Author: Sarah Kemp

Mani, Sao Paulo

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Two months ago I bought my first flat with my boyfriend. As one might expect, we are both incredibly excited and Jack has spent hours scouring his favourite design blogs for inspiration. We are almost on the same page. I say almost because, although I have salivated over the pictures, he has disagreed with me on a couple of my finds. Brazil was a haven for inspiration. Beautiful Mediterranean style tiles adorned the walls and floors of bars, cafes and restaurants and bright and pastel eye catching colours were dotted all around the city. The destination of our final lunch in the sprawling city was no exception. Mani is housed in what seemed to be an old barn, although the old oak beams were most probably there for the effect. The long walkway was covered with intertwined bamboo and a beautiful terrace sat at the back of the restaurant. We were the first to arrive dead on midday and took the opportunity to snap the surroundings before fellow diners arrived to fill the whole restaurant. …

The irony of Sao Paulo

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‘Do you like soccer?’ asked the tanned bald headed Brazilian man sat beside me. I had been in my seat on the plane for fifteen minutes listening to a group of fourty Brazilians raucous laughter and jolly conversation, quietly worrying to myself that this was a taster of what was to come on my eleven hour flight from Paris to Sao Paulo, when Marcelo introduced himself. I could feel the tension in my shoulders ease as we launched into a pleasant but disjointed conversation. But this smiley chap’s broken English did not stop him – his enthusiasm was contagious and I found myself flicking through photos of his trip to Israel shortly after we had taken off. As I scrolled through, I admired the beauty of Jerusalem and began to feel a fondness for Marcelo who had taken me under his wing and distracted me from the leg crunching economy class seats. My time on the flight flew by and as I pulled my suitcase off the carrousel, I looked back to wave goodbye to …

Suedey Salon – review

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As a child I used to loathe the hairdressers. Could it be because my dad insisted on me having a short bob and my mum insisting that I had a fringe? You see, my hair just does not work in that style. Frizz and waves do not bode well with a short bob on my head. I will never forget the day I walked into school to laughter from my friends after the hairdresser had hacked my fringe to no longer than 2cm long. The shame. I was around 16 when I decided to colour my hair for the first time. I went for peroxide blonde – I was a little indie kid and that almost white blonde colour was terribly fashionable at the time and I loved it. I had a few mishaps when I attempted to do it myself. My friend and I thought it would be a good idea to use the same pack of hair dye for both of us. Big mistake. We ran out half way through, which ensured that …

RELAX, Covent Garden

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London life is hectic, fast paced and quite often there don’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done. I would be telling a lie if I said I was not busy. But I would also be telling a lie if i said i didn’t love this city. I work in a full time job and have two blogs to feed in my spare time. So every now and then it’s nice to have some me time and relax. Cue Relax in Covent Garden, a gorgeous spa tucked down Mercer street. I stepped inside off the busy Covent Garden streets laden with weekend shoppers and was greeted by the spa manager before being shown upstairs and offered a complimentary lemon and ginger tea. I was left to peruse the coffee table magazines until my masseuse greeted me and showed me to the chair. I was at Relax for a 30 minute chair massage and was quite happy to be able to sit straight in the chair – no messing around with …