The Divine Miss N

This is not London

This one's especially for Fran and Grant. This is not London.

Fringe benefits

Sometimes the big things in life come with unexpected smaller side-effects. Take my job, located in between Southwark and London Bridge. It's a great location, close to the river, but most of all, close to Borough Market which is an unintended, but very welcome side effect. Every Friday I roam the market at lunchtime (or preferably slightly later when it's less busy). I know there's a lot that true-blue foodies can say about Borough Market (it's expensive, it's snobbish at times, overcrowded with tourists at times), but I still love it passionately. I love the sights and sounds, the wonderful products (Polish sausages, chocolate and real truffles, more butter you can swing a stick at, meat (it's the rabbit season at the mo'), scallops, tomatoes, garlic, jams, and of course my usual lunch: German Bratwurst (with curry gewurz ketchup in my case, reminds me of home), and a ton more foodie-goodies I'm forgetting to mention. Reading a book this morning (Lewis Hyde's The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World) where the author talks about the gift economy reminded me of another reason why I love the market: because every purchase is a little bit of a gift. It's much more human buying something off a vendor of the market than in the anonymous supermarket. You chat, you talk about the produce, you banter, and occasionally you haggle. Try that at Tesco. Buying something off the market feels like a gift, not a chore. It's something you want to do, rarely something you need to do. Which as soon as I wrote it down made me feel snobbish. I give up, no more excuses or explanations. I just love the place.

Another book which was delivered by my friendly Amazon delivery guy was A Technique for Producing Ideas, which yielded some useful advice for people working in advertising, which I think has a relevance far beyond advertising too:
'This then is the whole process or method by which ideas are produced:
First, the gathering of raw materials -- both the materials of your immediate problem and he materials which come from a constant enrichment of your store of general knowledge.
Second, the working over of these materials in your mind.
Third, the incubating stage, where you let something beside the conscious mind do the work of synthesis.
Fourth, the actual birth of the Idea -- the 'Eureka! I have it!' stage.
And fifth, the final shaping and development of the idea to practical usefulness.
...
The principle of constantly expanding your experience, both personally and vicariously, does matter tremendously in any idea-producing job.'

[note: the above image is of my friendly Bratwurst guy, but not at Borough, he's at the Covent Garden Night Market which was held in August.]

Of friezes and tattoos

After a nice week at work (we pitched on Monday and found out on Thursday we won the job! I can't out of reasons of confidentiality say who the client is, but I'm very very excited!!!), it was time to let my hair down on the weekend a bit. What better than some real art and fake tattoos?

I went to the Frieze Art Fair with two friends and found it a bewildering experience (much like the last time I went). I appreciate art most when there's an element of the artisinal, of skill, in there. Something that I couldn't do. Or think I could do. And to be honest, I'm not clever enough for some of the art at the Frieze. The best part for me was looking at the people that were there, what they are wearing, eavesdropping on their conversations.

After trekking home, going for a run, a quick shower and change of clothes it was off to Regent's Park again, this time for Tattoo (see my account of my first ever Tattoo here) which is a celebration of all the diversity at LBS held annually and which comes with a lot of gratuitous fake tattoos. I missed last year's (that and missing the Santa pub crawl were my biggest regrets of going on exchange in autumn) and wasn't going to go this year. I'm an alumn now, feel I should leave the partying to the new batch. But Wince, bless his heart, thought otherwise and convinced me to come and boy was I glad I came. We had a blast, there were a good number of 2007s there, it was great to see some of my 2008 friends and make a whole bunch of new 2009 acquaintances. I met the guy who writes this blog (check it out if you know anyone that knows anyone that knows anyone that knows Steve Jobs please!) and promised I'd put a plug in for it, here you go.

Now, where's my nailpolish remover...if you'll excuse me, I need to remove a few tattoos :-)

Good news for all Christmas lovers

The Selfridges Christmas store has now opened. Basement floor, right next to the travel and book sections. Go there and get your decorations before it's too late.

Damn, I wish I was this organised! This takes planning ahead to a whole new level ;-)

This is

... arguably one of the best sandwiches money can buy. At least in London (I not-so-secretly still pine for (after?) the wonderful Hein Post sandwiches I used to eat in Groningen... the best I've ever had. Ever. Those sandwiches alone are almost enough reason to want to move there. That and the fact that some of my good friends live there. And it's a very cool city. With great shopping. And the fabulous Noorderlicht photography festival. I just wish it wasn't miles from everything. Sigh. Who knows. Maybe one day.). This, my dear readers, is the B's Knees sandwich from a wonderful place called Amano, with two locations on the South Bank (I prefer the one next to Clink Prison over the one behind the Tate Modern, but both serve yummy sandwiches and cakes and a world of other goodies). Well worth a try if you're looking for a nice place to have lunch or drinks.

After this short commercial break (unpaid though, no money or other goods exchanged hands for this plug) now back to regular programming. Work's good. Life's good. Attended an Info Session this past Monday at LBS, my first one as an alumna, and spoke to a bunch of eager potential MBA2010's (*waving*). Wow. 2010's. I am getting old!

Talking about info sessions, if there's any Dutch people reading this, or people based in NL, you might be interested in a MBA fair that will held in A'dam this coming September (don't worry, I won't be attending). Check it out here, it looks like a great opportunity to talk to some people at top MBA programs and find out more about them. And I cannot urge anyone who's interested in doing an MBA enough to try and go to as many of these information-gathering opportunities as you can possibly stomach, and find out as much as you can about any and every school you're interested in.

Hmmm. This whole post is turning into a bit of a plug for this, that and the other. Let me add one more plug, or not really, since you can't go anymore since the exhibit ended. Went to the Anthony Gormley exhibit at the Hayward Gallery on Sunday which was very interesting. I liked some of his work (like the lifesize statues of himself that are scattered on the top of buildings all around the Hayward Gallery, see also the photo in the previous post), it made me think and write, but was puzzled or even freaked out by some of his other work (lifesize casts of bodies hung upside down from the ceiling).

I'm too lazy to think of a title

[Part of this post was written on Monday, right before our internet connection at home became possessed and we've been living with its temperamental whims all week. It seems fine now.]

I've just come back from a short weekend trip over to NL to celebrate my parents' 35th wedding anniversary (happy anniversary mum and dad!), which was a blast. We had a cycle tour round Amsterdam (which none of us know very well, we're not from there. Please don't ask me next time you see me. Yes I am from NL. No I'm not from Amsterdam. And hardly know anything about it. Which is why we took a guided tour.). Had a lovely dinner, hung out, celebrated. Life is very good!

On my way out I picked up a copy of Monocle magazine (hat tip to mr NW who brought it to my attention), which although ultra-yuppie-hipper-than-thou, something which I don't think I am at all, I liked a lot. Find out more here [link via the excellent Putting People First].

On a Grolsch update: they're going to do some cool stuff at the Lowlands Festival this summer. They're kitting out some festival-goers with an RFID armtag, and there will be camera crews roaming around. If you, the one wearing the armband, feel like being filmed, you hail them, they scan your band and they shoot whatever's happening. The whole thing will then be uploaded to a website. If you can read Dutch, read all about it here.

[now back to Friday night again, this is some original content written on the day that I'm posting this]
Wow, what a week it's been. With goodbyes, reunions. dinners, Proms (last night, very good) and of course work it's been packed. Something no one warned me about, and I should've known this but hadn't realized: a lot of people are saying goodbye because they'll be moving elsewhere to work. And I'm the worst at saying goodbye. Ever. Dunno why, but I hate them. I'm not good at them, I don't like 'em. That's not true. I stink at them. My own and even more so other people's.

I've been trying to think about what to say about my job (assuming some of you, and I'm pointing at you Rogier, might be curious). I haven't talked to my bosses about the blog, so I won't mention any names. However, I feel comfortable saying that I'm working for a branding and design consultancy, a small and entrepreneurial one (just the way I like my employers) with cool offices south of the river close to both here (where I saw this today) and here and doing some amazingly good work (well, I would say that, wouldn't I ;- ehm, I didn't mean that I do amazingly good work, but the company does). And I'm really liking it. It's exactly what I had dreamed of doing post MBA. And of course being a good design company, they have Macs, so my office laptop is a nice and shiny 17inch Powerbook.

Photo at the top taken on my way home from work, curiously enough in the same location as this one. Southwark is a bit of a weird neighbourhood ;-)

My head's too big

Wow, what a week this has been. Since the last I had a chat, a lot has happened.

I've been to the Proms for the first time in my life (see pic left) and it was absolutely awesome. It was French Baroque, and I never knew it, but that's very good music! Check out what I heard and saw here. [edit: after I finished writing this, I read this piece in the Guardian, which is very similar to what I've been going through in terms of starting to appreciate classical music more. Scroll through to two-thirds of the way down and there's mention of the Prom I went to too. Good to read I'm not the only one who enjoyed my ears out! That's not an expression I think. But it should be.]

I ran a 10k and live to tell the tale (no, don't ask me for my time, suffice it to say that three guys disguised as taps finished shortly before me. And man did my legs hurt on Monday and Tuesday, that will teach me to stop training 3 weeks before the race). I want to run another one. And train better for it.

I went to the New Designers' show and was bowled over by the quality and most of all by the passion of the young lads and ladies.

I said goodbye to yet another friend who is moving countries. I don't like it when friends move countries I've decided. And that sucks, because over the next few weeks a few more of my friends will be moving (most notably Al and his mrs).

I met some of the Starting Bloc folks who were on LBS campus these past few days. Wow. They're so passionate and friendly and fun to talk to!

I worked a whole workweek. It's a bit weird being back at work again. I love my job, but am still a teeny bit freaked out by sitting in the same place for 5 days a week. Getting used to it though.

I went and had passport photos taken after which I trekked to the Dutch embassy to apply for a new passport, only to be told that my head was 1 milimeter too big. Sigh. That's the second time in a couple of months someone thinks my head's too big! (I was trying to find the original post where my mum measured my head for graduation, but can't find it now).

I spent today cheering on a friend for her 5K (go Kim!) and then went on a photosafari with a friend which reminded me how much I miss roaming out and about with my camera.

I realised that I miss living in the Netherlands. Lord knows why this realisation dawned on me this week. Perhaps it was the trip to the Dutch embassy. Or the upcoming quick trip to NL to celebrate my parent's wedding anniversary. Anyway. I miss it. I miss cycling to the Albert Heijn for groceries, shopping at the HEMA and Bijenkorf, and being able to drive to my parents to see them or my popping up to see my friends. I miss it. A lot.

I realised also (and this is totally contrary to the previous one) that I absolutely love living in London. From Sunday papers to afternoon tea, to the wonderful museums and architecture, to riding at the top on a bus through central London, I do seriously love this city.

I forgot to mention in the past weeks that I've also been to the How We Are exhibit at the Tate Britain which was very good (although the audioguide was weak, the photos were stunning), and I saw some of the Grand Tour paintings (both of these were on my cultural to do list).

I just realised that all of these start with an I. Ouch. Sorry.

Life as an alumn is so far so good, really. It still hasn't dawned on me that my weekends are mine to do with what I please again without feeling like I should be finishing up a project. And that I no longer have a locker at LBS to stuff my gym shoes in. But other than that, no big changes just yet.

Thanks for all the comments on the blog, I finally managed to have a look and respond to them. That's what you get with mobile blogging: I don't even need my laptop to blog so get lazy about responding.

My Sunday morning

Hyde Park, 9.40am on a Sunday morning. Am about to work my way through a 10k. What am i thinking?

Walking home from work yesterday

I *love* mobile blogging!

Wow

Chocolate as far as the eye reaches... really, it doesn't get any better than this in a supermarket ;-) I went to the new Whole Foods store in Kensington and I was pleasantly surprised. It's a temple of food (and I mean a temple... they're very religious about their food), and I liked it better than the New York store I used to go to, although I struggle to say why. I liked the muesli bar where you can mix your own muesli. And the large variety of chocolate they sell.

This is the last week of term. My last term. Sigh. One more class to go, this Saturday, and then that's it. Well, almost. I'm still working on a extra curricular project. And working as a student ambassador (I got to call new R4 admits today and welcome them to the School, which was a lot of fun). And there's a bunch of farewell dinners and the last Sundowners this Thursday. And there's Capstone week next week, where we look back on the whole course and are back in our original first year first term streams (go stream D!). And there's there graduation. And the summer ball. And we need to distribute the yearbook. OK, so I've still got some stuff on my plate.