Stuff January

January is usually such a busy month, and it looks like this one will be no exception. We will be:

• catching up with friends, farewelling some and hopefully making new ones also


• eating out alot, as lots of restaurants do cheap meal deals to entice hibernating Londoners out to spend more money they don't have since they spent it on Christmas


• making some travel plans (finally!)

But this is what else is on:

• Cirque Du Soleil is in town doing the show called Varekai. I have never been to see these guys, and would love to, but don't think I will get around to it this time. Until 14th Feb.


• La Clique is a burlesque-type show that's had great reviews and is running in Camden until 17th Jan. Would be really good to go with a group of friends and make a night of it. I think it might be Australian?


• Movies! So many movies! A bit of an overload for a usual non-movie-goer like myself. I have been to see Where The Wild Things Are, and still want to see Nowhere Boy, Sherlock Holmes, and Alice in Wonderland when it comes out. I'm currently resisting everyone's insistence that I see Avatar. The more you insist, the more I think I might like to stage a mini protest by deliberately not seeing it. Also this week I saw Inglourious Basterds for the first time and loved it. It is brilliant, so if you haven't seen it, you must. I insist.


• Selfridges is putting together a retro 90s themed pop-up type arrangement with Rellik, Beyond Retro, IDEA and Work It, which runs from 11th to 29th January - should be worth a perusal.


• Apparently the V&A is currently running an exhibition on Indian Maharaja. It is nearly finished (17th January), but I had no idea it was even on! Shocking considering I am almost related to a maharaja myself. Unfortunately none of us royals have organised a mailing list.


• But also at the V&A, the Decode: Digital Design Sensations exhibition is running until 11th April. Wes' birthday. Coincidence? I think not. This is all the weird and wacky sort of stuff he focussed on for his final year architectural thesis - interactive, manipulating, computer-generated automatic design type stuff. So I'm guessing I will be making a visit as soon as he hears wind of it. Of course he doesn't actually read my blog, so...
  

Stuff December

Presumably you all know exactly what you're doing at this time of year, and don't really need to know about umpteen other things to clog your schedule as you run mindlessly from one party to the next:

• Eat to the point of a food baby on a (sometimes more than) daily basis. And have dessert with every meal.
• Go shopping for presents but spend way more on yourself than on anyone else, and decide to keep those that were intended for everyone else as well.
• Drink way too much and with meals that usually don't include alcohol at all. But at least when this happens you usually end up in bed by a reasonable hour.

But actually, being in a cold city for the festive season has its charms that should be experienced and enjoyed at least once:

• Strolling through a European-style Christmas market, either at the South Bank, or Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland. Or you could really go to Europe, apparently the German ones are the best.
• Go ice-skating somewhere glamorous like Somerset House. Of course, this requires booking far in advance (something I am a bit averse to doing) and those skates really hurt my feet last time!
• Visit Kristie and Coralie's Christmas Cooler Drink, Shop & Do pop-up shop and bar in Kings Cross, with events on each weekend leading up to Christmas for those into DIYing. Or just drinking and eating cake.
• More drinking, but this time you must sample the seasonal specialities like mulled wine, winter Pimms, or hot toddies. No, I haven't tried any of these yet! But don't they sound intriguing??
• Go to see Where The Wild Things Are!!!! How long have we all been waiting for this movie? I am so excited, but finding the time to go to a movie in December may be a challenge...
• Cross your fingers for a White Christmas. I had a white birthday last year, which was pretty awesome, but imagine a white Christmas day! Just like in the movies.
• Find Santa. I've said for a few years now that I'd really like to get our photo taken with Santa to send back to our parents at home, but with only one Westfield in this whole city I think that Santa might be a bit busy. Where else do you find Santa in London? There is also no Harvey Norman or K-Mart. I'm guessing maybe Selfridges or Harrods.

Stuff November

Well, this month's post has taken a little bit more putting together than October's, that's for sure. Coupled with a lack of commuting comes a lack of free press (I actually miss the london paper, how sad!) and to be honest I am still quite happily working my way through last month's list with my sister. But, at a stretch, this is what I might do this month if I had both time and money:

• It seems to be quite the month for comedy! A bunch of good comics are touring at the moment, but my choices would have to be Ross Noble (mad, but in good way) and Dylan Moran (legendary). Simon Amstell is doing shows in November too-man I loved him on Buzzcocks and even though the guest hosts are doing pretty well in the post I just realised I don't really watch that show anymore. When is it even on?
  
  
• Frozen yoghurt vendors must be the new cupcakeries as they are popping up all over town. There is one on Camden Passage that I pass every day and I must remember to try it before it gets too cold to even fathom. How are these places planning to stay open during winter?
  
  
• Enjoy the crowd at Oxford Circus. Well, not quite, but they have finished the works aimed at improving the way the hordes of sheep move through this previously ridiculous bottleneck. I might even chuck a diagonal!! Actually, I don't think I have ever needed to cross in any other direction than from Topshop to H&M. Nuff said?
  
  
• Things are very busy in the H&M designer collaboration department. First up is Jimmy Choo. H&M have even posted online a guide explaining how to line up so they are obviously expecting a big day on the 14th (have any of you guys ever been to one of these launches? Would love to hear about it). Typically for me, I am not that impressed by the collection and ironically, the things I would be most likely to buy would be the clothes and not any of the shoes! Next up will be Sonia Rykiel, which is only lingerie for now, so non-essential thank goodness. Hopefully by the time they do real clothes I might have some spare cash - love Sonia!!
  
  
• For £40 you can buy your way into the London art scene at the RCA Secrets exhibition/sale. All artworks are postcard-sized and anonymous until after you make your purchase, so you better be studying your brushstrokes if you fancy picking up something by a famous muso, artist or designer.

Show me your studio!

Headed on down to the ShowSTUDIO exhibition last week, and was really impressed. Nick Knight is such a visionary, and has really been ahead of the pack for years now. Mostly described as a photographer, he is much more, an artist really and his celebrity connections, wow! He really knows how to get the most out of his subjects and they are more like collaborations than just photoshoots. If you can get to see it, I'd definitely recommend it, it was the biggest exhibition I've seen in that Somerset House gallery, and such good value - only £5! Thinking about going back this week to watch another photoshoot in the specially designed studio with double-sided mirrors for hours of potential voyeuristic fascination. Another tick for the list.

Stuff this month AKA Get A Life

As a heads-up to all of you who maybe don't read as much free press as I do, and also as a reminder to myself , I decided to make a list of all the stuff I wanna do this month.

• Go see the Radical Nature exhibition on at the Barbican for only another couple of weeks. I gather it is about the interaction between buildings and nature.


• Check out the new Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum, which looks really interesting architecture-wise. How boring it is inside can only be imagined. I'll let you know.


• See the SHOWStudio interactive photographic exhibition that supposedly had collaborative input from fashion types such as Kate Moss! Plus it's on at Somerset House - their gallery space is so cool, right down on the river.


• Check out Kew Gardens before winter closes in. I have never been there and apparently Autumn is a good time to go. Usually don't like travelling to see green stuff, so we'll see what kind of priority this one gets.


• The Serpentine Gallery's Pavilion project gets pretty famous artists, designers and architects to design and build a space in the grounds of the permanent gallery. It's only there for a limited time and is being pulled down soon (hopefully, or we'll have to wait til next summer).


• Tate Modern. Regular visits here are pretty essential. There is a new exhibition opening on iconic pop artists, but I really like the annual Turbine Hall projects, which are really interesting and gloriously free! Walking there across the Millenium Bridge from St Paul's is probably my favourite thing to do in London.


• Check out Christopher Kane for Topshop and Jil Sander for Uniqlo. Strictly looking, no buying I promise. (No, really, from what I've seen and heard, I'm the only person in the country not coveting this stuff. So not me).


• And only in my dreams...I heard there is a retrospective exhibition of Damien Hirst's work on in Kiev, Ukraine that sounds so cool...

Wow, judging by this list, I look like such an architecture groupie. Well, they don't really do many exhibitions on my own profession so I have to hijack other people's. Well, actually there was one on feet in a museum in Prague once, but that is a whole 'nother story.