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Saturday, 6 April 2013
Amsterdam: Day 1: Donderdag .(scribbled at 15:19 )
The best holidays are those that are filled with an abundance of galleries, wine bars and an entire good chunk of apple tart. In a nutshell, that’s all I got up to in Amsterdam, but because I like a good internet nattering, I’m going to stretch out a few blog entries devoted to my Netherlands gallivanting because I know you all just can’t resist seeing photographs of me sizing up pieces of my own birthday cake, non?
Unflattering photograph of me stuffing my face over, let’s continue in what was the sugariest few days of my life. Prepare for many a photograph of cake and contemporary art over the following few posts. Admittedly, the breakfast I baked for my mother and I before checking in for our flight
should have been a little healthier, but I was so proud of my home baked croissants* that I just couldn’t resist scoffing these on the Piccadilly line to Heathrow. If you see the previous post, I should have mentioned that I had one or two brownies left over from birthday cake shenanigans at work, so I wrapped my croissant dough around these for a new artery-destroying take on
pain au chocolat. They were so immensely divine, it almost made waking up before 6am to try and cram everything into my weekend bag seem kind of worth it.
Although the inevitable feeling of travelling is quite exciting at the time, I hate packing. There’s just something about trying to plan each outfit and
exactly what you’ll need for a set period of time that doesn’t quite put me at ease. Especially when you’ve got to cram it into a 12kg hand luggage allowance imposed by your airline. Thankfully, royal Dutch airlines (KLM) are pretty lenient when you go to check in, and I developed a crush on them after the complimentary
stroopwaffel and brilliant red wine they serve on board. There is nothing quite like trying to navigate a new foreign language and airport when you’re a wee bit pissed.
I’ve been back in London a month now, and I’m already longing to visit again just by writing this post. The architecture is brilliant, and peeking into an estate agent window or two in Amsterdam revealed that these 17th century canal ring houses are much more affordable than any Georgian terrace in London.
The Dutch are a particularly friendly bunch too- locals actually went out of their way to ask us if we needed directions to somewhere in the city, which is utterly mind blowing. Generally, if a tourist approaches a Londoner for directions they run in the opposite direction at full speed, as their hectic schedule simply does not allow time for helping a tourist in their own city. What was more impressive, is that 10minutes into arriving at Centraal station, the hottest Dutch man
ever asked to take a photograph of me when he noticed my mother was still trying to get the hang of using my DSLR. This made my
day week month. Unfortunately my hair looks ridiculously white against the background...
We spotted these seats outside our hotel, that run along adjacent to the Stedelijk Museum. They're so comfy!
We took it relatively easy after checking into our hotel on Museumplein, and stocked up at the local Albert Heijn for more stroopwaffel. Not exactly a necessity, but syrup-filled waffels are worryingly addictive in Holland. I wish a branch of this supermarket would open in England. Not only are all Dutch supermarkets stocked with an amazing amount of artisan chocolates, but this one actually stocks a wine called ‘Fat Bastard’. Oh, how delightful it would be to pop into Waitrose tomorrow afternoon and ask for a bottle of that.
I was utterly delighted that I was living next door to the Stedelijk for the next few days, so I wandered around its vast collection for the remainder of the evening. If you’re on short on time and can’t justify the €17.50 entrance fee, then pop into the gift shop for sure. There’s a plethora of bookcases dedicated to art and design, and they have a really cool selection of unique gifts for
anyone. My mom was a little entranced by their home interiors section, and after buying a few little museum souvenirs I found myself leafing through a publication about Alvar Aalto.
The museum has a brilliant collection of furniture and design. This is Milkflessenlamp (Milk Bottle Lamp) by Tejo Remy, who hails from the Netherlands. Although I prefer this version that the Stedelijk have in their own collection, you can buy singular milk bottle lamps from the designer, for somewhere in the region of €120. To see his work a little closer to home, I suggest you head over to the V&A and gorm at 'You can't lay down your memories' for several minutes. It's in the National Art Library over there, and his use of reclaimed existing furniture is pretty impressive too.
I really like Joseph Kosuth's
"Five Fives (to Donald Judd)" (1972. Above photograph). And there was a pretty garish wall drawing by Sol LeWitt in their upstairs gallery too, which made me feel pleasantly sick. Through the rooms
dedicated to suprematism and German Expressionism, I was thrilled to walk into Matisse's "La Perruchet et la Sirène" (The Parakeet and the Mermaid, 1952-53). One of his gouache on paper works, this piece was made around the same time as
his famous
L'escargot.
I was somewhat against believing all those tourist guides I’d read prior to traveling, that had said to book tables in advance wherever possible. I’m pretty happy I went along with my gut instinct, as my mother and I had no problems at all in getting a table anywhere in the city for the entire 4 days. However, I should have followed The Lonely Planet Guide’s advice in which it states that not many restaurants open past 9 or 10 at night. Of course, I’d spent far too much time with the Futurist paintings and now we were utterly famished, and restaurants were few and far between at this time.
Well, there’s this place a little further South West than Museumplein called ‘La Falote’, and it was pretty much down to the pun in the name alone that we ended up dining there...and partly because I'd spotted a few Thonet chairs at one of the back tables. Leaning towards mainly Dutch cuisine, La Falote was somewhat of a haven amongst the usual touristy streets of Amsterdam-Zuid. A cosy and intimate space, the walls are adorned with various Amsterdam ephemera and letters to Peter van der Linden , the restaurant’s owner and chef.
I was nearly swayed by vegetarian salad, but I gave into the enormous plate of potatoes that came alongside the daily special of ‘Grandma’s Fried Chicken’. Whilst I’m aware of how unappetising the name of that dish sounds, I physically can’t describe how utterly delicious it was. Based on a unique recipe concocted by dear old Peter the most incredible piece of carcass arrived drenched in a sea of rich sauces and herbs. I have never tasted roast potatoes that were this damn tasty. I’m afraid I’m not cool enough to instagram everything I eat, so you’ll just have to take my word for it!
The restaurant was pretty quiet on this Thursday evening, which meant that the waitress gave me and my mother her undivided attention (and endless baskets of garlic bread- hurrah!), but the best part was getting to know Peter van der Linden’s other craft: music. In between visits to the kitchen to check on how the chicken was cooking, Peter would come out and start playing his accordion! I thought I was fairly skilled at multitasking, but I am now sold to the next man who can cook me dinner and serenade me at the same time. Although the selection of desserts sounded pretty tempting, all those potatoes had given me a food baby so I passed on the pudding. If you’re planning a visit, I should warn you that it’s a little pricey (Grandma’s Fried Chicken cost a whopping €17, 50 each!), but totally worth it. Words cannot describe what it’s like watching your mother get serenaded by an accordionist as she tries to delicately nibble on a chicken leg.
Ps: If you remember my earlier posts at the beginning of March and the end of February about how much I was aching to try Cocomaya’s Liqorice and Hemp Dark Chocolate… Well, I persisted for 4 days straight trying to finish this bar and I couldn’t even eat more than a few lines of it. It tasted absolutely vile, and after a brief spell trying to not regurgitate it, I can safely say I’ve been put off liquorice altogether. That said, Cocomaya do a Paris Tarte Tatin Chocolate too, so there’s always room for further chocolate based experimentation.
*okay,
so they weren’t entirely homemade. I’d discovered Jus-Roll’s ready-to-roll
croissant dough in Sainsbury’s a few weeks ago and I do genuinely believe this
has changed my life for the better.
Labels: Amsterdam, ART DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE, KLM, Sartorial, Stroopwaffel, Travel Blog
Sunday, 3 March 2013
Pink hair and other paraphernalia. .(scribbled at 14:35 )
It is a good day when a blogger can tick 4 things off their wish list within a couple of hours. And whilst my wish list doesn't consist of MAC lipsticks, Essie nail polish or Disco Pants from American Apparel (why do these crop up on blogs ALL THE TIME?!), I have happily spent/wasted money on material things. But BOY DOES IT FEEL GOOD.
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| The Silence Room at Selfridges, designed by Alex Cochrane Architects |
First and foremost, I have pink hair, which is honestly the most cost effective way of brightening your skin and enhancing your mood without resorting to spending £100 at the Dior counter. I am going to be so gutted when this fades out altogether, as I just can't get enough of it. I'd rather not admit how little I've washed my hair in the past week, as with all Crazy Colour hair dyes, they tend to fade at an alarming rate. I'm only 1 week in and it's already gone from the same shade that Katy Perry sported in October 2011 for InStyle magazine to (currently) the same shade as Helen Mirren's barnet. I am pondering a shade of blue or turquoise for my next hair-destroying adventure, but candyfloss-tinted hair attracts so many compliments that it's quite hard to give up. I went to the Manet: Portraying life exhibition on Friday night, and every Front of House team member there stopped to tell me they loved my hair. Admittedly, I went to the exhibition purely for two reasons alone;
1. To see The Portrait of Carolus-Duran (1876). Many years ago when I was still at school, I used to spend many a weekend volunteering at The Barber Institute of Fine Arts. Nearly every lunch break was spent admiring Manet’s über-cool brushwork (and Carolus-Duran’s dashing riding boots too, for that matter). I heard that this painting was on loan for the exhibition, so I had to go see it to relive some pretty fond memories.
2. To try and distract myself from wanting to move to another city. I often visit galleries to remind myself that I moved to London for its brilliant art scene and how I should be really making the most of that, instead of harking on about how I want to move to Paris/Liverpool/Manchester (delete as appropriate). Now, although I knew Manet spent most of his 51 years in Paris, I didn’t think reading about that in the exhibition would make me pine for Neuilly-Sur-Seine at all. How very wrong I was, by the time you reach the third gallery space, you literally walk into an oversized map of Paris, with ‘AVENUE DU ROULE’ shouting at me in all its classiness. Even though my time in Neuilly was exceptionally brief compared to my current London adventures, I miss waking up on that classy road.
Shortly after penning my last wishlist, I caved in and bought a new square-ruled Moleskine sketchbook, which even fits into my oversize studded clutch bag, meaning it will accompany me everywhere. I also caved in and bought the Hypnôse Star mascara that I spoke about, which is a ridiculously expensive purchase considering that I fly off to Amsterdam on Thursday morning and I currently have about €5 to my name sitting in my European purse. I had some pretty good career-related news last week (I’ll blog about this nugget of information next month), but my brother bought me a congratulations gift of a new Rouge in Love lipstick, in a delicious shade of Rouge St. Honoré (also known as 181N). I’ve been a slave to their Violette Coquette shade for so long, but this red is really wearable, and somehow compliments my pink hair really well! My previous go-to red lippie was the sultry-looking Caprice from Lancôme’s L’Absolu Rouge range, but they don’t feel as moisturising or rich as the RiL shades do.
Whilst I'm aware that it is March already, I'll be writing a new 'Liste de Tâches' once I'm back from Amsterdam. Before I set off for Heathrow, I’ve got a fair amount of ‘personal admin’ to be getting on with (e.g- find my mislaid passport), as well as going to a meeting at The Photographers’ Gallery on Tuesday and finding time to bake a batch of croissants because admittedly, that did not get ticked off my To-Do list for February.
Thankfully, some areas of my life are in better organisation. I did buy some of Cocomaya's 'Amsterdam' chocolate earlier in the week (in the background of above image), which I'm going to scoff for breakfast with my mother when I meet her at Kings Cross next week before we head to the airport. I picked this up in Selfridges, as Cocomaya’s European-City-Chocolate is now being sold at the Oxford Street branch. Ah-mazing! This particular infusion contains actual hemp extract (!)
To skim over everything else that's happened since my last post:
I spent last weekend lazing around in the delights of Sutton Coldfield, eating apple pie with my grandmother, which set me up for this week’s madness. I was at the V&A on Tuesday evening for their Design Cultures Salon, which is part of a series of events where a set of speakers talk about Design Theory and how certain external elements are affecting the Design community. This particular discussion was thematically concerned with the notion of Design Activism. I have a lot to blog about with these, but I’ll be writing a full write-up of the events once I’ve attended the following 2 sessions, which are ‘How does design function during a recession’ and ‘How does design produce new publics’. The last of the series isn’t until the end of April, so pop back to have a read about the sessions once May is here.
The following morning, I set off for Birmingham to interview candidates for a Project Assistant role at Ikon Gallery… I met so many talented people that day, it was pretty inspiring! This was a chance to sample the delights of Café Opus, which is the newly opened restaurant that sits on the ground floor of Ikon. After an afternoon drinking delicately-crafted flat white coffee, it has firmly cemented itself as the best place for a caffeine fix in Brum. And for a light lunch too, for that matter! I opted for their tasty Salmon & Chive Cake with watercress and wild rocket leaves (£6), which was followed up with an equally as tasty glass of house red wine that evening, which was very reasonably priced too. And the best part of Café Opus? ITS DAMN GOOD TASTE IN FURNITURE. As soon as I figure out where they get their designer chairs from, I will devote an entire post to how utterly beautiful they are.
I met my mother that morning for a Krispy Kreme breakfast at Selfridges to finalise Amsterdam plans (okay, so I’d scoffed a whopping eight croissants at London Euston prior to boarding the train that morning, but who can resist those doughnuts?!) Anyway, we popped into Zara and my mom spotted this blazer which I snapped up in an instant. As something that isn’t grey or black, this is quite a sartorial leap for me, but it’s really versatile, and the print seems very Netherlands-y. Ish. I had to crop my legs out of this photo as no one wants to see a pair of pale bruised legs after devouring a Sunday roast dinner. I’ve managed to (sort of) resist wearing this until I go on holiday, but this is what I wore to the Lichtenstein retrospective at Tate Modern yesterday.
This bottom of these images is an automatic drawing machine, which was mind blowing, quite frankly.
...And it is only as I now hit the 'publish blog post' button on Blogger.com after inherently waffling on about how much unnecessary stuff I’ve bought do I now realise that:
a- I’ve forgotten to pay my rent for the month
b- My oyster card has a mere 60p on it
Merde.
Labels: ART DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE, Cafe Opus Ikon, Candyfloss Crazy Color Review, Ceri Hand Gallery, CLOTM, Lancome Maquillage, Manet Portraying Life, Sartorial, The Barber Institute, V and A Salon
Sunday, 10 February 2013
Feeling Fitzrovian. .(scribbled at 13:42 )
I seem to be incapable to blogging at any other time than the weekend these days, but uploading pictures can be a pretty arduous process at the best of times. I’ve barely documented anything this week, which is a blessing really as all I seem to have done is eat another tonne of instant brownies (see previous post). I’m really putting off the ‘Learn to Make Croissants’ bit of my To Do list this month (see the Liste de Tâches tab at the top), all the recipes for buttery croissants imply that you have to leave the pastry overnight which I don’t have the patience for. Who can leave pastry?!
I went to 66 Portland Place for the first time on Tuesday evening. For those non-architecture folk, that’s the HQ of RIBA. And I have quite literally fallen in love with its interiors! I was planning to spend an hour there, which somehow turned into 3. The brilliant high ceilings and carvings throughout the building are. Just. Incredible. Ditto the elongated windows too. Wandering through the six storeys, it seemed that each floor offered a new set of beautifully crafted spaces. I have every intention of returning there every month from now on; their exhibitions programme looks rather impressive! Whilst I was there, I checked out the
RIBA Royal Gold Medal Exhibition 2013, which is a prize awarded as recognition of an architect with at least 30 years in practice. The incredible Peter Zumthor was awarded the Gold Medal, and seriously, after reading up on his design for
Therme Vals in Switzerland, who wouldn’t hail the man with an award?!
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| © TripAdvisor |
An absolute masterpiece, Therme Vals is a spa complex in the Chur region. The building is filled with natural spring water, and seems to be an ideal place for meditative thoughts and a pure week of relaxation. Someone take me there, please.
Equally inspiring, was the AR+D Awards for Emerging Architecture. With over 250 entries from 43 different countries, this exhibition of works is pretty darn cool. Only built work is eligible for submission, and these works are based upon the notion of humanity in architecture. With schools, cemeteries and social housing structures featured heavily in the show, it really evoked how much care we have to put into the design of non-corporate structures. I’ve quite a fondness for the M Building designed by Stéphane Maupin, which gives us an insight into a new social housing project based in the northwest district of Paris. There’s nothing I want more than to move back to continue what was my short-lived period residing in Neuilly, and the M Building is practically just around the corner! Hurrah for affordable (tiny) housing!
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| © Dezeen.com |
This really is an extraordinary item of beauty, and it seems that every need of the resident has been taken into account. Evidently there is an impending limitation of space considering that it is social housing, but Maupin has created the structure in mind of allowing as much natural light into the apartments as possible. It consists of 2 descending symmetrical terraces which are clad in this Parisian Zinc material, which together forms this sort of contemporary ziggurat (FYI, a ziggurat is a pyramidal structure that hails from the ancient Middle Eastern period). Pretty nice, huh!
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| © Dezeen.com |
So yes, urges to move to Liverpool have now been replaced with stronger urges to move out of Blighty altogether. Ideally Paris, but I’m not too picky. Perhaps it was the hideous amount of snow, slush and bad karaoke I encountered shortly after my train pulled into Lime Street, but I think I may have previously been seeing Liverpool with rose tinted specs in recent months. It’s still an incredible city, but I guess my urge to move up there is waning a little. For now, anywho.
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| Still wouldn't say no to my dream Hope Street terrace, though... |
I still can’t get enough of The Bluecoat though, which is one of my favourite buildings in Britain. Their William Kentridge retrospective that they had on at the time was absolutely brilliant. Born in Johannesburg in 1955, Kentridge actually studied Politics before moving onto etching later on in his life. After moving to Paris for a year to study mime (!), it actually wasn’t until dOCUMENTA (X) that he became firmly grounded in the international visual arts scene. He used a variety of techniques, particularly the ‘Chine Collé’ that he executed when making his ‘
Sleeping on Glass’ series back in 1999.
Actually, to a certain extent, it was a fairly prolific weekend up North. I finally got round to replacing my 5 year old battered Zara parka with a swanky new Ralph Lauren one, which feels so amazing to wear that it has seldom left my torso in the past fortnight alone. I mentioned in my previous post that I saw Les Misérables at FACT whilst I was there, but more importantly I HAVE NOW FINALLY SEEN AN EPISODE OF ‘GIRLS’. And I’ve gotten a little bit hooked to it, so expect even less frequent blog posts from here on.
I meant to pop over to The Royal Standard too, but ended up spending a few hours before I caught my London-bound pendolino train in The Open Eye Gallery instead, and having a ridiculous amount of Tofu and spring rolls at Tokyou.
Anyway, I loved The Open Eye Gallery’s current group show, entitled ‘A Lecture Upon the Shadow’, which ends next Sunday, so catch it if you can.
Ahh, and I had to post a picture of this new T Shirt I bought from the V&A shop a few days before I went to Liverpool. This was a pretty casual slovenly dressed Sunday, to say the least:
NB: I am not posing, hahah. The sun is in my eyes and my hair keeps falling onto my face at the moment because I'm too lazy to get a haircut.
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This is Tomorrow/Whitechapel Gallery T-Shirt: V&A Shop
Bag: Urban Outfitters
Jeans: Zara
Leather Converse: Kurt Geiger |
Moving swiftly back down south, I went out for a night out in Fitzrovia for the most recent Haunch of Venison Private View on Eastcastle Street, which was followed by a pretty damn good pizza on this diner by Goodge Street, which I forget the name of.
The Thomas Joshua Cooper Landscapes at Haunch of Venison were pretty impressive, but I didn’t spend too long at that exhibition opening because I really wanted to check out ‘Orange between orange and Orange’, a show by Michael Joaquin Grey at Carroll Fletcher Gallery (which is also on Eastcastle Street). I took Daniel for a wander around the show (he’s pictured here in tweed:)
Before retreating to the bowels of North London (and before Daniel went back to Stoke On Trent), we went to the Wellcome collection, and managed to easily spend an hour or so drinking the delicious chai tea that they sell in their café. Yum.
I wore this new top that I bought in Zara when I was in Liverpool. It was an absolute steal, as I know I’m going to wear it to absolute death. As much as I wanted to buy their leather-sleeved parka jackets that were everywhere last season, I hate buying coats that I know I won’t be wearing year after year. So it seemed much more purse-friendly to try out the pleather-sleeve trend with a t-shirt instead.
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| Everything points to Fauvism. Yesss. |
And on the street behind the Wellcome Collection, we came across this ‘Sorry You’re Leaving’ cake, which had been hilariously tossed onto a front porch of an office building.
I know the weather’s looking a bit naff, but hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend! I am very much still recovering from an endless amount of Baileys cocktails and a night out in Covent Garden from Friday night… I have literally spent the entire weekend in my pyjamas which I’m trying not to feel too guilty about. We went to Maxwells Burger restaurant first, which is just around the corner from The Royal Opera House. Although it was literally packed to the brim with people, the service was brilliant, and we managed to grab a few Mai Tais whilst it was still happy hour! I can’t rave enough about the vegetarian burger, which comes with a bucket load of fries. Actual food heaven.
Labels: Architecture, ART DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE, Carroll Fletcher Gallery, M Building Paris, Peter Zumthor, RIBA, Sartorial, This is Tomorrow T Shirt, Whitechapel Gallery, Zara Leather Sleeve
Friday, 25 January 2013
l'art est un moyen de survie | Art is a Way of Survival .(scribbled at 07:32 )
Yes, I know it’s a
little so goddam corny but I really like this t-shirt that I bought in Birmingham last weekend.
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T Shirt: Yoko Ono for Zara
Badges: dOCUMENTA (13), V&A Shop
Jeans (Seen below): Zara |
Installing exhibitions all day can get a little grubby, so I have to wear clothes I don’t really care about for work. I stick to a uniform of jeans and a hoodie, which is why I don’t do outfit posts. No one wants to see that sort of thing on a blog, especially as I leave for work at half 7 so I rarely bother with makeup. And I can’t stress enough to you how rough I look sans maquillage. As much as I'd like to pretend otherwise, my eyes are this vibrant shade of red at 7am.
So today’s OOTD ? A pair of staple boyfriend jeans and a t-shirt. How bloody exciting. I bought these jeans last week. They're so incredibly comfortable, if you're after a pair of Boyfriend fit jeans this season I seriously recommend you head on down to Zara. At least the studded pockets give some edge to today's outfit. Well, ish. I think I've already wrecked the t-shirt by accessorising with badges.
I’m off to see Les Misérables at FACT tomorrow afternoon. 158 minutes of Hugh Jackman never sounded so good. If you're in London at all over the weekend, I think you should take a trip over to the Wellcome Collection for their Death: A Self Portrait exhibition. It's only on for a few more days, and the Goya prints are so bloody amazing.
Labels: Liverpool, Sartorial, Staple work clothes, Wellcome Collection, Yoko Ono, Zara Studded Jeans
Sunday, 13 January 2013
Failed 2013 Resolution. Dam Style. .(scribbled at 13:47 )
Contrary to everything in the previous post about trying to be self-indulgent in the sense of spending money on experiences, rather than material things during 2013, well… whoops.
Yes. This happened. A mere couple of days following a blog entry about resisting the lure of a Zara sale, I ended up spending literally every lunch break this week meandering through the rails of its Knightsbridge store. 2 bags, numerous shirts and a few pairs of shoes from Office later and I am already skint without even getting through January! I don’t know how I’m managing to survive a life in London without an overdraft on my bank account. Anyway, I’m not a good enough blogger to photograph everything I bought, so here are a few snippets.
I’m planning to do one of those What’s In my Bag style entries that have been circulating the blogosphere for a while, so I’ll take a photograph of the whole of the bag in the next few days. For now though, I’m particularly fond of the detail that goes into the bags that Zara retail. Okay, so I know that no one actually sees the inside pocket of a handbag, but it’s the little things that count. I was pretty tempted to go for a Zara tote, but living in London has given me an irrational fear of pickpocketers, and I don’t like the idea of having a bag that isn’t rain-proof so I always opt for a satchel or backpack.
I also bought my
first pair of wellies. (btw, I keep trying to type ‘wellies’ into Blogger and it keeps autocorrecting it to ‘willies’, which is ridiculously frustrating on this time on a Sunday afternoon). They too, were a sale find in the Oxford Street branch, and at £45 they can be justified with the amount that it rains in Blighty. Can’t seem to find them online, but they can be bought
here.
I didn’t even make it out of the shop before trying on a pair of last season’s
Nighthawk boots, which are hands down the best dupes of the
Susanna boots by Chloé. Unfortunately, the black leather ones had completely sold out and they only had the red and white versions in my size, which was rather disheartening. I’d started saving for them when they were on the shelves at £80, so to find out they were just £35 meant I ended up scouring every branch of
Office on Oxford Street for a pair of size fives. Half an hour later, I found myself practically dancing in its branch in the basement of Topshop Oxford Circus when I snapped up one of the remaining pairs. Although I
really like the
Chloé SS2013 collection of
Susanna boots, which come in a selection of muted blue, grey and nude, I’m pretty damn ecstatic with these black
Office ones. And even if I could get away with not paying rent for a month, the
Susannas are far too expensive to even be considered an investment
(see here). £800?!
…anyway, so after that mishap of spending, I ended up booking a flight to Amsterdam for my birthday in March. I am so happy and excited already that it kind of makes up for how much I wanted to cry on Wednesday night at the thought of how penniless I had inevitably become after booking 3 night stay in a hotel next to the Stedelijk museum for me and my mother. If you read my last post on here, then no, I still haven’t got round to telling her that it’s a holiday dedicated to Johannes Vermeer.
As a result, I’m now tied down to London until I actually board that plane (it seemed way easier to arrange flights rather than a Eurostar ticket) at Heathrow because I can’t afford to go anywhere else for the next 8 weeks (boo!). That said, I’m in Birmingham next weekend for 3 sets of birthday shenanigans and then the week after that I’m in Liverpool which I also can’t quite contain my excitement for. Although, maybe that’s because I forked out for a Virgin train, so now I feel like I’m living the high life, haha.
So, yes. I can’t leave London AT ALL in February because I’ll be too busy living on a diet of 11p noodles from Sainsbury’s and trying to live on next to nothing. Pretty sure this could be a blessing in disguise though as London is the best place to be for exhibitions in February. With a
Picasso show at theCourtauld and
A ROY LICHTENSTEIN RETROSPECTIVE AT TATE (that needed to be capitalised- Lichtenstein was my favourite artist throughout secondary school, so when I heard about Tate’s exhibition programme for 2013, I nearly wet myself).
No, I haven’t met Lichtenstein (obvs), I just think this postcard I bought from
Ikon Gallery’s shop looked pretty nice on this bright yellow Archie Grand Journal.
I’ve also found another easy way to make the next 8 weeks pass:
Dam Style. A blog that documents Amsterdam’s street style is essential research, right? Although after the plethora of checked patterns on there, it’s making me cave in and buy a pair of checked trousers that I spotted in Zara on Friday.
Merde.
Anywho, I’m popping off now to catch the Tim Walker show at Somerset House for the remainder of the afternoon.
Labels: Amsterdam, ART DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE, Chloe Dupes, Haul, Lichtenstein Retrospective, Sartorial, Ted Baker Wellingtons
Sunday, 6 January 2013
ça alors, c'est déjà Janvier! .(scribbled at 14:52 )
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.
Labels: 2013, Amsterdam, ART DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE, Hannah Sawtell, Jonas Mekas, Liverpool, New Year, Sartorial, The Brink, Zara
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Un très Joyeux Noël .(scribbled at 13:07 )
So, it’s that time year again already. The party season in full swing (December in itself is one big hangover), this Christmas period is turning looking fairly similar to all the others I’ve previously experienced…I’d rather not divulge just how many kilograms of cherry infused Green and Blacks I’ve consumed in the past few days (yes, kilograms) but my god, it’s enough to make any gym bunny recoil in terror.
I can’t quite get over the fact that we’re edging that little closer to 2013 either, so I’m going to skim over the past few weeks.
Waitrose Christmas cake tastes much better than anything homemade. Seriously.
So, starting with mon très Joyeux Noël, I’d already mentally gone through it in my head on my homebound train from Marylebone last week, preparing to blog endlessly about a time spent pulling crackers with my siblings whilst Shakin’ Stevens pumped out on the radio in the background.
Of course, the harsh reality of all of this is that come 1 o’ clock in the afternoon on Christmas Day, 'twas very much a different picture to one I had envisaged; with me downing my fourth glass of Baileys whilst listening to my mother sporadically swearing numerous insults at the Turkey. It was a really great day though, my mom bought this Christmas Pudding Wine from Marks and Spencer which was essentially a bottle of pricey sherry, but it made a nice addition to the Christmas cake.
This is a very poor photograph of what I wore. But considering how much Baileys and mince pies I’d gotten through before I’d even given into the artery-destroying Christmas lunch, it’s probably for the best that I don’t display any full length photographs for a while. I mean, after an absurd portion of Christmas pudding and half a tin of
Quality Street later, who actually wants to think about what they look like in clothing?
Anyway, so I wore this emerald green dress from Zara that was quite loose fitting pre-party-season. Along with half a Lancôme counter’s worth of mascara and lipstick and vertiginous heels, to hide how fat (igued) I felt that morning.
As my 2 younger siblings played around on their swanky new tablets, I took delight in some of the more simpler things in life. Now that I am in my twenties, family have resorted to drowning me in wine, chocolates and paperbacks. My Liverpool-based bezzie bought me the Design Museum publication ‘How to Design a House’. When a much anticipated stroll to the village of Kinver fell through when it started pissing down on boxing day, this proved quite inspiring. I’m currently working through a major blueprint of my dream house and it’s going fairly smoothly so far:
Speaking of the Design Museum, I took a visit to Unexpected Pleasures: The Art and Design of Contemporary Jewellery. I really like this Ron Arad bracelet:
And whilst I was there, I revisited the utterly amazing Swarovski and Designers in Residence exhibitions. The enormous Swarovski chandelier is worth paying the entry fee for in itself.
Oh, AND I SAW MARY KATRANTZOU AT THE V&A THE OTHER WEEK. It was absolutely amazing, I actually can't quite describe how beautiful she is.
Eum, where did I get in my ramblings? Right, so I made my first attempt at fancy dress in this year’s staff Christmas party. This is Marilyn on a shoestring here… my dress was a fiver in the H&M Summer sale. We all went out for lunch to the Hand and Flower on Kensington High Street that afternoon. If you find yourself over that end of the city, do give their vegetarian Wellington a taste. The smoked salmon starter I had came in Michelin-star proportions, so I was a little relieved to see a generous dose of pastry later.
And whilst I’m on the subject of stuffing my face with food, I spent an entire week in Salisbury last month doing exactly just that. Although I did do an immense amount of work whilst I was staying over there, I managed to squeeze in a visit to Stonehenge one evening, and a walk around the Cathedral grounds before work. This meant paying a visit at 6 in the morning, but my hotel was right opposite the cathedral so it wasn’t too bad. They have an endless supply of fresh chocolate croissants at The Cathedral Hotel, which is enough to make me book a return visit next year. I also remember having some mulled wine in a pub where there's a severed hand in the corner. The folk of Wiltshire never cease to amaze!
Before you shut your browser window through this incessant talk of food, I recommend a visit to Greenwich market for their pesto and mozzarella focaccia bread. I went on a department day out for a walk across the 02 Arena, which was preceded by a visit to the Maritime Museum and The British Music Experience. For a mere couple of quid for some freshly baked lunch, it’s a no brainer really. Normally, I’d have had Borough Market as the go-to place for street food, but I don’t think the (extortionate) prices are fit to anyone’s budget, really.
Standing on top of the 02. In some rather fetching climbing gear.
and the week before last, I ventured up to Birmingham for Winterfest at Warwick Bar.
The last blurry photograph is of a card I’d written on for part of the Black Dogs installation. Inside, was a cosy little room with Christmas cards hanging everywhere, and each divulging its own tale of an unwanted gift at Christmas. Invited to write my own card, I spoke about a certain someone who has bought me earrings for the past 3 years, but has failed to realise that I don’t even have one piercing. I feel a little smug right now, as I didn’t receive any earrings, baths salts or ill-fitting jumpers this year. In fact, all my gifts have been fairly practical and useful (see earlier mention about only getting wine and chocolate)
I hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas, and like me, feel full enough to vomit if you see another mince pie again.
Xx
Labels: ART DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE, Calories, Christmas, Christmas Pudding Wine, Design Museum, Greenwich Market, How to Design a House, Overreating, Sartorial, Swarovski, Warwick Bar Winterfest
