Day 3 NYC wanderings

So cool and comfortable in my family reunion shirt. What a life saver :)

Dress: Thrifted $3 / Socks: Rivers $2 / Shoes: Converse $50 / Belt: Gifted from Amra Jewellery: Thrifted

Hello lovely ones, How are you all? I thought I better keep the posts coming while I'm on a roll because I just realised (I know I'm slow right) that I still have a mountain of posts waiting to publish. I have numerous old outfit shots, loads of photos from my second trip to Samoa, gigs I have attended and even family functions and events where I went interstate and overseas. I'm so bad I only just started sharing my old New York photos from last year. So I better keep posting now or I will never do it.

This was day 3 of our NYC summer adventure. We woke up early and walked to the top of the Rock from our hotel. I wore this adorable summer dress I found at Mickey and Mallory's for $3. I couldn't wait to wear it because I found it just before winter had hit at home. It is really bright and light; two of my favourite things :) We ate giant pretzels, turkey and cranberry sandwiches and loads of water. It was sooooo hot that day. I packed an extra shirt (it's my most favourite t-shirt and I ordered it online for my family reunion that was held in New Zealand last April....pics still to come >,< ) and I'm glad I did because after roaming around I just wanted to be cool and comfortable so this cotton shirt was a lifesaver. We went to the museum of natural history and we ate hot dogs outside of Grand Central park while waiting for our bus. Chatted to some lovely old folk from Canada and posed with a ridiculous amount of wax statues and played in Ripley's haunted house tunnel. To avoid being scared for real my sister just started screaming like she was being murdered so the scary people wouldn't come and touch her. I thought it was funny and I pushed Ruth to the front so that if the scary people were coming to get us, they'd at least get her first.

 Good friend aye ;)

Big thanks to  lovely readers who joined up to Gushcloud and subscribed. I really do appreciate it.

Big Love,

Falala Mele xo

The Gush Chase

Dancing away with Candice at the African Arts Festival. 

Dear Readers,

How are you all? While I was away in New York I received an invitation to enter the The Gush Chase Competition to be an Australian influencer. It's a pretty amazing competition that will give me the opportunity to be in the running to cover the Gush 2012 concert in San Francisco and to interview The Cab, Hellogoodbye and Mayday Parade :)

So it's a pretty big deal for me. I love live music and it would be the dopest shit ever to go back to America so soon! So if you have a twitter PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE follow me. I'm new to all this stuff and as I type this right now I only have 1 twitter followerer :)

So I guess in order for me to be a influencer I need to have people to influence. Anyways if you could follow me on twitter then that would be cool. I also need people to follow back so I will return the favor. Anyways whatever happens, I'm seriously honored that they took the time out to email me about it.

Whatever will be will be I guess.

This was the last festival I attended in Brooklyn.
Hopefully I can make it to San Francisco.
Promise I will take HEAPS of pics and get all the good shit for you guys!

How can you lovely people help me? I would appreciate it from the bottom of my big old heart if you could do the following:

1. Go to My Gush Cloud and create an account and subscribe.
2. If you could show some  love to my picture posts each interaction helps my chances. There is only just over a week left and I need more than 25 subscribers to beat the leader for Australia at the moment. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE with a cherry on top
3. Follow me on twitter (the button is on the right side bar)

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU xo

Big Love,


Falala Mele xo

NYC day 2 wanderings

 What I wore:

Over sized sheer black blouse- Free at a Easter Church Clothes drive in St. Marys. They had piles of clothes and insisted we take all we wanted. I walked away with a lot of great stuff that day.

Shorts- Kmart tights cut to length $10

Chains- Thrifted $3

Glasses- Specsavers $99

Shoes- Converse $30

We walked around EVERYWHERE from Battery Park,   the old WTC area, Staten Island Ferry, and we walked all the WAY back to the hotel.

It was nice just being there. Remembering everything from last year and experiencing it with another friend and showing her the places we had already been.

It was HOT but we loved every ounce of the sunshine.
Hope all the US readers are still enjoying their summer <3

 Day 2

So we awoke early after arriving at 9:30pm into New York. We were met at the airport by a group of people asking where we needed to go and if we wanted a lift. Some big burly guy was like "Mami you want a taxi I got you a taxi right here" and this other big teddy bear looking guy jumps outta a big black shinny SUV or something (I'm useless when it comes to identifying cars) but I stepped back with attitude and I'm like "this is not a cab" and I looked at my sister for approval.....she is usually super quick to say "HELL NO" when she aint down with shit. The driver got a lil offended. The price that we were offered was reasonable (basically the same that everyone and online sources suggested) and in his thick Colombian accent he reckons "up to you if you wanna ride in that piece of shit or not, doesn't bother me what you do".

I sussed out a few things before I made the decision
1) He probably doesn't wanna kill me if he is getting offended because we are rejecting his big fancy car
2) If he did wanna kill me; could I take him out?

After weighing up the fact that he looked like an out-of-breath teddy bear and the fact that if I slammed my hand into his nose I could have blinded/hurt him enough to get away....we jumped in the car.




Don't cringe.




If you haven't already realised we made it home alive :) We found out that Diego is a Colombian born, late 30's American citizen who resides in Queens, takes care of his sick mother, drives a fancy black car around and is currently trying to lower his cholesterol by eating better. We chatted and swapped diet tips all the while Ruth was falling in love with New York and the city lights and Theresa was recording our conversations for evidence and trying to catch his reflection in the rear view mirror in case he tried anything funny.

Well our friendly driver asked our ages, names and suggested I take off my winter cardigan because it was hot (but by this time I didn't want to have to carry another thing so I left it on). After a few little jokes about how we could be his girlfriends and an offer to go to some island for the Fourth of July we were finally at our hotel off 53rd and Lexington. And so began our second summer love affair with New York.

We showered and wandered around. Got pizza and went to bed after buying a ridiculous amount of junk food from Walgreens. We slumbered for a few hours and awoke to all this (refer to pictures). Day 2 was spent wandering around; only this time in sunshine, earning blisters, chatting to a guy known as Antonio who looked like someone off New Jack City (and claimed to go to FIT) trying to get my sisters number for his friend, Lady Liberty, open top cruises and pretty flowers. See that's why I love NY. All this within a matter of hours.

Staten Island Ferry and Lady Liberty

Big Love,

Falala Mele xo

4th July Pt. 2 Brooklyn African Arts Festival

So it's been a while and I have been DYING to post all my pictures from my AHHHHMAZING summer holiday in New York and Vegas. Here are a few photos from our 4th of July afternoon with our favourite  sisters Gabby and Candice from Trinidad. So it is a long story and I must tell it properly but basically the wonderful Gabby contacted me and offered to show us around while we visited. It was almost instant...after being 2 hours late (getting lost and all that) she graciously took us under her wings and we left New York with two new sisters :) 

It was a challenge to meet up with everyone as people were still working and studying. I did catch up with Deja though. It was short but very sweet :) So that post will definitely be coming up soon. But back to 4th of July....Gabby and her dancers were performing for Diblo Dibala and we most definitely had to go and cheer for her.

Gosh there was no shortage of colour and pattern. Young and old alike....they brought a mean fashion game, and it was all effortless. People of Australia; take note because this is how you do it.

My lovelies Ruthless, Candice and Theresa

Just flawless. Boobs and booty? No need when your game is this tight!

Punch to survive the heat wave

Dress: Thrifted $5 /  Glasses $5 Street Vendor / Shoes: Converse $50 / Bag: Thrifted .50c

Big Love,

Falala Mele xo

4th July pt.1 2012

Hello Readers,

How are you all? At the moment it is Sunday and we are enjoying a lazy day in Las Vegas. We have been on the go in New York for the past 10 days running on an average of 4 hours of sleep per night. Now that it is not so busy we have finally had a chance to have a good sleep and a good feed! Our last meal was with our beautiful Trinidadian sisters who treated us to our last meal in New York. We ate curried goat HELLLL YES, curried lentils and split peas roti, curried mango and some grapefruit juice. It was perhaps my most favourite meal in New York and that is a big call because we ate a lot of good food.

Anyways back to the 4th of July post. We started our day with a 4:30am wake up call. Why? Well we had to get up to watch the State of Origin decider between New South Wales and Queensland. It was being played live at The Australian. The bar was jam packed with Australians who were all there for the same reason; to support our home states. It was sooooo full we had to wait outside for the first 10minutes and it started to rain. It was all part of the fun I guess standing outside in the rain cheering on our team.

This picture doesn't really show how packed it was but believe me. It was CHOC-A-BLOCK!

Repping the blue for New South Wales

Louisa, Mele, Pulu & Ruth at the State of Origin screening at the Australian in NYC.

It was a nail biting game and our beloved New South Wales lost the game by one point *sobs quietly* but after the game we spotted another lone Polynesian (there aren't very many in NY....I think she was the only other one we saw) so I walked over to say hello. After a quick chat about the game we decided to sit down and have breakfast. It was so very nice to find out that Louisa  and I follow some of the same Polynesian blogs including the very talented author Lani Wendt Young.

Like us; she is a fellow lover of music and musicals so we swapped our 'must see' suggestions and chatted about what we have done and what we still want to do while visiting. It was so lovely to meet her and to hear about all the interesting places she has lived (like Japan and Hawaii to name a few) and to hear about her plans for the future. I wish her all the best in her future endeavors and I am sure we will be seeing big things from her. Polynesians keep an eye out.

After that we caught the subway over to Brooklyn to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge with Ruth. We did this last year after Coney Island so it was nice to take Ruth to see it. But before we did, we made a stop at Grimaldi's woodfired authentic pizza (some say the best in New York).

We got there 15minutes before it opened. I LOVE IT WHEN TIMING IS JUST RIGHT and before the doors opened there was a line heading down the street. People were waiting in line and it was really hot so that alone told me that the pizza would be good.

The service was really friendly and fast and we got the first pizza for the day. These guys don't play. It took about 10 minutes for them to roll the dough, place the fresh mozzarella and basil on the pizza before it was steaming in front of you. The base was light and crispy and it was just so very fresh. I should have asked for extra basil because we love it. Other than that, I have no complaints.

After pizza we made our way down the road to find some frozen yogurt and another beautiful view of the city.

 What I wore:

So it has been VERY hot this visit. I am not complaining. I love the sun and I'm glad I'm not stuck in the cold winter but a lot of the pretty clothes I have packed have been too hot to wear because the material is not cotton.

So on this day I wore my blue top from Kmart. I wore it back to front because I liked it better with the high neck and the lower back.
It was also blue for my team.

Basic black tights because they are comfortable and cool. Red chucks for colour and comfort (we walked a lot so I had to be sensible) and my cute orange glasses that I picked up from a street store for $5 on Fifth Ave.

Chain and earrings were thrifted.

Happy 4th of July

Stay tuned for pt.2 we went to the 41st annual African arts festival in Brooklyn.


Big Love,



Falala Mele

NYC now

I have been very very busy. There is so much to share and so many new wonderful friends to tell you all about. 4th July was HOT and we spent our time dancing and sweating front row of the 41st annual African Arts festival.  The amazing Gabby and her sister Candice and friends were all so welcoming and really so much jeffing fun to hang out with! We ate jerk chicken and greens, fruit punch and coconut cake. We have been a lot actually and I hope to share it all with you!

This is a super quick one to let you all know that I am alive and that NY has been super fabulous to us on our second visit.

Big Love,

Falala Mele