after 17 long months (Mad Men)

With only hours until the long awaited return of Mad Men to our screens (well, only for those who are Sky customers, but this is not the time to grind that axe), it’s time to fix ourselves a drink and take a glamorous step back to the 1960s ad world.

But blending in with such an iconic era needs a little prepping.   Here’s how to style yourself as a legitimate throw-back:

  • Dig out and fill up the vintage ice bucket ready for the first whisky of the day. There’s a beautiful Baccarat 1960s glass ice bucket currently on ebay
  • Set aside at least an hour to backcomb and style your hair – L’Oreal Elnett hairspray launched in this era for a reason.
  • On the subject of brushing, brush up on those creative straplines ready for the next client meeting. Take a leaf out of Peggy’s book and have a couple of winners up your sleeve, such as : “Take it. Break it. Share it. Love it.” ( Season 2, Episode 12 )
  • Don’t do a Betty, for goodness sake,  and fire your ‘Help’ in the heat of the moment.  Instead, hire yourself a fabulous maid from  www.mymaid.co.uk to look after the children, clean the house, take care of your laundry and generally hold your life together so you can spend time looking fabulous.

For the rest of my mad tips to be one of those Mad Men, read Culture Compass

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Check in and Choc out

It doesn’t really matter which god you pray to when it comes to Easter Sunday.  Chocolate is chocolate.  13 days before we are given official permission to eat the brown (and white) sticky stuff to our heart’s content and yet The Cavendish hotel on Jermyn Street could not wait.  Today I visited one of their rooms which has been converted in a chocoholic’s dream.

chocolate slippers

The artistic chocolate installation has been created by Westminster Kingsway College, a reputable hospitality and catering school where our very own Jamie Oliver studied.

 

More than 100 hours of melting, carving, sculpting, setting, spraying….most of the room was deliciously edible…  even the toothpaste

 

 

I’m not sure I could sleep after such a sugary intake.  Maybe that’s just the point….

 

 

 

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loving libra

It takes guts to make a career change aged 30.  You have to have a certain amount of self belief as there is a distinct chance you won’t plain sail and then, quite frankly, that could be embarrassing.

Julia Burness worked as a recruitment consultant at the bank, UBS before throwing in the towel and retraining as a silversmith and jewellery designer.  Personally, I think she absolutely made the right choice.  I first saw her quirky yet chic (a tricky balance) astrology bangles in one of my favourite magpie hideouts, Orit, in Westbourne Grove.

Written in a scrawl, with a similar look to her ‘love’ bangle, the bronze before gilded letters l i b r a attract a great deal of attention whenever i wear it.  I hunted Julia down (she has since moved to Henley) to discover what had inspired her to create these highly unusual bangles and to find out more about her bang-on-trend new ‘lace collection’ which is a huge hit amongst stylists.  It turns out it was her love of words which led her to experiment with the star signs and, quite brilliantly, she can now use your own handwriting to create a bangle as a gift – a child’s name for example.

It turns out that Julia is a fan of LifeofYablon and therefore has agreed a 25% discount for any of my readers who are as taken as I am with her astrology bangle.  Just call Julia on 07776265130 and mention me.

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the other victoria and david

It’s become an iconic TV moment : Scott and Charlene getting married in Neighbours in 1987. The music, the dress, the misty special-effects of a great (if cheesy) scene that captured our hearts. And then, of course, the romance for Kylie and Jason continued off screen and the magic doubled.

Office romance, a much debated affair, is a common way for any of us to find our life partners (or not-for-life partners) and so why shouldn’t TV personalities also find love ‘on the job’?

Tuesday’s news of David Mitchell and Victoria Coren’s engagement had been a well-kept secret in the world of TV romance.

Read my ‘Finding love on TV’ commentary on Culture Compass 

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