#111 Sew a Top

Completed. Sort of. I still need to neaten the edges as they're still very raw (incredibly proud of my sewing usage terms there) and I will hopefully post a photo up soon.

#84. Ride a Bike in London

Surprisingly easy, wonderfully cheap.  NTS: Best in traffic free areas. London in traffic is still to be conquered. 

#57 Watch 3 Plays

Having become a member of Secret Theatre's mailing list was perhaps one of the smartest things I did last year. After receiving an email about their latest production, a mysterious, modern tale about the life of an artist, I grabbed a friend and headed off to east London, with a terrible mixture of fear and pure excitement.

Similar to secret cinema, Secret Theatre holds events in london whereby the customer is told only a few specific details about the show, what to wear and where to find it. In this case we were invited to the gallery opening of Dominic Datchio in East London, which was located by the canal inside what we found was a pretty nice bar with a gallery beside. We were also told to dress for a gallery opening.

Apart from English literature, I have little knowledge of theatre and the nuances of acting, something I've found other members of the audience can be very vocal about at these events. However, I personally found it to be incredibly enjoyable and as far as I could tell inventive. I liked the immersive nature but never felt overexposed (something that had caused the fear). Afterwards we sat in the bar reflecting on the performance, which had ended quite dramatically and sadly, and found ourselves slowly surrounded by the cast who happily mingled in with the crowds. It was completely the opposite to a big formal production, making it an even better experience. 

Finally, sat by the bar drinking our whiskey and cokes, we were greeted by a woman holding a brown envelope. "Take this", she said. Inside were directions to an after party, "tell no-one". 

112. Swim in the Olympic Park

I've spent the past few weeks forgetting what it feels like to be stressed. Not normal stressed, I get that at work, but whatever you call the kind of stress I normally endure on a bi-monthly basis. Yet it doesn't mean I've been happy, in fact I've been decidedly despondent, or simply put unsatisfied. I still haven't figured out adult life, but it's getting better.
Anyway, I realised recently I need to learn to let go. The whole point of this year was for me to do stuff I honestly want to do. I spent a lot of last year going through and doing a lot of things I felt I had to do and it never made me happy, and I never learnt to properly get on with it.
The problem is I don't know how to do that, so the key is the do little things to remind yourself how lovely it is to enjoy life, even if it's just for a moment.

This week I read an article about the opening of Zaha Hadid's olympic swimming pool in London. I realised quite quickly how awesome an experience swimming in that gigantic pool of light, warmth and chlorine would be. I think I like anonymity of swimming, but also it's very natural and tactile. It's also £4.50, which is ideal for a small worldly treat. So I'm adding it to the list 112. swim in Zaha Hadid's pool.

#26 Sexy Beast

Surprisingly surreal, surprisingly real, definitely good

Sexy Beast was not the Guy Ritchie gangster affair I thought it would be.

I began expecting a bit too much hard man violence, oddball characters and a load of dialogue I'd find hard to follow if it wasn't for my sophisticated cockney linguistics skills (I have none). After watching number 32 on film 4's list of films to see before you die, I actually found that Sexy Beast did deliver all of these traits but was a different beast (eugh, really not intentional) altogether.

The film starts with the iconic scene of the greased up reddening body of  Gal, played by Ray Winstone, baking in the sun. Brilliantly, like Muriels wedding or a Mike Leigh film (my favorite filmic references), the film has a pleasant aesthetic realism which creates charming and funny scenes of gangster life in England and Spain. You catch yourself smiling rather than cringing at the open shirts, pink wedge sandals and red english faces which make up a brilliant pastiche of the middle aged expat glamour. What is great though is when this realism is punctuated with the surreal inner workings of Gal's mind. The whole thing is crafted so well and written so well that it feels more theatrical than a standard film.

The best thing about the film though was the unexpected element of a love story. Throughout the film you get an insight into one of the sweetest on screen relationships I've seen since Bruce Willis and his pot bellied girlfriend in Pulp fiction.

This is definitely a film I'd watch again and a dark but warming tale of a side to gangster life we never see; retirement.

26. Watch 4 (now I say 15) films to see before you die

Film 4's '50 films to see before you die'

1. The Apartment
2. Citizen Kane
3. North by Northwest
4. Chinatown
5. All about Eve
6. Casablanca
7. The Wizard of Oz
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey
9. Black Narcissus
10. Apocalypse Now
11. Withnail & I
12. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest 
13. Alien
14. Pulp Ficiton
15. Back To The Future
16. Fanny and Alexander
17. Double Indemnity
18. The Usual Suspects
19. Trainspotting 
20. Touch of Evil
21. Three Colours Blue
22. This is Spinal Tap
23. The Shawshank Redemption
24. The Ladykillers
25. The Ipcress Files
26. Secrets & Lies
27. Scarface
28. The Royal Tenenbaums
29. The Terminator
30. This Sporting Life
31. The Silence of the Lambs
32. Sexy Beast
33. The King of Comedy
34. Monty Python's Life of Brian
35. Mulholland Drive
36. Princess Mononoke
37. Pan's Labyrinth 
38. Fight Club
39. Dr Strangelove Or: How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love The Bomb
40. Dawn Of The Dead
41. The Breakfast Club
42. Cabaret
43. Brazil
44. Aguirre, The Wrath of God
45. A  Night At The Opera
46. Donnie Darko
47. Up
48. Heavenly Creatures
49. Pink Flamingoes
50. Raising Arizona

26. One flew over the cuckoo's nest

What a film.

Watched One flew over the cuckoo's nest, a film I've been meaning to watch for ages and which is number 12 on channel 4's 50 films to see before you die. After watching the film I've come to many conclusions about mental health, state control and life in general, but I think the most important, or rather pertinent, is that empathy, is the best form of therapy and it's a shame that is not ingrained in many of the practices of healthcare and society even today. As you can probably imagine from a film about a mental health institute in the 50s, the tale is not a very happy one. However, the moments of joy and determination are worth a watch, and incredibly moving.