A blog entry about suicide seems rather odd especially weeks before Christmas, but perhaps it is precisely THE time to write about it because there are many who may not be feeling the festive and joyous mood during this period. And for those people, the festive seasons can also be the most [...]

 
I have always loved eating mushrooms, ( it's funny to say this but Campbell's mushroom soup was one of my favourite when I was a kid) years ago, I even bought a hardback cookbook on mushrooms only. About two years ago, I met a couple on a hike who like to [...]

 
Of all the cities in Asia, I find Hong Kong and Singapore to be the best representations of the term 'East meets West', this is partly due to their historical backgrounds and links to the British. Even though in recent years, the world's focus has turned to Chinese cities like Shanghai and [...]

When I was a teenager, I became obsessed with everything 'French' because of their immaculate taste in art, fashion, design, culinary and cinema. I indulged in French cinema ( esp. Eric Rohmer ) and even spent 7 months living in Paris trying to improve my English-accented French learned from school here. During [...]

Top left and middle: Somerset House's hidden passageway; the Lightwells and Deadhouse; Top right: 2nd price - Aquadocks by Studio Pink; Bottom left: 1st price - Fleeting Memories by 4orm 
 
I have always enjoyed the Forgotten Spaces competition organised by RIBA London. The competition seeks out redundant spaces across Greater London and [...]

I have seen several shows choreographed by the experimental Moroccan-Flemish choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's at Sadlers Wells before, including: Sutra ( a collaboration with Antony Gormley and a group of young Shaolin monks in 2008), Babel ( another collaboration with Gormley and Damien Jalet in 2010) and TeZukA ( on the works [...]

The floating Puppet theatre Barge in Little Venice
 
I have previously written about puppetry because I am rather fond of this traditional art form. When I found out about the London Puppetry Festival a few weeks ago, I was quite eager to take the opportunity to see some contemporary puppetry shows.
First [...]

 
In the past few years, I noticed a "back to basic" trend happening in the developed countries, and even in product designs, many designers have opted for less decorative style and creating products from natural material. Simple wooden toys also seem to have made a comeback, which I am quite happy to [...]

 Bottom left & right Russell Cobb for Lower Mill Estate: Summer and Autumn
 
I often feel that illustrations or illustrators are 'undervalued', perhpas due to its ambiguous nature... somewhere between art and graphic design, it is somewhat overlooked by people outside and sometimes even inside the industry. When I used to work in advertising [...]