Heaven Is A Place On Earth... called Hackney

Today marks my one month anniversary since landing in London. Totally and hilariously scary how quickly the last four weeks have flown. Totally hilarious how the last four weeks feel like six months. And in the strange and ongoing absence of any regular and/or traumatising toy drops it might well be theorised that this pack up my life and leave for London to start a Masters degree lark wasn't such a bad move. Even with the increasingly crappy weather.

Today was a lovely day, in spite of the pissing down rain and cold wind. After a genteel start to the morning, I met up with a lovely school pal for lunch and a wander through the Columbia Rd Flower Markets. I would have taken a photo but my hands were full with umbrellas, orchids and my 3 for 5 quid bunches of irises...

Am discovering all sorts of hidden gems in East London, flower market the most recent - though my sense of geography is still largely shite. One place we did walk past today in Hackney was a pub called the Birdcage. A pub I tragically stumbled across with two friends last Monday night after too many glasses of wine. In and of itself, not such a problem - two friends with a not so secret penchant for karaoke (and of course the ability to sing...) though and it gets interesting-slash-extremely dodgy.

Karaoke was one of those things I swore I would never, ever, e-v-e-r do. (Yes, shamefully, that was past tense I just employed...) It may have only been back-up vocals but god someone please promise to shoot me if I ever look likely to bungy jump or tuck my jeans into my boots. It seems anything's possible these days.


And speaking of all things artistically low-brow, I went to see the Turner Prize at the Tate Britain last week. The constant ire of art critics and cultural commentators the UK over, the Turner Prize is generally good for one thing - and that is making those of us who work in and support the arts look like enormous wankers. I think the highlight for me was the bulletin board where visitors got to post their comments and thoughts on the exhibition...


Thankfully I'm off to see Mark Rothko tomorrow afternoon. I do love a four day week that ends with a trip to Berlin... Life will be truly sweet once I finish these last 64 pages of reading for tomorrow's seminar. Hmm...