The Sybarite Traveller 

‘Live Life, Be Happy, and Let Everything Else Go’ 

I am a self-confessed sybarite, who loves the pleasures of eating out in great restaurants, traveling to awe-inspiring places and staying in amazing hotels. I am always in the search of the next up-and-coming artist to collect, my latest acquisitions include Adam Magyar (photographer), Brainwash (street artist), and Dominic Harris (interactive light designer). I am also passionate about books, films, photography, my two daughters and observing people in their natural habitats.

I am a Notting Hill Mummy in that I have made Notting Hill my home, and I have two delicious, scrumptious girls that make me smile on a daily basis. I don’t have a wardrobe full of Isabel Marant, Alexander McQueen or Marc Jacobs and am just as happy in a Miu Miu dress or a Sandro/Zara version of it. I like to look well put together and I hope to avoid the ageing fairy for as long as I can. I am a travel-foodie-artsy-victim rather than a fashion victim (although I will accept jewelry and handbags any day) so if that makes me a Notting Hill Yummy Mummy, I don’t apologize for whom I am or what I enjoy in life.

In this blog, I attempt to entertain and inform by providing insight into the wondrous world of Notting Hillers, reviewing places they frequent (Reviews), what they do and who they do (Social commentary), where they travel (T4: Top Ten Travel Tips), what they say or don’t say (Quote of the day), and use the general hilarity, inspiring and ridiculous of their lives, which I am privy to, to write an entertaining and funny blog. I am surrounded by really interesting people; the famous, super-rich, super-smart, super-beautiful, super-obnoxious, super-competitive, super-crazy, that all have a story to tell and make them a perfect sociological and anthropological etude of the human condition. This blog is a method of escapism, to forget your day to day reality and worries for a while. It is a bit of a ‘guilty pleasure’ when you have 10 free minutes in your day.

DISCLAIMER: All the stories that have been written about Notting Hill residents are based on fact, but fictionalised. The identities of all Notting Hill residents are meant to remain private and anonymous. This blog is not meant to offend, defame, or mock anyone but just to share insight into the world of Notting Hillers. For those who have figured out who I am, please keep it to yourselves to keep my blog anonymous. Thanks!

My Favourites

Favourite Magazine: Conde Nast Traveller to keep my dreams alive. New York Magazine, if in New York.

Favourite Author: Isabel Allende, author of House of Spirits.

Favourite Book: Shogun by James Clavell (reminds me of my childhood, reading it for the first time and trying to learn Japanese from it).

Favourite Museum: Tate Modern.

Favourite art gallery: Serpentine Gallery (an art gallery in Kensington Gardens? On a sunny summer’s day, nothing beats it).

Favourite Artist: Too many to list. Matisse, Cezanne’s pointilism, Gauguin, Degas, Miro, Warhol, Jeff Koons (only because I met him and his not at all what you would expect), Jackson Pollock….

Favourite Photographers: Slim Aarons for his pool photographs, Mario Testino & Helmut Newton for fashion, and Sebastiao Salgado for his work with MSF.

Favourite Film: Cinema Paradiso

Favourite Actors: Daniel Day Lewis (he is just as cool in real life than in films, super down to earth, and interesting and interested) and Meryl Streep. No one compares. (Leonardo Di Caprio is surprisingly creeping up my list for his cool-actor-factor in his latest film and for the fact that he has always been very nice and polite every time we’ve met).

Favourite TV shows: Sex and The City (for its feminism, friendship and love of New York) and currently watching and loving Game of Thrones (just brilliant, probably the best TV show ever made).

Favourite Destination: Maldives.

Favourite City: London as a home, New York for its energy, Paris for its art.

Favourite Nightclub: Spa, New York City, circa 1999.

Favourite Notting Hill restaurants: The Ledbury for fine dining, the Oak for comfort food and pizzas, Osteria for its truffle tagliatelle.

Favourite Critic: Giles Coren. He says what everyone thinks but is too polite or self-conscious to say.

Favourite Quote of All Time: ‘You are like a lobster, very expensive but not a lot of meat.’ Italian playboy wooing blond twiglet beauty on a Sunseeker motorboat in the Hamptons, NY circa 2000.

Greatest inspiration: my father. My father once told me about the quote that every man or woman should plant a tree, have a child, and write a book in his or her lifetime. Well this is the 21st century so a blog will have to do! He also taught me to value experiences over material things, to value intelligence over good looks, and gave me the confidence to follow my dreams, even if I failed, as it is the journey that is really exciting.

Contact me with any comments and enquiries at: nottinghillyummymummy@hotmail.com

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twitter: @NHyummymummy

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