mother's day

What to buy her? Mine is obsessed with Zara, travels so often she's nicknamed Judith Chalmers, loves golf, tennis and shopping/lunching with me. She calls me Petal, Bo or Fatty. How lovely. We do that spooky thing of phoning each other when the other one was just thinking or talking about the other one (if that makes any sense). She might drive me mad sometimes but she's the most important woman in my life, she's my best friend and I adore her. If she's very lucky she might just receive one of these in the post on Sunday...

Yummy Mummy notebook by Smythson, perfect beach to bar top from Zara for her next hols, pretty pink flowers from Wild at Heart, silver pearl necklace from Stella & Dot

c is for cashmere

I know it's hot but a stylish girl looks ahead, plans with precision, buys early, and then emerges elegantly in 3 months time, replying to dozens of compliments with "oh this old thing". Well, that's the idea anyway. Cashmere sale tomorrow, you must go, amazing dresses around the HK$ 600 to 1100 mark (which is 60 to 70 percent below retail price) gorgeous soft throws which Mother, Grandmother and those grotty in-laws will love.

glamorous OAPs

It's been a while, but not long enough for me to actually become an OAP. I do love them though. Amazing wedding recently and the most glamorous OAPs you have ever seen, they did this thing on the junk called the "double swimsuit look". Basically you bring one swimsuit (and they wear swimsuits because really you should stop wearing bikinis over 50, sorry but it's true) for going in the water and then one swimsuit for getting out and posing. Isn't that fabulous? No clingy droopy costumes post swim in manky HK water, just a pristine new look and you are glammed up for the junk trip home. OAPs know these things. I also love the way they are so glam when they go shopping in Waitrose and how they wear grey and black and sometimes grey hair and then they have shots of colour bursting from jewels or bags or scarves. They really rock AND they get cheap tickets on the Star Ferry as well as getting in for only HK$10 at the Football Club pool. Lucky old them.

shopping with mother

It was like herding cats. Bless. I took her, and her friend Pauline to the Pedder Building (Pedder Street above Shanghai Tang), then up to the Grand Progress Building (15-16 LKF) to mooch around, then to The Lanes off Queen's Road Central, where they were quite uncontrollable in Sam Wo Leather store, a pit stop in Rabeanco and on to Stanley market. Pauline bought five handbags and five belts. What an accessories junkie! Mother spent seven hours in a pashmina stall in Stanley as she couldn't decide what colour to have (she owns around ten already) and then we stumbled into the linen shop Vivid (58 Stanley Main Street) which is a mummy type place but I did find a few nice cropped linen jackets (almost Kate Moss leather style but cooler in he HK climate) and some great Alibaba style trousers which are coming back in.

My advice to anyone taking mother shopping in HK is this:

1 - wear comfortable shoes
2 - do the haggling for them, its saves so much time
3 - write out the exchange rate for them prior to the shopping expedition, but also bring a calculator for any emergency discussions
4 - drink lots of coffee
5 - breathe

Love you Yummy Mummy xxxx

like mother like daughter

M&S (or "Marks and Sparks", or just "Marks") has been a lifelong institution in my family, thanks to my extremely stylish Mother and Grandmother. Despite Granny's 91 years she still hankers after a pair of Per Una silver pumps and absolutely loves her trips to the M&S food hall for Chicken a l'Orange. I popped by the large M&S branch in Kowloon Bay recently (having spent an hour in B&Q pulling my hair out) and told myself I deserved a little pressie. It came in the form of exhibit a (left), a cropped jacket in a divine teal blue with pearly black buttons. Smart with black trousers for work and cool enough with jeans at the weekend. At HK$550 Mother would be proud. Thank god it is finally getting cold enough to wear it.