Christmas 2010.
It was the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a..... well hopefully not even a mouse, as the damn washing machine blew up and there was a whole other world lingering behind it when heaved out of its position in Herculean style. 'More expense' I sighed, which is often the first thing I think of when someone announces they are getting engaged/married, as the likelihood of your Conran pasta dish carefully wrapped pressie being smashed over the spouses head is nigh on predictable these days. Well never mind, Peter Jones will do well out of me for a new washer dryer after six years of non stop action with the previous incarnation. And with that, the door slammed to brave the sub zero temperatures for a trip to Matthew Bourne's revised Cinderella set in the period of the 1940's London Blitz, followed by a Christmas Eve drink at The Savoy.
The cold snap was a topic of conversation for most of December. Why had the bitter winds and snow felled in London and created chaos at Heathrow so early in the winter, when we all know that February and March are usually the cruellest months? Was it indeed a case of global warming and George Monbiot was right all along? Or was it simply just a chilly cold snap and we should be completely unpeturbed by global warming propoganda in the style of the hyped Y2K bug so says Christopher Monckton. Certainly waste, pollution and vast materialism should be questioned throughout the world. It is interesting that the US contribute to huge amounts of methane gas from their cattle in the atmosphere - have you seen the size of their steaks? An average restaurant serving would feed a British family of four for a week. Pollution is at stratospheric levels - just watch the news. Any reporter standing with their microphone with Beijing in the background can hardly see 10 feet behind them for the smog. I know that I can hardly breathe east of Vienna.
However, is it because it is unthinkable and certainly unfashionable to question whether the world is really going through one of its cycles, rather than global warming asuch? There is so much information on the subject and debates which I have been in the audience of, listening to incredibly interesting and intelligent speakers that sitting on the fence isn't such a bad option. Even curvy Nigella's father, Nigel Lawson wrote a book on the subject. In 2008, Lawson published a book expanding on his 2006 lecture to the Centre for Policy Studies, An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming. He argues the case that, although global warming is happening and will have negative consequences, the impact of these changes will be relatively moderate rather than apocalyptic. He criticises those "alarmist" politicians and scientists who predict catastrophe unless urgent action is taken. The book has, in its turn, been criticised by several climatologists.
The rather fabulous James Lovelock - now a national institution, somebody I share a birthday with and one of Vivienne Westwood's favourites, is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling the chemical and physical environment. James Delingpole writing in The Telegraph, The Spectator, on his own website & on radio around the world, spends absolute hours on denying climate change and the scientific evidence that proves it. One to keep mulling over I think, however, this is obviously the light-weights answer to a much bigger and not going away question.
So to the January Sales, even though it is not quite January. You know you are getting old when you say that they come around sooner every year. Selfridges on Boxing Day and Peter Jones & Bond Street the following, after a delicious and much civilised lunch with my mother at the Wolseley of course. Needless to say, as it was the first day of sale for the aforementioned stores, they were rammed. We were fashionably kettled by extra security and it was fascinating to see a lot of Chinese and Japanese people in droves buying everything on the rails. In fact, in the drama, I wrestled one to the ground in the 2nd floor Maxmara section of what I thought to be the sole remaining grey coat, until I realised that the woman being assaulted by me was actually three sizes smaller than me and so was the coat!
Good buys: Joseph, Tory Birch (although the New Bond Street shop prices are at higher discounts than in the shop with the yellow bags), DvF and some of the designers in the new shoe hall. It was madness, roped off sections of Jimmy Choo and Gucci with huge queues that I refused to join. A couple of hours of that was enough for any ones nerves and pocket and back to the confines of the apartment with the new washer dryer being delivered at the end of January. In the meantime, am making my own version of Tracey Emin's bed in the corner of the bedroom.
This is the time of year, when newspapers and news programmes look back at who we lost to the spirit in the sky in the past year. The person I am most sad in this world loosing is Sebastian Horsley. Sebastian born in 1962, died in June this year of a heroin and cocaine ovedose which was an accident. Tragically his one-man play, Dandy in the Underworld, to which I took about 8 friends to, opened at the Soho Theatre only one day prior to his death. The role of Horsley (the sole character in the play) was performed by the excellent Milo Twomey, although it would have been the performance of a lifetime if Sebastian had played himself. Some say Sebastian had been very upset of the death of his friend Michael Wojas who had run the Colony Club and who had died of cancer the week before. Two huge Soho losses within a matter of weeks. Soho would never really be the same again.
I had met him numerous times at parties, with his publisher who is a friend of mine and at an intimate soiree at Home House, candle lit with everyone lying decadantly on the comfortable sofas, listening to Sebastian's very clever and filthy mouth. A poem as always about his art, his crucifixion in the Philippines, his drug addiction, sex and his reliance on prostitues. His friend, the journalist Toby Young, said he believed Horsley's death was an accident: "If it had been suicide Sebastian would not have passed up the opportunity to write a note. It's a tragic loss of life." In an interview in April 2008, Horsley romanticised dying "destitute in the arms of a prostitute," though not immediately dying "if that's alright with you."
If you get a chance to read his autobiography, 'Dandy In the Underworld' please do, how can a book not be a masterpiece that begins, 'Hurtling towards the earth, in 1962 I exploded on Hull. I was so appalled I couldn't talk for two years.' He signed my copy with his usual wit: 'Dear Joanna, Well darling, do remember to read with one hand.... I am good between the covers of this book, but better between the sheets. 7 Meard St, Soho. Sebastian xxx' I will treasure my copy implicitly. Or explicitly as he would of course have preferred.
Aside from above, 10 other things I read, did and encountered this week that may be of interest or may be you would prefer me to shut up and you can go back to reading your new Heat magazine:
1. So was Upstairs Downstairs better than Downton Abbey? she doesn't think so: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/vivgroskop?INTCMP=SRCH
2. Actor of the year by a mile was Benedict Cumberbatch, one minute Sherlock Holmes the next Vincent van Gogh! have already booked tickets to see him and Jonny Lee Miller at the National in February in Frankenstein - they will alternate the roles of Frankenstein and the creature: http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/62808/productions/frankenstein.html;
3. Paul the psychic octopus might have died, however, film, book and toy rights are in negotiations, Olympics conversation for the low brow and those just too exhausted after talking of the mertis and work of Ai Weiwei !
4. Kiss my double dip recession - 2011 is going to be made of sterner stuff;
5. However, austerity measures are not all but a distant memory, even in wealthy K&C, there was not a speck of grit in sight during the snow phase, experiencing the spatchcock Coalitions cuts first hand;
6. Watching the UK version of The Social Network - in Old Street - 'Silicon Roundabout', mark my words the future is being built right there;
7. Cherie Blair selling Tony's signature for £10 on e-bay! I queued for Peter Mandelsohn's signature at Hatchards on the 1st day of release of The Third Man, Tony's memoirs were bundled into my Sainsbury's trolley at half price, that's positioning for you;
8. Loving Miranda - the BBC sleeper hit of the year;
9. Not quite understanding the students revolt hysteria, students have always been revolting, nothing can beat The Young Ones;
10. Happy New Year!! Where will you be celebrating? or will you be having an early night.........
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