Gone are those days when my hooves – tad tall for the day’s purposes – made odd Christmas-tree shaped marks in the pavement on a hot summer day. Banished, are the thoughts that fleeted into my post-adolescent, under-cooked brain, teasing with a very useless idea of purchasing stripper heels with a 3-inch perspex platform and a goldfish residing under each foot (or dollar-note tips, whichever). You know, kids and their insecurities, one of mine were: short, Asian legs. My early twenties was in fact, punctuated with poor choice in footwear: cheap ‘leather’ glued with ‘wood’, and heels generally too high for my/my immediate surroundings’ own good. And to think of all the things I could’ve done had I been a little closer to earth – all the buses I could’ve caught, the nights I could’ve slept indoors had I not given up on walking home on the bloody stumps I called feet…

Perhaps it’s life’s Yin & Yang, but now I own a UberXL-load of sneakers in varying shapes and sizes, a hefty bunch Nike’s – naturally. All made for a ‘track’ or another (the Cortez originally a running shoe), but worn beating down London pavements and chasing buses (and catching them for once). Insecurities are re-allocated (cellulite, taxes), but I’m glad to say that for the past few years I’ve been sleeping indoors every night, thanks to this obsession for trainers. The Nike ‘Cortez‘, returning since its original debut in 1972 and then 1994 in Forrest Gump, is new to the family. No plans yet to run cross-country in them but here’s three ways you can at least get to the next meeting without hailing down a black cab.

Three ways I wear Nike LunarElite Sky Hi

Look 1: Lace dress – Zara. Sweatshirt – Nike. Shoes – Nike LunarElite Sky Hi. Clutch – Chanel. Sunglasses – Mango.

Look 2: Coat – Nanushka. Sweater – COS. Skirt – ASOS. Shoes – Nike LunarElite Sky Hi

Look 3: Cardigan & skirt – Peter Pilotto for Target (via Net-a-porter). Shoes – Nike LunarElite Sky Hi. Bag – JinYoo103684. Bag – Kurt Geiger. Turtleneck – Uniqlo. Puffer Vest – Gap.

I don’t know what it is about my late twenties but boy am I working up a collection of trainers, each bought with the same reasoning technique that accounts for the thirty bags of jumbo peanuts in our pantry: THIS MUST BE HANDY DURING THE APOCALYPSE. It’s odd because 1) I am a hamburger when it comes to exercise (i.e I do not put the ‘train’ in ‘trainer’), and 2) I held a crusade against flats all throughout my teenage years and stuffed tissues, not only in my bra, but in my trainers as well for the wedge effect. So I came across these Nike LunarElite Sky Hi‘s, I reasoned that yes I needed another pair of trainers because APOCALYPSE, but also revelled at the fact that it was my teenage crusade manifested (Waterbra? check), in perforated neoprene and all the essential lightweight, cushioning technology of a classic Nike running model. Plus, neon yellow because I’m biologically hazardous like that.

Coat – Mango. Trousers – Topshop. Shoes – Nike. Sweater – Zara. Bag – Chanel Resort ’14 (on loan, don’t be silly). Rings – Monica Vinader. Photos from help from Abi, thanks!

It’s borrowed, don’t ask. I’m flattered though, that anyone would assume I have enough speech & debate skills to convince my husband, to whom Tommy Hilfiger is couture and Tom Ford is the CEO of Ford – the car company – that spending three months’ rent on a bag (a transparent one at that) is reasonable. I can’t even convince him to shower when he’s Shrek-green. My usual tactic is throwing self down in the middle of the aisle/kitchen and crying hysterically but this only seems to work up to a certain price limit, it being £40 for sock yarn. Truth is, deep inside I don’t believe we (I say we, but I mean me) are not yet in a junction in life to warrant a brand spankin’ new Chanel boy bag. I’ve always seen luxury goods as sex: the right person, the right time. Admittedly, this blog did place me in a bit of a ho-bag tangent with some of the generous gifts, I still want to work towards a stage in life where I can afford a Chanel/Hermes/LV bag without disrupting priorities. So please forgive me if, for the time being, I can be a little cheeky and seize the opportunity when the press office allows me to borrow to ‘play with’. Play we did, generally by me wearing it under a big coat and treating it like a secret, walking around town like Aladdin stealing bread: sartorial equivalent to ‘bubble-wrap it and place in safe’.

Disclaimer – this is not a sponsored post, by any means, nor do I frequently borrow items from brands to feature in this blog. On rare occasion that I do borrow, it is enclosed so readers are fully aware.

Recipe for a happy weekend: Bikes, cakes, denim skirt and the flower market

Leopard Sweatshirt – ASOS (similar in red). Denim Skirt – ASOS (similar here). Shoes – Nike Free Run. Bag – Marc Jacobs. Sunglasses – Celine via SunglassesShop. Cashmere scarf – Johnstons. Watch – Sekonda. Friendship Bracelet – Lucy Folk. ‘Oui’ ring – Street Bauble. Outfit photos with help from Charlie.

Speaking of good weekends, I’m steeped into World War Z by Max Brooks at the moment and having a blast ignoring off the sun and sitting inside a makeshift tent made out of blankets and pillows while the hubby slides in chicken and cous cous every few hours. I shove out the empty plates, and another one with jell-o gets pushed in. I have a good husband like that. He’s into his online games, and I’m stuck on a zombie book, we’re both happy and apparently the sun is out so technically that ticks another box in the Happy Weekend form. Who knows, tomorrow I might cycle down to the flower market to pick up some blooms for the week and maybe see a friend or two for coffee and cakes. What are your plans for the weekend?

By the way, do check out that book, it’s the best take on the zombie apocalypse I’ve seen/read so far – none of the overdone, emotion-led, soppy stories involving an enigmatic lead character and the journey to a Disney end of humankind, but a clever compilation of interviews and stories by survivors, interlaced with politics, military and all manners of science on a global scale. Everything seems so plausible that it’s terrifying – I keep re-telling some of the stories to my husband as if all of it really happened, it’s that good. Make sure to put it on your summer reading list!

Coat – Brics x Anywho. (Black silk coat – CK) Poloneck – Gap. Trousers – ASOS. Shoes – Nike Freerun. Bag – Kurt Geiger. Necklace – H&M x MMM.

Our family stopped decorating for the holidays ever since that one year we had our tree, fairy lights lit and all, up until about May – I joke not. The tree was one of those huge firry fake ones where the arms fold down and comes in a huge box, which we kept in the attic. January hit, and once it was a decent time for the tree to retire, my brother and I were instructed to unload the baubles and fold the tree away, but of course neither of us had grown a pair to brave the cold, dark attic. You must remember, we’re Korean, so our ghosts aren’t those adorable blobs with a sheet over its head that go ‘wooo‘, ours is a skinny byotch with jet-black hair over her face and looks like she’s been trapped in a well for a decade (oh yeah, so no fingernails). So you get it, why the tree came to live with us until summer, and since that tear we never bothered to decorate. In fact I wonder what happened to that tree… probably became a salad once the girl in the attic realized no one was coming up there for her to gorge on. So I love seeing all the holiday decorations up in London, what a feat! and to the brave, diligent folks who will have to take it all down in a few weeks… I salute you.