Party feet

More French Sole please! It's free postage this Easter so I may just have to order these beauties from the Bunny to me (even though they fall apart faster than any other designer shoe known to wo-man!).

Afternoon tea obsession

"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea." Henry James

This morning, instead of working, I have been mostly shopping online for vintage tea sets - triggered by a facebook update from Katy Potts. Her website sells wonderful china teapots and cups - a perfect wedding gift for my vintage-loving friend Elizabeth, if I could stretch to more than a miniature espresso set!

Elizabeth is enchanted by the sophistication of a good old-fashioned English tea party. A forties-style garden gathering with G&T served by the pot awaits us Hens in August when her dad's lawn will be transformed with colourful bunting, picnic tables and pretty vintage china. It's an experience being sold for £17pp at Tea Party, a gorgeous north London venue fit for any girly get-together.

Hen party finery in Finchley, at Tea Party

London's tearooms range from high-end to hidden gems with an Alice in Wonderland themed experience at The Langham, to Sohos Secret Tea Room. Top of my list to try is Beas of Bloomsbury who are hiring out afternoon tea hampers for sunny picnics in the park (£15pp tea@beasofbloomsbury). Their deliciously naughty cupcakes smack of retro glamour and are served up on pin-up girl inspired china platters.

Devour a racy pin-up platter
at Beas of Bloomsbury

For those of us residing outside the Capital the traditional tearoom rules. The Polly Tearooms in Marlborough has a reputation won over several decades and an authenticity that surpasses any trendspot (High Tea for two £19.95). For a high-end (literally!) experience, head to the top of the UK where The Balmoral Edinburgh serves a wonderful champagne afternoon tea (£37pp). First class table service, Bolly and an endless finger buffet? It's a combination so divine you might just forget to catch your flight back, as my friend Marina and I nearly did at the end of our Scottish gastrotour last month!

Patisserie at its finest in the Polly Tearooms, Marlborough

For more ideas on where to go for afternoon tea, try: http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/. Or find out more about buying the vintage prettiness to host your own, at: http://antiques.lovetoknow.com/Antique_Tea_Cups.

Kebab TV

It seems I am enjoying a bit of a love hate relationship with reality TV. Wife Swap USA, Supernanny, Kerry Katona: The Next Chapter. You name it, I'll flop in front of it. Maybe it's the antedote to puzzling too hard over life decisions that always seem to be the massive ones: where to live, how to earn more, and who to do it all with!

Whatever the lure, it's bad for my cultural digestion. This is Kebab TV. One taste can have you hooked and a dodgy episode will turn your stomach. An 'off' week with The Only Way is Essex saw me literally ready to hurl at the disgusting way the men treated women - spearheaded by obnoxious nightclub owner Kirk Norcross.

A generous salting of unbelievable characters like Joey Essex - from the same 'too far removed from reality to be wrong' ilk as Peter Andre - are what make this genre seem so delicious (as TOWIE star, Lydia, would say). Slipping into a paralell universe to watch Joey applying his bizarre "flat n dumpy, tall n reem" logic as an excuse for buying plimsoles two sizes too small because "stretched canvas looks better", ironically makes the real world seem a million miles away.

Pop trivia: Joey's favourite word, "reem", is actually 1980's gay slang for a cute gay guy.

Rumour has it that the Essex dimwit will be 'coming out' as Harry Derbidge's love interest later in the series.

"OMG, really? Shut up!"

The Kintbury Castle

Very sad to be leaving my idyllic rural hideaway behind in three weeks!

The Camden Palace

25A - the party pad!

NW1 to where?! A bloke's perspective

Just been introduced to the very satirical Sabotage Times - love their strapline: "We can't concentrate, so why should you?" Brilliant.

Also found this rib-tickling and inspirational gem: Country living: Hunting the wild boar of East Sussex. Remember chaps:

Unsurprisingly, the publisher behind Sabotage Times,  James Brown, also masterminded the original lads mag, Loaded...read the Independent interview.

James is all about the democratisation of the media and is quoted as saying as many as five out of 10 articles submitted by amateur writers are published in the Sabotage Times. Now there's a reason to blog good, better, best!

Reasons to be provincial: Part one!

London scooterists will need to ride out to the action for once next month, where off Junction 11 on the M4, Liam Gallagher's fashion label "Pretty Green" is sponsoring "Reading Steady Go - Life through the Eyes of a 1960s Mod". This exhibition is set to be the first major focus on the scene outside of London.

One of the brain's behind the Berkshire coo, is a forty-something Mod, active on the Modculture forums as "Smiler". The exhibition is said to be a precursor to the book Smiler's writing on Reading's history as a major hub for the original and 80s Mods.

Suzy Kendall smoulders in
"Up the Junction"

After being fascinated by Mod fashion and music for the last couple of decades, but spending most of that time in cities like Liverpool and London, I'm looking forward to seeing the scene from a provincial perspective. Not since Suzy Kendall went "Up the Junction" to find Dennis Waterman in Battersea, has a destination this gritty, looked so dead-set on turning into a mecca of sixties pretty.

See "Reading Steady Go..." at John Madjeski Art Gallery, Reading Museum & Town Hall, Reading, RG1 1QH from 9th April - 9th October 2011.

Thom Yorke hits Hoxton shores

As reported earlier in 'Her Dansette', Radiohead's first free newspaper was given away in ldn today... but who knew the man himself would be handing them out?! In my old hood! Mere metres from where I worked last year for an East-End publishing house. Ah, life on the edge of ldn... expect to miss the unmissable!
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke heaves The Universal Sigh as The King of Limbs goes on sale Entertainment People The First Post

Played to death on her Dansette

As championed by 6 Music DJ du jour, every day, Shaun Keaveny.  It's haunting and a bit Yeah Yeah Yeahs...

Most wanted

As a sucker for anything that's limited edition and music-related, I've implored ldn friends and acquaintances to pick up a copy of Radiohead's first free newpaper at the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, from 12 noon on Monday 28th March, 2011.

It's the latest guerilla marketing tactic from a band famous for them and marks the official release of their latest album: 'king of limbs' (a follow-up to the furore-causing free download issue last month).

I really want a copy of The Universal Sigh, but am not sure it will materialise! Apparently there is a leaked edition on ebay already. If I do get lucky it will join my last limited edition scoop, bagged in Oxfam, Camden on Monday 19th November, 2009... A 10" of 'Cornerstone' by The Arctic Monkeys. Beautiful.

Beatific!

Mysterious girl: Tina and the art of J.H Lynch

I came across this particularly good article: Mysterious girl: Tina and the art of J.H Lynch while researching 'big eye art'. It was published by one of my favourite websites: Queens of Vintage.

Cut-price kitsch

Chocolate-scented arm candy
by HRH, sale price: £34.95

I've been coveting the kitsch chic of Helen Rochfort Handbags (HRH) for quite a while and today they are half price until midnight (offer ref: SPRINGFLASH). These beauties are rightly billed by their creator as a "wonderland of pop art, quirky vintage styling and delicious eccentricity". But while they look like must own items would I actually use one, or just sit looking at it? Man-child is not convinced either (having been relegated to one third hanging space by my overspill of cute, impractical pur-chases).

"Mod kids",
by Lee

Broadcaster and self-styled culture vulture Lauren Laverne's been papped with the "Wonka" and every single design in the HRH collection is an editorial delight sure to brighten any fashionable dps.  Another reason for this brand's runaway success is its alignment with our lust for vintage 'mass market' art at a time when collectors are raiding for retro at boot sales, flea markets and online auctions everywhere. The wide-eyed appeal of Mattel's iconic Sindy doll marks HRH' latest commercially-savvy collaboration and has era-crossing appeal - from children of the eighties like me, to fans of the massively popular 'big eyed art' trend circa 1960s/70s. Red or Dead creator, Wayne Hemmingway is such an enthusiast he wrote a book about it, and I have two prints in my own collection.

"Tina" by J H Lynch

Most widely recognised is the sultry "Tina", painted by J H Lynch in 1961. Re-prints were originally sold in Boots, and later appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 cult classic "A Clockwork Orange", and on the cover of Edwyn Collin’s hit single “A Girl Like You” (1994).

I most recently saw an original 70s "Tina" print while checking out the chintz in Manchester's arty Northern Quarter with my friend Elizabeth. It came in at under £25, making her a cheaper way to feed that kitsch chic habit than a cut-price HRH, especially if all you're going to do is accessorise your bedroom with it!

"Tina" top right, and an unsigned
print in our spare bedroom



Mowgli's meltdown

OMG Man-child read the blog and had a meltdown! Truth hurts, he later admitted. Creative license, I pleaded. After years of being the subject of his song lyrics, including the latest: "She's on the phone again, mixing her medicine. Playing with words again, thinking she's heaven sent", he knows how it feels at last!

Single women and man-children

So I'm poking my nose out of my country parapet at last, sniffing around for all paid roads that lead to London. Of course, they are not paved with gold. Ever. If you're a journalist. I immediately find a 'job' market awash with opportunities to work. For free. Including one particular beauty, courtesy of journo jobs bible, Gorkana: "We need contributors... to capture the interest of our online audience, professional women from 28 to 45, who are single but are looking to settle down."

Perfect. Practically every girl I know is single, fabulous and looking for Mr Right when the streets are rammed full of Mr Wrong's (the man-child I am sharing my country pile with, for now, being a shining not so knightly example). All our own faults for being too damn good at fending for ourselves if author Kay Hymowitz' claptrap in new novel, 'Manning Up' is to be believed! Must get to the bottom of that book. It may be based on American men, but the principles are the same both sides of the Atlantic. Women of a certain age and status - the SATC generation, if you will - can't find decent men. A-N-Y-W-H-E-R-E!

Carrie and co. may have reproduced, married off, reached the top of their games and hung up prized Manolos to make way for a rumoured reinvention (cue Blake Lively??) but what happened to the real SATC women? Well, we're still here. Dating! So Gorkana's shiny, unpaid opportunity poses one question: why not launch my own 'inspired' magazine to cheerlead a rather too huge, target audience of single, fabulous, thirty-something women seeking their significant other? After all, my phonebook is full of them.

Career blues

In Gloucestershire getting vexed by glorified admin role. Hmm think of the money, think of the merc'...

Country pursuits

After boarding my 'copywriting cruiseliner' I set sail for the Cotswolds on a sea of Grazias. So what's to do when you're washed up and waiting to make your escape from the country?

You're where? Career shutdown... ldn is a £57 daily return no-go Zone. Who knew?
Desert queen... a cupcake empire. Or not?
Bicester bashing... how the Barbour brigade shop
Gym bunny... from zero to zumba - how exile, country-style, can save satsuma thighs
Pre-menstrual studies... The tension's getting longer, the cycle scarily shorter.
Am I acidic? My live-in ex and blood doctor, Errol Denton, would surely agree. Hello PH diet and daily pints of green water. Tasty.

The coffee table was awash with news
from a faraway land, er London.

Sitting pretty?

Exactly what does it take to be 'sitting pretty' as an educated 35 year-old woman who has miraculously managed to get this far minus debt, property, kids, a lasting relationship, oh, and her dream job of course?

Answers on a postcard please. This postcard.

Postcards from the edge

So the blog within this blog will be 'Postcards from the edge.... life after London'.

If you had seven grand at 26 (in 2001), to blow on a flat deposit or uni education, what would you do?

I graduated with a 2:1, minus seven grand. Well, eight actually, but who's counting? Well, me actually. Now that property prices are nowhere near what they were ten years ago and I need at least four times that to even consider doing the mortgage thing. So after a three-year degree stint in Liverpool, brief daliances in Norwich and Hertford, then another five years in the Capital how on earth did I end up leaving Camden for Kintbury? And is there really life after London?