The Sneaky Magpie

I really wish for warmer weather, this morning my fingers and toes got frozen and I almost skidded on ice on Oxford Street and went against the traffic cause I was not able to take a turn. On top of this the heating in my office is broken again and I am sitting under two layers of jumpers plus a water bottle. Brrr.

But it is sunny so I should not complain too much!

This weekend was very nice.

More bread making. Sourdough rye, a much lighter rye than last week, superb crust. I am using Richard Bertinet’s book called Crust, very easy to follow and all the bread comes out amazingly well.

A quick look at Carnaby Street exhibition followed by a delicious lunch of Italian tapas at Polpo.

Afterward I was off to National Portrait Gallery to see a wonderful selection of Irving Penn’s portraits. The photographs are very striking with a fair dose of humour.

More baking was done: caramelised apple, hazelnut and almond cake accompanied by a hot beverage in my new Portmeirion cup, thank you Lisa!

The baby plants are doing very well.

I got three Elizabeth Gaskell books, it was very hard to decide which one I should read first. I recently watched BBC’s North and South so decided to start with this one. Absolutely smitten with Richard Armitage BTW. Gaskell’s writing is very engaging, realism with a bit of humour, I feel we are going to be very good friends. I am enjoying it so much I actually get up early to do a little bit of reading before work.

I also watched few films:

Up in the Air – all I can say, thank God the DVD broke half way in, it was dreadful

Where the Wild Things Are – very charming and beautiful

Paris je t’aime – a great selection of 18 shorts about Paris, each by different director and star studded. Some nicer then others but lovely to watch. Ps We booked another weekend in Paris in June, cannot wait!

I was supposed to go out of town on Sunday but the weather was so dreadful I decided to stay and see what London has got to offer.

First stop was The British Library to see Points of View exhibition. The exhibition covered 19 century photography from William Fox Talbot’s beginnings through documenting the first hippopotamus in Britain, practical and spiritual use of photography to Eadweard Muybridge’s motion pictures and the birth of Kodak.

Talbot’s early picture and the famous hippo.

Everyday life.

Exotic travels.

Portraits.

Science, medicine, criminology and progress.

Journalism.

Every area of life got examined, new animals and lands were seen by all, people became travelers from the comfort of their own sofas, ‘ghost pictures’ were all the rage along with séances, catching criminals got easier, world became a smaller place.

A very good and broad exhibition, well worth a visit.

Next stop was Wellcome Collection, the current exhibition is about identity however it failed to engage me, I was much more into Medicine Man which is a bit like a smaller and tidier version of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. It had a selection of various medical objects as well as curiosities like Darwin’s walking stick, Napoleon’s toothbrush and King George III’s lock of hair. I had a lot of fun and highly recommend it.

I really must mention the cafe at Wellcome Collection, it’s run by Peyton and Byrne and the cakes were amazing. They also have the nicest crockery and glasses with embossed bees.

Both exhibitions are free.

I also read The Diary of a Nobody. Mr Pooter, the protagonist, is the Victorian version of one of my favorite literary characters – Adrian Mole. He leads a happy life, doesn’t like changes, makes a lot of jokes and finds them hilarious, offends his friends and makes up, gets into uncomfortable situations and struggles to understand his son, he is a middle class city clerk desperate to be recognised by the upper class.

The tone of this book is very light and funny, it’s a satire on all the Victorian diaries that became so easy to publish everyone did it, it is also a satire on people who take themselves too seriously. I enjoyed it tremendously.

Yesterday I went to see a fun exhibition at London’s Fashion and Textile Museum: Foale and Tuffin and Made in England.

I first came across Foale and Tuffin 4 years ago at the 60s exhibition at V&A and loved their quirky colorful designs ever since. It’s easy to spot which contemporary labels got their inspiration from Foale&Tuffin, and nice to see that the company’s heritage lives on.

A classic trench I would wear now and a dress reminiscent of Eley Kishimoto and Marc by Marc Jacobs.

Kate Moss must have gotten very impressed by this flowery dress (yours truly in the mirror too). I love the frilly top of the second dress.

The Double D dress and a fabulous green summer dress. A breath of fresh air after New Look era.

Peter Pan collars were everywhere. The ‘Boyfriend’ jacket in the background.

It’s all about color and comfort.

Simplicity is the word.

There were pictures of Twiggy and Jenny Boyd sporting the brand often photographed by the young David Bailey as well as drawings of the designs.

The exhibition also had few hippie frocks but that’s not my cup of it, let’s leave it to Bill Gibb, shall we?

And this is the workshop of Sally Tuffin and Marion Foale, the queens of Carnaby Street. They loved Liberty prints.

If you have got interest in fashion history this is a major chunk of the 60s London.

It was time for M’s haircut in Spitalfields (who is now sporting a positively Orwellian look) so Diana and I decided to have tea and cake at Market Coffee House.

Banana, chocolate and pecan cake and gun powder tea accompanied by D.V. was a delightful hour.

Afterward we headed to Shoreditch High Street via Brick Lane popping to pick up some chai latte on route.

Visiting new places continues and this weekend it was Geffrye Museum which I enjoyed a lot.

The museum is housed in 18th century almshouse, it shows domestic interiors of English middle class in London through various periods starting with 17th century dining room and ending in a modern 90s apartment.

All the interiors are very well described, there are timelines of the crucial events that influenced design among other things. There are also notes on the domestic customs like doing the accounts in the afternoon and visiting Carnaby Street for fruit and veg in the morning.

Lovely wallpaper.

I live in Art Deco building so it was very exciting to see how our apartment should really look like.

This beautiful chair would really work well in our place.

My favorite period in interior design the 50s-60s. Pete and Trudie Campbell would feel here at home. I love the briefcase left next to the table, father is home, get the old fashioned ready!

Woolworth’s Homemaker cup and saucer.

Beautiful Art Deco coffee set from Shelley Potteries.

Art Nouveau vase from Royal Doulton…

…and ‘The Book of the Home’.

Funky TV and coffee set.

Great place, I highly recommend it. I will be back later this year to visit the garden.

Feeling hungry we decided it was time for lunch, off to Pizza East for portobello mushroom and egg ….

…and Margarita.

The day got rather nippy so I was glad to head back home, curl up on the sofa and immerse myself in more wisdom of D.V.

My weekend started at Osteria Antica Bologna in Northcote Road, a nice family run Italian restaurant where I enjoyed delicious scallops with lentil, apple and parsley salad accompanied by good wine and fabulous company. I actually tried to recreate the lentil salad but it wasn’t as good, truth be told I used the wrong kind of apple. If you are ever in Clapham Junction area do go, it’s a fantastic place for lunch, dinner or drink. Beware of a slow service but the wait will be worth it!

Saturday was all about food shopping and a very early spring cleaning of the flat, we have thrown out a bagful of old papers and organised a lot of cupboards. We also visited the local charity shop to offload some stuff where I couldn’t resist buying F.Scott Fitzgerald collection of short stories for 50p.

After last two weeks of ebay madness I hardly have things to get rid of which feels so good.

Sunday was spent on cooking and playing with my little niece. I baked Allegra McEvedy’s Swedish apple cake which is more of a pudding than a cake, especially when served with good vanilla ice cream. Very easy recipe, it takes about 10-15 minutes to put everything together and 50 min to bake.

Got to read a little too, Vogue and ELLE arrived, The Sunday Times had a good article on Mad Men which btw won the best drama at Golden Globes for the 3rd year in a row, well deserved!

I am reading Chekhov’s stories and this weekend I enjoyed Ward no6. I also got D.V. by Diana Vreeland which I am very much looking forward to. Following the Norman Parkinson show at Somerset House I decided to re-read The Golden Age of Couture – the book accompaniment to one of my favorite exhibitions.

I watched the rather bad Breaking and Entering (a total waste of time) and the very graphic yet beautifully shot Antichrist.

Few things I am looking forward to:

a visual feast of A Single Man thanks to Dan Bishop

visiting V&A to see Quilts, Grace Kelly and Horace Walpole shows, and might even pop in to see a rather intriguing sounding The Metropolitan Police Service’s Investigation of Fakes and Forgeries

Foal and Tuffin at Fashion and Textile Museum should be fun, along with a stroll down Bermondsey Street

William Eggleston at Victoria Miro Gallery

Irving Penn Portraits at NPG

whole lot of good stuff at the Tate Galleries

buying some plants – I quite like the idea of mother-in-law’s tongue in nice mid-century pots, at the moment I own no plants whatsoever, even my basil died so this will be a challenge.

Desperate to catch all the shows before they end I organised a tight schedule and stuck to it this weekend.

On Friday night I saw Ed Ruscha at the Hayward Gallery which was good but not mind blowing. Definitely few very good paintings. Afterward my friends and I went to BFI for some drinks, the new bar on the riverfront is so much nicer than the old setup and the chips are excellent too!

On Saturday I met another friend of mine at RA and saw Wild Thing: Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska and Gill. A truly wonderful collection of sculptures and sketches. The most impressive being Bird Swallowing a Fish by Gaudier-Brzeska and Epstein’s Portrait of Iris Beerbohm Tree and the spectacular Rock Drill. Amazing show, really worth a visit.

We had a quick lunch in Soho and headed down to Somerset House to see Norman Parkinson: A Very British Glamour. Another great exhibition, a lot of pictures of Parkinson’s wife and iconic shots of Jerry Hall from the 70s. Well worth a visit, especially if you enjoyed Golden Age of Couture at V&A a couple of years ago.

Warmed up by the museum hopping we decided to end the trip at The National Picture Gallery to see the very entertaining Beatles to Bowie: the 60s exposed.

I watched very moving Wajda’s Katyn – a film about an incident from WWII and its aftermath that not many people know of.

And I almost finished watching Mad Men season 3, a thought of only 2 episodes left to watch is making me depressed. Drooling over Betty Draper’s outfits.

I have done a couple of New Year’s resolutions in the past couple of years and I must say I stuck to the biggest ones:

coffee – I haven’t had a cup of coffee for 2 years after I realised I didn’t like the taste of it and I hate milk, I was clearly addicted to it. All I liked about it is the smell and the culture of having a nice cup of coffee, looking for the perfect coffee house was my mission, I quit it shortly after I found the ultimate one

black tea – I quit it years ago, I really don’t enjoy the taste of it, It got replaced by green, white and herbal teas

meat – I quit meat the same day I quit coffee, I just stopped enjoying it, it had a strange smell even though I would always buy it from my organic butcher. It seemed my body didn’t like it. It’s only the end of this year when I started to crave it again, I had a chicken roast for Christmas and it was delicious. I am not going back on a full meat diet as I still prefer fish and vegetarian dishes but if my body needs it I will give in to it.

walking to work – sick and tired of the tube and feeling unfit I decided to walk from my house to Stockwell tube station which is about 40min walk and where I can always get a seat on the train. I did it every day rain or shine for year and a half till I started cycling.

This year I haven’t made any resolutions but I looked at last year and thought what I wish I did more of, there were 2 things that kept springing to my mind. First is to see more of England, 2nd is to go and see all the museums I never visited.

To start the year well we decided to go to Dover but the weather turned so nasty we quickly decided to postpone that trip. Instead we went to The Imperial War Museum in Kennington and it was fantastic. Obviously I am not a boy obsessed with fighting and machinery but I can certainly appreciate good design and have a huge respect for the past. The planes and an old wooden red double decker were really beautiful and I loved two soldiers’ busts by Epstein. There is also a small picture gallery where I saw some wonderful works of John Singer Sargent, Paul Nash and CRW Nevinson.

Here are some other places I must visit:

Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms

Geffrye Museum

National Maritime Museum

London Transport Museum

Dulwich Picture Gallery

V&A Museum of Childhood

Highgate Cemetery

Any other recommendations are very welcome!

So this is my last sum-up of the year…

As usual, London delivered some amazing exhibitions this year  however not as many as the couple of previous years, here is a brief list of my favorite ones:

Funny and smart works of John Baldessari at Tate Modern.

Amazing paintings by Elizabeth Payton at Whitechapel Gallery.

A great introduction to Futurism at Tate Modern.

My favorite photography exhibition – André Kertész On Reading at The Photographer’s Gallery.

Sunning works at Turner and the Masters at Tate Britain.

And I still must catch Ed Ruscha at Hayward, Norman Parkinson at Somerset House and RA’s Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Eric Gill. Let alone all the upcoming shows, my new year’s resolutions should be: don’t leave too many shows till the last minute!

I had a great day today and yesterday, I have posted near to 30 items on ebay and they caused a stir! Fingers crossed all will sell which will give my wardrobe much needed breathing space. I have decided that if I haven’t worn something for a year or longer I will never wear it again and it must go. I have also revisited the boxes of designer treasures that are not such treasures now I look at them, no classics, time to go. My fashion investments will remain in the bag and shoe stock.

I have loaded a bag for charity shop and will deliver it to Oxfam with all the ebay failures.

You know all the tasks that get put away like mending your clothing, polishing shoes and sewing missing buttons on? They have been staring at me from the depths of my wardrobe for some time and yesterday I finally faced them all at the same time. Such a relief.

I have invested into a small catering business in Philippines on Kiva. I really hope these ladies do well.

I have purchased two nice belts from All Saints, in brown and black leather. They are my only sales hunts so far, unfortunately the other belt sold out so I don’t have a picture.

I have really cracked on with my book pile, I have managed to read:

High Raise the Roof Beam, Carpenters by J.D. Salinger

Seymour an Introduction by J.D. Salinger

Nine Stories by J.D.Salinger

I know it is a lot of Salinger but he is such a good writer, I also found out that he is still alive, 100 years old!

The Most Beautiful Woman in Town by Charles Bukowski

The Faithful River by Stefan Zeromski

I have decided to put away Ulysses and The Corporation, at least for now.

So the only remaining books left are Tropic of Capricorn and some Chekhov stories and plays. This means I will be able to move onto some brand new books very soon. Really looking forward to it.

I have watched the 2 new episodes of Cranford and am awaiting the DVD of the first series, I might even start reading the books. I am quite glad I have not discovered it earlier because I am in real need of a costume drama fix.

I have made it to Tate Britain today to see the wonderful Turner and the Masters show, they had some amazing Rembrandts and Canalettos. I also checked out the Turner Prize which is definitely better than last year’s and glimpsed at some beautiful sculptures in the hall. This reminds me of few more exhibitions I must see and the time is running out. Especially for Ed Ruscha at The Hayward (Friday 6.00-10.00pm two for one deal) on till the 10th of January, Maharaja at V&A till 17th January and Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Eric Gill at The Royal Academy till 24th January. I knew I left it too late and now will have to rush.

The Mill by Rembrandt

And tomorrow I will have to take it easy….

It was so nice to visit Paris after 10 years. All my previous visits seemed so hectic and this one was very relaxed and enjoyable.

We stayed in Montmartre, in a hotel that looked great on the website but turned out pretty grotesque. The location was excellent though. We promptly left our room and went to get a bite to eat.

Our first lunch was at Un Zebre a Montmartre which was busy with locals and the food was delicious.

Afterward we hiked up the hill to the Sacre Coeur basilica where the view of Paris was spectacular.

Next was a lovely cafe, Cafe Les Deux Moulins, in Rue Lepic for a cup of hot chocolate followed with wine to warm up, the first day of our visit was freezing cold. The cafe was buzzing with young trendy crowd and it didn’t take us long to realise it was the cafe Amelie Poulain works at in the film (Amelie reminders are scattered all over the place).

The whole Montmartre is full of patisseries, boulangeries, fromageries, great food shops, sea food stalls and proper butchers.

I would recommend Les Petits Mitrons on 26 Rue Lepic and Patisserie Arnaud Delmontel in 39 Rue des Martyrs. The first one specializes in fruit cakes, pastries and quiches, and the second one in cakes, macarons and bakery goods.

Day 2 started with a trip to Louvre where I did have a quick look at Mona Lisa because I have never seen the painting before but it is so far and covered with so much glass it’s very difficult to see it properly.  We very quickly moved away from the crowd and went to see the Dutch and Flemish paintings which we both love. It was just my luck that one of the two Vermeers was on a loan to US, the other one called The Lacemaker was stunning though. There was an amazing collection of Rembrands and one very good Frans Hals as well as a tiny picture by Bruegel called The Cripples. The place is truly overwhelming and one would need numerous visits to take it all in just like with Del Prado in Madrid or The National Gallery in London.

Next stop was Marais, stroll down the streets, Place des Vosges and a tasty lunch at Au Petit fer a Cheval on Rue Vielle du Temple where I had confit de canard which is the first proper piece of meat I have had in 2 years. M had steak frites and we both shared the best creme brulee ever.

Marais is full of fashion shops I love however Euro is so strong it is cheaper in London so sadly I left empty handed.

Fantastic vintage shops:

Cuisinophilie

Shop which name I have forgotten…

Milk, best haberdashery shop ever

Being very greedy we managed to have eclairs at a local patisserie and few drinks on our way back to Montmartre.

Day 3 started with a Parisian breakfast in Montmartre.

Followed with a walk down the river bank to Musee d’Orsay. The day was beautiful.

View of Montmartre from d’Orsay.

The museum was as overwhelming as Louvre, too many wonderful pictures from the permanent collection to take in as well as an a couple of exhibitions.

After a good couple of hours of art we headed to Rue Bonaparte to Pierre Herme for some mouth watering macarons. I am so glad they deliver to England. The cakes look incredible too. I could probably eat there every day.

Our last dinner was at Le Petit Parisien in Montmartr where yet another scrumptious meal was consumed. The service was very poor though.

We had few hours yesterday to kill before the train home so we headed to Musee d’Art Moderne, we also managed to visit a nearby food market which made me so jealous of all European markets. It’s all about seasonal food and high quality. My farmers market is so sad in comparison. I bought some sweet chestnuts and they were delicious. The mushrooms were the most impressive though.

Every single greengrocer had this standard of food.

We ended up buying some jams, cheese and cakes before heading off to Gare du Nord and saying goodbye to Paris.