Sicilians.

I wish I still possessed my travelling tan so I could look like a real-life Sicilian. I need a black suit and mandatory catholic/gangster past.

Second-Hand Goods.

After a very messy New Year's Eve in Bangkok, we've ventured south with the task of housesitting for my uncle. Being here has its benefits (save money, the luxury of a sofa etc) but as we're half an hour from Pattaya, we've rented a motorbike which resulted in a very dangerous 1 hour long quest to find petrol. All I'll say is that Thai motorways are incredibly hazardous. We'll leave it at that.

Near the local Seven Eleven is an awesome outdoor market, and my friend Rachel pointed out the second-hand clothes section. Now, I probably don't need anymore vertically striped shirts but at £1.20 each (60 Baht), it'd be foolish not to invest. One shirt was the most 90s thing I'd ever seen, complete with orange, lime and cream stripes of varying thickness, but unfortunately, too many buttons were missing. Plus it smelled a bit   like vomit. I settled for a very Ralph Lauren-esque pink and white (I never, ever usually wear something this bright but Rachel insisted) along with a similar mint-green shirt.

After that, we browsed the knock-off DVDs but decided against: not sure I want to see some Thai bird fit a traffic cone inside her, no matter how cheap the price.

Ganesha Style.

I've been in India just over a week and although it's my third time here, it never ceases to surprise me. We started in Mumbai, sailed to Elephanta Island and then took a 14 hour coach trip (!) to Hyderabad to visit my uncle. I'll spare you the details of my journey to a bare minimum however, as I appreciate this isn't a travel blog and almost everyone knows of someone that has done the typical inter-Asia route.

On Elephanta Island, I saw plenty of extremely gaudy, delightfully tacky Hindu iconography in the form of wall paintings and miniature statues. As anybody who visited our old house in Leytonstone will know, a select few of my friends and I are suckers for some good tat. There's nothing funnier than a bathroom tile with a handpainted map of Majorca on that doubles up as a keyholder. All these souvenirs were in a similar vein, and I began hunting for something incredibly specific.

I need a tee with this shit all over it.

My quest for a sweet Ganesha t-shirt was induced by a boy lugging around some rocks in Mumbai. Passing by in our taxi, he wore an incredible bright blue and orange number, oversized with sleeves rolled up. Spot on. Anonymous Mumbaika labourer is my new icon.

However, some criteria must be met. No long sleeves (I'm thinking more Nirvana than N*Sync), big in size and the right level of foul. I'm all for a silly novelty t-shirt but there's a fine line between 'good tack' and 'tack tack'. The Hindu deity tee is a fun alternative to increasingly tired prints, and I predict great things next summer for this badboy.

Beyonslay.

Courtesy of my friends, I've grown to love this awesome Cyril Hahn remix of Destiny's Child. Excuse me if once again I've missed the boat (likely). By the sounds of it, Michelle, Kelendria and our Beyoncé apparently went to Cable, did a tonne of ket, got onstage and found God.

Voting Obama?

D&G treading a fine line.

The often hilarious and wonderful words of my friend Annie Andoh (check out her blog hereeeee) recently alerted me to Azealia Banks' less than glowing take on the D&G SS13 collection. Based on Sicilian heritage, the look definitely held streaks of afrocentric colonialism, and although some argue that Banks may have been a little generous with the term 'racist', she does have a very real point to make.

There are a few key issues here. Once again, models of colour are nowhere to be seen. Despite goliath names such as Jourdon Dunn and Alek Wek supposedly changing industry-wide trends, the blue chip labels often do very little to turn this rather embarrassing tide. When all pieces are worn by Caucasian models for a market that is geared towards wealthy Caucasian women, the collection stops becoming a celebration of international culture. Instead, what we're left with is novelty-laden mimicry surrounding a very sensitive subject; the 'Mammy' archetype references an era of black domestic servitude and D&G would do well to leave such imagery at the door. If it really is a combination of African and Italian fashions, why not include a mixture of races and creeds in the model line-up as an example of this diversity?

An industry that prides itself on inclusion and open-minded self expression should know better than this.

Compromise.

Backpacks have to be practical, that's a given. They're subjected to months (sometimes years) of tough terrains, treacherous train journeys and less-than-delicate luggage handlers that all contribute to unparalleled wear and tear. In short, hard-wearing materials are a must.

With my flight to India in less than 4 weeks, I've been advised that a suitcase just won't cut the mustard. I know I need something sensible, but why oh why do backpacks all have to look like this?

So fucking lame - I don't want to look like an archaeologist/rambler/expeditionary. I can't even think of a more style-friendly alternative.