London | Visiting Canary Wharf

The driverless DLR is the perfect prelude to Canary Wharf. An automated train delivering passengers to an artificial city district of almost futuristic pretensions. As the train leaves the depths of Bank Station, it heads high above the low-rise flats of Shadwell, before sweeping in a majestic curve towards the sky-kissing offices of Canada Square. Without a driver, the floor-to-ceiling window at the front of the train frames Canary Wharf as a gleaming paradise of steel and glass - not just a destination, but the only destination for miles around.

All architecture is artificial, yet much of it grows organically. London is a sprawling mess of history: layer-upon-layer of times, ages, and epochs entwine to form an almost natural geographic beauty. Canary Wharf is planned, wholly. Every element of it thought, designed, and positioned to create an artificial oasis in the East of the city and an artificial life for everyone who lives and works there.

As such, Canary Wharf is alien to anyone who doesn't visit regularly. Arriving is disorientating. The DLR station opens into a windowless shopping centre, devoid of natural light, and as confusing as a box-hedge maze. Shop, after shop, after shop, it's like the end of a roller coaster where keyrings and souvenirs of your journey are sold - with ponchos offered in case it's raining.

Outside, life isn't much clearer. Signs point to seemingly endless corners of a series of giant squares. Replicated over and over, long channels of deep still blue water reflect the buildings above as identical below. The names are the same reflection and repetition - Middle Dock, North Dock, South Dock, Inner Dock, South Quay, Heron Quay, West India Quay. Distinction in name and geography is totally lost - as is the visitor.

Canary Wharf does have a beauty though. Its charm, as with its order, emerges from its diametrical opposition to the rest of London. In the rain, London's grime dribbles down brickwork and seeps up from its streets. The stone paving around Bank, for instance, leaks, creaks, and splatters your shoes in a grey grime which stains forever. Canary Wharf, on the other hand, sparkles in the rain. The water washing the endless metres of glass clean and smooth; the undulating pavement offering no cracks for the grime to bubble from.

And when the sun shines, those same streets and buildings continue to sparkle - glowing brilliantly against a dazzling blue sky.

Sabel | Handmade, bespoke watch straps

Okay, a service I haven't used isn't something I'd usually cover. But, I've been feeling pretty guilty as Mia Sabel invited me along to her pop-up at Fortnum & Mason and I couldn't make it.

Or rather, I said I could and then my plans changed at the last minute.

Anyway, although most days I wear a dependable Casio, I do own something a little better and the strap is looking worryingly worn. So visiting Mia would have been perfect! Oh well, you can't do everything life sends your way - unfortunately.

From what I've seen on Instagram, Mia is pretty good at her craft, to say the least! It's worth giving her a follow on Twitter too, just to see when the next pop-up will be or simply to admire her good work!

Foraging in Epping, with Caorunn Gin

It’s good to get outside sometimes, away from a life spent wedged behind a screen. In London, that usually means somewhere just as noisy, mind you - a park full of tourists or one by a main road.

Epping Forest doesn’t suffer from either of those problems. It’s huge, so you can get as far away from people and roads as you like. It has full 4g connectivity too, just in case you do want to answer an email or three.

I was in Epping Forest to forage for edible plants. Don’t worry, this wasn’t for my dinner - times aren’t that tough. In fact, we weren’t actually allowed to pick anything at all. I had to make do with a bag of dried fruit pieces for kids. That’s another story.

Hold on, rewind a bit - I can hear all three of you saying - foraging? Why?

Well the good people at Caorunn Gin - cheers guys! - took me and a few others to the woods to learn more about where their ingredients are from: being as six of their eleven botanicals are foraged from the Scottish Highlands. See, to all those PRs out there, I do pay attention!

The guy in charge whose name I forget (but he’s soon to appear on Netflix wrestling crocodiles - I kid you not), marched us around the wood, showing us plants that taste nice, plants that don’t, and plants that will kill you. Disturbingly, there were quite a few of the latter and all within easy reach of ignorant fools like myself. The government should really put up some signs.

I promised the PR folks that I wouldn’t dwell on the deadly plants too much, but they did seem to attract the most interest. What can I say? Give the people what they want!

A proper review of the day will appear on another blog soon - a good full foodie write-up - plus some comments on the meal they fed us afterwards. And no, it wasn’t just made from foraged ingredients, only some. I wanted to share a few pictures of the woods though and what with Bank Holiday coming up and all, some of you might be looking for inspiration as to what to do.

Head to Epping Forest then! Just don’t pick any of the plants - they might do you some harm. I ain’t kidding!

Universal Works x Walsh: City Runner Project

Bolton. Not a town you'd associated with trainers. More likely Peter Kay, Championship football, and a town gradually being swallowed by Manchester.

But you should, you really should, as that's where Walsh are based.

While other trainer brands trip over themselves in the search for a history, Walsh have it in spades.

Starting as a manufacturer of athletics and fell running shoes - that's right, fell running (check that grip!) - they stepped into the everyday sneaker market with their range of casual trainers and have now gone a stride further, collaborating with Universal Works on the City Runner Project.

If you don't know Universal Works, you should do. Pay them a visit online or at one of their stores in Soho or on Lamb's Conduit Street.

Together, the Walsh and Universal Works collaboration brings us a UK designed, UK made trainer, available in three colours, named after three cities: London, Tokyo, and Paris.

It's a stylish trainer, but don't take my word for it - see the sneakers in action, modelled on the streets of their namesakes.

We were luckily enough to be invited to the launch (lets play spot the dork!). A couple of beers, a sculpture made from shoe boxes, and a discussion about blueberry yoghurt - a standard product launch, to be honest.

Based on the success of the launch alone, I'll be surprised if Walsh and Universal Works aren't thinking of the next trainer as we speak...

Images: Universal Works and Walsh.

On the Road | ourCaste: The Paul - DWR

A post that involves a photo shoot is hugely time consuming. Just taking the pics can take half a day, a whole day, or an entire weekend. Then there's editing, curating, and resizing, before you even begin writing.

As well as blogging, I work, so I don't often have the time - let alone the skill - for a full photo shoot.

I feel guilty, as people send me some really cool products that I don't feel I can always do justice to.

These Paul - DWR trousers (they'd say pants) from ourCaste over in California are a case in point. I've had them a week and worn them three times already. They're lightweight, ridiculously comfortable, and pretty smart for workwear.

But when will I get time to shoot them for a post?

Perhaps that question misses the point though. My blog isn't about staged shoots, it's about clothes I wear in everyday life - and what better way to showcase a pair of durable water resistant trousers (DWR - get it?) than shooting while out working?

Now don't laugh. As any commuter will tell you, English trains - especially the tube - are not clean places. Spilt coffee in the mornings, dropped chicken in the evenings, and the ubiquitous discarded chewing gum are all obstacles of terror to dodge each day.

And, after a two hour journey down to Brighton (again), I want to look moderately smart to meet my client.

These trousers can take it. A day spent jumping between trains, sat in a university class room, balancing near endless cups of coffee on my knee, and rushing frantically between stations to make it back to London in time for climbing. All of it, taken in my stride (excuse the pun).

I was almost tempted to keep the trousers on for climbing too. I reckon the chalk would brush off the Paul DWRs fairly easily and afterwards, I could fold them back in the cupboard ready to tackle the perils of the next long commute - wherever that might take me.

Check out the rest of ourCaste's range here.

Walking North London | The Original Muck Boot Company

Like so many green spaces in London, Gillespie Park is a small triangle of forest and fields wedged between a road and a railway. A small brick archway, set between a row of terraced houses, marks its entrance. Inside, pathways weave through the trees and grass, flanked by a metal-mesh fence, designed to keep animals in or people out - I couldn’t work out which.

This is a tranquil patch in the middle of a suburban sprawl. A rare haven for wildlife, peace, and quiet. Close your ears to passing trains and you almost forget that you’re in Zone 2.

So much of London can only be discovered if you walk. In an unfamiliar city, tourists use the tube as their guide. Hot, sweaty, and dark, they ride from Oxford Circus to Piccadilly, from Waterloo to Embankment, from Charing Cross to Covent Garden; with each trip, missing sights that most would pay good money to see.

The gate to Gillespie Park stands between two tube stations along an unassuming road. Each day a million people must pass by, easily, rushing between work and home, meetings and more meetings, pubs and cafes. Only a small handful will visit in a week, let alone in a day.

I hadn’t planned to visit. I didn’t even know the park was there. A discovery I made as we wandered the streets of Highbury.

Two of us, with cameras in hand, winding our way to The Emirates Stadium, to photography boots lent to me by The Original Muck Boot Company. A park seemed a little more appropriate though. Some mud to wallow in, some water to splash in, a chance to scuff up the boots and make us both look like old hand at this walking lark.

It didn’t last long. Gillespie Park, with it’s wooden boards and chipped-wood paths was too neat to add any authenticity to our new rubber. So, we moved on.

London, you would think, is as good a place as any to find puddles. Nope, a burst water main aside, there wasn’t a drop to be found around Arsenal’s ground. Instead, we spent our time bewildering (read: annoying) tourists with our Lucozade bottle keep-ups and brave leaps between concrete seats. Well, the boots had to be tested somehow.

Then the darkness set in. The light sapped from the sky and our energy sapped by a lunch of pie and beer - I’d burned some calories, so I’d earned it. Back through another dry park to a Starbucks’ coffee, a list of planned track closures, and the tube ride back South - sat there wondering just what I might be missing above ground.

Thanks to The Original Muck Boot Company for lending us the boots!

Images: Me and Julia.

Finding WiFi | The Hoxton, Holborn

Freelancing, it's a conspicuous pursuit. Camel leather bag over one shoulder, travelling the tube on an off-peak ticket, searching out stylish places to sit that offer WiFi and a desk for the cost of a single coffee.

Why do we do this? Why do we leave the comfort of the sofa to spend an afternoon trying to avoid listening to other people's conversations about their new business venture (www.cottonbuds.com) or their failed attempt at an affair?

For one reason, working from home loses it's charm after a while. Rolling out of bed straight onto the sofa, you begin to doubt whether sunlight, teeth cleaning, or clothes are actually necessary. Open the curtains? Why bother. I'll be closing them again in 8 hours time. However, once the prospect of visiting the Post Office or popping out for milk becomes exciting, it's time to open the door and leave the stale air of the home 'office'.

The other reason is a need to make freelancing actually seem like work.

Really? Someone is paying me to sit at my desk in joggers? It just doesn't feel right - it just doesn't feel like work. Call it institutionalisation, but without the hum of the train on the tracks and the scrum at the ticket barrier, the working day hasn't begun or, indeed, ended.

So places like The Hoxton Holborn are Mecca for us freelancers. Sat on a chair we could never afford, reading BBC News on a vintage MacBook, all the time coveting the seats nearer a power socket and further from the drafty door.

With a half-drunk cup of coffee gradually cooling for an hour or two, the rent is paid and the staff will ignore you. It's time to switch on Spotify and see what delights Facebook has to offer, making sure you leave well before rush-hour, of course.

The Hoxton Holborn is on High Holborn, about a minutes walk from the tube.

Something totally different? The Calvert Journal: inspiration from Russia

Images: The Hoxton, Holborn.

Hidden London | East London Liquor Company

Blogging sends you on some odd assignments.

I say 'sends you' - no one sends you; instead, out of the blue arrives an email offering some sort of trip, visit, and/or possible adventure.

I say 'odd', but I really mean interesting, different, not the usual thing you'd choose to do or even get the opportunity to do.

Last year, I partied on a Paris rooftop, cooked breakfast for the guys at Glenrothes, mixed my own whisky with Glenfiddich, ran the River Wharfe to the Valley of Desolation, and swapped the Northern Line for a week's commute along the golden sandy bay of Playa de La Concha.

Not bad really, when all's said and done.

I've also stayed a bit closer to home, a trip to the East London Liquor Company, for example.

After following Mat for a 'behind the  scenes' shoot for Natural Selection London the day before, we were both back on the same stretch of canal to visit the East London Liquor Company as part of Virgin Experience Days.

Being a one room distillery, the tour was short, but still damn interesting for a geek like me. It was then on to the best part of any alcohol tour, the tasting.

Gin, gin, and more gin. What a way to spend a Friday afternoon!

Unlike some of the other trips, this one is open to everyone. Check out Virgin Experience Days or pay them a visit yourself.

Here's to more trips, travel, and adventure in 2015!

Looking for more to do in London? Check out more in the Hidden London series.

Images: My Instagram.