Tuesday 22nd December

On one of my daily wanderings around Spitalfields I found an ornate shutter holder (I'm sure there is a technical name for these things but if there is I don't know it) that had been dressed up with elf ears and a santa hat. When I turned into my street and looked into the windows of Wieden + Kennedy I saw that it was a part of a series of interventions that they had been doing locally as part of an advent calendar for their window. It turns out that they were the culprits behing the bike wrapping as well. This is another festive offering by Wieden + Kennedy, this time in a park near Spital Square.

Monday 21st December

Today was one of the longest days of my life, waiting for a phone interview with ACCA at 9.30pm. I felt like I used to as kid on Christmas Eve, waiting for it to be dark so that we could begin to open our presents. This is what my desk looked like 5 minutes before the phone rang. It didn't matter how many notes I had, there was nothing that could have prepared me for an opening question like: "Ok Annika, I need 500 dead trees by Monday, what are you going to do about it?". Soon to be followed with: "Great, so now that the trees have arrived, we've realised that they've come with leaves still on. We need them without leaves. What kind of problems could we incur by having to remove the leaves ourselves?". Somehow, especially considering my answer of 'is this a joke question?', I don't think I'm going to be relocating to Melbourne anytime soon...

Sunday 20th December

The flower market again, to meet Sophie and Daisy for a midday breakfast.

Saturday 19th December

This morning was spent shopping for food for the Christmas party at Kate's that evening. Eventually, after trawling through the depths of Dalston and stopping in at many butchers, we bought some beef off a lovely gentleman with a stall on Broadway Market. He ascertained how much we needed with the question: 'Rugby players or intellectuals?'. 'Intellectuals' was Kate's resounding response. He laughed and said: "I once asked a great hulk of a chap that question once, to which he replied - 'Can't I be an intellectual as well?'".

Friday 18th December

Miroslaw Balka's installation at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. A blacker than black abyss that you enter having no sense of where the walls are, or where the structure ends. Unless of course the girl in front of you is wearing white.

Thursday 17th December

Tonight I went to Stoke Newington to have dinner at Sarah's. Her blinds were drawn and so it wasn't until we ventured out to get a second bottle of wine that we discovered it was snowing.

Wednesday 16th December

Absolute Vintage is directly across the road from my house. I think I went in there more when I didn't actually live in London than I have the whole time I've been in this flat. Overpriced second hand clothes and terrible Christmas windows to boot.

Tuesday 15th December

This morning I went to the Museum of Childhood to help Kate and Rohan install Roh's photographic exhibition of Bethnal Green at Christmas. The museum culled a photograph Roh had taken of this shop because apparently it contained "sexual innuendo deamed inappropriate" for kiddies. It is currently sitting on top of a bookshelf in the kids craft area where it will no doubt be forgotten until uncovered by a diligent cleaner. Roh's shot didn't have any of the underwear visible, just the Virgin Mary, with the neon sign above her reading: 'Treat me gently, I'm a Virgin'. I took a photo of the same shop on Bethnal Green Road on my way home. You can't see the neon very clearly because of the morning light. At least no one can cull the photograph here.

Monday 14th December

Laurie left for the airport early this morning, leaving me with a new slide for my window. We had bought them from the man at Beedell Coram on Sunday, who charged us per slide according to his personal taste. The ones he liked the best were priced at £4, some were £3 and those that he thought inferior he was willing to sell for a bargain £2. A slide of Lord Nelson cost the most "because everyone wants a bit of Nelson". No rewards for good taste then.

Sunday 13th December

Columbia Road was busier than usual this Sunday with everyone buying Christmas trees. My attention was drawn to this man unloading his trees from the truck, not least for his calling to the gathered customers: "Come on! I'm not just going to stand here like a fucking turd".

Saturday 12th December

Oxford Street is hellish at the best of times. Especially at Christmas. Three people cursed at me when I obstructed part of the footpath and momentarily stopped a stream of pedestrian traffic to take this photograph. I was just happy to have a photo of the skyline without any terrible Christmas lights in it. Jim Carrey turned them on this year. Did you know that? You do now. Are you the wiser for it? No. But these clouds are cool right?

Friday 11th December

This morning we went to Borough to fill ourselves with cheese samples. I doubt this man thought he would make somebody's photo album when he put on his flourescent jacket this morning.

Thursday 10th December

Laurie has come to stay for a week, sleeping on the side of my bed that Raoul has vacated. This morning she set off early to see Anish Kapoor as the exhibition is in its last days. I didn't want to pay the entrance fee again and so instead wandered the streets of Soho. I like how banal and docile the Windmill Mens Club looks in the morning sunlight.

Wednesday 9th December

There are so many bikes decaying on railings in London. The wheels go first, then the seat, then the handlebars, until all that is left is a frame, melting onto the pavement. This one is across the road from my flat, humorously wrapped in Christmas paper. It has been like this for several days now and every morning as I step over it on my way to Tescos, I am amazed that it has survived for this long.

Tuesday 8th December

Tonight I went to Kate's house to sit in front of the fireplace with a cat on my lap and eat stew. This is the view of her street walking up from Jesus Green. After dinner and after dark it seemed a good idea to go to the Royal Oak for a late night mulled wine. We had three in nearly as many minutes. I never want to drink mulled wine again.

Monday 7th December

You never know what you'll find in a London canal. Most of the time I'd suggest you'd be better off not knowing. This seemed quite innocent in the scheme of things. But sad as well somehow.

Sunday 6th December

This pub is without a doubt my favourite I have found in Britain so far. The only way to reach it is by foot, bicycle or boat, which, as one of the staff members told me on my first visit, 'proves very difficult if we ever need an ambulance'. It seems to keep sporadic opening hours, and the night before I took photo this we had come down on the off chance it was open and found ourselves thrust into the midst of the local Christmas party. There was stew and cider and music in a barn. The first band, consisting of two middle-aged men called Hugh and Joe, sung songs Joe had written about his first wife, 'when I still loved her'. The second band's lyrics referred to gypsies, apples and birds. 'Anyone would think I was on drugs' the singer joked. I'm not convinced he wasn't.

Saturday 5th December

I took this at the Natural History Museum in Oxford. I like the relationship between the skeleton of the dinosaur and the skeletal frame of the building's roof.

Friday 4th December

Today was my fourth and final shift at Seizure. It's probably worth noting that this picture was taken a month or so ago, I had forgotten my camera today. Now the leaves have completely fallen, slowly rotting in puddles around the courtyard.

Thursday 3rd December

I live four doors down from the Golden Heart pub above a red Thai restaurant called Rosa's. Surprisingly, I don't actually go to either very often. The corner this pub is on is usually the corner we get to when we stop an ask: 'Where shall we go for a drink?' and then keep on walking. But I feel very attached to the place, and to the characters who drink there, and to the eccentric landlady who runs the place with a iron fist. They have put mistletoe up around the bar, and Christmas trees out the front. It makes the whole street look very festive. Now that I finally have my Scrabble board I think I may go there a bit more often.

Wednesday 2nd December

There is something about rainy winter days that just makes you want to take shelter in a pub with a Scrabble board. Unfortunately, I didn't own a Scrabble board. Ollie and I set off on foot in the pursuit of one. It took us three hours of traipsing in and out of shops in Spitalfields, Moorgate and the City before we found a travel Scrabble in the Waterstones at Leadenhall market. On coming out of the market we passed the Lloyd's building and stood watching suited insurance brokers going up and down in the exterior lifts.

Tuesday 1st December

The last train home from Caledonian Road after visiting Hannah and Lee for dinner. Bellies full of paella and white wine.