Hey guys! So yesterday was another day off for me and I wanted to do some more exploring of this town they call London. As I woke up to the peering sun shining through my window I figured it'd be a nice day. Jeans & a t-shirt - check. Umbrella in bag just in case it decides to rain - check! Oh what a contradcition , but hey thats the weather over here. So I set off in search of Brick Lane. Brick Lane is a long lane full of multicultural food offerings as well as a few vintage stores and on Sunday's turns into one of the best markets in London - so i'm told by the girls at my work. Since I couldnt go on Sunday I thought i'd go check it out to see what it has to offer me. Since my iPod was dead on battery I only had the book i'm reading (The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown) to keep me company. I got off at 'Aldgate East' tube station and Brick Lane was literally a 5 minute walk around the corner , how easy right? Wrong - if your Denis. Of course me , even with my map walked 15minutes up the road in the wrong direction only to realise It was the first street on my left , which I had passed straight after walking out of the tube station - dumb ass!
The first few blocks of Brick Lane were packed full of restaurants. Mainly a combination of Indian and Thai. What I thought was interesting was that almost every restaurant I walked by had a sign on it that said 'MasterChef winner of such-and-such competition from the years 2000-and something-to-2000-and-something-else' are they all winners? hehe I doubt it. Either way I really wanna get Ben and go for dinner at one of the many "award winning" restaurants , I could do with some butter chicken and nan bread...mmm...i'm getting hungry thinking about it. So up next was a walk over the bridge and continuing on to the rest of Brick Lane , its quite a long walk. As I walked further down I noticed a 'Rokit Vintage' , I've been to a few of these.
Its where I got my Mickey Mouse sweater from , except that was at the Covent Garden store. Yet again I found a cool Mickey Mouse emblazoned tee. This time it was all tricked up though with what appeared to be glitter glue. Even though it was in the men's section and had a menswear sticker on the tag , I wasnt sold on the peach colour & today was only trying no buying , I need to save my pounds otherwise I wont have food to eat hehe here's a pic of it tho..
I decided no - amongst the store I found a vintage Gucci kimono styled sweater and a BCBG Max Azria top - however I fought temptation and walked out with no purchase. This is recession shopping at its best , but its killing me :( I continued to walk through different areas and came across quite a few little vintage shops consisting mostly of racks filled with check shirts oversized leather jackets - none of which fit me of course - the odd suede waistcoat or two & loads of denim
Just off Bricky - was Cheshire Lane - a lane of a lane how convenient. This was my next stop as this is where London's largest 'Beyond Retro' store is located. As I walked up the quite longer-than-i-thought-it-would-be lane , I got slightly peckish. I stopped at a kind of milk-bar-cafe to order myself a bacon & cheese sandwich on white bread...mmmm...as I was ordering I noticed a picture of the cafe owner with Jamie Oliver 'he eats here' , I thought , 'how cool'. I pulled out a bottle of ice cold diet coke - just what I needed - and the man offered me a 'meal' sandwich , drink and a bag of 'crisps' - thats chips to all us aussie natives. However in the UK what we call 'Chips' are only considered hot chips eg. fish & chips , kfc chips etc , whereas 'crisps' are like potato chips. As I munched on the amazingly delicious bacon & cheese sandwich thinking 'when has a basic sandwich ever tasted oh so good' , I thoughtfully decided to save my 'crisps' for the walk back. By the time I had taken my last munch on my 'which , I had arrived to Beyond Retro.
As I walked in the first thing I thought was 'wow how fucking huge is this store' it really was enormous! I scoured through racks of vintage polo's , vintage sweaters - queue a black and red striped knit perfect to be trown on with a simple black tee and my new black skinny Diesel jeans - but no , no shopping today afterall we are in a recession hehe I walked further down to the trousers - queue the most amazing pair of size 28 waist black and white houndstooth trousers to be styled with a white tee black patent lace ups and a simple black scarf - again pushed to the side. There were two peices however that did stand out to me and I thought 'well if i cant buy them lets set up my own little photo shoot in the change room that all my bloggers will enjoy'. The first peice that screamed 'look at me' was a black fur coat in the mens section . Its not often you see men wear fur , fur trim sometimes but a full black fur very rarely seen on people other than P.Diddy , once-upon-a-time David Beckham donned a fur - so with that in mind I thought 'fuck it , i'm gonna try it on just for fun why not'. Here it is - probably not the safest option but you but it on and ultimatley feel like a rockstar! Definitley not for Brixton but alas a lot of fun! I personally love fur , I dont know if i'd be gutsy enough to wear it but if I had to wear it , it would definitley be black and most probably be vintage - I just think it has more character! 
The second peice was slightly controversial , slightly androgynous, borderlines a contradiction of masculine and feminine - the jumpsuit! Worn by mechanics , astronauts , and in the 70s by men and women all over the discotheque. I found quite a conservative grey cotton jumpsuit that I imagined to be paired with a rock style studded belt , I found the perfect belt however it had a hideous canadian flag as the belt buckle so I simply pushed it to the bag for the purpose of the photo. I feel altough it has a feminine feel there is something confidently masculine about it , basically I think any guy who would be daring enough to wear this has to have balls and that confidence is masculunity in itself , however I think in modern-day this is slighlty feminine and although it was incredibly cheap - only 17 quid - I thought 'No Denis , best not to' - heres the pic
...to me its a very 'fashion' look that the average Joe probably really wouldnt get. After Beyond Retro I headed into Oxford Circus to meet Ben after work. We began to walk in the rain and Ben suprised me by taking me to the British Museum. I was really excited because I love a good dash of History and this museum had some amazing peices. For example the Rosetta Stone - 
The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian artifact which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of egyptian hieroglyphic writing. The stone has carved text made up of three translations of a single passage. Two in egyptian language scripts and one in classical greek. It was created in 196 BC and it just blew me away - unfortunatley this pic doesnt do it justice but if you see it up close you can see the incredible hand carved details - amazing. The highlights of the museum were all the ancient egyptian peices - I've always loved Egypt and its history and having Ben as a walking guided tour helps understand it all which is fantastic! These were just some of my favorite peices - I actually found these more interesting than the fashion at the V&A First up - everyone loves a friendly skeleton - no seriously this is quite incredible , thats what we look like underneath all our fabulous clothes and tanned skin - amazing!
This I love just for its statuesque presence and its grandeur - his nose is slightly missing but I love the look of the Phaoroh and I really want to steal his head peice hehe 
So all in all a fantastic day was had and it was a good thing I brought my brolly coz just as suspected it started to rain in the evening! That was my day off hope you enjoyed the post , it was a long one , you know you loves it xoxo Deni
some cool picd deni in the museum the overalls naaa not good the jacket was ok though looked good on you....
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