Gifts

It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and each year, as my excitement at getting older diminishes (I'm now 32 but feel like I'm pretty much the same person I was when I was 22 ... just slower and a little more sensible), my befuddlement at the cruelty of ageing is tempered by the joy and love I feel celebrating the occasion with my friends and family.
Today I caught up with my dear friend Liana who missed my birthday get together last weekend because of a chest infection. Damn you winter.
For our lunch date I wore a couple of pieces care of the ladies at Coco Repose: a lovely sleeveless pink shell knit with appliqued beading and an orange boucle jacket which I actually picked up a couple of years ago and which I wear to death in colder weather.
Liana gave me a thoughtful and beautiful gift; the Yves Saint Laurent book that accompanied the recent retrospective of the great designer's work at the Petit Palais in Paris.

My friend Rebecca knows me too well. She bought me this book on vintage swimwear by fashion writer Sara Kennedy. Besides frocks, swimwear is my favourite item of apparel, and this book is a treasure trove of history and gorgeous pics.

And Helen, recently returned from a trip to London and Dubai, was prescient enough to remember my birthday and that I love the artist Banksy. Once I handed this book to the hubby for a peruse, it was very hard to steal it back from him.

Alas all these books are a little too lush for me to take to Fiji THIS WEEK (can you tell I'm excited??).

On the agenda for my long weekend on a deserted island is the new Jonathan Franzen, Freedom, which I was lucky enough to score an early proof of (by all reports it is amazing) and I'm finally going to read Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Considering how much I loved Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans it is almost criminal that I haven't read it yet, and now the imminent release of the movie version has spurred me into action. The trailer looks amazing.