Love them or loath them, there’s no denying that beards have sprouted back into fashion over the last few years. Once the preserve of homestead hill-billies, they’re now as likely to be sported in the boardroom as they are down on the pig farm. Combed and coiffed into submission, today’s facial topiary bears no resemblance to the mutton chops of yesteryear. Hot in pursuit of the new hursuit trend, I popped down to Beard at Somerset House to put in some face time.
BEARD
In the frantic rush of the working week, do your find yourself mindlessly munching on the same things week-in, week-out? In a bid to widen my culinary horizons, I left my desk for a lunch time browse around Borough Market. Brimming with home-grown and far-flung bounty, London’s millennial market is the perfect place to seek out wholesome products while also treating myself to a little of what I fancy. From breakfast al-desko through to post-work tipples, here’s a few of my top recommendations.
Borough Market Vegetable stall
With only sixty minutes to spare, finding a quick yet classy lunch time eaterie can be tricky. Anxious clock watching followed by a rabid nosh and mad dash back to the office can make eating out as stressful as staying desk-bound. Offering a solution to agonising slow service, a new self-service vegetarian restaurant in Mayfair caught my eye. Intrigued, I took two work colleagues along to sample lunch at Ethos.
Ethos Restaurant
Glancing out my office window at lunchtime yesterday, a vision in amber shimmers before me. Lining the steps of Granary Square in King’s Cross are three thousand pumpkins basking in the freakish heat of the Halloween sun. Gazing in awe, I popped out to take a closer look at Pumpkins at KX – London’s quirkiest veggie art installation.
Pumpkins at KX
Stressful morning? In need of some light relief? The House of Illustration could be just the tonic. Quirky, fun and enlightening, this newest addition to London’s art scene provides a welcome break from the taxing task of contemplating highbrow artworks. In need of some light relief, I slipped away from my desk to find out more.
House of Illustration
Discovering unusual lunchtime eateries is not difficult in London but finding yourself dining in a prison is usually not done through choice. HMP Brixton is the third prison in the UK to open its doors to discerning diners, with the success of previous initiatives such as Gordon Ramsay’s Bad Boys Bakery. Helping prisoners gain skills to find work in their new life outside, The Clink restaurant has opened to rave reviews. Intrigued, I booked an afternoon off to dine at her Majesty’s Pleasure.
The Clink Restaurant
Arriving each morning to face a rampant inbox and a hot bed of heart-racing deadlines is a scene many of us are all too familiar with. With one in three absences at work due to stress and anxiety, it’s clear that our coping mechanisms need to stretch further than an emergency Twix and a full-fat coke. On a quest to find inner peace, I slipped away from my desk yesterday lunch time to try out a free half hour creative meditation session with the Inner Space Meditation Centre.
Meditation
Tired of the daily trudge to Pret? Disillusioned with last night’s congealed curry? Injecting novelty into the midday munch al desko is an endless challenge. Discovering a Thai cooking class that allows you to cook, eat and run back to the office all in the space of an hour seemed too good to be true. Would it transform my lacklustre leftovers or have me reaching for the Rennies? I slipped away from my desk on Thursday to find out.
Have you resolved to get fit this year but find yourself serially stuck behind your desk? Our guest blogger, Rob Jones from SACO Apartments, explains why pounding the urban jungle on a lunch break run could be your best career move yet.
Urban Running Guide – Rob Jones
An explosion of liquid sunshine, my lunch time orange is an essential ritual which never fails to lift my spirits. No matter what the crisis, at 12.30 all work comes to a halt for a reviving five minutes of “orange-time.”
orange
Avoiding contaminating my desk, telephone and keyboard with sticky juice (we hot-desk), is an all-consuming task which no phone call or e-mail can interrupt. Bursting with zesty vitality, I excitedly peel back the skin before stuffing the sharp, sweetness into my mouth in a mindful moment of tangy bliss. From frantic and frazzled to revived and refreshed, I flit to the kitchen with the debris, leaving a citrus whiff in my wake.
My strange passion for oranges started four years ago on a winter break to Marrakesh. Departing a dark and blustery Gatwick airport, I was transported three hours later to a parallel universe of brilliant blue skies, chirpy bird song and trees groaning with oranges the size of footballs. Salivating at their brazen ripeness, the first sweet bite was the deepest and one that I would never forget.
Orange trees, Marrakesh
To my delight, I discovered legions of bounty-laden carts offering the amber nectar for an eye-popping ten pence a cup. Charging past the bemused snake charmers and syringe-wielding henna ladies, I got my fix three times a day with change out of 50p.
Even better, I discovered slow-cooked tagines enhanced with a zesty zing, simple desserts of cinnamon-sprinkled orange slices and hefty slabs of orange cake to soak up a sea of mint tea. In a state of citrus bliss, I feverishly imagined my flat transformed into an orange farm with a ready supply always to hand. That was before reading the restrictions in place from HMRC. Crestfallen, I boarded my orange flight home empty-handed.
Four years on and my orange addiction shows no sign of abating. Taking five minutes out to savour the sweet, sticky, messiness not only allows me to momentarily switch off from the stress of the day but also transports me back to holiday memories as sweet as a glass of liquid sunshine.
What small daily rituals take you out of the stress of the day? What would you recommend to other readers?
