The Beat That My Heart Skipped – A blog dedicated to daily design inspirations. By Rohini Wahi.

Bonjour bonjour. After much cheese noshing, vino drinking and cheek-kissing I am back in sunny England. I’d forgotten just how beautiful Brittany is – so beautiful in fact that I even managed to turn a blind eye to the wood effect wallpaper in one of the hotel bedrooms (it also came with bobbly brown wool blankets and a strange over the bed net curtain that I guess was supposed to look romantic). Days were spent eating, drinking, discussing where we were going to eat next and…well, drinking again. Then we joined my extended French family at a gite for my granny’s 90th birthday where yet more food and drink was consumed. I have come back ½ stone heavier and am now contemplating yet another diet to trim down the camembert-filled rolls of fat.

I’m not feeling in the slightest bit glamorous but had better get myself in the mood pretty sharpish as this weekend I’m finally off to see the new Sex and the City film. I can’t wait and have deliberately avoided all plot giveaways as I want it to be a surprise. It’s had terrible reviews but I know I’ll love it regardless for the fashion and the friendship between the fab four.  There’s 10 of us ladies going – a proper gaggle of girls – so I feel sorry for any random men who find themselves there. When I went to see the first film there were just 2 poor blokes in the audience – one I think was gay and the other had been dragged along by his cruel girlfriend (why would you do that?).

Films like this are just crying out for a chic cinema to watch them at. Dodgy multiplexes just don’t cut it for a film that’s all about glamour and decadence. We’re going to the Everyman in Angel which has just been done up with its own bar and comfy sofas and footstools but here is my list of the top cinemas in London.

Starlite Urban Drive-in
Truman Brewery
1 minute walk from Shoreditch station or 5 mins from Liverpool St station.
OMG, a real life drive-in… in London. And you don’t even need a car. At the Truman Brewery, 20 Volvos have been pre-parked for 3 nights only so you just need to rock up with a partner to snog on the backseat. Watch classics like ‘Grease’, ‘Eclipse’ and ‘Twilight’ and get your drinks served to you by rollerskating waiters. Tickets are very limited but they are releasing more tickets on the day so keep a beady eye out.

The Aubin Cinema
Redchurch Street, Shoreditch
This is part of Shoreditch House so is super swanky. With only 45 seats it’s tres intimate so perfect for a soppy first date. It has velvet sofas, squishy cushions and a bar.

Everyman Cinemas
Everyman have cinemas all over the place but my favourites are the Screen on the Green in Angel and the Hampstead branch where you can book a sofa for two, put your feet up on the footstools and enjoy waiter service.

The Electric
191 Portobello Road, London
This is dead posh but what else would you expect from a cinema in the heart of Notting Hill? It has leather sofas, footstools, a bar and delicious cakes. Check out Electric Sundays for cheaper seats and more unusual films. They also have a Kids Club – leave them there and go shopping.

Curzon
Curzon have cinemas all over London but the Soho one is great if you’re in town. Mainly showing arty films, this cinema has its very own Konditor and Cook café. Yum. It also hosts regular Director Q&As, documentary events and the Midnight movie.

Phoenix Cinema
East Finchley, N2 9PJ
This cinema is one of the oldest cinemas in the UK. Run by a charitable trust, it’s Grade II listed and has unique art deco features. It shows independent films as well as new releases and holds regular events, talks and workshops.

Firmdale group – Weekend Film Club
It doesn’t get much posher than this and I’m still waiting for my invite. For the ultimate in chic seats, check out this group of cinemas at the Soho Hotel, the Covent Garden Hotel and the Charlotte Street Hotel. Every weekend they offer afternoon tea or dinner in the hotel restaurant followed by the movie of the week for £35 per person. They show old classics as well as new releases – so stuff your face, lie back in the cowskin seats and order in the champagne dahrlings.  Popcorn munching has never been so chic.

Enjoy the show. Valerie x

Notecards above by Cecily Vessey

There’s something about a mini-break that brings out the psycho in me. I wish I could be one of those spontaneous types who just books a flight and then finds accommodation/ bars/restaurants as they go. However, even the very thought of this brings on a sweat. Holidays for me involve serious planning and Excel spreadsheets. I’ll never forget the time we went on a girls’ trip to Copenhagen. My mate Mel [a fellow anal organiser] and I had spent hours compiling a list of the best places to eat / drink / shop / breathe and my sister [so horizontal it’s a wonder she can function] just left it behind on the plane. Mel and I took it in turns to deep breathe into the sick bags. I think I just don’t want to feel like I’m missing out on anything and I do like a nice place to stay so I can’t just rock up at any old b&b.

Tomorrow I’m off to Brittany – a whole new travel research experience for me. Normally I’m thrown into a whirlpool of options when it comes to boutique-style accommodation. However, the French seem to have ignored the fact that your average traveller now expects something a little slicker than OTT chintzy bedrooms with 1930s broken beds. Boutique hotels do not seem to have made it across the channel. I have scoured the charming gites sites and come up with some so-so places but nothing that really floats my boat. Of course every hotel on the shortlist was typed into Trip Advisor – there’s nothing like this website to get you really confused. You can read 20 great comments about a hotel and then all you need is one negative one to put you off it completely.

Anyway, with flights/hotels booked and restaurants/bars/shops starred and highlighted in the guide book, it’s onto stage 2 of holiday prep. Getting this stilton-esque body ready for exposure on the beach. It’s probably going to piss it down all week but in my head I will be surrounded by lithe, young French beauties in thongs who’ll leave me cowering under my towel behind some old grandmere’s windshield.

For a glimpse into what I’ve undergone this week, read Lauren’s article last week and times it by… well, lots of times as my body may well have to be ‘covered’ by nothing more than 2 tiny scraps of material. I am currently slathered in St Tropez fake tan – users of which may well be familiar with the unpleasant fruit cake odour and general fear of severe orange streaking. Plus it’s really hot so it’s starting to melt and the postman is due to deliver a parcel any minute. Do I explain that I have fake tan on or do I just leave him wondering why someone would be sweeping chimneys at the start of summer?
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So, I was having a pretty uneventful week when my luck suddenly changed for the better at my local Tesco. I was scrabbling for bags, trying to keep up with the super efficient cashier, when suddenly I heard those most beautiful of words – “can I ask you how old you are?” Now, were it not for the fact that I’m double the legal age for buying alcohol, she was also holding back some cordial that must have looked suspiciously like a bottle of plonk. It was like music to my ears and I nearly kissed her. Thankfully she was protected by the conveyor belt but my heart did a little twirl and I blushed with glee.

I remember not always being so happy about looking underage. My teens were spent slapping on garish make-up in an attempt to look womanly but my flat chest and spotty complexion were an instant giveaway and I was always the one who got stopped by the bouncers or refused Diamond White at the 7-11. However, these days, a demand for ID is met with jaw-dropping astonishment, amusement and extreme exhiliration. It’s the same kind of feeling you get when you walk past a building site and hear a wolf whistle. Whilst I pretend to be appalled and attempt my best ‘get a life’ face, as soon as I turn the corner it’s all I can do to stop myself from high-fiving my other hand and shouting ‘you’ve still got it’ at the top of my voice. Before noticing a girl directly behind me in a revealing mini-skirt.

So, for all of you who are legal and allowed to mix with the over-18s, I thought I’d share a great website with you. I don’t know about you but I often get bored of going to the same old stomping grounds – sometimes it’s good to find out where the young and fashionable are hanging out in London town. For this you need a website called Secret Cities. It started out on Facebook and within two weeks over 150,000 people had joined. Its aim is to inspire Londoners to explore the best that the city has to offer. You can either make suggestions about places to go or read others.

Latest discussions include ‘I want to host a power ballad night and need a bar to host it. Who knows one?’ and ‘Crazy/Fetish and Non-scary club nights?’. Hmmm, might avoid those but there are some quirky and original places on the site that may inspire you. They also have a blog and a Facebook site so you can get regular updates. Personally I think the Facebook page is even better than the website as it seems to get updated more regularly. To find the group, type ‘Secret London’ in the search bar and it’s the first group in the list.

If you haven’t got time to browse, here are some of the best recommendations this month:

St.Martin-in-the-Fields
Trafalgar Square 
London WC2N 4JJ
Wind down in your lunch hour at these free lunchtime, classical concerts at St Martin-in-the-Fields church. Concerts take place every Monday, Tuesday and Friday at 1pm and feature new and emerging talent from young musicians.

Exit Bar
174 Brick Lane, E1 6RU
Cool DJs and delicious cocktails. Nuff said.

One Love at The Social.
5 Little Portland Street
London W1W 7JD
If you love music and art, this is the place for you. Every month The Social host a unique night where musicians come to have their live music painted by Kilford – aka, The Music
Painter.

Full House
Full House is a 6-month pop up project and the latest venture in London’s underground secret dining scene. The location is only revealed on the day of the event and guests have to sign up to menus posted on the Full House blog. Seating just 12 people around one table, professional and well known chefs begin the evening with an interactive demo and then lay on a 5 to 7 course dinner. Loosen those belts.

Supperclub
12 Acklam Road, W10 5QZ
Quite an annoying website and a wee bit pretentious [owner: ‘”Supperclub is a free state of sensual experiences”], Supperclub was started in Amsterdam by some impoverished artists. Since then it’s grown into somewhere where food, art and music combine to provide guests with a unique experience. I was a bit freaked out by the photo of a man lying down with sushi precariously placed all over his leather skirt but maybe I just need to open my mind and stop worrying about his dry cleaning bill.

Midnite Cookies
15 Exeter Street, WC2E 7DT
This sounds more like it. Get your chocolate fix from this cookie company that will deliver cookies, brownies and milkshakes to you in your PJs until 1am.

Little 15 Jewellery
15 Cullum Street, EC3M 7JJ
Gorgeous jewellery by designers such as Alex Monroe [swoon – your entire collection will be mine one day] and Clara Francis.

Love da Bop Secret Picnics
Check out the ‘Love da Bop presents “Urban Picnics”’ group on Facebook. They are getting 200m2 of turf for a flash mob-style urban picnic so pack a parka and a picnic and get ready to share a soggy sandwich with a stranger.

London Cab Tours
This is brilliant. London cabbie Graham has a BA in history and offers tours of London with a difference. Themed tours include ‘London horror: A way of death’ and ‘Dickens, Shakespeare, Chaucer: London Scenes from their Lives & Works’. Apparently his speciality is coming up with a 6 degrees of separation tour. Hold tight as Graham takes you on a literary tour, connecting ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ to ‘Sherlock Holmes’ in 6 London degrees.

So get exploring but remember, shhhh…keep it secret.
Valerie x

I’m writing this on the day after the bank holiday weekend – a weekend that for many of us involved tarting up our homes. Inevitably this will have required some half-hearted attempts at DIY. You only had to go to Homebase on Bank Holiday Monday to see empty shelves and frayed tempers. It’s a good contender for a couple’s day out at Ikea.

I’m strongly of the opinion that if you’re going to have a go at some DIY, stay well away from your loved ones. Matt’s attempts at DIY are usually accompanied by a general display of tourettes, tools thrown out of his pram and lots of kicking. Unfortunately he’s doing the front garden fence at the moment so the neighbours get an earful too. It’s not the best location for DIY. Every couple of minutes a neighbour comes by with a friendly, albeit annoying, enquiry about what he’s doing. “Ah, so you’re building a fence” [er yes], “have you built one before?” [does it look like it], “are you sure it’s level?”

…Matt’s DIY prowess was revolutionalised on Monday by the purchase of a new nail gun. I’ve learnt something new this weekend. A trip to Screwfix for a bloke is the equivalent to a girl’s shopping weekend in New York. I had to go with him as it was en route to a shop that sold letterboxes and, as a complete control freak, I couldn’t trust him to choose one on his own. The minute you enter ‘man’s Mecca’ the whiff of testosterone shoots up your nose like cheap aftershave but what really struck me was that there’s nothing to look at or touch.  There’s no chatter or nice décor – just men poring over catalogues of tools in utter silence. After what felt like several hours of fidgeting and pacing the concrete jungle, the new nail gun was finally purchased. Back at home, all that testosterone must have gone to his head as he seemed to take to the fence like Rambo with his new toy.
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This week I have mostly been agonising over the colour of my front door. There’s something about being confronted with a colour chart that brings out the schizophrenic in me. I started off wanting ‘Cotswold green’ but tried it on the door and realised that to carry this off you pretty much need to live in a Jane Austen-esque country mansion with rambling roses framing the porch. Then I veered off in a completely different direction and thought about those delicious candy coloured doors you see in Notting Hill. This led to Sky-blue – gorgeous on regency houses but lairy on a bog standard London street. Matt was useless. He took one look at the patchwork mess on the front door and just said “ you know I don’t really care don’t you?”. 6 samples later and I’ve settled on Farrow & Ball’s ‘Green Blue’. Sometimes it’s green, sometimes blue. Sorted.

I painted the door barefoot and trod in so much paint that I could have made pretty impressive foot moulds. This led to me thinking about the dire state of my gnarled winter feet. I live in flip flops and would wear them in winter were it not for the fact that they give you camel foot when paired with socks. So in the name of research, I dragged my sorry, paint-smeared toes to the lovely people at Nails Inc who invited me to try out their ‘Terrific Tootsies’ pedicure. As I sat back with two episodes of ‘The Hills’ for entertainment [I don’t get that show – all they do is pout and open their eyes really wide when they’re given a bit of hot gossip], I suddenly felt a pang of guilt for the poor therapist who had to manhandle my knackered feet. But within 45 minutes they’d been scrubbed, filed and moisturised to baby soft perfection. And then, yet again, I found myself deliberating over paint colours. I settled on ‘Brook Street’ – a coral shade which looked quite summery. Other hot new colours which are bang on trend [they say this kind of thing on ‘The Hills’] include ones from the ‘Greige’ collection… if you don’t have your finger on the pulse that’s a play on, well, grey and beige…and ‘Haymarket’, a shade of green which would have co-ordinated perfectly with my front door.

There are loads of places in London where you can go to get your feet blitzed. I love the sound of the ‘Double Choc Pedicure’ at Bliss Spa which comes with a cup of hot chocolate. There’s also the ‘Ultimate Cowshed Pedicure’ at Cowshed. You get your feet wrapped in a hydration mask while they massage your scalp and shoulders. Sounds stressful.

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