An unplanned step towards the dream

Have you ever thought to yourself, "Yep! I could do this for years and years!"?

I had the privilege to have this thought on Sunday night. What on earth am i talking about? Well now, i better let you in on my thoughts.. But first, let me take you back in time to Sunday 8th March at 5pm..

Justine Clare and i met at our favourite little cafe around the corner from our house and we embarked on a journey to the new Westfield. Now let's just focus on this new Westfield for one moment, shall we? It's the biggest shopping centre in Europe!! I swear you could play hide and go seek in there for a whole week! It's so massive that when you walk in, you have to act cool and act like you know exactly where you're going, so then you don't come across like a tourist, but rather an expert in the biggest sport that is hitting this planet: shopping.

So we decided to go to this gigantic wonderland and buy a DVD called "The edge of Love" at HMV and a fabulous dinner from a local vegetarian place. We were in HMV collecting movies. We were like two kids in a candy store. We both love buying movies! It's definately a form of art. In the middle of us debating whether or not we want to spend £50 on movies, my friend, Hannah, called me. Let me just put in a side note here. Hannah is an incredible model and a brilliant chef! We always make up excuses to come over and taste her food: "Oh Han, we forgot to tell you that we saw a really cheap hammer on sale in a random shop somewhere." Or "Han! It's you! Oh we didn't realise you lived around this part of London! It totally slipped our minds that you live 2 minutes down the road from us!" Or sometimes we like to go for the abrupt approach: "Han, we don't want to lie to you.. We smelt your cooking from home and the scent carried us to your doorstep. If you let us stay, we'll give you this bottle of wine and boxes of Oreos!"

Back to HMV on Sunday.. The phone call. Hannah asked if i wanted to model in a fashion show because they're short of models. I played it pretty cool on the phone but my face and dancing body just had a mind of it's own! Of course i said yes and we discussed details. One of these details was that the call time was 3 hours prior to the phone call and the first show started in 4 hours. 

An hour later i was at the Crescent Club in London for the Semon Cashmere collection by designer Semka Dashnyam. It was a rush to get ready but can i just tell you how much fun it was! It was my second proper catwalk, but it felt like i'd been doing it for ages! Hence the thought of "I could do this forever!". 

Funnily enough, it was International Women's Day! Hannah and i proceeded to tell them that in Australia, it's International Women's Day everyday. I think we boosted the tourism for Australia in just one sentence. 

We had a bit of a fan base there also. Some we knew, some we had no idea who they were and some were just plain freaky! After the first show, Hannah and i posed for 20 minutes with people who wanted a photo with us. Yet again, the same though of: "Ahh, i could do this forever!".

It was a brilliant chance to network and meet other models, photographers, designers, stylists and anyone else in that business. This is just the first step to a dream come true and i can't begin to tell you how exciting and encouraging this little fact is.

Justine Clare was like a proud stage mum. Don't believe me? Check out her video about the fashion show where it has actual footage of the show! www.youtube.com/user/justineclareX

Also, a photographer, Nick Fallon, has some photos up of the night, so be sure to check them out.

And while we're at it, why not mention www.modelmayhem.com/EmmaMartin.

As a sign off, let me just tell you one simple thing: never underestimate the power of a phone call!

Warm wishes,

Emma Martin

The rose between the thorns

How does one start to write about a pear-shaped day with a chocolate coating? Let's start with a bit of an overview.

A couple of weeks ago, i was searching on gumtree.com, a site for jobs, houses, etc., when i stumbled across an ad for a modeling agency. Before i could weasel out, i quickly typed an email and attached my CV, sending it into cyber space for the agency to review. I didn't really think anything of it, until a couple of days after, i received an email asking me to phone for an appointment. I left it a couple of days, nervously phoned the agency, booked my appointment and speedily hung up the phone.

Now for the pear-shaped day.

This particular Tuesday started off with me bounding out of bed, really excited and ready to start the day. Now this usually doesn't happen, so i'd say that the day wasn't yet pear-shaped, in fact, it was pretty grand. I went down the road from our home to the little cafe that supplies us with free wi fi with every coffee or tea. Let me just add a little side note here: they LOVE us. So i started my work for the morning as a PA and as i went along, i realised that i needed to do more than i originally thought. So while i was concentrating on that, trying to decide what to wear to the interview, drinking my tea before it got cold, eating my croissant, answering calls and of course listening to music, i become kind of flustered as time was closing in on me!

I raced home, got ready quite fast as, thanks to my female qualities, i was able to do more than one thing at a time and had already picked out in my head what i was going to wear to the interview with the modelling agency.

I stepped out of the door with a farewell encouragement and excited squeal from my housemate, Justine Clare, and prepared myself to take on the world. Then it started raining. Which was fine, except now i had to juggle the brolly, my bags, my coat, the phone and a notebook and pen as i had to finish up work before i boarded the tube. A little hint for anyone who tries to walk into an underground tube station while on the phone: there's ZERO phone service so try to wrap up your conversation BEFORE you enter. 

Now i'm travelling on the tube to Oxford Circus and i was rearranging my bags, brolly, etc. and work was sorted out and now everything was going smoothly. This may have been simply because i was sitting and gravity couldn't revenge me in any way, shape or form.

I exit the tube station at Oxford Circus, only slightly knowing where i was going. I had walked some way when i looked down at my white coat and saw blood on the side. This tripped me out and i was really confused for a little while. Then i looked at my hand and realised that i'd cut my hand while putting up the brolly. My hand was full of blood. I raced into McDonalds and quickly cleaned myself up, took a deep breath, told myself that things can only get better, and confidently walked out and began my journey to the appointment.

I became lost. Yes, if you must know, at this point, the time was 11am and my appointment was at 11.30am, so i still had some time to kill.. Luckily. I stood on the side of the road and looked around pretending i knew exactly where i was and as i began fixing up my coat, while stealthily trying to recognise street signs, a guy approached me. 

Now, let me just describe this jolly fellow, let's call him Harry. Harry had just stumbled from out of the pub, zig zagged across the road, trying desperately to get to me in a straight line. He succeeded. He was smoking and blowing the smoke all up in my face. He looked like he hadn't showered in quite some time and his teeth had possibly seen some better days. One thing that Londoners haven't quite picked up on just yet is personal space because at this point, i had to try to reach back into my memory and grasp at anything that led me to believe that personal space still existed! It took me a little while to understand exactly what Harry was saying as he was almost giving me a hug. This is what i heard: "What's your name? Where are you going? Who are you meeting? Let's have sex. Just around the corner. Let's go, c'mon little darling." 

As soon as i realised exactly what Harry was saying, i ran, wide-eyed into the nearest Starbucks, ordered a tea, sat down and tried to muster up the courage to see if Harry had followed me. He hadn't. Needless to say, that tea was set in front of me and it didn't leave the table once. 

Once again, i gathered myself together and said, "Emma Martin, you can do this! You can make it to your appointment! Go get 'em tiger! Rawr!"

As i know you are probably now beside yourself with worry, i wound up at the right place, on time and the meeting was such a success! 

Let's just say that the morning of hell has made me laugh quite a few times and it made the appointment probably seem more exciting and successful than it may originally have been! One thing's for sure though, for me, it sealed the deal and made me more determined to achieve the dreams that i have inside of me. All the hard times in life i will one day look back on, laugh and say "That was a great story". 

For now, let me just say that this momentous day has sparked a determination within. I now know how to put my brolly up without cutting my finger, how to read google maps better, how to escape men like Harry and how to further my career as a model. As for the rest.. well now, half the fun is not knowing what the rest is.. don't you think? ;)

Warm wishes,

Emma Martin xxx

The big move to London

So i've finally decided to jump on board of the blogging scene. Some are rejoicing, some are confused, some are excited, some are thinking "why the hell are you blogging?!" and this is all from my family! 

To start my first blog, i thought i'd simply explain where i am and what's happening in my life at the moment. 

First and foremost, my name is Emma Martin and i'm a proud Australian. Just over a month ago, i left my beautiful coastal town in Queensland to move to the magical and inspiring city of London. Yes, i moved to the other side of the world and no, i didn't know anyone except the person i was traveling with, one of my best friends, Justine Clare.

What we've accomplished in one month is absolutely unheard of! We arrived at 6pm Saturday 24th January 2009 and by the Sunday (just one day later) we were living in our own appartment. Now, i know of people who, for months, did something called dosing. This is where you live out of your suit case and crash on someone's couch for a few months! Others simply stay in hostels. Justine and I, however, would not hear of such a thing. Now don't get me wrong, i absolutely support adventure and not knowing what's going to happen next, but let me just tell you how exciting it is to have your own place and your own bed, not some lumpy couch that could possibly have secret surprised down the side of the cushions. 

We've now lived in snow (we've both seen it but never lived in it), fallen over in the snow (Justine), gotten lost (that's a given), seen a punch-up fight in the middle of the street (between girls mind you), we've created videos, Jus is setting up a business and most importantly, we've defined our dreams and are following them with our hearts and souls. 

Let me just say that i could not have been able to define my dreams if i had not taken a risk and surrounded myself with people who were living their dreams. There are some amazing and inspiring people in the city of London and the magic is always just around a corner.

So what are these dreams that i've defined? Well now, you just have to wait for blog number 2. ;)

Until then, however, go out and buy a fabulous notebook. Not a nanna notebook or a tacky over coloured notebook, but rather one that catches your eye and reminds you to dream. THEN i want you to open up to the first page and write down your dreams. I don't want you to write down someone else's and i don't want you to think of other people, i want you to think of yourself for once and think of how you can go out AND CHANGE THE WORLD!

Warm wishes,

Emma Martin xxx