One is nine, nine is two.

Feather-trim fedora hat, grey jumper, mid-wash jeans, RJR loafers: c/o Debenhams.
Photos by Charlie.
Shakey cameramanship in the gif, unfortunately my own.

I'm fairly confident with the square mile, soho gets a little easier to navigate after a cocktail, and I have Shoreditch and surrounding areas down, but Islington? That's a bit of London I've left unexplored for far too long. A couple of weeks back I had a pretty sweet excuse (more on that later!) to pop along the Northern line to see what Angel had in-store. I met Charlie at the tube station before heading along Chapel Street to check out the market. We stopped off at a cute café for smoothies (I went for passionfruit - would recommend) and a catch up pre-fussy location hunting, on my part. We settled for Claremont Square, a stone's throw from our destination, because who could resist a little pop o' red? It's the door equivalent of Ruby Woo.

For this little London jaunt, I decided comfort was king - and a thankfully still day meant this hat stayed on my head too, hurrah! This whole caboodle is from trusty old Debenhams, and is part of the Nine by Savannah Miller range that I'm sure you've seen gracing the cover of Stylist recently. Although mine might be a bit of a more pared-back, literally-just-threw-this-on combination, I've loved seeing how other people are wearing the edit, and spotted mega-babe Josie in the printed dress and faux fur gilet this week. Warning, the shoes are going to take a hell of a lot of wearing in (send plasters), but the perfect blue hue jeans and soon to be 'most worn' jumper more than make up for it. Just add fluffy socks and a milky tea for the perfect Sunday spent at home outfit.

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My mind would rule my heart.

Vintage check blouse: £6, via Ark. Asos petite shorts: £28. Warehouse lace up flats: £29 with staff discount. Karen Millen patent mini bag: £5, via sample sale (on sale in black and cream). Rotary watch: gift. Topshop 'Really Ruby' lipstick (discontinued :( but similar).

Looking for a lovely, relaxing weekend full of chilled café stops and calm walks along the river? I wouldn't rate Cambridge all that highly (come on tourists, do you need to be in packs of fifty???). In naïve fashion, I'd nagged my mum to go there for about six months as I hadn't been since January 2012 (second photo) thinking it'd be, in the words of that Cards Against Humanity card I couldn't get rid of yesterday, 'sunshine and rainbows'. Don't get me wrong, Cambridge is a beautiful city and I always love visiting, but a sunny Saturday in August is prime slow-walker time and tested my patience more than you'd believe. Unless, of course, you've seen me stuck behind someone who can't use a self-serve till at the supermarket... #21stcenturyrage

As you'd expect from watching all eight Harry Potter films, Cambridge is filled to the brim with beautiful architecture, independent shops (tell me more about this fudge kitchen's free samples) and a load of punts. As far as recommendations go, the shops on Rose Cres are the nicest and the everyman cinema is worth visiting, but on this trip we mainly just wandered around keeping my Moves app happy, rather than spending all the money in Jo Malone/antique book shops. Because seriously, if the above bookshop had been open, I would have spent some serious money on the first edition of Wilde's Earnest. If you know someone who's studying there and are a student too, then I'd definitely recommend staying with them as you get into the colleges free/discounted/pretend to be studying there too more convincingly, as some of the colleges are upwards of £10 to enter at the usual rate, and I'd rather spend a tenner on postcards at the Fitzwilliam Museum. If there weren't quite so many people around it'd be a much nicer place to visit, but, crowds aside, there's no better place to feel smug that you can pronounce the name 'Gonville and Caius' correctly.

Back to Essex, and I'm going to spend today indoors, sparing a thought for the poor souls at V festival in the rain down the road (haha, jk, suckers).

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I go to loud places.

Pussybow blouse: c/o Monsoon. Vintage suede skirt: £8, charity shop (similar). Clarks sandals: Cloggs. Ralph Lauren sunglasses: Sunglasses Shop. Rimmel Kate Moss 08 lipstick.

The Seventies called, it wants its wardrobe back. As someone who's unfortunately gifted in the brassière department (trust me, it's not as fun as TOWIE would lead you to believe), there are loads of styles which I thought were firmly 100% out of the books for me, pussybow blouses being one of them. Frills on top of all that? I don't want to look like a back to front stegosaurus. All hope was not lost, however, when I spied this lil number in Monsoon whilst my friend was present-shopping on Oxford Street - its silky shape, paisley fabric and subtle tie-neck make for some throwback style I can totally get on board with. Teamed with one of my best charity shop finds (suck on that price tag, AC for AG), this might just sway me from sixties-dressing. Just the once...

PS, love Hadleigh's weird (and unexplainable) obsession with sheep. Those books are classics in the making.

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I want desire.

Luella blouse: ebay. Vintage suede skirt: £8, charity shop. Laura Ashley trench coat. Adidas Spezial: £29, Freeport Braintree. Rotary watch. Rimmel Kate Moss 08 lipstick.

It's always a bit weird to revisit things. I'm not talking an ex-boyfriend here (bye means bye, okay?), I'm talking places. I grew up in Woodford, which is best explained as 'on the east bit of the Central line', and, despite heading back to Loughton every six months to go to the dentist, I hadn't really been back since we upped sticks and headed way out 'so far past zone nine you can't even use an oyster card' in 2003. For the first time in over a decade, my mum and I popped back down the M11 to have a little wander along memory lane. It's a bit like heading back to a club you frequented in freshers week - things are a bit hazy, but you know where the toilet is and vaguely recognise that booth.

In case you're not aware (you probably aren't, half the people I live with now haven't heard of Redbridge, let alone know it's in the same county), if you look at London on Google maps and see the reservoirs just north of Central, I'm talking a little bit east of there. We started off the day in Highams Park, by far my favourite of all the places in that little bit of the London-Essex border. There aren't many places I can see myself settling down (this is what moving all over the place does to a girl...), but there is something about this area which gives me complete chilled out vibes, and I would definitely move in without a second thought were it not so bloody expensive to live there. London housing woes aside, we walked past my mum's first flat, through the Park, past my childhood home, and round Woodford Green back to the car. We then popped over to Loughton for dinner before heading up into Epping Forest a little to take these photos. Oh, wisteria, how I miss you already.

Are there any little pockets of London you love to re-visit? I'm always on the lookout for more places to fall in love with!

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