champagnepapi

Drake rehearsing at Roundhead Studios - Auckland, New Zealand 21/02/2015 instagram.com/champagnepapi

Tomorrow night I get to see one of my favs. 

call your girlfriend

Over the past few weeks I have found myself saying "ugh" and "woof" more often, and it's because I have been catching up on episodes of Call Your Girlfriend, the podcast of Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow. I tend to do that: adopt the vernacular of the people I spend intense spells of time with, or pop culture I overindulge in. There was also one time when I adopted a slight Southern twang after binge watching True Blood. Ugh!

Anyway, I digress. Call Your Girlfriend is the podcast for "long-distance besties everywhere", where IRL long-distance besties Ann (a killer pop culture and feminist writer) and Aminatou (named as one of Forbes' 30 Under 30 in the tech sector, nbd) discuss everything from Ruth Bader Ginsberg (Notorious RBG), Kanye West, Shine Theory (SO important - look it up) and dish out some pretty solid real talk on things like friendship breakups, wedding season, navigating the workplace as a woman and most importantly, this week's Menstruation News.

Listening to each episode feels like eavesdropping on a conversation between two super smart and hilarious friends, who clearly are having these kinds of discussions even when the microphone isn't on. AND they're named after a Robyn song, and if that's not an indication of greatness, I don't know what is.

Call Your Girlfriend on BlogTalkRadio

lonely

I popped into the new(-ish) Lonely store in Ponsonby over the weekend. Featuring marble, parquet floors and plush pink carpet in the dressing room, it is the most serene lingerie store I have ever been in. Too bad they don't make anything in my size, but hopefully that will be changing soon.

Photos by Simon Wilson for Home Magazine

Drowning

Banks' music video for her song Drowning has been my primary source of inspiration these past few weeks, and I've probably largely contributed to its view count. She further establishes her vamp-y aesthetic by giving the '80s female power uniform of a pantsuit a 2014 update c/o a crop top and winged eyeliner (sharp enough to kill a man, of course: "You are not deserving, you are not deserving"). With Al Shux (Empire State of Mind, This is What Makes Us Girls) on production duties, one of my favourite moments in the song comes in the first verse, when the pitched echo of "Need me don't need me, need me don't need me" is reminiscent of a schoolgirl tearing petals from a daisy. Stalking back and forth like a lioness in her hall of mirrors, I'm getting total sassy/sultry/empowered vibes, which is kind of the perfect combo really. Tonight I'm taking my inspiration for vampishness from Banks.

Botanical

Image by Ophelia King

We visited a plant shop ("I think it's called like a guy's name or something") on a drizzly, hungover Sunday afternoon. It was a long weekend and the geriatric gardening gang was out in full force. I tried to shake off my headache and the feeling that I didn't belong there by wandering up and down the narrow paths, which mostly just resulted in being overwhelmed about having to choose just one plant. We gathered up $300 worth of new botanics for the Fuzzy backyard (and a lil cactus for my room!) in two wheelbarrows, only to be told once we finally reached the till that they only accept cheques or cash. What is this, 1993? Cue a frantic rush to the nearest ATM five minutes away. I stayed behind, keeping an eye on our new purchases, engulfed by greenery, soothed and content.

Kepler

This time a month ago we were walking the Kepler Track near Te Anau. Day two was my favourite, high up on the alpine ridge, eye-level with the clouds, winds threatening to sweep us off our feet and down the mountain pack-first. It was tough going, but the views made it all worth it. Around each curve in the track was a landscape vista even more stunning than the last. That word is used so often that the power of it has softened like a blunt axe, but in the context of Mt Luxmore, I mean it in the most literal, genuine way possible. I struggle to capture what we saw in words, so I won't try. Every so often I made us stop to get another photo. And another. What I could see on the picture preview screen never came anywhere near to the stupefying beauty that we could see right in front of us, but we knew it wouldn't. The photos will serve as a reminder of this amazing adventure we did for ourselves and everything we experienced along the way. I never want to see another muesli bar again in my life. Which might be hard, because now I plan on walking all nine of New Zealand's Great Walks. I think I've got the tramping bug.

faabgal.gif

Possum Fur Shrug by Andrea Moore

Mr Fox by Deadly Ponies

I've got my eye on purchasing one of these fur collars so I can achieve my life goal of being as fabulous as this gal in 45 years:

(note: I saved this image to my computer as faabgal.gif)