My 10 days away from work flew by far too fast; I can’t quite believe we’re a week into January already! I’ve noticed that most bloggers are writing about their New Year’s Resolutions, some of which talk about losing weight from their already emaciated figure. Believe me, I like the idea of being able to resist cake occasionally, but it just ain’t gonna happen. I got back from London on Wednesday night to find a belated Christmas gift of chocolate truffles and pannetone from Carluccio’s, and managed to scoff them all within a matter of minutes.
I have no willpower, so I don’t usually bother with resolutions but I think this year I’m going to be a little more self-indulgent. Okay, that sounds ridiculous but I don’t mean it in the sense of the oh-my-god-everyone-look-at-this-weeks-Zara-haul kind of thing. That kind of post is great now and again, but after rent, £120 on my zone 1-2 Oyster and money for food each month (with a large amount being spent on the latter…), let’s just say that the Zara/Topshop/Asos/Urban Outiftters spending sprees (delete as appropriate) are a bit too expensive to be a realistic resolution. I’m thinking more along the lines of taking long walks, drawing more, choosing to spend my money on experiences rather than shoes, and actually getting round to reading the 4 shelves of artist monographs currently lurking in the corner of my room. It’s a pretty attainable resolution, and as I type this I’m actually booking Eurostar tickets to Amsterdam in another browser tab. I’ve asked my mother if she wants to come along with me, but I haven’t quite got round to telling her that I’m only going all that way to see The Night Watch by Rembrandt. Little does she know I’m planning to spend hours in the Rijksmuseum marvelling at Vermeer paintings. We may have to meander through the many chic bars and restaurants for her own sanity.
I’m back in London now (booo!) and so I’ve been fruitlessly trying to distract myself from longings for the north of England by a few gallery visits and an excessive amount of retail therapy. I went to the Serpentine Gallery on Friday for the Jonas Mekas exhibition, and I really am trying to resist raving about it for the rest of this blog entry. If you’re interested in self-documentation (I’m assuming you are, given that you’re reading a blog) then it’s a must visit. Based in New York, the poet and film maker’s retrospective is fundamentally felt like a large inspiring real-life-Tumblr. Well, it’s obviously a lot more than that, but it’s quite incredible to see how prolific an artist’s career can be, especially one that circulates around documentation in the form of diaristic film making and photography.
Yesterday, I joined a 3 hour queue to see the Rain Room at Barbican, but caved in 45 minutes later when my friend rang and said he was in London, asking if I wanted to go for a coffee and catch up instead. I tried out his pretty awesome new camera:
If any of you have been to the Rain Room you must simply tell me whether the 3 hours queue can be justified for a visit. I didn’t get round to re-joining the queue, but I saw Hannah Sawtell’s installation at Bloomberg Space instead:
Whilst walking back via Old Street, I popped into The Grocery on the bottom of the Kingsland Road to get a little something for my friend’s mom’s birthday. It’s the most brilliant shop for bizarre tea infusions and rich coffee, and I bought her a box of Earl Grey Teapigs. If you haven’t tried Teapigs before, you really ought to. When I was last at The Brink in Liverpool, I tried a mug of the Chocolate Flake Tea and bought an entire box of them immediately. Yes, they’re a little expensive but they’re not that widely stocked so they make quite a cute, well-packaged gift.
...And ignoring everything I said at the beginning of that second paragraph, I went on a huge Zara haul. Although I did most of it online I really recommend the Knightsbridge store. It’s right next door to Harrods but is far less crowded than all the ones on Oxford Street, and has a better pick of the sale items too. I managed to restrain myself from buying more than a bagful of things from Muji, but ended up blowing some money on a pair of Nike hi tops (whoops…). Happiest purchase was sans nul doute this tube of almond hand cream from The Body Shop. I wear gloves for work, which combined with the inevitable skin-nightmare of winter, has really dried out my hands recently. This is a really intensive moisturiser for a pretty damn good price (£5). It felt even better when I didn’t pay a thing for it too- my January issue of Glamour magazine came with a £15 gift card for The Body Shop, which I’ve used on various other shower gels, and on Satsuma-scented mini hand sanitizer (although a necessity, commuting on the tube is dirty business indeed).
After 18 months of intelligible scribbling, I’ve had to replace my Moleskine diary too. That excitement of getting a fresh new exercise book in school has never actually gone away, even years after leaving secondary school. I’ve opted for a 12 month diary this time, which I suppose could help with that ‘new year, new start’ feeling that I’ve yet to experience. I ended up meeting Ed Ruscha the day I bought my last diary and he very kindly signed it for me, so maybe this year’s resolution could be to get another artist signing this diary?
I hope you all had a brilliant New Year! After the trauma of NYE 2011, where I stood waiting for the Westminster fireworks in a packed crowd for 6 hours desperately needing the loo, I decided to keep it lazy this time by spending some time at my friend’s house with a bottle of Pinot Noir and the Hootenanny. SO Wild.Ho
Jonas Mekas continues at The Serpentine Gallery until 27 January 2013.
Hannah Sawtell: Vendor continues at Bloomberg Space until 12 January 2013.
