Bug Salad!

I love living in London. There are so many fun places to go and to eat! I recently rounded off the late night Jack the Ripper tour of Whitechapel with a meal at Archipelago Restaurant in West London.

Archepelago specialise in exotic dining and they certainly mean it. The menu includes crocodile, kangaroo, zebra, scorpion and many other fantastic and unusual dishes! It was a great experience to try something different.

For my starter I ate crocodile. It tasted like chicken but had the texture of fish. It was delicious and I would highly recommend it! Just don’t think about it being a crocodile! For my main I had a wilderbeast curry. That too was out of this world! It reminded me of lamb or game and didn’t seem too hardcore really as it was kind of similar to stuff we have here. It was cool to say I gave it a try though! My side salad of locusts and crickets marinated in chilli and garlic was the most daring I got! Though, I drew the line at chocolate covered scorpions for desert.

However the atmosphere, setting and delicious delicacies have made me want to go back soon. I tried Mr One Piece’s zebra main and think I may order that next time... possibly with scorpion for desert!

Check out their website at http://www.archipelago-restaurant.co.uk

Also, if you haven’t been on the Jack the Ripper tour that is worth looking into especially if you love history and a bit of a fright! My tour was conducted by a Beefeater from the Tower of London so he was full of stories, facts and jokes too!

Check out their website at: http://www.jack-the-ripper-tours.com

The photo of my salad was taken by my very good friend Rene Ehrhardt. Check out his photos at http://reneehrhardt.com/ and http://reneehrhardt.com/blog/

Much love,

One Piece xxx

Road Train and Cemetery Junction DVD reviews on www.subba-cultcha.com

Hello, Check out new releases at Subba Cultcha!

I have done a couple of reviews. Follow the links here:

http://www.subba-cultcha.com/film-reviews/article.php?contentID=20911

http://www.subba-cultcha.com/film-reviews/article.php?contentID=20910

Much love,

One Piece xx

Camp Bestival review on Subba Cultcha

Hey hey!! It's been a busy old Summer. Camp Bestival was one of the amazing festivals I was out reviewing! Here's me and my buddy Becky chilling during The Wurzels set! One of the festival's highlight along with Madness, Pronghorn, Friendly Fires, The Human League, The Cuban Brothers and Seth Lakeman.

I was lucky enough to have a back stage pass so I got to rub shoulders with the likes of Lee Scratch Perry, The Cuban Brothers, Madness, The Hypnotic Bass Ensemble and Pete and the Pirates; as well as use some rather posh flushing toilets!

Check out my review on Subba Cultcha at http://www.subba-cultcha.com/live-reviews/article.php?contentID=20659

GLOOMFEST

I have been having so many adventures of late that I nearly forgot to tell you about the day I manned a splat the teddy game, got my face painted as a psychedelic tiger and dressed up as a robot, or gloombot and played connect 4 with passers by!

All this took place at the wonderful Gloomfest, a night curated by my favourite party starters Cliff and Len from the Feeling Gloomy/Club De Fromage / Hairbrush Heroes / Down with Dating club nights.

The boys were asked to put together an area of fun and frolics in Brixton Village's indoor market which is just tucked behind the tube station. It was a little gem of a place with cool cafes and quirky restaurants as well as tasty markets and funky clothing stores. The atmosphere was great with punters embracing the fun of gorrilla twister, air guitar lessons, Morrissey poetry corner, cake stalls, Italian cooking classes, interactive theatre, teddy races, face painting and even a bit of live music.

As said the night is currated by Feeling Gloomy the world’s first club devoted to sad music. Luckily the boys this time were in happy mode so are threw together loads of interesting people in a fiesta of fun to open the very first of these late nights in Brixton. As promoter Mike Toller says, “It’s a great honour to kick this off. Its going to be a lot of fun and we are really pleased to be able to support Brixton market, which is still a real hub for the community in these days of chain shops. Though with only a few days to organize it there will be a touch of anarchy about the whole thing!”

Brixton Village is a superb example of 1930’s market which sadly had recently fallen in to decay with over a ¼ of its units empty. In the past 6 months Space Makers Agency has been working with the market's owners (London & Associated Properties), Lambeth council and local residents to bring life back to the deserted corners of the building. Empty shops were offered to temporary creative projects and new long-term businesses, attracting a range of new independent cafes, restaurants, fashion and design shops, as well as community-driven spaces. These initiatives have breathed new life in to the market so it will continue to be part of the beating heart of Brixton.

Check me out as the Gloombot for the night as well as other pics from the evening:

http://www.feelinggloomy.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=270&pos=15

No Sleep Til Bournemouth!

So 60 Million Postcards in Bournemouth most certainly got the One Piece treatment this month when I DJed at their hip vs glam rock night. DJing alongside Lee7Seven of the Geek Chic Sounsystem I dropped the likes of Motley Crue, KISS, Velvet Revolver, Iron Maiden, Pantera and Def Leppard while Lee spun Beastie Boys, Black Sheep, JStar, ODB and Bel Biv Devoe!

Bel Biv Devoe was literally music to my ears! Not heard that in so long! What a choon! I literally leaped onto the dance floor when I heard that intro. Lee made my night when he played that!

What a night, can't wait for the next ROWYGO!

While in the glorious B Town, I also visited Monkey World and The Aquarium. The chimps were awesome and wanted a kiss from me, while the turtles, stingrays and sharks were too cool! Definitely worth a look if you're ever down in that part of the world! The beach was a tiny bit of a wash out sadly but I still managed to head to the pier and have a couple of rides on the helter skelter!

Two other cool nights I checked out when I was down there was Dollyrocker at The Winchester which played retro grooves, psychedelia, funk and soul and also We are your Friends: The Bloc Party. WAYF took over a load of clubs in Bournemouth, a bit like their version of the Camden Crawl or Stag and Dagger and boasted a line up including Utah Saints, Toddla T, Eddie Temple Morris, DJ Derek, Thomas Tantrum, Chew Lips, Tosh Ohta, Geek Chic Soundsystem featuring Lee7Seven, Shab Ruffcut Pony Up DJs (featuring my pal from uni Bonnie!) plus many more awesome DJs and bands!

Tiring work this partying but most definitely worth it! Bournemouth Rocks!

Feeling your blood boil? Work Stress causes heart disease in young women

High Stress in the work place is more likely to cause heart disease in women under the age of 50 than any other external factor.
The study was conducted on 12’000 nurses by Danish research in Occupational and Environmental Medicine concludes work pressure has a greater effect on young women than those in their 50s and 60s.
Studies are more commonly done to investigate the link between males and high blood pressure.

We thought in light of this survey we'd give you 3 top stress busting tips. Our Model Sarah was starting to feel the strain from a hard days work

1. Switch from Caffeine and Cigarettes to herbal tea and sleep.
Depressants and addiction influence how we feel more than we'd like to acknowledge but cutting back on habits that make us feel edgy will definitely help your body develop a natural level of mood.
2. What are Human Resources Good For? Not Nothing.
If you are feeling under pressure or one of your working relationships is under strain you wont just be stressing yourself out- it's likely that you'll be underperforming too. HR staff are trained to deal with work conflicts and help you resolve them.
3. Take Breaks.!
We conducted our own survey that suggests a whopping 72% don’t take our full allocated breaks- it's a law for a reason.
Making sure you take a break every four hours..
If you want more info on heart disease why no visit the British heart foundation’s webpage.

Review of Nicole's (Nicole Farhi) Restaurant

Nicole’s in London is situated on New Bond St, in the basement of Nicole Farhi’s store (opposite Louis Vuitton’s New Store). It’s well decorated and neutral, the staff were friendly and pretty attentive. When we show up its about half one on a Tuesday and recession or not the venue is packed full of diners. In fact they’ve already sold out of a handful of dishes on their carefully crafted menu.
Looking at it from an ex restaurateurs eyes- It seems to be fresh and perhaps recreated daily (although I strongly doubt that). It seemed unusual that there were lots of heavy dishes on the menu such as Rack of Lamb and Moroccan Chicken with Cous Cous- no lunch time nibbles on this menu ladies (made us glad we forgot to eat breakfast in the morning rush). One of the really odd things about Nicole’s menu is that it lacked any vegetarian main dishes- although it was abundant with glorious fish dishes (which most of the party had).
Our table went for the Salmon served with Asparagus and a White Wine Sauce, Sea Bass served with Potato Chips and a Large Portion of the Pumpkin and Wild Mushroom Salad (intended to be a starter).
We didn’t wait long for our food, Portions were perfectly sized, Flavours fresh and considerate to all ingredients involved and the settings were very pleasant.
Would we recommend ? Definitely for an early dinner and drinks- this venue isn’t catered to those of us more partial to a light lunch.
Price Points: Very Fair considering the location, quality of food and service combined