So its been raining – not a lot to do when it is raining, or at least I think thats the popular assumption.

Could be really boring and go to the Cinema, Ice skating or bowling, but I’ve done all that a thousand times already!! Personally I think everyone goes to Westfeild when it rains.

I often wondered how buisness was crossing the constantly empty slip road on my way across our brand spanking new (albiet 50 years late) access bridge across the A40 – no one ever seems to be driving in or out of Westfield – but come the rains? my gosh it is like they are qeuing to get out of Glastonbury.

I find it totally annoying that when I attempt to use this route on the way home on a night out, which is quite frequently at the monement with the constant closures and works at Latimer road tube when all the Westfeild security gaurds at 20 metre intervals, ask me what I think I am doing – Walking home I say. Last time, the finally one near the bridge lift told me I would ‘they would kill me there’ – the cars at the top, or my fellow estate residents? He then informed me I wasn’t allowed to use this path. Why build a bridge if you are going to pester everyone that wants to use it? – and as I informed him that access path and birdge to my Estate and the rest of North Kensington was compulsary to the building of the centre, planning was refused until it was there. FACT – that totally shut him up although I am still interested to find out who exactly was going to kill me *rolls eyes*

ANYWAY….

I’ve been wondering what The Serpentine Pavillion looks in the rain, I go every year on a nice warm summers day, and take an abundance of photos, is it as cool in the rain? I wonder – am aiming to find out this weekend.

So this weekend, if it rains – I will be taking another look at Jean Nouvel’s Red Pavillion, getting away with NOT watering my garden, and probably not joining the rest of the City in Westfeild… what are you up to?

I am SO going to the V&A Lates on the 27th August, Its Retro Hollywood Glamour!

I was just tucking myself up for bedtime, and having a quick flick through the Royal Borough, and there it was staring at me in the ‘events section’ – Now I’m wide awake trying to decide which of my favourite starlets to be!

“bask in Technicolor 1950s Hollywood glamour at the V&A with the likes of Grace Kelly, Alfred Hitchcock and Marilyn Monroe”

They also mention The Fiztrovia Radio Hour, a really cool theatrical production, thats like a radio show acted out on the stage I once got to see, well gatecrashed at the Globe. They were terrific and every single member of the audience was in vintage clothing.

Too awesome – I have a problem though. It is a very close girlfriends birthday bash that night, in Angel at a pretty decent cocktail bar with a equally decent happy hour. I will either have to decide or work out how to excuse showing up late, in a mid-thigh slit velvet cocktail dress… or does that just work?

Firstly – this is an AMAZING BAR, I feel really bad for them that on the night I visited, the toilets were exploding, literally.
As myself and Jules came down the awesome formed staircase- terracotta in colour and made of some material I didnt quite reconise, the first thing we saw was a very unimpressed member of the bar staff with two buckets and a mop. Yikes.

I was cool I was on platforms. Well I was cool until I needed to pee anyway!

We were there for a good friend Dean’s birthday, so we ploughed through and found him – eventually, past the bar and down a TUNNEL behind the DJ as he had directed us. Yup.. this place is like a rabbits warren, twisting underneath Earlham Street. Unfortunately my phone camera is flashless so I only have photos I took at the bar. Londontown has much better ones :D

I really like the service coverings here, yes I am a total design geek, what can I say? Most places tend to keep these things in huge industrial shafts, or leave it exposed, I really like the way the designer here has made a feature of it, and a very nice one too, its almost like bubbles flowing across the top of the chambers.

Prices were ok too. I got a orange and pineapple juice for £2.50, and the girls a bottle of wine for 14 quid. considering where we were, I thought that was really good. Later in the evening, myself and Beth treated ourselves to cocktails. There was a variety ranging from £6.95 (ours of course) up to about 20 quid.

Beth got a Alfresco, and I a Pear Harbour, a pear version of the famous American cocktail Pearl Harbour. We had a really good night, however none of us wanted to use the toilet so an early night was had, and I was home by Midnight.

Damn you exploding toilets !

Myself and my friend Marlena noticed these pictures on the way to Portobello Market the other day. They are on the wall of The Parkside Clinic, W11. It strikes me as really weird because the clinic has always specialised in dealing with children’s counselling and these do not look like kid’s pictures – even if the clinic has generalised over the years, are they really going to put patient’s therapy pics on the walls?

The text says “please send more yellow birds for the day interior ______” and on the bottom by the root is RIP something, but again we couldn’t make it out :C

A mystery! I counted nine pictures last week, and no more have arrived(or been taken down) in the two visits I’ve paid since. If you have any clues or ideas, please let us know – and we will keep our eyes on it…

*makes The Outer Limits music*

I can’t remember if I’ve ever told you about the Hummingbird Bakery before…. So forgive me if this is a repeat, but the place is worth mentioning a hundred times – and I’ve never been exposed to quite so much before!

A good friend of mine has recently got engaged to her Boyfriend of TEN years, and only the best could do for the engagement party cake. That’s a THREE tier red velvet, and the mini cakes are also red velvets… Mmmmmm
Sorry for the rubbish photo – my phone camera has no flash, but if you squeeze your eyes a little you can make out the baby versions of my favourite EVER cupcake.

When I was broke and going to KCC another really good friend on my course that I haven’t seen for ages :S, and I used to walk ourselves all the way up Portobello Road whenever the day had been significantly mean to us to get a cupcake. They are not cheap cupcakes at £1.85 but they definately fit the bill for a super treat – and personally as I tell the world I would pay double for the taste of those little bites of heaven <3

We'd get them put into a little box, and once back in the Studio we'd totally demolish them. Eery now and again we'd get a new flavour or a different cake, but it was ALWAYS the red velvet that is the best.

That was back in 2004, and since then the shop has become massive, they have opened a second shop in South Ken, and more recently another in Soho (I haven't quite made to either yet, but the above cakes were got there by Chele (they are just as good – something that bothered me) and I’ve heard tourists in the original Portobello shop say that they had been told by friends to ensure they visited the Bakery before they had left home!

I think its an amazing story! Has any of your favourite places ever gone big?

under the Westway W10

There are two shows I attend year in year out without fail. The first is of course 100% Design, a round up of everything fabulous in the design industry. The second is The Surface Design Show, a more detailed, trade focussed event open to the public showcasing the current uses and trends in interior and exterior surfacing. A lot smaller that 100percent, this event is all about new product launches, samples to you door via a scan badge (:D) and an amazing seminar programme –

BRE Seminars
Day 1 (17th February)
11.30 – 12.00: Responsible Sourcing of Construction Products
13.00 – 13.30: Resource Efficiency
14.30 – 15.00: The Green Guide to Specification
15.30 – 16.00: ‘How Green is Green?’
Day 2 (18th February)
11.30 – 12.00: Environmental Profiles specifically focusing on flooring
13.00 – 13.30: Materials Fire-Testing and Certification
14.30 – 15.00: Environmental Profiles
15.30 – 16.00: BREEAM

The RIBA Lunchtime Portraits
Day 1 (17th February)
Future Intelligence in Material Application – Healthcare
13.00- 14.00: UCL Cancer Institute, with Neven Sidor at Grimshaw Architects and Prof. Mark Enright at Imperial College
Day 2 (18th February)
13.00 – 14.00: Sustainable Concretes and Surface Innovation – Housing
The Tarling Estate- with S333 Architects and Elaine Toogood at the Concrete Centre

The Construction Products Association Seminars
Day 1 (17th February)
14.00 – 14.30: The New Energy Efficiency Regulations 2010
Day 2 (18th February)
12.00 – 12.30: Responsible Sourcing

RIBA CPD Seminars
Day 1 (17th February)
12.00 – 12.30: Muraspec – Disability Discrimination Act and Colour Contrast CPD
15.00 – 15.30: Mapei – Epoxy Resin and Cementitious Flooring
Day 2 (18th February)
14.00 – 14.30: Schott Glass – Reflections in Glass

“Visitors already booked for 2010 include architects, designers and project managers from: Zaha Hadid Architects, Gensler, HOK, Foster & Partners, Will Alsop & RMJM, KCA International, PRP Architects, Nokia, Ford Motor Co, Aston Martin, Selfridges, Harrods, The London Regency Hotel, Southampton University Hospitals’ NHS Trust, London Underground and more!”

Business Design Centre
52 Upper Street
Islington
London
N1 0QH
Register here

One of the more cool things about studying Architecture, is the constant demand to visit spaces in and around Central London, as well as exhibitions galleries and talks. For our latest project, we are using the Hamilton Gallery in Carlos Place.

Currently showing ‘Something for Everyone’ a group exhibition of unseen work at the Gallery (ending January 16th), is it an extraordinary space. On immediate entrance you are at the top of a dual stair, set about a third above the floor of the first space,requiring you to descend into the space. Lit from above by a partial Skylight on the hip of the roof, a small corridor/Information area leads into another smaller space, this time entirely roofed in a triple peaked glass roof.

Here the overhead view is stunning, as the surrounding buildings range from two to six storeys, and the Gallery being of two heights – but both of one level is strikingly overlooked, yet welcomes this gaze in the use of the glazed roof over the main display space.

I really liked Mayfair Lady 5 by Miles Aldridge – It is a stunning Photograph and I’m really feeling the blue thing at the moment but to be frank nothing in particular tickled my fancy. Hopefully when I return for the ‘Maastricht 2010’ Exhbit in March, Although most of my tastes are contemporary and innovative designs, I have a great love for the Classics.

Free event. Booking required.

“If there were water…
If there were only water amongst the rock…
If there were the sound of water only
TS Eliot, The Wasteland
The Walbrook River was one of the largest and most important rivers in London. A Roman river, the Walbrook takes us back to ancient London, when south of the river was a group of islands, and much of what we now understand as this city was more marsh than land.
The Walbrook has been lost for over 5 centuries. With the help of a dowser, artist Amy Sharrocks has re-mapped this river, and is attempting to reclaim this great body of water with a huge public walk along its course.”

Amy Sharrocks has re-mapped the ancient buried Walbrook River from its source in Islington its mouth at the River Thames. Participents are asked to wear blue and be llosely tied at the waist, the idea being that this will be a process of re remembering the boy of water using a body of blue people!!!

A lovely Idea, I really hope they get a good turn out…

Details:
Artsadmin | Toynbee Studios | 28 Commercial Street | London | E1 6AB
Box office 020 7650 2350 | Online booking
Tel 020 7247 5102 | Fax 020 7247 5103 | Textphone 020 7247 5182 | admin@artsadmin.co.uk

Brisbane News – London police find dead man after G20 protests.

I couldn’t believe this at first when I saw a comment posted on a friends facebook… Strangely its not in th UK News as of yet.

He added later “I was in the vicinity. I had to get away from the main area as it was getting very heated indeed. I could just about see what was going on. Some people were covered in blood…. Felt like a horror movie. Some of the protesters were throwing things at the police therefore delaying medical attention to the dying man – Police version: natural causes!! I am shocked”