Seeking more bang for your hard-earned buck this autumn? Forget flash-in-the-pan fireworks displays and head instead to the seaside town of Lewes on the south coast. Dubbed the bonfire capital of the world, the town ignites into a mighty inferno of burning crosses, flaming torches and blazing tar barrels in the famous Lewes Bonfire night celebrations dating back one hundred and sixty years.
Dominic Alves Lewes Bonfire celebrations
Working in the design capital of the world, it’s easy to be blase about the architectural gems which blur into the background of our frenetic working lives. The London Design Festival takes place every September and aims to startle us out of our nonchalance with over three hundred events springing up across the metropolis. Intrigued, I left work to discover the stylish exhibits taking centre stage at the V&A.
Office Breaks London Design Festival 2014
After a gruelling week of back-to-back meetings, kicking back below swaying palm trees with sand between your toes is the kind of fantasy we all indulge in on a sticky Friday afternoon. But did you know that nestled on a roof top above Camden Town is a tropical island paradise boasting golden sands, end-of-pier amusements and beefy life-guards? Donning my flip flops, I went along to find out more.
Office Breaks Camden Beach
Morning cappuccino or café latte?, sushi or salad for lunch? Spending so much of our lives in the office, it’s not surprising that food becomes a major pre-occupation. With deals sealed over a succulent sea bream fillet, food is the vital ingredient that greases the wheels of industry. Bringing together the most exciting products and restaurants from the four corners of the globe, Taste of London sorts the wheat from the chaff.
Office Breaks Taste of London
Promising London’s wildest night out, Zoo Nights roars back into town this summer with fun and frolics strictly for adults-only. With a star-studded cast of gorillas, tigers, giraffes and Komodor Dragons, it’s the perfect way for office workers to relax, unwind and re-live their childhood. Donning my cheetah shoes, I trotted along with a colleague to join the menagerie.
Office Breaks Zoo Lates
With only two weeks left to see the British Museum’s Vikings Life and Legend exhibition, (closes 22nd June 2014), I set off from work last Friday evening to find out what life was really like in the Viking Age. Hungry for status, power and global domination, it turns out that our Scandinavian predecessors had a lot in common with the movers and shakers of today’s corporate world.
The British Museum The Lewis Chessmen, berserkers. Late 12th century, Uig, Lewis, Scotland. Walrus ivory © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Sitting is the new smoking declared the article I idly stumbled across while munching al desko last week. Shifting uncomfortably, I totted up the alarming number of daily hours I spend installed on my office chair and sofa. Guilt-tripped out of my stationary habits, the prospect of a yoga rave (two words I thought I’d never see together) piqued my interest. Would it inject new life into sombre sun salutations and doleful downward dogs? I went along to find out.
Indra Kubicek Yoga Rave
With lashing rain and tube strike meltdown adding anguish to our working lives last week, my own stress levels were at breaking point. Desperate to find a sanctuary far from the madding rush hour crowds, I headed to Gordon Ramsay’s Union Street Bar in Southwark for an alternative experience of going underground.
Have you ever considered learning to ceilidh dance? With Burns Night fast approaching it’s a great excuse to cast off the back-to-work blues with an evening of foot-stamping, kilt-swirling excess. It’s one of the easiest and most inclusive dance styles around which I guarantee anyone can master in the matter of just a few minutes. So if you’ve screwed up at Salsa and tanked at Tango, ceilidh dancing will transform you.
An evening watching poly bags swirling around to music? Could it be on a par with people escaping from imaginary boxes? Such was the scathing response from colleagues when I departed the office early to see L’Après-midi d’un foehn – the lead act at this year’s London Mime Festival. Following rave reviews at the Edinburgh Festival and much acclaim from the national press, I was intrigued and wary in equal measure. Would the plastic fantastic production blow me away or was it just a lot of hot air?
Jean-Luc Beaujault