Quick trip to Bahrain...

DH and I had planned a weekend away in Bahrain at the gorgeous Ritz Carlton with some friends.... the night before we were due to leave, THE NIGHT BEFORE, DH had to catch the late flight back to London for a "VERY important meeting"the following day.  Great - what is a girl to do all alone in Riyadh for yet another weekend?

The Hotel was booked, the friends expecting us, the bikinis packed and I was so looking forward to a cocktail or two!

You can always rely on girlfriends! My new girlfriend ( and neighbour) jokingly said "I'd love a weekend in Bahrain" We persuaded her husband, packed her case and broke the news to the other couple - Poor S was now in for a weekend with 3 women!!

The drive to Bahrain from Riyadh is 4 hours - pretty much one straight road through desert landscape...lots of camels

The greatest thing about a trip to Bahrain is there is no need to get on a plane - The King Fahd Causeway was opened in 1986 and is 25 kms long and crosses the sea from Saudi to Bahrain as a number of bridges with 2 lanes on each side - It is so cool!!!

Being in the desert for so long with no real horizon the sight of the sea is just beautiful!!

On arrival into Bahrain we are greeted with cardamon coffee ( I don't remember this sort of welcome when using the Chanel tunnel!!) What a treat ( if you like Arabic coffee that is...I don't!)

Four hours after leaving Riyadh and we arrive at the very Luxurious Ritz Carlton Hotel and all the stresses just float away....

The hotel has 245 rooms and another 23 private villas. The hotel sits on a private beach with a lagoon and small island...

Swimming in the warm sea is fab but even better when you can swim out to an island!!

A lovely afternoon on the beach with cocktails, sunshine and swimming.  This really is a great place to visit if you live in Riyadh as it is so close, ladies can dispense with their abayas once you cross The Causeway into Bahrain .....

We had a superb evening at Trader Vics ( they cooked Gluten Free dishes specially for me!)

Drinking delicious cold wine ( I hadn't noticed the name until the end of the evening....)

Breakfast was served overlooking the pool...

We had a great 24 hours of R&R lounging around in the sunshine and then another 4 hour trip back home to Riyadh- well worth the drive and I got to catch up my Eastenders downloads on my iPad!!!

I will be doing it again - maybe next time with Darling Husband!

Long Dress required....

Too many parties and not enough dresses! It's ok for the guys they wear the same Dinner Jacket / Black tie/Mess kit to all the events - the only change is their boxers! Ladies on the other hand need a dress - often Long, sometimes not....

So we have 3 evenings in the same week - I couldn't wear the same dress to all three as the ex-pat community here would notice!!! So when in London I thought I would see if I could fins a suitable dress for one of the events as I have a few long evening dresses in the wardrobe.....

So we have a Ball and 2 formal dinners ( long required for all events!) all in one week....

1st stop was Annas Boutique in Burnham Market . I LOVE this shop - always changing their stock, really cool labels ( including many faves ..Acne, JBrand, Selected Femme, Chinti & Parker plus their own label for Cashmere, Beach dresses and more!) and a great sale room upstairs.

Daughter saw a lovely washed silk grey/blue dress hanging in the window upstairs - ACNE and the right size ....PERFECT fit - she summoned DH to come and see ( and pay!) Dress found - mission accomplished before even hitting Harvey Nics!

It is one shouldered ( perfect) , very low backed ( perfect), and slit to the thigh ( ok, not so perfect but workable!) Best of all it was HUGELY reduced! Here it is.... and here

 It looks gorgeous on these models ......





So the trip to Harvey Nichols entailed a couple of glasses of Champagne with DH instead ...

                                                      Wearing these gorgeous shoes!!!


BUT, and isn't there always a BUT? Whilst waiting for my new lenses to be fixed into my specs I popped into Aftershock next door ( somewhere I had never visited before)... The Ladies in the Whiteleys Branch in W2 were fabulous and couldn't have been more helpful AND they had a sale on! I found a fab dress - only available in size Large or extra small ...The large was too large and the XS was fine but would have looked better done up!!!! The ladies found a Medium in the stock room with a broken zip - HUGE discount and now I have taken it to my local tailor had it taken in slightly and the zipper replaced .

And here I am wearing it at the END of the evening!

PS. DH didn't make it back from London for ANY of the evenings!!!

Sunshine on the East Coast...

A trip home is usually NOT about the weather but so far this trip it has been gloriously sunny and Spring-like which has been just perfect as there aren't really any seasons in Riyadh apart from hot, cooler and raining!!

I drove (something I hadn't done for a few months due to being femail and living in Saudi Arabia!) up to Boy's school on the North Norfolk coast to surprise him (he thought Grannie was collecting him for the long weekend!) When school is about 5 minutes away you drive through countryside and then come out on top of a ridge and look across to see the sea.... living in the middle of the desert there is no sea, no nothing just more sand and sky so this to me looked beautiful .....

Blues skies and blue sea......

Lunch in Holt with the crazy boy and friends - sitting outside in short sleeves ( admittedly NOT me!) but I did have sandals on!! It always astonishes me how many sweets they can get down their throats in the first 10 minutes of leaving school!

For all those of you who thought the Norfolk landscape was dull, think again - This is THE most beautiful place and no one else in sight - warm, windy day sailing at high tide in our lovely Mabel

She is ALMOST as tall as me - think I will start wearing high heeled flip flops this summer!!

We had the best weekend with our babies, and I really miss these mornings! Not long til half term.....

A few days in London....

So I've just returned from a week in London and Norfolk including 3 days with the darling children AND the weather was lovely!


I did my usual trick of arriving at Heathrow at 530am and being in the Pilates studio by 630am - it is so the best way to get over a long haul overnight flight - I felt totally energised afterwards - maybe these cheeky little babies from Wholefoods helped as well!!

A little slice of Gluten free-ness!!

I spent the rest of the day shopping, in meetings and having coffee with friends - Then an evening with the girls which consisted of much Prosecco, chocolate , dates and possibly other food!! 

Being with my girlfriends it always seems like I had never left - we really don't appreciate what we have until it is gone! Make the most of your girlfriends as they are THE BEST!! 

Oh and these shoes from Zara really were comfy girls!!

New Violet and Rose London designs...

Just time for a quick update before I catch a flight to London to see my babies for the Bank Holiday weekend and have a few meetings ( with some lovely new V&R pieces - soon to be on the website plus other news later!)

          22 Carat Gold double link chain with heavy gold wavey circle with pave diamond clasp

                              White gold delicate chain with diamond studded eternal circle pendant

Initial responses to both pieces has been really positive! Exciting times!

Now to deal with the packing - I'm never very good with the change of seasons so going from Riyadh with temperatures up to 85 deg so far this week and London checking in at a high of 57 today I'm all confused! Will I be wearing sandals??? It does seem from my Iphone that it will be low 60's all week.....

Hey Ho See you in London!