So, the time has come to depart back to my Belfast life of work, teaching, and the odd pint or a hundred... Have just had an email from a friend bringing me up to speed on the Belfast gossip, and blimy! in my six month absence, people have had babies (1, female), got engaged (1 couple: L knows the man involved!), split up (2 couples), bought houses (3 people), got pregnant (3 people)... Do you see what a normal, productive, family, house, couple world it is? No wonder I don't fit in!!So here is my idiosyncratic guide to my personal London "must do" list. If you do this, you have, in my opinion, experienced much of the best the capital has to offer. But I expect the other girls will have v different lists...
1) The Southbank
Throbbing cultural heart of London now, rescued from the indignity of being "South of the river". There are great restaurants, bookshops, and of course the NFT, the Hayward Gallery, and the National Theatre. Take a stroll from the London Aquarium to Tate Modern/ the Globe and marvel at the views and everything you can do. Try and ignore the stupid people standing still for money - never get this form of "entertainment".
2) Tate Modern
It gets its own entry. I still don't like the general hang of the paintings -it leaps around too much in time for my own pedantic liking, though they have some fabulous stuff. But the two very contemporary exhibitions I have been to see Pierre Hugyhe and Fischli and Weiss have been revelations - wonderfully curated, accessibly presented, witty, warm, and thought provoking.
3) The National
While we are on a general cultural vibe, must also record just how wonderful the National is these days, especially thanks to Ken's inspired decision to get rid of the traffic by Trafalgar Square. You can sit and have a sneaky fag (if you are still a smoker!) and admire the view, then go in and see some of the best paintings in the world, for free....And have a coffee or a wine in the Rooftop restaurant of the National Portrait Gallery next door, great views over Trafalgar Square and back down to Whitehall. You can fantasise being a sniper and being able to get Gordon Brown!
4) North London
For me, the best bit of London stretches from Camden out to Hampstead and Highgate and back down to Angel. There are vast areas of park (Waterlow, with wonderful views back to the city; and, of course, Hampstead Heath), millions of cafes, bars, and great pubs such as the Flask in Highgate Village - C and my's new local. I just love the vibe of North London, even if in the summer I had the odd nostalgic moment for Putney and the river...
5) Night Buses
Did you know my friend Marty has lived in London for a decade and never taken a night bus??!! To me,this seems strangely symbolic of a fear of risk - how self controlled do you have to be to NEVER EVER have had an evening where lust, or drink, or sheer bloody fun, have prevented you from catching the final tube? Night buses are a godsend. They are a safe way home (usually!) and they criss cross the entire city. You feel strong and independent getting one, and sometimes you have funny conversations. Don't sit next to someone who is asleep though, they might wake up and vomit on you.
6) Buying Sunday's paper on Saturday evening on the way home
And then in my case, never having time to read the thing in the week. But makes you feel part of happening, throbbing metropolis, where the news is always available, and life is lived at great speed
7) El Commandante
My beloved local pub! A shrine to Che Guevara run by two Bolivian political refugees. It's always a fiesta in there.
8) The quirky little museums
Any one of these three: easy to look round, fascinating, and entirely different. Freud Museum; Sir John Soane's Museum; Lord Leighton's House (the last has a quite mind blowing Arabian room)
9) The shopping!
It always overwhelms me, the quality and range of choice you can get. An hour or two in Selfridges or a browse along the King's Road will fulfill all your consumption urges, and blow a hole in your savings.
10) South Ken
One of the venerable London neighbourhoods. My pattern is arrive, go for crepe at the Creperie de South Kensington, go and buy Biba magazine at the French bookshop, watch a film at the Institut Francais. Alternatives include a traipse around the V and A, where you can do everything from admiring some Vivienne Westwood shoes to a piece of 14th century religious art, then a meal at the Cafe Daquise, which as long as you are not with drunk lairy friends and don't bump into your life's mentor, is fab, with proper old world Polish classics - love the blinis in particular.
11) The East End
I'm sneakily adding this a bit late, but I went for dinner with P on Tuesday night and we ended up at a restaurant near Old Street and I'm reminded just what a peculiar and particular part of town this is, with the contrast between the Hoxton trendies (they still exist) and the hundreds of curry houses on Brick Lane (they aren't going anywhere). I have done some of the most unexpected things here - gone to a gallery opening with L and some of her friends, where we critiqued photographs showing terrible poverty and injustice while sipping gin and tonics; gone for a curry at one in the morning with my friend J and a load of guys from the passport office; gone for curry with my ex-boyfriend because his new girlfriend being more health conscious than self doesn't "do" curry - I'm his naan bread whore; spent happy hours wondering around Spitalfields market buying things I don't need but love anyway (like my trusty bobbly scarf).
12) The Electric Ballroom in Camden
Relive your youth! Drink cheap (ish) beer, dance to Tiffany, snog a boy you don't fancy!
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