30 chic days: day 4

                              
                               Ponsonby, Auckland 1915

How to be chic: day 4

I have joined into Fiona Ferris's 30 chic days. Fiona has an amazing blog: How to be chic, & she is also on facebook. Feel free to look at her sites, & join in. She has a few recommendations of things to do each day, regarding being chic, & I must say that already I am feeling a big difference in myself regarding being chic, following these guidelines.

Off to le chic part of Auckland

I was up very early today, braving the city streets in the dark, to take a yoga class in Ponsonby, a tres chic Auckland suburb. Truly. Even a lot of the men there look chic. Afterwards, Maria from the class took me for a very brisk walk along the main road to a french bakery, where I bought a couple of french pies, bread, & Maria donated a dessert, to take to my grand daughter's, my next port of call. I now know of about three french bakeries within a twenty minute drive from home & I shall drop into them as I can. We also stopped at the most chic recycle shop, ever. It was here that I actually understood Ines's chic dressing advice, & was almost tempted to ask the chic ladies working there, if they were french. I shall return when I have time.

Focus for today

My grand daughter, who is such an amazing mother, her partner, & their wee 6 week old baby, Toby, have been my focus for most of the day. Of course. Wee Toby found it most worrying to have someone new talking to his mum. Lots of quivering lips, tears, anxious looks at mum, & generally worried about the scheme of things whenever I held him. So cute. I also was there for his Plunket visit, which also seemed to be very scary, so it wasn't just me. Ms plunket lady had lots of advice about the closest mum & baby groups, & places to go for new-mum advice. And I noticed that she looked quite chic. A far cry from Plunket ladies of decades ago. I was itching to ask her chic questions but restrained, seeing it was all about mum & baby.

What a lovely day. It's days like today that give warm memories.

Food

What I ate: 

• I have found that I do need something small 1st thing before taking a class so I had coffee with a slice of vogels bread & peanut butter
• breakfast after the class at Maria's was a poached egg & a slice of Burgen toast with her yummy homemade marmalade
• lunch was a cuppa & half of a small beef & mushroom cooked in port, pie. I have noticed that with french food, it's so fulfilling that you can't eat much
• couple of shortbread biscuits for afternoon tea
• tea was thrown together: baked sausage & carrot, steamed kale
• hot milk for a good night's sleep. It really works, for me. 
• I have noticed a distinct lack of fruit in my diet. I don't actually like fruit but as I have a laden mandarin tree, I shall be more grown up & eat more fruit.

My exercise: it was the Ponsonby walk, & walking around with wee m'sieur Toby.

What I wore

• brown & black patterned slightly baggy trousers
• a muted fuschia, long sleeved, fitted, tee
• with a casual black cardi 
• & black ballerinas

There is definitely a pattern emerging in how I dress! I am always making wee clothing & style tweeks, which I do think is a good way not to get stuck in a time warp.

Reading

I have been reading: Chic and Slim by Anne Barone, a very simply written story with lots of advice on how to not only eat like a french woman, but also how to lose weight eating like the french, & how to develop a sense of style. All of which she learnt decades ago living in France. Anne also lost 50 pounds, effortlessly, in one year, just by learning how to eat as a french woman does. A charming little book. And the book is not about dieting!