@JacquieOtag

29.9.14

First Day

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All Saints biker, Zara white shirt, Weekday Thursday jeans, Dr Marten shoes
I won't lie, for about 5 minutes on waking up, I completely forgot it was the first day of my new job - weeks of waking up at 7:30am only to enjoy the luxury of catching up on anything I may have missed (God forbid) in the 6 hours I lay dead to the world had become a habit. Then I got that sharp, feeling - you know when the bottom of your stomach turns inside out and decides to suddenly fall out of your arse? Yeah, that.

I wanted to be comfortable on my first day as a Production Trainee, so I stuck to my unfailing uniform of chic simplicity (read: I wanted to feel comfortable, so I wore the laziest, fail-safe no-shit-Sherlock get-up which took no imagination at all i.e. Doing Entirely the Absolute Least. Luckily, this only applies to how I dress and not important things like, you know my actual life).

I managed to stare awkwardly at just about anyone that glanced my way, I failed at fighting the urge to stupidly grin at anything that stood still long enough, spilled miso soup on my button down shirt and spent an afternoon grappling with setting up my bloody wifi account. (Totally failed on that front).

It was a good first day.

28.9.14

Music | Getting Me Through

I'm feeling entirely out of sorts due primarily to nursing a bruised heart and a broken ego. These songs are getting me through my insane highs and black-hole lows right now:

'When Will I See You Again' is a song of optimistic sadness, if that's a plausible oxymoron? I love Shakka's voice - so full and earnest.

'Wild Horses' is the kind of song I'd like to wail stupidly to the man I eventually manage to trick into spending copious amounts of time with me.



'Fall' has no words, but the delicate piano melody against the smooth, deep base makes it workable into any playlist.

On the flipside, I've discovered white chocolate and orange cookies, so things aren't entirely awful.

24.9.14

Travel | Berlin: Prenzlauer Berg & Kreuzberg and Everything in Between

I've been lucky enough to travel quite a bit in the past 6 months - probably due to my newfound decision to say yes to (almost) everything... which has more or less landed me in fantastic situations thus far. So when my lovely bestie suggested we take a Euro-trip to Berlin, I was initially quite doubtful. Bearing in mind she was preparing to make a permanent move from Tex-ass to London, and I was in-between freelance gigs (read: disgustingly unemployed), thus both of us facing an unpredictable period of impending broke-ness.

"We could do it on the cheap..."
"We could do it on the cheap"
"Oh come on you'll love it..."
"I do love vising cities... and I've only heard amazing things about Berlin"
"It'll be our last splurge - we'll go out every night, visit all the coolest places and eat great food... look I made a list"
"A list??? Well if you've made a list..."

I was sold. And I regret nothing.

Chezza did all the leg work, I'll admit I'm so not good at these things. She found us an amazing place to stay via Air bnb in the lovely neighbourhood of Prenzlauer Berg. Prenzlauer Berg was decidedly laid-back, full of intellectual artistic types and dare I say it - hipsters (which is most of Berlin to be fair). Our lovely host had an amazing apartment choc full of great books and beautifully decorated - she ended up being a lecturer of film at a nearby university.

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Prenzlauer Berg was all lovely and leafy, with ornate apartments and wide tree-lined roads.
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We hung around Kreuzberg mostly, but I decided to film most of the trip on my camera and take photos on my phone... which got stolen after a night out in Cassiopeia. Brilliant. After crying my soul out all the way home, which was just totally awkward for everyone else (I'm an ugly crier), I sucked up my tears and started taking more photos on my Olympus. 
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We joined the Alternative Tour of Berlin which was fantastic and I 100% recommend for history nerds like me who enjoy facts as well as cultural and social knowledge. We were educated on Berlin's tumultuous and varied history, social history and most interestingly Berlin's graffiti culture. I'll admit, I didn't think much about street-art before Berlin, I didn't love it and I didn't hate it. But after a week in what I can only describe as one of the world's largest free art-galleries, I feel in love with it. I became unashamedly insufferable and began taking douchey photos in front of amazing walls.
Berlin Prenzlauer - Berg Kreuzberg Berlin Prenzlauer - Berg Kreuzberg
Chez and I also met an awesome chic on the Alternative Tour who was travelling Europe alone. We ended up hanging out and ambling around Berlin - valuable lesson: get talking to strangers, it's worth it. Obviously, keep an eye on creep-levels, and only do what you're comfortable with, duh. Navigating Berlin was so easy - the U-bahn has to be the most navigable metro system I have ever used. Much cleaner than the sprawling NYC Subway, more straightforward and relaible (and 24-hours) than the London Underground, devoid of the piss smell on the Paris Metro and more understandable than the Tokyo Subway (arguably this was more due to me er, me not being able to speak Japanese).
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We ate so much damn good food. Damn good food... MarktHalle in Kreuzberg had an amazing food market, we stumbled on amazing burgers at Burgermeister in Schlesischen Tor at 4am and hit up Maria Bonita for the best Mexican food I've ever eaten.

Maria Bonita
Danziger Strasse 33, Berlin 10435
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I absolutely fell in love with Berlin and could totally imagine myself living there, hipster bearded boyfriend and all. I enjoyed the recent history of the place, the art that was everywhere. I was intrigued by the re-purposed buildings and areas - formerly derelict and abandoned, now art. Full of folk who saw the importance of what was below the surface as well as its outward appearance - after all isn't that what art is about?

Go to Berlin, if you can. 

Stimulus | Coloured Portraits


1. Adwoa Aboah for Teen Vogue 2. Jodie Smith by Abby Rose  3. What Pastel Hair Means for Women of Colour via Refinery29  4. Source 5. Audrey by Phebe Schimdt 6. Hannah by Christina Ebenezer 7. Giannina Oteto  

Absolutely loving coloured portraits right now.

22.9.14

Jennifer's (Not Actually That) Dirty Birthday Weekender

Birthday season continues to steamroller ahead with the celebration of one of my dearest friend's bornday this weekend. We took a girly trip - 7 of us in total - to Brighton.

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Got told we were a 'strong group' right before we got this photo taken. No chance of us blending in with the locals, then.

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Discovering the joys of the selfie stick - It's so awful I need one in my life like a week ago.

We spent the day ambling around the city and our 2 evenings taking part of the city's nightlife. I managed to make a complete tit of myself both nights (nothing new) - I'm just not the wallflower type, m'kay?

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We popped into Scoop and Crumb for some award-winning ice cream. I had the Honeycomb one, which was lovely - until I got to the salty honeycomb chunks. I actually had to throw away ice cream. I never throw away ice cream.

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Highlights of the trip:
  • Fresh Fish n Chips
  • Being mistaken for Freshers when all of us are well into our twenties
  • Committing social media suicide by stalking someone at 4 am and accidentally liking their profile picture.
  • Losing my shit when Hot N**** came on and Shamoney-ing so hard the DJ gave me a shoutout #GetOutDaTrapHouse
  • Continuing to lose my shit and act a damn fool when none of my friends had the slightest idea what I was doing as they had never heard the song/seen the dance before.
All in all, a pretty good trip.