Touch Wood August 13, 2009

A trip to Edinburgh is never complete without a cheeky stop in The Red Door Gallery on Victoria Street.  On my first evening back in London I found myself trawling the interweb and found myself on their blog. I saw many lovely items and spotting the wooden ipod by Josh D led me thinking about other wooden wonders.

I love the use of wood in modern products. As a material that is losing its place to plastic, what I found was that there were many out there who yearned for the aesthetics of wood. I love plastic for its transparence and colours that pop; but wood is like the quiet, natural beauty. Like a girl who does not wear much make-up and doesn’t need to.

On the electronic/gadget front, I found the Ki-Board DIY kit by Hacoa a wood products dealer.

While the ipod and the keyboard are digital products, Lightning Heat has turned her analogue christmas decoration into a cool brooch.

Sniffle Co. is awooden haven with the cutest wooden brooches and buttons. My favourite is the woody Woody Allen.

Nigerian Disco June 24, 2009

Happiness is a sunny day and having this stream through into my ears and soul is helping me through the working day.

Today I found this mix. It’s Nigerian Disco and if you live in NY you should go to Frank of Voodoo Funk’s  Lagos Disco Inferno night.

Unfortunately I live in London and can’t go but I will be listening to this sweet mix and dancing along to it.

Fish & Stitches and other Woolly Food June 9, 2009

Kate Jenkins crochets with a huge sense of humour. I love her range of breakfast fry-ups and wool sculptures of British favourites like Lyle’s Golden Syrup and Heinz Ketchup to tinned anchovies.

I have just read that the Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery will be hosting an exhibition of this knitwear designer’s foodart, aptly titled Kate’s Cafe.

I can’t wait to go. It looks like it has the right ingredients to warm anyone’s heart.

Air in Choco April 15, 2009

This Easter, instead of eating chocolate eggs, I bought Air in Choco in Arigato on Brewer Street. This fish-shaped chocolate wafer confectionery got me really excited! There is something very thrilling about food in the shape of other food or animals. It is the playfulness and the obvious trick that make me love food in disguise.

When I opened this later, I was so happy to find that not only is Air in Choco food in disguise, the fish is of a take-me- seriously size. I bought this thinking there might be some tiny fish in the packet. What I found was one solo fish sitting on a paper tray, looking like it was tired of waiting around for something to happen.

And immediately I understood why such a fish would look impatient waiting around in a packet. Ladies and gentlemen, remember, this is no ordinary fish, no ordinary chocolate wafer.  It is Air in Choco for a reason…have a look inside.

There it is. As promised, all that air in choco.

Tache-tastic February 11, 2009

The moustache has been a big source of amusement and entertainment for me. It all started with Dali and his moustache. From the day when Tyler and I went around the supermarket  with fake moustaches looking for treacle to make gingerbreadmen to the night at The Egg where I danced quite seriously with a moustache above my lip.

And so the obsession continued, one work Christmas do we were given fake moustaches to wear over lunch, much to everyone’s delight.  Although I would have been equally happy with the moustache pencils.

One of Guy’s first presents to me was a serious fat man’s tache which I hang by my door like it’s for sale. And then came the Moustache Envy badges Sarah bought for me. This year for my birthday, my lovely friends found a moustache ring for me from Tatty Devine.  It’s a beautiful ring and great for instant fancydress occasions.

I am delighted to see the number of moustache products out there. Clearly, moustaches make people happy. Here’s a blog with many a hairy post and if you wanted to go out dancing in London, there’s the Moustache Bar in Dalston or in Paris, here’s a club for moustachioed boys and girls.

It’s cold and beautifully cinematic January 8, 2009

I quite cherish January when excessive everything comes to a halt. When it gets properly cold and you almost certainly step out onto icey pavements, you just have to slow down and absorb. I love the silence that comes with the cold weather. The sort of quiet that creates a sense of space, even in a city like London.  It is during these times that I feel the urge to listen to quieter sounds, to stay in and to get cosy under the covers.

Tonight  I’ve put on Olafur Arnaulds loudly so that my room is filled with the sounds of his computer explorations in strings and the piano. I am in the mood for beautiful and haunting images. Yesterday, I spent most of the day listening to Paavoharju and ended the day by watching Twin Peaks again. At the moment I am overcome by stillness and slowness.

Something in the music in Laulu Laakson Kukista reminds me of a French film I watched a few years ago. I remember how it had such a residual effect on me that I thought about the film for days and weeks. I am also reminded of the Lee Jones mix on Resident Advisor and I particularly love that Golden the Pony Boy is in the mix. For the longest time I could not remember where I’d heard it from until I started seeing the scenes from the magical  Science of Sleep in my head.

These are sounds and images I’d like to wrap myself in when the days are short and it’s quietly freezing. These are the senses that need to be filled to keep me blissful.

#2009 (Go Bang) December 31, 2008

I woke up this morning thinking of Arthur Russell. Today being the last day of 2008 is when I’d like to spend a bit of time lamenting and reflecting on the year that’s been. 

I remember watching Wild Combination at the ICA. The film added many layers of meaning to the music I’ve always been fond of. I remember  listening to a lot of Arthur Russell after watching the documentary because it made the music a bit more personal and important.

So today, before the partying starts and it goes bang into the new year I quite like to have a bit of quiet and fill my head with the wonderful sounds of Arthur Russell. 

I hope that despite the economic gloom, London will still be a city of wonder for me in the sort of magical way like City Glow by Chiho Aoshima. 

Let’s start from the very beginning… December 9, 2008

About a year ago, on my regular browse on day-lab, I fell in love with these vintage jumbo initial pins. This time last year, day-lab still shipped internationally, but there were no “A”s or “Q”s or even “K”s. I continued to check, almost obsessively to see if perhaps one day, Amy would find more of these dead stock and upload them on her site. Instead of finding the correct letters in this style, the site was updated with more varieties of initial jewellery. And still to no avail. There was nothing in these letters. It suddenly felt like I was playing a very bad game of scrabble. Speaking of which I did buy some scrabble tile earrings from Brick Lane ages ago and was pleased that “A” and “Q” made up 11 points on their own.

I remember my mum buying my dad embroidered hankies with the letter “Q” in the corner. They were just so classy and made a special gift for the gentleman, that is my dad.

I guess those hankies had something to do with my need to get my hands on something similar.  I had a flash of genius. I was going to save a search on Ebay for initial. So for awhile now, I have been getting daily results for initials. Unfortunately this has resulted in some pretty ugly pieces of jewellery, and mostly in the letters that I wanted.

In October, I was in Paris for work. The apartment in Montmartre is next to the best junk shop in the world. Outside the window display is filled with heads of dolls, leather partridge pins in French colours. This shop as my friends had predicted had my name all over it. I spent a good hour and more in this teeny-tiny shop, the size of a medium bathroom. I found some gifts for everyone and myself! I walked out with wooden blocks of letters in beautiful fonts, a plastic red sailboat brooch (which I have unfortunately lost- boo) and a vintage thin gold leather belt (which is already falling apart 2 months on).  I spent much of that hour looking through a tiny box that was filled with vintage initial brooches. And again, no chance pour moi.  A feeling of stubborness came over me and I decided to buy a “Y”. I was going to tell people that it is not always about the initial, but also the end. My name ends with “Y”, so this brooch is mine.  I convinced myself that I was more than qualified to be wearing a “Y”.

I stopped looking.

And on Saturday, we went to Broadway Market to get some brunch. It was a gorgeous day with a clear blue sky. And something caught my eye. And there amongst the beautiful bird hairbands and pearl brooches that were being sold by Jessie Chorley and Buddug lay some pretty decent-sized initials. A quick scan and I found them. Quite easily my new favourite earrings.

I went to bed yesterday satisfied with my weekend find and listened to Serge Gainsbourg’s Initiales B.B.

I love to Jjige, jjig, jjig in Korea November 9, 2008

I love living in a big city where it seems like the world is always within reach. After having lived in London for nearly one and half years, I have only just discovered the tiny strip of Korean eateries on St Giles High Street. Here, in this little pocket just off Tottenham Court Road I feel like I’ve been transported into a Korean film.

And here away from the maddening crowds of Oxford Street, I tried Kimchi Jjige for the first time. This is a dish that uses a combination of ingredients that epitomises the best flavours for my palate- spiciness and sourness.

Traditionally this is a hot pot of leftovers- made using old kimchi and cooked with beancurd or tofu and either pork or beef. It reminded me of my favourite Chinese New Year dish, a spicy and sour soup, again made with leftovers from the Reunion Dinner feast.

Now that the days are darker and the air crispier, nothing is as warming as having a bowl of kimchi jjige with some rice.

Memory of Light October 29, 2008

It’s funny how quickly the weather changes in a day. I woke up today to a beautiful Autumn’s day. Clear, blue skies. I remember stopping and pausing. Looking up and staring into the golden sun. I saw the slow and graceful fall of a yellow leaf. But I know not what leaf it was.

When it got dark this evening, I thought that it had gotten pretty cold. I wished I brought my mittens out. It properly felt like winter. And then it snowed. In October, it snowed. I remembered that it was only in April that it last snowed in London.

I felt like I’d gone through a year in a single day today. I found some beautiful photos by Cori Kindred, taken on her polaroid. I love how sunsplashed the photos are. This one in particular captured the loss I felt, that memory of this morning’s Autumn day.

I decided to put on the Resident Advisor podcast by Lee Jones. It felt right to sit here on the first winter day of the year, listening to beautiful cinematic music and admiring these images.