D-MAN

AIN'T NOTHIN' BUT A G THANG

 

So that's that. See you soon xo

Any and Every Ever

Going back to Singapore in about six days and midway through packing hell. Things I have learnt about packing after 3 years of moving and travelling with big/medium/small suitcases for long/short trips:

1. Cling wrap is mankind's greatest invention. It is sterile and airtight and stretchy and if you wrap it tightly around anything it compresses it like.. well vacuum packs, but I haven't got a vacuum sealing machine on hand. I bought a 45p roll from Tesco and have been using it to wrap up my shoes and bulky clothes. It just makes so much sense when you're packing crap loads of random stuff together..

2. Packing clothes into individual canvas totes, for organization purposes and also so that you can pack all that shit up more tightly without cling-wrapping everything. That would take a lot of time and also how would you be able to find specific things like a mid length black pencil skirt when everything looks black and cling-wrapped shiny?? So far packed work clothes into one bag, summer casual stuff in another, and winter stuff in another one. And one for books and scarves. It's much easier to unpack when everything's already in bags and not a massive pile. When floor space is scarce it's tough living out of a suitcase.

3. Put heavy stuff at the bottom of the suitcase so that the bag doesn't topple over easily. I don't know if other people have this problem but I always do.. all these imbalanced suitcases falling over squashing toes and in the worst case, babies.

Maybe these things are totally obvious but this is my game plan right now.. Mostly worried about unpacking because when I get back it's straight to the hairdresser's and setting up my phone plan, and then getting into battle mode for my first day of business. And of course as many meals in between as possible. 

Carnage

Just got back from the most epic and fun trip of my life thus far so it is true that things can and do always get better :)

Sitting in my room alone packing up my things in slow motion sessions and trying not to panic about the massive amount of life clutter I have amassed in the last three years. I should try to sell or donate most of my things but who would want them now? I have a hoarder complex so this is all not going down well at all. Time to call in the big guns

Swallowfield

With the morbidly late sunsets these days it feels like the days are bleeding into the nights which bleed again into the day. The lines between one day and the next are so blurry, the bank holidays this weekend and all the late nights aren't helping either.

Have had extremely happy days for the past week or so. Went to Antwerp on a whim, visited Sam in Durham and came back to hang out with my best friends in London. For the last three years I have relied so heavily on these people for their comfort and company. I love that my best friendships are easy and kind and honest. Distance is easy because closeness inevitably leads to friction. I think it might be a matter of whether people are willing to endure that temporary awkwardness for the long term gains. After waking up to a frigid morning we brought lunch to the boys' flat in Regent's Park and spent the afternoon playing mahjong and talking about things like, dreams, fears, ambitions, hopes. What we think and what we don't think. We're all very different people, it's quite obvious, but whatever made us still led us together. It is a bit miraculous maybe.

I am so grateful that this sort of happiness is present in my life,I must not waste it or forget it. There are so many things to love in this world, how could anybody bear to, or dare to turn their backs on them? Or even worse, to not see them at all? 

That is the only thing which is truly and really sad.

In Pitch Dark I Go Walking In Your Landscape

It's weird walking around campus knowing that it has all ended. I don't know if I'm happier or sadder about it. Went for Slade's grad show yesterday evening great way to spend a Friday evening.

It feels like a lot of small worries are piling up in my head and preventing me from feeling intensely about anything. Or it could be just the dreams. But talking it out always helps especially the caffeine light-headedness induced type of talking. We were talking about how commitments make a person, and so it makes good sense for us to make certain commitments in our lives but in the end, the only commitments that count for anything and make you anything are only those that you didn't choose. Consciousness is all fog and mirrors.

I'm really going to miss my friends so much

Some Crap

It was a good weekend I enjoyed the David Shrigley show at the Hayward Gallery which I visited with my favourite art-loving man friends. 


The Jeremy Dellar bit downstairs depressed all of us a little bit, especially the political stuff which I couldn't even bring myself to glance at. The 3D bat video also made me feel a bit nauseous. The Acid House part reminded me of Mike Nelson's The Coral Reef except a lot less interesting maybe it just felt less immediate because it wasn't as big and elaborate as the other one. When we were walking through all the Dellar stuff the word "hipster" kept ringing through my head, but that doesn't really mean anything because I can't tell what would have preceded the other... necklaces with neon yellow beads are a bit inexcusable though. I thought it was interesting that he explored using 3D media in different ways like with the dangling ViewMasters and the 3D bat video and even embossing machines with titles of his works(?) e.g. "A Range Rover crushed, and made into a bench". I liked that he used so many mediums and that each of his works were so completely different from the other. Sometimes it was hard to recognize any connection in between. 


It felt a bit off to me maybe no fault of the artist but I mean like that I ♥ Melancholy painted on the wall right after exiting the "acid house". It was hand painted and it was kind of obvious where the assistant had to go over the edges of the black paint to make the words look neater and more consistently. Freehand? I don't know, that was probably the most depressing thing. Can't you use a stencil for that or at least try to make sure the correction isn't so obvious? It was totally visible even from the other side of the gallery like a good twenty metres or something. It's a small thing and in the gallery shop I briefly considered buying the sticker for a friend but it still bothers me.


David Shrigley's illustrations/paintings cheered me up a bit because it is just... hilarious stuff. He uses the same type of aesthetic for most of his work which makes it a bit repetitive perhaps but it makes the individual elements come across a lot more strongly. The large cup of tea was really cute Bong and I stood around it and theorized that every day the assistants from the "cafe" in Dellar's exhibition would collect the leftover tea and pour them into Shrigley's giant teacup. Of course that is impossible and a stupid theory.

After eating sub-par ramen noodles along the South Bank we went back to the station, stopping by M&S for something sweet to eat. Out of all the bad habits I have collected since moving away from my parents I think the most expensive and debilitating one is this stupid compulsion to enter every supermarket I pass, either to buy groceries(always eggs and bread and chocolate biscuits) or just random sweets and coke. Based on the pile of receipts which have transitioned from my wallet and various handbags onto my bed right now, I roughly spend half of my allowance in the Tesco along Goodge Street every week. I bought at least 3 packets of fusilli pasta and maybe enough apple juice to fill a swimming pool. The dates on the receipts also show that I have been doing this about 4 times a week which is unhealthy by any standards. I've probably seen Mr. Tesco Team Leader more often than I see my best friends, and I also noticed that he got promoted this year because he used to wear the normal shirt now he wears a checked button up in Tesco colours with a big TEAM LEADER badge on it.

The worst thing about all of this is that for all the time and money I've spent I doubt it has helped me lose any weight like cigarettes or cocaine would.

Haven't even mentioned the mild embarrassment of facing the same friendly checkout guy before and after going to the Hayward Gallery.. bet he thinks I live on pink-coloured carbonated drinks, fizzy Percy Pig tails and Extremely Chocolatey Dark Chocolate Rounds.

I could go on forever about my un-verbalized thoughts but I probably shouldn't.

Dinner

Not that I need to say but... Everything was beautiful and tasted perfect.

I think fine dining is best enjoyed with friends. I really hate it when I feel awkward about eating. Always ends up with me half-eating my food and not enjoying any of it at all. With family and close friends it's a whole different matter though.. I like to leave a clean plate at the end of the meal, sometimes I can even go for seconds if I feel up for a challenge. Anyway, because there is this relation between my happiness and food, I get quite particular about things when we're dining out. Like if there is a booth seat I will always ask for it, and if I can opt to sit next to rather than opposite my dining partner I would like to do that instead too. With two people it's nice to sit at a corner rather than sitting across from each other, which feels a bit like a job interview. I think tables should always be small enough to ensure that there is no more than an arm's length between you and the closest person.

Dinner by Heston

Call: 020 7201 3833

La Familia

SOME OF THE BEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD

I seriously lucked out, my friends are fucking awesome. All we got is good times, from the beginning to infinity and beyond. They're always there when I need them, through the highs and the lows and everything in between. I love them all so much............ 

Goodman Steaks

2 weeks ago on the last day of term we went to Goodman City for our Friday night supper club and we ate what is likely to be the best steak I have ever tasted - the wagyu which costs maybe double of every other cut, but is so worth it. Once the plate hit the table we all went for it and immediately regretted it because the Black Angus just couldn't hold up against its competition. Note to self: always eat the good cuts before the BEST cuts to maximise total utility.

Goodman

City:  11 Old Jewry, EC2R 8DU

Mayfair: 24-26 Maddox Street, W1S 1QH

Canary Wharf: 3 South Quay, E14 9RU

Mid-March

I have been really happy and eating a lot and having mad fun busy weekends every single weekend for the last month plus, but recently I keep feeling a huge gnawing ache from the fact that I haven't made it to any of the exhibitions on my to-do list this year, including Gerhard Richter which is now over.

It really cut me up when I realised that I had missed it. I can't say that I'm an expert or enthusiast about his work, or art in general, but I was looking forward to it for so long and there was nothing stopping me from going except pure laziness and stupid distractions. Being bored = not doing something interesting. Opportunity cost here is not only the time wasted but the possible fun/enrichment gained from doing something interesting. Doing what you want to do.

This feeling of urgency and desire for immediacy is taking over my brain, it runs through everything I do in my life these days. The night before I wrote this down and stuck it to my wall:

INCONTINENCE IS LAME

WHEN YOU DO NOT DO 

WHAT YOU CAN AND 

SHOULD DO THEN 

YOU ARE DEFINITELY 

FUCKED FOR LIFE

With that in mind I am making a list of what I want to and will do this Spring, hopefully in pleasant weather and more importantly with good company

1. Yayoi Kusama @ Tate Modern: Now - 5 June
2. Lucien Freud @ National Portrait Gallery : Now - 27 May
3. David Shrigley, Jeremy Deller @ Hayward Gallery : Until 13 May
4. Horiyoshi III @ Somerset House : 21 Mar - 1 July
5. Hampstead Heath
6. Primrose Hill
7. Burger & Lobster
8. Clean my roof (buy chillchairs)

That's all that I can think of now hopefully will add more in later days.

Guy Fawkes '11

4th November 2011

West End Girls

We are really lucky/lazy girls, spent the entire weekend going up and down Wardour Street in Soho, all over the W1 from Chinatown to Carnaby Street to Charlotte Street... We get around by deciding where to eat.

Ordinary mode of operation within Soho

roughly in order of distance from our flat, south of Oxford Street

ATMs, Tesco on Dean Street

Vietnamese: Cay Tre 

Udon: Koya

Korean: Arirang

Non-mealtime snacks/desserts: Princi

There are no seats in Princi: L'eto Caffe 

Cupcakes: NOT Hummingbird - go to Lola @ Topshop Oxford Circus

Drinks: Kettner's

Taiwanese/Chinese: Leong's Legend

Roast meats: Four Seasons 

Chinese Desserts/Trash Talking: Candy Cafe 

Singapore/Malaysian: C&R Cafe

The list is lame, so Asian but that's how we roll. Noodles and rice = homely comforts. 

Weekends are special, so on Saturday night we went to Wright Brothers' Soho Oyster House.

Dozen oysters, Crab cakes, Pork belly + clams

Surf + Turf: Steak + langoustines

If I were rolling in the deep I would do this more often.. oysters + steak + chocolate dessert (the chocolate praline pot is so magical, like eating Nutella out of the pot but classy). Tummies filled we headed off for the rest of the London night, starting from home and then moving into progressively blurrier space... finally ending with a 4am rickshaw ride back to Charlotte Place and getting tucked into bed by my lovely friends.