I do love a bit of Burberry, the iconic British luxury fashion brand, which held its Spring Summer 2012 menswear show earlier today in Milan. It's going from strength to strength at the moment under the control of the brilliant creative director Christopher Bailley and has come a long way since Daniella Westbrook nearly single-handedly brought the brand to its knees when she and her daughter donned top-to-toe Burberry check.
Anyway moving swiftly on. Burberry has for the last few seasons taken to streaming its fashion shows live (which you can watch below) for those not lucky enough to bag a front row seat, which means we can now get a glimpse of the show as it happens.
So what's going to be hot next spring/summer?
Well cropped parka jackets teamed with cowl nek patterned jumpers in colours such as mustard, worn with short shorts and topped off with orange knitted/crocheted hats with bobbles (which I loved by the way). Okay so I am kidding, kind of, they did all exist but not necessarily all together. And they all looked fabulous.
Bailley said of the collection, "this collection started with our iconic heritage as the foundation, we really wanted to emphasise this feeling of artisanal and decorative pieces that had been touched by hand, celebrating craftmanship but always with this playful element. We had taken our icons and played with texture to personalise and give them a real character and charm using colour to highlight the intricate detail that goes in to crafting them."
The models looked impossibly beautiful of course, as all Burberry models do, although in need of a bit of sunlight and a good meal.
I would happily take most of the pieces in the collection, particularly the macs. Oh how I dream of owning a Burberry Prorsum mac. I do also dream about eradicating poverty and world peace - honest!
I am SO excited that Wimbledon is almost here. I happen to be off work for pretty much the whole tournament, which means that as well as trying to get along and get a ground pass so that I can catch some of the live action, I will happily spend hours watching every match on TV.
I am such a geek when it comes to Wimbledon, devouring all the statistics, reading everything on the BBC news website that is tennis related - rankings, head-to-head, form and completely useless tidbits.
I thought I'd share my five Wimbledon certainties with you. Every year the same anecodotes, debates and discussions happen and it's possible to check them off like a kind of tennis bingo.
1. Andy Murray will be the only Briton to get past Round two in the singles.
However, much I would like to believe otherwise it just ain't going to happen this year. Even though we are guaranteed a British woman in the second round, as Anne Keothavong and Naomi Broady play each other in the first, the winner will face 8th Seed Petra Kvitova from the Czech Republic. Double bagel anyone?
Elena Baltacha, who admittedly is playing the best tennis of her career, faces an as yet unknown qualifier in round one but if she comes through that unscathed faces Peng of China, the 20th Seed, who recently knocked out two Brits at Birmingham (Broady and Watson). Will she make it a hat-trick?
James Ward, who I got very excited about at Queen's has been pitched against Michael Llodra of France, the 19th Seed. Now Ward did beat players of a higher calibre at Queen's to make the semi-finals, so there is a slim chance, but it is very slim. Although if he did win he would probably face Ricardo Mello, the world number 90.
2. The British press will bemoan the lack of British talent in tennis.
Following on from my first certainty and after Andy Murray is the only British player left in the singles the press will moan about the state of British tennis - why can we not produce the stars like other countries? Are our tennis players to pampered? There will be talk of a 'new crop' of young players coming up through the ranks (we have been having that same discussion for about ten years now - so where are they?) The words Fred and Perry will no doubt come up time and time again.
3. There will be a debate about the 'grunting' in the women's game.
Comparisons will be made to aircraft taking off and pneumatic drills. This happens every year, without fail. Either ban it or get over it, the discussion is boring. I personally am not bothered by it at all.
4. There will be a debate about the state of the women's game.
Questions about Wozniacki and her lack of Grand Slam wins, references to Safina - and discussion about the lack of consistency in the women's game, along with the way the seedings work and a general sense that it 'just ain't as good as it used to be'.
5. Hundreds of people will search for 'Andy Murray muscle', 'Andy Murray bulge' or 'Andy Murray body' and some will reach my site.
Seriously, it never ceases to amaze me that every time there is a Grand Slam, the traffic to my site increases loads due to people entering these search terms in Google. And I have never written about Andy Murray's bulge in my life (well until now).
So there you have it, my five certainties for Wimbledon this year. Let me know what yours are?
So today James Ward, the British number two, ranked at 216 in the world beat the defending champion, Sam Querrey at Queens and then followed it up with a 6-2 6-7 (14-16) 6-4 win over world number 54 Adrian Mannarino.
Are we about to see a breakthrough for another British male tennis player? The 24 year old Ward has recently been training with a cage fighter Diego Visotzky to toughen him up and it seems to have worked as he had already knocked Stanislas Wawrinka in a previous round.
It's about time we had a challenger to Murray, although he is a way off from catching the world number 4 yet. With 3 women, Heather Watson, Elena Baltacha and Ann Keothavong breaking into the world top 100 recently, another male player doing well has been long overdue.
I can't help getting excited. Although a few years ago Britain went crazy for Chris Eaton when he went into round 2 of Wimbledon after coming into the competition as a qualifier and we haven't heard much from him since (he is currently not even in the top 400).
I will certainly be cheering for Ward in the semi-finals, where he meets Jo Wilfred Tsonga who today knocked Nadal out of the competition - which will be a tough match. Who know's it could be an all British final. Now that would be something to shout about.
Ever since I heard her amazing voice on Chipmunk's 'diamond rings' and later Wiley's 'Never be your Woman', I have been waiting to hear whether Emeli Sande would release some solo material.
Well thanks to We Are Pop Slags I see that she is due to release her debut single 'Heaven' in the next few months. Apparently Zane Lowe championed it on Radio 1 and one Youtube commetator called it the 'song of the year'.
Update: video now added.
Heaven is a brilliantly powerful and haunting song set of over a drum-n-base beat, which showcases her voal talents to great effect. On the one hand there are hints of Leona Lewis's pitch in places, but with a whole load more attitude. On the other Emeli sounds completely unique.
I think Emeli Sande is going to be one of the next big hot UK female singers when this is released later in the year. And I am loving her hair too.
Check out some of her other material below, including a brilliant accoustic performancea of 'Maybe' and 'Kill the Boy'.
I have just heard the full version of Nicola Roberts debut solo single 'Beat of my Drum' and I have to say I am impressed.
Lil ol Ginge, often ridiculed (unfairly) for her pale skin and shock of red hair, as well as for being the ugly one (again unfairly) in Girls Aloud, the band where she made her name has come out with an attention grabbing, psychadelic, fabulous mash-up of a song, produced by Major Lazer (responsible for the beat sampled by Beyonce in Run the World) that sounds very Japanese pop (in a good way).
I wish Nicola all the best - she certainly can't do any worse than fellow Girls Aloud member Nadine Coyle, who's Tesco CD didn't exactly fly off the shelves. And unlike the most successful GA member so far, Cheryl Cole has done it without a popular TV show giving her extra coverage.
Nicola has written, or co-written all of the tracks on her upcoming album, which for me gets a thumbs up straight away - even it is doesn't end up being all to my taste.
Maybe if Nicola is successful it will be her that is the stumbling block to a Girls Aloud reunion - particularly now that Cheryl has more time on her hands and Nadine flopped.
