WINTER SUN: ESSAOUERIA

A London Winter is typically miserable - its chilly without being properly cold, and drizzling and dank: a flabby kind of temperature that plays havoc with my hair and sense of humour.

Relief is a three and a half hour flight and a three hour taxi ride away - I left a dismal west London at 9.30 and by seven I was in a tshirt having dinner in Essaoueria - close enough to the Sahara to enjoy temperatures in the seventies in late November, and close enough to London to make a long weekend make sense.

What can I say, it's blissful. After a morning touring the charms of the ancient port and medina, I retired with a book to a sun lounger on the roof of the Riad for an hour. Dorothy, we're not in London anymore.

CLINIQUE CHUBBY STICKS INTENSE

As a self-confessed lipstick junkie, I've found Clinique's easy-to-use chunky lip crayons very easy-to-love.

New for autumn 2012 is a fab new variant: with all the addictive simplicity and lip-cherishing moisturising qualities of the original, Chubby Sticks Intense have a much denser pigment, so if you like an emphatically coloured lip as I do, you'll love these.

My currant favourites are Chunkiest Chili - a wearable brick-red, and Broadest Berry, a less-demanding and prettier take on the wine-stained lips that were so prevalent on the A/W '12 catwalks.

Clinique Chubby Stick Intense Moisturising Lip Colour Balm: £16.00 nationwide stockists.