lifeofyablon.com

by yablon | September 23, 2012

Are we Human or are we Dancer?*

It all started with a simple question. ‘What is a micro-manager?’ asked my almost 8 year old. ‘And why does Daddy always call you that?’ she innocently added.

We all laughed. But afterwards, I began to question how much control and management is needed to efficiently coordinate the family, work and everything in between. What is the meaning of control? And what’s on the other side of control? A lack of psychological freedom?

my visit to Claire Shutes’ couch

It was then that I remembered a great friend telling me about Claire Shutes and I thought that this would be a perfect time to sit on her couch and look for some ‘control’ answers.

Having previously been an observational documentary maker, Claire is pretty curious about people and attitudes, and this is evident from the moment she greets you at her door. She is trained as a life coach, has written and delivered courses in businesses and schools but is so much more. Interested in state of mind and the nature of thought, she particularly focuses on this when ‘working’ with her clients.

Probably none of this sounds out of the ordinary for anyone who has done any sort of psychological probing.

Claire Shutes is anything other than ordinary

Except that Claire is out of the ordinary. Her manner is approachable yet intuitive. While I answered her questions, I found her to be sensitive in her approach and insightful in her responses. Drilling down in a limited time frame, we discussed rules and boundaries, rather than hard-core control, in an inquisitive and non-accusing fashion.

We concluded that because I want my world to be good, I try to control it. She recognised that any decision-making I do, is actually my way of releasing myself from the mundane to-do list and aims to allow me to create time for myself (to write, read, be). I left understanding a little more about myself, all skilfully facilitated by Claire.

Living with the challenges of cerebral palsy, Claire and I agreed that life experience heavily influences our state of mind and how we function as human beings. I suppose Claire, in a nutshell, enables her clients to see the world in a different way.

If you are too are looking for answers or just some degree of clarity, I’d recommend a visit to Claire Shutes.

Claire Shutes +44 7904066344 cs@potentcoaching.com

*The Killers’ song Human reminds us of all we have to go through and learn to be the person we are today. Listen here.

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by yablon | September 21, 2012

Dîner en Blanc/Sanderson Session: White and Black in the City

Dîner en Blanc in London’s Covent Garden

Last night was an evening of visual contrasts. Covent Garden played host to London’s first ever Diner en Blanc dinner. The concept of a mass, chic, pop-up picnic, with all diners obligatorily dressed head to toe in white, is already a huge success in Paris, New York and where it first originated more than 20 years ago in Montreal.

The shebang is shrowded in secrecy and I was only given details as to the location an hour before it kicked off. Arriving at Covent Garden tube station, along with hundreds of elegant, quirky and slightly bonkers picnic-makers, all dressed in white, I knew I was in the right place.

I watched (slightly voyeuristically) as they began setting up their tables and chairs (yes – all white – the rules are strict) and unpacking their elaborate dinners while the three-piece band played some easy jazz. The atmosphere was electric and the vision rather splendid.

As I admired the extent to which some of these elegant foodies were quaffing their champagne in crystal flutes, I felt curious enough to dip into the crowd and ask how they had heard about this quirky spectacle. Most had some sort of French connection and they either knew someone who had been to the recent Paris event or had read about it in the French press.

Dîner en Blanc diners wave their white napkins!

Once everyone was ready, white napkins began waving frantically. I learnt that this was to indicate the beginning of dinner.

Saint Lou Lou – the twins in black – Sanderson Sessions

At this point I had to leave the scene of whiteness and head for the Sanderson Hotel, W1. And I needed a black cab if I was to make the Saint Lou Lou session in the hotel’s iconic courtyard. Amidst the PRs, waitresses, a crowd of local trendies and the singers themselves, I immediately noticed… they were all dress in BLACK.

The Saint Lou Lou twins, Elektra and Miranda Kilbey, have only recently left school. Their debut single ‘Maybe You‘, was released online a few months ago and has since been highly appraised on a huge number music blogs. Of course, it helps that they are beautifully Swedish (but cunningly surf through the Australian summers to escape the Nordic winters). Either way, the hotel crowd loved their slightly sleepy, melancholy tunes.

cocktails at the Sanderson hotel

Needless to say, the Sanderson’s colourful cocktails added the real vibrancy to what was a pretty monochrome evening.

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by yablon | September 20, 2012

Yo! Home is where MY heart is

Our home is the centre of my life. For better or for worse. It’s noisy, chaotic and cluttered certain hours of the day and then calm and serene at others. Most importantly, it is simply a location where we gather for the biggest laugh over a roast chicken and endless After Eights. I was so curious to see how Simon Woodroffe (having reinvented Japanese sushi, Yo! Sushi, and reshuffled our idea of a hotel, YOTEL) was going to launch his latest venture Yo! Home at 100% Design.

Simon’s Yo! bed moving up to reveal the sitting room & home cinema

The answer is quite geniusly. He takes a space the size of a one-bedroom flat. And then he offers endless room combinations: 2 bedrooms, living spaces, a wall of hidden kitchen, office, party room, cinema… all hidden and revealed by sliding doors, hidden floor storage and ‘mechanical’ furniture. It’s nauseatingly brilliant. In a nutshell, it’s a room-to-go.

I tracked down the friendliest Dragons’ Den ever to appear on the BBC show to understand what his home means to him and then asked him to pose on the bed!

What makes a great home? Space – People – View

What is your earliest memory of home? Looking through the banisters at the parents partying in 1950s Army life in Singapore

What’s the first thing you do when you get in after work? Take my shoes off and look at the river

the pop up kitchen in this brilliant living space

Which is your favourite room in the house? My bedroom has an infinity window on to the Thames

Could you live alone and/or on a commune? I don’t like living alone and I do already live on a commune – 3 houseboats of my own with people always staying and 52 other great boat people next to me in Chelsea

Where would you love to live? Tikopia for a while anyway, where I am a minor Deity

Ideal dinner guest? She who I have not yet met …

Whose home would you like to visit? Dalai Lama

Are you obsessively tidy at home? Obsessives are the only people who are any good at anything – I am tidy

I asked Simon to recline after all his magic had been performed in Yo!Home

How do you relax at home? People

Which album are you currently listening to? The new Dylan

Which is the best advice you have been given? Find out what you like doing and then spend 90% of your time doing it

Who or what inspires you? Ideas and a piece of paper

Tell us a secret about your home. Every 6 hours it is either 20 feet higher or 20 feet lower than it was.

The homes for the future will surely look like this – Yo! Home

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by yablon | September 19, 2012

Brett Cowie’s Red Hot Thai Chillies

Thai Man Brett

Along with a hairdresser to blow dry my hair daily at home, I dream of a world where I have my own personal Thai chef. And so when Brett Cowie rocked up, a couple of hours in advance of our guests arriving last Friday night, I was too excited to actually interview him.

He seemed unbothered. Brett, 39, is very cool yet charming. Initially, I had been sent a press release about his Old School Thai curry pastes, then I heard that he in-home chefs and finally I read that his secret curry pastes are a tribute to his Thai grandmother’s cooking. There’s no doubt that I fell for the romance of it all. Brett spent the first 18 years of his life in Thailand and he has certainly picked up the right amount of influence to be authentic.

Brett and I had discussed menu options in advance over email. Well… he had suggested what he might make and I had enthusiastically agreed. All I had to do was invite some hungry friends and ensure we had plenty to drink.

all I had to do was lay the table

It was one of those rare and perfect London summer evenings so we relocated our kitchen table into the garden. He (not to be confused with Brett) had been put in charge of some lethal cocktail making and the cool Ibiza tunes while I laid the table.

our starter

Brett brought our first course, Yum Nheurh, into the garden. A spicy salad of grilled beef with red chillies, cucumbers, onions, shallots and coriander with an outstanding dressing of Thai bird’s eye chillies, lime juice, palm sugar and garlic.

And while we drank Singha beer and enjoyed our salad, Brett was back in the kitchen rustling up Pad Met Ma-Moang Himaparn (turkey, cashew nuts, spring onions, toasted red chillies, garlic and onion), Tow-Hoo Pad Twa Ngork (tofu stir-fried with beansprouts, garlic, chillies and spring onions) and Gaeng Phet Gai (chicken red curry with cherry tomatoes, Thai purple aubergine, chillies and basil). Served with Thai jasmine rice, we ate and ate and ate. I was curious as to why the turkey was quite so delicious. Revealing his secret sauce, Brett explained that it had been marinated in this since the previous day.

Brett’s delicious chicken red curry

Of course, as the evening progressed, the hungry guests became overwhelmingly less hungry and more intoxicated. Rowdy and hilarious, I was concerned we might be a little shocking to our Thai master chef. But no. He thought we were amusing and was even persuaded to join the party as we ate our chilled lemongrass, honey and lime sorbet.

Probably the best Thai food in London – I suggest you book him, order his secret curry pastes and, if you’re an investor, back him to start his own pop-up restaurant.