Luica’s Blog

Brad found this very interesting group at Flickr called Desk Space. People simply take a picture of their desks at work or at home and add some funny notes. It is difficult to explain without showing you a sample - just click on the image above and it will take to you my desk!

I had a wonderful birthday this year. My mum called me at midnight to wish me a happy birthday and a few of my friends called or e-mailed me on the day.

I opened one of my presents from Brad at midnight and he gave me another one in the morning. I decided to learn something about graphic design and he treated me to a really good book. Apparently, he spent a long time at the design museum shop looking for the right book. My other present was a very cool metal calendar, which you have to put a magnetic frame on the date in order to see the number.

He also booked a table at an authentic Korean restaurant in Soho called Jin. We were careful not to make the same mistake as we did in Copenhagen. We had the set barbecue dinner which included spinach soup, glass noodles, spicy squid and some thinly sliced and marinated beef for the barbecue. We had a satisfying meal, without spending a fortune this time.

I met my graphic designer friend Vanessa for dinner the next evening and she bought me a huge design book, which is a collection of the things that Alan Fletcher likes. It is a really interesting book and I am sure it will be more useful once I get a grip of some basic design theories.

People at work were lovely too. They bought me loads of chocolates (knowing that I can’t live without something sweet), a nice tank top from Elle, a pink picture frame and some stationary.

It was a very busy Monday for me, as there was a client event in the same evening. I booked the table at 8pm and managed to arrive at the curry place - Rasa at 8:15pm. It is a very bizarre looking resturant from outside as everything is in pink! But the food is excellent and very often recommended by food critics.

We went for a seafood feast for this special day - that included loads of starters and main courses, mainly consisted of fish of some sort. They tasted pretty good even though I am not a big fan of fish. They also gave us pickled prawns to go with the poppadom - weird!

Presents for the ‘birthday boy’ included a thermal top (he’s getting old) from American Apparel, which only recently opened on Carnaby Street; a toy soldier with movable joints that can be bent into strange positions; and a travel bag which he has wanted for ages.

It was a very quiet Valentine’s Day for us this year. No candle-lit dinner for two and no dressing-up for the occasion hassle. In fact, we just stayed in and swapped presents - which is, of course, the most exciting time of any special occasion.

I had to say neither of us was very well-prepared this time and we both went out for last-minute shopping. Brad even made me believe that he didn’t manage to get me anything. I ended up getting him a eBoy notebook from Paul Smith and some chili flavoured(!) chocolate from Selfridges. He bought me a nice leather wallet for my keys from a Nava and a nice little notebook. I particularly liked his choice of card this year (the one with the red couple at the front) - it’s kind of cool.

It was a fun weekend.

We did some shopping for Brad’s trip to Montreal on Saturday and went to see "Sideways" in the evening. It was quite a long film but definitely worth seeing. The acting was brilliant and the story was believable. I am not sure if it is the kind of film that I would like to see again or would want to own on DVD though.

We had a lazy morning until Karen called and woke me up at 10 am. We then went to play pool at The Elbow Room in Shoreditch. On our way there, we went past Brick Lane and had a Salt Beef Bagel. Playing pool was great fun and we decided to go back next weekend.

Brad cooked a really nice lasagne in the evening. It was the kind of creamy, saucy and thick lasagne which I love! We watched "Following" on DVD during our meal. It was a black-and-white white directed by Christopher Nolan (director for "Momento"). The plot was quite clever but the acting wasn’t great. I much prefer "Momento".

We may watch "Old Boy" on VCD when I’ve finished drafting my press release.

It has been fun to have Rob stay with us for the last ten days. It really reminds me of the time when we all lived in a house in Dalston. Even though our apartment is too small for anyone to stay with us comfortably, Brad and I enjoyed Rob’s company. We had a good laugh watching tv and great fun going out for meals and stuff.

Mary and Alan (Brad and Rob’s parents) were in London today to say goodbye to Rob, before they go to Belgrade next month. We had a nice meal at Royal China and I discovered that their streamed buns with custard are not bad at all. We had a pint at the Wetherspoon’s pub in West India Quay before we headed back to the flat.

It is freezing cold this evening and we may even have some snow tonight. I’d better dig out my long down coat for tomorrow as the tempature may drop to 2 Degrees Celcius!

Rob (Brad’s brother) is back in the UK for a visit and is staying with us for a few days.

After the long night out, we spent most of the morning relaxing - sipping latte and surfing online. The weather was grey again this afternoon, so we decided to have a little adventure in chav-land.

It was less than an hour drive to the Galleria in Hatfield. We had Burger King for lunch and started suit hunting for Rob and a little blue fleece for Jasmina. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to find any of the above. Brad and I ended up doing most of the shopping. I got a nice black jacket from a discount store called The Design Room and we bought some stainless steel cutlery at T.K.Maxx to replace our boring old ones from Ikea.

According to the weather forecast, it should be a sunny day tomorrow. I may suggest going to the Tate Modern.

Christmas Dinner was great! We had turkey with gravy and confit, stuffing, roasted potatoes and vegetables. Everyone loved the chocolate pudding dessert.

As usual, we had crackers and we tried to answer the trivia and guess the jokes. It was also compulsory to wear the hat at dinner and I took some really fun pictures of Brad posing around with his lovely golden paper hat! (I will post those on Flickr later).

We may play some board games in a little while, which should be fun. We have a choice between Scrabble, Master Mind, Sorry!, Chess and even Manjong! I played chess the first time with Brad this afternoon and I won - neither of us were very familiar with the rules.

The weather forecast said we may have snow tomorrow, so there is still hope for a white Boxing Day. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

So we did not have a white Christmas, instead we had a sunny Christmas morning.

Brad and I woke up at about 10am and had a mocha and some toast before we sat down to open our presents with Mary & Alan. Brad opened his first silly present (a wind-up Mexican horse-rider) at midnight and had played with it all night.

I received a set of Candela lamps from Brad. I remembered that we saw them at the Guggenhein Museum in New York last July and I really liked them. Unfortunately, they came with a US charger, so we couldn’t get them. They were a wonderful present wrapped up in an eBoy gift wrap, which I kept! Mary & Alan got me The Travel Book published by Lonely Planet. It pretty much covers every country in the world with really amazing pictures. It must be a highly satisfaying job to take pictures for publications like Lonely Planet.

Brad had quite a few presents to open, including a Tumi electric adaptor and Japanese product design book from me; a Bill Bailey audio CD and a Leatherman tool from Mary & Alan and a wireless mouse from my mum. Alan received a whole wardrobe of smart shirts from us, my mum and Mary. We bought Mary a few little things such as a mirror and leather bookmark from Shanghai Tang, a picture with handmade prawns (made with dried grass) and some jasmin tea. Alan gave Mary a pen knife as well as a set of necklance and earrings. A fleece jacket was also sent for Mary from my mum.

We also got a lot of goodies from Mary & Alan including bottles of chocolate beer, honey, mango & orange soap and some other bits and pieces.

We had snacks for lunch and saved our stomachs for the delicious turkey dinner and chocolate dessert.

Monday at the Apple Market of Covent Garden was fun! It was antique market day and most stalls were selling expensive looking items including silver cutlery and hip flasks, antique and hand-made jewellery, as well as rare hardback novels.

Until 1973, the central Apple Market housed the largest fruit, vegetable and flower market in the city. It reminds me of the screen in My Fair Lady when Audrey Hepburn sings, …lots of chocolates for me to eat… (It is my mum’s all time favourite and I watched it over half a dozen of times before I turned 12!) Covent Garden Piazza was re-opened in 1980 and it is to be the capital’s biggest craft market.

Most stallholders are very friendly and do not seem to mind the endless questions from tourists. Some of them even posed for me while I was taking snapshots. I could not resist walking back to the stall that sells beautiful old hardbacks.