Author: She Loves London

Foolproof Resolutions for Lazy London Locals
Sod the gym. Sack off Dry Jan (or congrats if you already have). Renounce your self imposed veganism, and don’t bother buying a bike; it’ll only get nicked.

In fact, if like me you’re not at all interested in setting yourself on the road to self improvement this year, why not do something that helps London be a bit better instead?
- Eat, shop and get drunk locally
This year, it’s all about supporting the local shops, cinemas, cafes, restaurants, bars and markets so London’s good bits aren’t infected by the Tesco Drone Machines. Not only are London’s markets brilliant, but independent businesses are 70% more likely to have dogs in them (see Huh in Dalston) and honestly, you haven’t lived unless you’ve bought some meat from my dad’s butchers shop on Mill Hill Broadway. Vested interest in this one? You betcha.
- Explore a new bit of the city
Thanks to the Overground’s lovely link-up job completed last November, you can now go in a big, brilliant circle all around London. This also means that those from the south side officially have no need to wistfully look upon north London from afar while sighing “Oh, if only it was within reach” while waiting for their delayed South Eastern train. Come towards the light! It’s wonderful up here, we’ve got tube lines and everything.
- Look up (and put your phone down)
We live in one of the most historic, diverse cities in the world, but most of us don’t spend nearly enough time looking at it. And I don’t mean through a camera lens, or even a blog (ironic, yeah) – I mean with your eye things. Same goes for food – stop taking photos and just eat it, will you? I don’t care how meaty your liquor is, at the end of the day, no one needs to see the inside of your kebab. Stop sharing for a minute. Put your phone away, log off Facebook, and stop bashing into people as you write texts on the Strand (guilty). Your mate’s baby might have been born yesterday, but St Paul’s cathedral has been there since 1675. Per-spec-tive.
- Don’t be an idiot
Last year I tried setting myself a challenge to smile at at least one person a day – I failed, spectacularly. Not because I’m a miserable, grumpy, sad faced person, but because it’s really, really hard to grin manically at a stranger without freaking them out. Nevertheless, I think we could all put steps in place to turn our music down on those crap Apple earphones and pick stuff up if it’s fallen down (people included). Let’s generally be a bit nicer, and tut, elbow, sigh loudly and slam our rucksacks in peoples faces on the tube a bit less.

If you would like to add to this list of easy things London locals can do, please feel free.

Also, this isn’t a hugely commercially minded blog – but if you run an independent business and want to give me a heads up about it, I will probably take a look. Especially if you have dogs in your shop. I’m all over that.
15th January 2013
SheLovesLondon.com Round Up of the Year (i.e. Buses, Meat, Canals, Daleks etc. The usual)

We’ve had bank holidays a plenty, Royal shindigs, Olympic funtimes and the rise of no bookings policies in restaurants. Also, 2012 was the year I moved to Dalston and started a blog about London.

This blog was never going to be about covering the openings and events and fancy cultural goings on, and more about the stuff you notice every day. I hope I’ve stuck to that, and that you’ve enjoyed reading it so far.

If you haven’t, I can’t promise that 2013’s offering will contain any less references to vomit on buses and chucking ping pong balls at peoples’ heads – so you should probably try the Londonist instead. It’s much more informative.

Anyway, true to form, these are the highs and lows of 2012…the SheLovesLondon way.

Going up…

After years of wondering exactly how you’re meant to get from Dalston Junction to Peckham Rye without ageing 30 years, the answer came in the shape of London’s latest transport upgrade which completed its full circle in December this year. Now that’s progress (as long as you don’t fall asleep).

If you do one thing in 2013, make sure it’s rocking up to your favourite independent cinema in your pyjamas and staying there until 7am the next morning. You should probably check they’re staying open first, though.

Ah, and so cometh the year when we all stopped booking, started queuing, turned our attention to burgers, hotdogs and lobsters, began calling macaroni cheese “Mac and Cheese” and greasy junk food “sliders”. Then along came MEATLiquor, which is always such a good idea until you’ve consumed your weight in beef patties with onion rings, and rendered yourself incapable of speech.

As it turns out, having a couple of million extra people in our city means everything gets quieter and London gets to work on time. Transport for London’s summer of chaos was the best yet. Can we do it all again next year, please?

Gone are the days of tables for two in dimly lit restaurants. Now we stand around communal piles of giant prawns, dine on eight courses of Vietnamese in stranger’s living rooms and watch drag queens reenact the birth of baby Jesus between courses. The times, they are indeed a changin’.

Going down…

I don’t care how hot it is, I don’t care how inviting the water looks, I don’t care how many drugs you’ve taken, or how many cans of Red Stripe you’ve consumed. It will never be ok to swim in the Regent’s Canal (a.k.a The One With All The Severed Heads), and especially not at the Camden end.

That’s “Jo” with one “o” and no “e” – short for Joanna. Not Joanne. Not “Jhoo”. Or, as my housemate called me eight months into our flat share, Josephine. Come on, EAT and co. You can do better than this.

Ok, Londoners. Group effort: let’s quell that urge you have to photograph your food before you eat it. If I have to sit in one more restaurant among the strobe effect of flashes going off around me, I’m going to start throwing things – starting with your iPhone. The only place you need to upload your meal to is your mouth. Got it?

If there was a gold medal for the ugliest, most uninspiring, un-sport related mascot for a sporting even, it would probably be a one eyed alien called Mandeville. You couldn’t even climb on them. Feel-good fail.

You can’t discover the joys of London buses without also experiencing “this bus is on diversion”, or yesterday’s blinder, “sorry, you all have to get off because someone’s been sick on the lower deck.”. That’s Christmas, folks!

And finally, going up…

There’s a time and a place for Dr. Who inspired graffiti, and the London Underground’s posters are just that.

Well done, London. You done good this year.

Happy Christmas and I’ll see you on the other side.

21st December 2012
Review: The XX at Brixton Academy 16.12.2012

The XX were pretty much the soundtrack to some travelling I did back in 2010. Their first album had just been released a few months into my trip, and it accompanied me on a lot of long drives through the mountains of New Zealand.

Two years later, with their follow up Coexist ringing in my ears, an e-newsletter dropped into my inbox with a code for advance tickets to their upcoming series of gigs around the UK.

Their first stop?

One of my favourite music venues in London: Brixton Academy.

It’s difficult to know what a band like the XX will be like live. They’re fairly chilled and it was a Sunday night, too, which is bound to bring the mood down a bit – so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

Still, you know the venue’s going to be good; Brixton’s got that old skool rave vibe about it. The slanted floor gives everyone a shot at seeing the stage and the green neon dome out the front acts like a beacon to some of the biggest names in music who regularly name it as their favourite place to play.

But with The XX’s music lounging just above the chillout mark, I wondered what they’d pull out of the bag to keep everyone interested in songs we’d heard hundreds of times before.

I needn’t have worried. After support acts Mmoths and John Talabot did their thing, The XX performed one of the most visually stunning sets I’ve ever seen.

From the 3D hologram floating out across the sold out crowd at the start, to the curtain falling with the drop of Angels and – of course – that huge X which revealed itself slowly near the end, even before we get to the music they had everyone pretty much entranced with the pretty lights.

Musically, it goes without saying that Romy Madley-Croft is in possession of one of the loveliest speaking and singing voices a girl could have, while Jamie Smith’s remixes make up a chunk of my favourite tunes from this and last year. So, I’m biased. Clearly they could have spent their set blowing raspberries down the mic and I’d still be gushing.

But luckily they didn’t, they played through both albums with the bass rumbling right into my chest everywhere it should (I’m looking at you, Fantasy and Islands) – including an inspired little garage mix of Chained with Movin’ Too Fast, Another Groove and The Streets tinkering away underneath; all of which cemented my view that the members of the XX and I should probably be friends.

So in addition to thanking the XX for an bloody lovely Sunday night, I’d also like to thank:

1. The really, really tall bloke who moved out of everyone’s way half way through (eliciting an audible cheer from at least five people around me)

2. The person who’d already flooded the girl’s toilet with vomit by 8:30pm,

and

3. Brixton Academy for consistently being the venue where the magic happens.

The set list is here.

If you went, let me know what you thought.

17th December 2012