if you tell them not to they do listen. When we left there was paparazzi outside and as we exited they first looked up expectantly and then their faces turned very disappointed as they saw us! Funny!

I wore a fur jacket from Intermix (can't remember the brand), a Sandro top, J Brand jeans and my good old turquoise Loubutins. The clutch is YSL.

My Favourite Holidays - St Barths

St Barths is my favourite holiday destination outside Europe. Being French it's super chic and classy. It is very difficult to get to hence it's kept its "exclusivity". The first time I went there was when I was seven months pregnant. That's me with my bump and Mr W at Isle De France.

We went with a group of friends and stayed on a boat. The one below is certainly not the one we stayed on... That's Abramovich's Pelarus that we spotted in the marina. Our boat was the size of that one's tender! 

You can have a lot of fun there. Especially in Le Ti St Barths! And no, I'm not in either of these pictures :-)

The next time we went was exactly a year later, earlier this year. I was obviously no longer pregnant and therefore able to have a bit more fun and to wear some glitter! This time we went with family.

We stayed in Eden Rock Hotel, which was fabulous. They must do the best beach lunch I've ever had. Courteney Cox was staying there at the same time with her handsome co-star from Cougar Town, Josh Hopkins. I have to say though it didn't look like they were romantically involved even though around that time there were a lot of rumours about them in gossip magazines. Shame I wasn't brave enough to take a pic of them! Here are some of Eden Rock though...

On Shell beach guys might be lucky enough to spot this... 

Isn't the marina beautiful? I love boats!

Christmas Presents Part I

I absolutely hate Christmas shopping... Don't get me wrong I love giving but I hate that I'm always in a rush with it! Why can't I ever get myself organised early enough? I also hate that I never know what to buy Mr W and his family... I feel like I want to impress them but not by spending too much but by getting it really right. And I don't think I have got it right yet even once to be honest. My family is easy as they don't have access to the same lovely goods that we do here in London. So I've started by logging into Net-A-Porter and getting a present for each of my sisters. 

E will be getting this DKNY day bag. I got her an evening bag last year so I thought that she could use a bigger one this time in a neutral colour.

O will be getting this stunning Jimmy Choo evening bag. For her birthday a few months ago I got her more of a daytime bag in tan colour so for her I now wanted to get a glamorous evening bag.

Last but not least H will be receiving this small Chloe Marci bag. She can use it during the day and also in the evening so I thought it would be perfect as I haven't given her a bag before. The colour is also very "her". 

Hyde Park Afternoon

I took Baby to Hyde Park this afternoon. Winter Wonderland is there at the moment but she's still too young to enjoy it so I'm going to wait until next year before taking her. Instead we had a good walk around the wet and cold park. Luckily the weather conditions went totally unnoticed by Baby. 

I love Hyde Park. Today it was particularly busy because Oxford Street is rammed with Christmas shoppers and because of Winter Wonderland and there was also someone giving a speech (or rather ranting about this that and other) in the Speaker's Corner. I hadn't seen that for a while.

After Hyde Park we had a good stroll around the West End. I should have done some Christmas Shopping but I could tell that venturing into the crowded shops with my buggy and a Baby who doesn't want to sit in it would have only ended up in tears...

Now I'm ready for a relaxing evening in. Home smells lovely thanks to the lovely items in the below picture. I might just cook myself some pasta as inspired by this blog post by Liberty London Girl and watch a few episodes of Breaking Bad. 

Essex Night Out

Last night Mr W and I went to dinner in Essex to a restaurant called Bel Sit with M and R. It's a small and lively Italian. You can't book a table and they have long queues of people waiting to be seated every night! There's a reason; the food is incredible. It's not a place to go if you're on a diet or trying to cut down on carbs... And I certainly wasn't cutting down anything! We shared some starters and I had the creamiest, loveliest pasta dish for main. Obviously I didn't skip on the dessert either. What's happened to me?? I just can't help myself! Below is a picture of the outside of Bel Sit, I found it somewhere online. You would never think there's a great restaurant in there!

And this is what I wore. Over it I wore a black fake fur jacket. You can probably guess that I was totally overdressed... I didn't remember how casual it was plus I thought that in Essex everyone is always overdressed! Anyway my top is See By Chloe, leggings are from Intermix but I can't remember the brand, shoes are my first and only ever Manolos from Bergdof Goodman, cuff is Chanel and bag the DVF one from Intermix.

Pilates

My morning started with a Pilates class at Ten Pilates. I'm so glad I discovered it a few months ago; for me nothing sculpts your body like it. It tones you and defines you but in a long and lean way rather than bulking you up. And what's so good about it too is that no matter how hard it is and how hard your muscles shake during the movements you still never feel the unpleasant breathless feeling as your heart rate doesn't rise much. I'm a cardio hater hence this suits me! Right now my exercise schedule is training at home with a Personal Trainer twice a week and then doing as many Pilates classes as I can fit in. In a normal week that means two or three. Happy Sunday everyone, I'm now heading to Hyde Park with Baby!

Picture from Ten Pilates website

To Work Or Not To Work

It's not an easy question for women once they become mothers. Taken, obviously, that you are lucky enough to have the choice at all. I've decided to work as I enjoy it; it challenges me, I like the bit of independence it gives me, I enjoy the social aspect of an office, I like my actual job, achieving goals gives me confidence plus it's rewarding enough financially to keep it going. I know that so far it's been the right choice for me and that I'm happier this way and therefore a better and more patient mother. This doesn't mean that I don't sometimes feel guilty about not being at home with Baby. I think it's the UK that makes me feel guilty though more than anything else. If I still lived back home I wouldn't think twice about it as most mothers work; it's more unusual not to.  In the UK it's not often financially beneficial for a mother to work, which I guess must be a big contributor to the fact that so many women stay at home once they have children.

Despite the fact that I enjoy working lately I've started doubting my decision more than before. Mostly because I thought that work hadn't been going as well for me as it had done in the past. A couple of weeks ago I reached the decision that as I don't like it that much anymore  and as I'm not as well regarded as I used to be it's not worth continuing and that I will resign in the beginning of next year. Well yesterday I had to go through with the awful experience of letting an employee go, which by the way was every bit as awful as I thought it would be... but as I was talking to my boss about it afterwards and even though he was sympathetic to both the person who lost her job and me who as her boss had to do it he said: 'welcome to management". As ridiculous as it sounds that made me think if quitting my job would be a mistake after all! Will I be ready to let go of my career as what if it's still in an uphill...?

Oxford Street and Christmas Lights

I just went to do some grocery shopping in Selfridges Food Hall. Oxford Street was so beautiful with all its Christmas lights! Beautiful is not normally a word you would use to describe Oxford Street... Normally I find it too stressful and crowded and avoid it at any cost but right now it's a pleasure to go there. I took a few pics.