Rowing at Leander Club

Gant have recently launched a new partnership with Leander Club, who is home to lots of rowing legends, with 99 Olympic medals under their belt. We all know that the UK is great at rowing, so it's fitting that this collaboration should happen right before the 2012 Games.

Gant very kindly invited myself to join them at a rowing master class at Leander Club in Henley earlier this week, and it was definitely one of the best days out I've ever had.

We arrived at the Club bright and early, and started the day with a little pep talk, mainly discussing athlete attitudes and emotions. It was really interesting to hear about feelings and the mental attitude that athletes need to win. Positivity and being calm before stepping up are really important and a key factor of winning.

Then it was time to have some fun. Once kitted in our Gant polo shirts, we headed off to the gym to start some training before hitting the water. We were met by some pretty gorgeous, tall, strapping guys, all ready to help us out. We sat on the rowing exercise machines, each with a rower to help us out and show us what to do. My guy was great and I learnt a lot about the correct way to use a rowing machine, namely that your arms need to be straight for the majority of time.

(That's pure determination in my eyes)

Then we went into the water. I was pretty nervous at this point, but the guys in the boat with us were so helpful. There were three of us 'amateurs' and 5 professionals in each boat, so it was well balanced. I was also lucky enough to sit behind the most helpful of the guys, who was really patient with me and saved me more than once when my oar got caught in the water and the handle went up, over my head (embarrassing, especially since it happened 3 times!).

We soon got the hang of it and managed to maintain a steady pace, which I think was great for us first-timers. Although, while racing the other team, I did fall out of the foot straps (designed to keep us in), off the chair, and very nearly bashed Mark, from A La Male, who was sitting behind me (I'm sorry!!). Not to mention, I'd lost complete control of the oar and it went over my head. Needless to say, we lost that race, but won the next one. Haha, that was definitely the highlight of my day!

We were in the water for about an hour and half, but it felt like we were in there for like only 10 minutes. Despite it being stressful having to think about so many things at once, I really enjoyed being on the water, rowing, and can definitely see why it's so popular.

Our rowing session was followed by a well deserved, heavy lunch. Rowers are expecting to eat up to 7000 calories a day, and even then, they may find themselves losing weight, so naturally we got a hearty lunch to follow our workout.

We ended the day with a tour around the Leander Club, which is a gorgeous building (with absolutely stunning grounds). We learnt a lot about the history of the club, what they get up to and also got to see some of the trophies.

All in all, an absolutely fantastic day!! I had so much fun and all the athletes were absolutely wonderful. It felt so good, especially right after Fashion Week, to do something different and have some fun. I did come home with a few 'war wounds' on my hands, but it's all in good fun. So a massive thank you to the Halpern PR Team and to Gant for having me on the day.

And a huge thanks to the photographer on hand for the day, Ben Broomfield.

Sherin xx

Where I pretend to be a model

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had gotten a makeover coutesy of Earth Hairdressing and Acadamy of Freelance Make Up. It was so much fun getting my hair and make up done. It was followed by a really fun photo shoot, by Takazumi Uemura, and I promised finished results. Well, here they are:

I had such a fun evening getting pampered and feeling like a model!!! And I thought my hair and make up looked fantastic!

Sherin xx

Susie's Leaving Do

Back in January, I agreed to meet a blogger that I didn't know very well, who had just moved down. Her name was Susie. While waiting about an hour for her, I probably would never have guessed what great friends we'd become. After hanging out several times, one thing led to another and we became fast blogger BFF's, always meeting at least every few days. Susie became one of my closest, most amazing, friends and we've had some amazing times this last year, that I wouldn't exchange for anything!

Sadly, Susie has to go back to Scotland to finish her PhD, so Rachel and I decided to send her off in style. After frantically emailing companies, venues and bloggers, we organised a pretty special leaving do for Susie.

Firstly a huge thank you to the companies that got involved for the goody bags the we put together for the bloggers attending:

Witch sent over some amazing concealers and powders; Batiste sent cans of Dry Shampoo and mini brushes; Matalan were fantastic and sent over the goody bags themselves, with a jumpsuit and shoes/bag in each one; Jon Richard sent the most beautiful jewellery and Lush sent really great smelling 'It's Raining Men' Shower Gels.

We started off by having Afternoon Tea at Merkaba, who were lovely and put up with our high pitched 'OMG, You look Great' at each other. They did a great job getting the price really low for us and gave us our own corner where we mingled and ate happily, before giving out goody bags. Afternoon Tea was so delicious and we were ate to the max. There were sandwiches, petite fours (including macaroons), scones and strawberries, as well as Tea.

(Susie looking great in her sparkly dress)

Next, we headed over to Cafe Luc for cocktails. Again, we had an area to ourselves and were treated so well by everyone there. I'd been there for lunch before anyway and loved the atmosphere there. I'm definitely going to go there again for drinks and lunch.

Ended our day with drinks at Circus. I went there last week, if you remember and fell in love with the place, and they were kind enough to offer free LFW Pink Runway cocktails,with Pink Pigeon Rum, to us girly bloggers (and my guy friend who decided to join us and hang with hot girls).

I chose Circus because I remember the entertainment (and drinks) being amazing and I was not let down! Again, we saw two acts dance on the tables. One was a hula-hooper and the next was a hot topless male acrobat.

(Thanks to Reena for the last 3 pictures)

So, although Susie isn't leaving for another 2 weeks, I will miss her like mad and I hope she enjoyed her leaving do! And thanks to all the bloggers who came to send Susie off: Daniela, Jazmine, Reena, Kristabel, Lizzy, Lucy, Fritha, Harriet, Lil, Lily, Fiona and Rachel.

Sherin xx

Pretty Little Dress

I wore this while I went to the Toni and Guy Show a while back. As it was a big show, I thought I'd dress up (and lucky that I did as I was in the same room as Olivia Palmero, Laura Whitmore, Matthew Williamson AND Naomi Campbell). It was a great show and you can read more about it on my Fashion Week posts. I settled on this gorgeous boohoo dress, which I had been saving for the perfect occassion and a pair of heels from Priceless (did I mention that they were £5).

It had been a long, but really fun day as well. I headed out to check out the new Pilot collection that morning as well. There used to be a Pilot near me a few years ago and I used to shop there a lot. I was excited to check out the collection and see what I'd been missing since then and was glad I did. The clothes were amazing and there were some fantastic shoes on show. 

There were some real on trend pieces, such as fur, bright colours, 60's and 70's inspired clothes and beautiful prints.

This was a really cool top, with a great zip at the back. Perfect to turn a plain top into something a bit more fun. Same goes for the dress below, with the cut out back.

There were also some absolutely fabulous going out pieces, full of shine and sparkles. This top is definitely a statement piece and I loved everything about it. The dress below was probably my favourite from the collection. Isn't it really pretty?

You can check out more pictures of the collection on my Facebook Page. Let me know what you think.

Sherin xx

Outfit Catch Up

I feel like I haven't had time to do proper outfit posts, and that my posting has become a bit errrm 'manic' this last week. But now that LFW is over, it's nice not to have to rush any posts, so that they're still current, and it's also nice not to fit 20+ pictures in a post!!

Anyway, here's a catch up of a few outfits that I've worn in the last week.

I love this orange dress, which I wore to my last day at London Fashion Week. It's another Tesco piece and is absolutely gorgeous. I'm still not a huge wearer of bright colours, so did think that I would feel a bit self conscious in it, but I didn't. I felt so confident and bright in it.

I paired them with a pair of black ASOS heels, which are probably one of my favourite heels, and they are surprisingly comfortable. I did not regret going out in them for the whole day.

This second outfit is what I wore to meet Ani, who was in London for a few days, I wore my Deichmann boots, boohoo skirt and Republic jumper. I also decided to play around with my new umbrella, which was gifted to me from Find Me A Gift (which is a website that I can spend hours on).

The timing of the umbrella's arrival was perfect. It was mere days after I had to abandon my HandM umbrella in a Central London bin after it broke in the wind and rain. I do tend to buy the cheap, kinda rubbish, umbrellas from HandM, which just don't work (and don't last very long either), so it's nice to have a proper umbrella...that's PINK! This umbrella is definitely a lot more sturdy than most of the umbrella's I've had before, which makes a really nice change.

I love that it's shaped slightly differently from all the other umbrella's out there as well. It's definitely a unique one, and fun to carry around, during the dreary London rain.

Sherin xx

The Show: Redefinition

I've been up to Birmingham a few times now, and the Bullring Centre is definitely my favourite place to visit there. There's always something going on there and it's always worth a hop on the train to see what's happening. This weekend, The Show: Redefinition is taking place and it looks so interesting and fun.

The show is meant to re create any perceptions you have of a fashion show by colliding both fashion and technology (which is my favourite combination ever!)

Unveiled as part of Style Birmingham Live, the show sets to blur boundaries between reality and illusion but having both real life AND holographic models. How awesome does that sound? Trends being showcased will include Dark Romance, 40's Flair, Heritage and Mod, with stores such as Reiss, COS, Kurt Geiger and Debenhams all being involved.

Winner of 2010's Britain's Next Top Model, Tiffany Pisani, will also be walking the runway, with rumours of another really special guest appearance as well.

    Here are the dates and times for the show:
    Friday 23 September:      10:30, 1, 3 and 5:30
    Saturday 24 September:  11, 1, 3 and 5
    Sunday 25 September:    11:30, 1 and 3

   

Will you be heading over to watch The Show?

Sherin xx

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