To get in with the Bohemian spirit, Gerry even wore a hat and scarf thing. How very 1920s Paris.
Am sure you all know it, but but but...isn't Cafe Cafe just too pretty?.......
Just because it's Cafe Cafe, we all put our sepia settings on for extra cheesy campy old-time effect. Seeeeee how cute it looks:
Pity Sharon's head got chopped, but I love how candid and happy this looks. Very 1920s carefree, French cafe luvin, no?
Oh but I do love it when photos are captured spontaneously.... which explains why Wills looks like he's about to tip over sideways (he looks really quite handsome here tho - and you'd have to use the word handsome to describe someone when you're in Cafe Cafe, and taking sepia photos).
Okay okay, but we do love modern technology and beautiful coloured photos and digital cameras. So here is a cheesy group shot of us all poised and posed and grinning into the flash.
Oh wait, William just sent me this - the sepia thing really does look a million times better:
Funny! What the hell are we all doing? Sharon's the only one who actually knows we're taking a photo.
They really do the best creme brulees there. And the best foie gras except Susan sat across me and said "Oh but I was thinking about the poor ducks..." which totally put me off ordering it. So I had mozzarella instead.
There was a bloody rude waiter there though. He just couldn't understand that I wanted amaretto and 7-up, served separately.
First he bought the amaretto.
Then he bought a can of Sprite but like d'uh how am I gonna mix the two without a glass?
So then he bought a glass of ice. But I wanted a twist of lemon (it makes all the difference).
In the end, he got really stroppy and passed the job on to another waiter. It's not that hard, is it? He looked really pissed off every time we asked him for something... which er, sort of defeats the whole purpose of being a waiter, no?
Here we are being normal - and we actually look quite decent, for a change. Elisa does seem to have the biggest smile in the world. Ever.
Ok pucker up and look gorgeous. We looked at the screen after we took it and decided it was just too awful....
Pretty things and beautiful tat! See the pink Buddha heads, bottom left? I bought one home and everyone is appalled at how tacky it is. I see it as pink enlightenment.
Everything's all messy in just the right way. Bags and pillows and clothes and pretty nonsense things you don't really need.
Retro ice cream bowls and milkshake glasses. Ooooooh! How Betty Crocker.
Of course, racks and racks of beautiful clothes!...
... and more clothes! Any place with a polka dot dresses is ace on my cards.
They even had a divine book collection. No horrible pop fiction and crap Dan Brown novels. It was all 60s movie posters, Dita von Teese books about Burlesque, and gorgeously illustrated thangka books.
Then we discovered a shop called Daisy Cakes, that was just full of cake, pretty iced things and coloured chocolate buttons. Look!
Next day, I rounded up the troops and demanded everyone travel down to South London to see me for drinks. I was not prepared to go into Central London with all the tourists and bad traffic. Hence, Gipsy Moth in Greenwich.
This meant 1 1/2 hours on the train for Pete and Tom but never mind, they made it, the darlings!
I don't know why Pete looks so silly here - maybe because it was quite late when I took this, and he was thinking about the 1 1/2 hours he'd have to travel to get back.
Somehow, both of them seem to have grown epic proportions and were super tall this time round. I kept asking "Why are you so big now?" but they said they were always like that. Maybe it's because I've just been hanging around too many small boys back here in Asia.
Then I had to go make things worse by asking Tom, "Why do you look so pale?" (because he did), which only made him totally stroppy at me. He's working in some godforsaken place in Norwich - no wonder!
It took forever to get a decent photo because these British types kept trying to evade the camera. Sarah actually has her eyes open in this picture, which says a lot!
This photo of Angie and Elisa is so totally cute!! (I'm proud of how art-house it looks!)
Thouraya is cute as a button (but she hates photos so never wants to pose properly!). Actually, she's the only person in the world who doesn't realise that she's totally beautiful. I hang out with her hoping some of the beauty will rub off. After four years, it hadn't.
Anyway, these were the only proper pics Angie and Thouraya let me take of them - afterwards it was all "AGAIN?! *sigh*" which is why subsequent shots of them look like zombies (won't put them up, they'll get angry and that can be very scary).
Everyone looks like they're deep in some sort of intellectual discussion - then again, maybe they were just talking about how much they hate football.
This turned out too funny - Elisa err... making a face again. Me laughing at her making the face. And Sarah looking just plain bloody exasperated with our silly behaviour. (ewww my hair looks so fluffy here!)
Whew, was nice to know everyone is just the same as they always were. I wanted to cry when it was time to come home!
Okay, it's taken me almost a whole day to load these damn photos - blogger was being mean to me again. That's about all I can handle, arg. Next installment of travels for another day.
Okay, so I confess that actually a part of me went to the opening just to check out if there would be fun people to hang out with because everyone there is a bit mad.
Here's Ruby, who is the maddest of them all and always looks like she's glammed up enough to be going for tea at the Westin. She's like 40, going on 21 (and she actually looks better than most 21-year-olds I know).
Then I saw James who is always smiling. He's one of those people who are constantly happy and it's nice but someotimes you just want to slap them to see if they're human.
He was looking very YSG surrounded by Buddha statues....
...until I saw his not so-very-nice (but very cheeky and too cute) tshirt:
Here's that David who seems more into his mobile phone than anything else. He always has something clever to say, even if he's the goofiest person I've ever met, and I get damn nervous when I talk to him cos he always laughs at me like I just said something really stoopid.
Anyways, I bought some really nice soap from there and was feeling uber-organic and nice-smelling about myself and then went and left the whole bag in Tiffin Bay. D'oh.
Nevermind, I got another fabulous haircut by Mike and now I look like a remixed Mary Quant. It's so very 60s. He's opening a new salon (and you heard it here from me, first!) and it is going to rock the socks off Winnie Loo and her McHaircuts at VVTC A Cut Above. Just you watch!
So that's how a Dolly spends her days in the middle of the week when everyone else is working. And now, she's sitting here on a Sunday afternoon working (okay, blogging in between for breaks lah) when everyone else is lee-laxing. It's a good life lah, I won't complain :p