It’s all pants!

The summer sales seem to be taking off with Paul Smith and Aquascutum having sales at their stores in the West End but here in the City the Royal Exchange will be seeing the sale at top-notch lingerie retailer Agent Provocateur start today, which should herald the arrival of stylish women and men with partners, lovers or secret habits to support. My favourite shirt-shop Emmett also has a sale on so I’d recommend you taking a trip to their Eldon Street shop in the City to bag a bargain.

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Sun in the City

I do think that it’s great being in the City when the weather’s like this. Normally subdued office-dwellers foray out into the bright sun in degrees of inappropraite clothing to eat, drink, read, talk and laugh either alone or with colleagues. The picture above is from the south-side of Finsbury Square but on the other side of Finsbury Square the bowling green was getting plenty of action with gaggles of bowlers striving, with various degrees of hopelessness, to help their respective team win.

If you do happen to be around Finsbury Circus you might want to pop across the road to The Master Gunner as their new pool tables should be arriving today, but at least you might be wanting a drink and a chance to watch tennis on their big TV I suspect. I’ll be writing a review of them shortly.

New balls please!

Epic game of tennis last night with Andy Murray and the very un-Swiss sounding Stanislas Wawrinka taking it to a breathtaking climax under the new Centre Court roof long after darkness had fallen outside. It was a great advert for tennis and I’m sure the BBC will be happy with their viewing figures.

But is appears as though not everything at Wimbledon is about the unsullied love of tennis and The Evening Standard has pointed out that RBS, the bank the government bought with your money, is spending £300,000 on an entertainment suite during the Championships. Whilst exploding with the usual tabloid shock by contrasting what a regular ticket-holder has to pay against what corporate entertainment provides they do lift the covers on RBS’s apparent attempts to keep this taxpayer-funded expense away from casual gaze, possibly suggesting some degree of comprehension on RBS’s part that the public may not wholly understand quite why RBS are spending their money on partying with people who could probably afford it anyway while your average Joe and Jane Public has to cut back on their spending.

If true it seems as though some parts of RBS still haven’t got the message or understood what’s been going on for the last few months and doesn’t bode well for their rehabilitation from profligate risk-takers to responsible financiers.

The Evening Standard - RBS at the tennis
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/

A tall order

If you’re a fan of basketball then today’s your day because basketball star John Amaechi is at Waterstones in Leadenhall Market signing his latest book at 12.30.

John grew up in the glamorous northern town of Stockport, near Manchester, before finding that his basketball skills would take him to college in America and then on to six seasons in the top-flight NBA. His career took on a different slant when he came out as being gay, not something universally accepted in the masculine world of pro-basketball, and eventually he left the NBA and is now pursuing a PhD in psychology. All that indicates that he’s not just your average sportsman so even if you’re not a basketball fan I’d recommend you get down there, buy his book and walk in his shoes for a while.

Waterstones Leadenhall Market
1-3 Whittington Avenue, Leadenhall Market, EC3V 1PJ
020 7220 7882
http://www.waterstones.com

Try Capoeira…

With the influx of cultures to London one significant, but perhaps less prominent, addition is that of the Brazilians who come to London though I can’t always see what the appeal of our grey metropolis has over the sandy beaches and tanned bodies of Brazil. One manifestation of this is the challenging Brazilian sport of Capoeira which could be best described as an acrobatic fight so if you’ve spent your life thinking that Jackie Chan has all the best moves then you need to see the Capoeristas in action. As a sport it’s very relaxed, being played to traditional Brazilian berimbau music, and is played with the same flair as their football is best known for with cartwheels, somersaults and assorted acrobatic movements.

Capoeira is predominantly a non-contact sport but each school has a grading, or batizado, each year where the students play against the Mestres (masters) and the object of the exercise is for the student to demonstrate his skills and ultimately for one to put the other on the floor. These batizados occur a different times of year for the many different schools across London and are usually followed by some kind of party so are very much a social event with lots of fun to be had and reflect on the relaxed side of Brazilian life, though the sport itself has its roots in slavery several hundred years ago.

Anyway, on Saturday I was at the batizado of the ACER Capoeira school in Kingston and there was the usual mix of students from small children to adults with everyone keen to show of their stuff and I’ve got a video for you as a taster which starts with Mestre Celso, one of the oldest practicing Mestres, showing everyone what he expects then the action starts and for a finale one of the teachers seems to take offence to one of the students responses to a kick in the chest…

It’s a lot of fun and is one heck of a workout so if you’re looking for a martial art that’s fun and different then give one of the classes below a try and if you’re looking for some fit, toned and tanned bodies to party with check out when there’s a batizado on. Me? I got my corda verde (green belt) last year.

ACER Capoeira – Associação de Capoeira Engenho da Rainha
South London & Surrey
http://www.acer-uk.com

CDOL – Cordão de Ouro London
Classes across London from Whitechapel to Fulham Broadway
http://www.cdol.co.uk

Axe Capoeira
South and South-West London and Surrey
http://www.axecapoeirauk.com/

Capoeira Palmares
London City and Surrey
http://www.capoeirapalmares.co.uk/

Search Google for Capoeira in London
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=capoeira+london&meta=&aq=f&oq=