One of the things I really love about London is that there are so many parks all over. Even in the midst of all the low rise muted coloured buildings, you can find just a tiny pocket of a park like this one just beside the hotel we stayed in when I was there recently for Pure London in July this year.
It was quiet, peaceful, private, blooming with beautiful flowers and had plenty of benches for us to sit. At the time we were there, there were only a few people around. Some were playing with their dogs, some were just walking and some were having some meaningful conversations with each other.
Just being in the park, and taking time to enjoy the scenery and blend with nature is a much needed reset to the system. From the day I arrived, things were just very, very hectic not just for me but for Khubayb as well as I only had him to help me around with aere over there. There was no time for us to relax and after Pure London was wrapped up and done, I just felt like I needed a breather. Just to pause for a few minutes and breathe the London air for a bit. When it gets too overwhelming, I really just need to always remind myself to just breathe.
The day Khubayb was about to leave London to go back to KL we decided to go for a quick stroll at a park just to enjoy the cool weather and just relax for a bit. We slept in just a little while longer that day, and we decided to skip breakfast and go straight to the park (I know, such a rebel right?) before we had our lunch. Of course, he took some photos while we were at the park. I had a meeting later that afternoon, while Khubayb had to go back to Malaysia that evening because he had trials. Before we parted ways in London, we just wanted some time for ourselves.
I just love the greenery, the flowers, the carefree dogs running around and the people just chilling. Wish we had more parks in Malaysia. Wish we had the cool weather too, hehe. The grass is always greener on the other side when in fact, I can't even stand the cold weather nowadays. :D And it was summer then, so it wasn't cold anyways, except for night time! But it was cool enough for us to walk wherever we go especially from the hotel to Pure London or the tube stations.
While I was doing this post, I was looking and browsing through some old photos when I was younger and found this photo of me of me feeding the pigeons at a park in London taken by my father.
My parents stayed there for over 10 years when my dad studied law and my mother did her degree in physics. I was born in London and they continued to stay there when they got me.
London was home to my parents for a long while and was my home for the first few years of my life. My parents brought me back there again twice once when I was in primary school, and the second time I stayed there for about a month in 2009 helping my dad with work for an art exhibition. Oh, I went there again in 2012 to represent a client when I was a lawyer and here I was there again this year but for a totally different reason: my other love, aere.
As soon as I came back from the trip, I felt the urge to just look back at their old photos when they were in London. So I went to my parents' place and digged in the photos after both my parents took them out from me. My dad was an avid photographer and used to take a lot of my OOTDs (before the term OOTD even existed). So, I found this photo above taken by my dad when I was probably around 2 years old in London.
I blogged about some of my earlier lookbooks when I was learning how to stand and walk in London in my post "Parental Love" in 2011.
Inspired by the breezy wind and hints of falling leaves, I wanted to go for an all white look with hints of gold. Wore one of my fav pair of golden shoes, a white bag with gold buckles and of course aere's gold zippers. I put on my pearl bracelet which I got from one of the islands in Phuket. I'm also wearing aere's CELIA Waterfall Peplum Top from the FEEL eid collection paired with a pair of pants I bought in London. Topped the look off with a white instant semi-instant shawl with subtle hints of loral in watercolour. I used to wear a lot of floral in uni but recently I haven't really worn a lot of florals. I wear it very rarely but if it's something that I really like, I would wear it like this one :)
The CELIA has been one of my favourite tops this year because it is soooo versatile and I've worn it in different colours for different occasions. I've worn it for events, I wore it backstage during the fashion show itself, for Raya, for work and sometimes for casual outings too. Love that I can style it in different ways to create different looks. It was sold out so fast online when it was first launched. aere don't usually restock but this time around I decided to restock because so many people were asking for it and even I myself have been wearing it numerous times (though of course I didn't share all the OOTDs anywhere). So, today it's restocked online and I added a new colour too! One of my favourite shades of yellow. So, go check it out!
I shared here earlier about my recent trip to London this year, right after my family trip to Phuket and just before KLFW and my trip to Jakarta in my post 'Runway in London'. The photos in that posts were taken on the same day as the ones in this post.
I'll always have a special love for London. I'll be back there soon, God willing.
aere's CELIA Waterfall Top
Sugarscarf
Photos by Khubayb aka @kneok
My Baby Photo by my father Raja Ahmad Aminullah
PEACE & LOVE!
