Things To Do In London Today: 8 October 2012


A daily post with ideas for your day ahead. Plus some silly add-on bits that you might find interesting.

Events

DRINKS: London Cocktail Week begins today. Pick up a wristband from Seven Dials, and enjoy a slew of sloe gins and a bevy of beverages. £10 (wristband) for money off and access to events, all week

GIVE BLOOD: Today's donation centre is at 26 Margaret Street near Oxford Street. 8am-7.30pm

PHOTOGRAPHY: Today's Photomonth recommendation can be found in the Smithfield Tavern, where an exhibition of photos of the meat market and surrounding clubs and bars lines the walls. Runs until 3 November. Free, just turn up, 12 noon-11.30pm

BUZZ: Learn how to keep bees and harvest honey, and see whether north or south London produces the best stuff at the London Honey Show, at the Lancaster London hotel, Lancaster Gate. Just turn up, £1, 6-9pm

PROJECTION: Head to Westminster Bridge from dusk to see projected artwork on the roof of St Thomas' Hospital. Dryden Goodwin created a series of pencil sketches which, when animated on top of the hospital, will show a boy going through breathing difficulties — an artistic response to London's air pollution. Just turn up, free, 6.30-8.30pm

TALIBAN: It's fair to say that the Taliban have a bad press, and not without reason. But there's a cultural side to the Afghan militant group that normally gets overlooked in news reports. So reckons a panel of Afghanistan experts assembling at Asia House tonight to discuss the Poetry of the Taliban. £8, prebook, 6.45pm

TWISTED SEASIDE: Did you know that both Sherlock Holmes and Poirot were invented while their authors were enjoying the sea air? Travis Elborough and Cathi Unsworth discuss the not-so-obvious links between fictional crime and the seaside. Head along to the very landlocked Wheatsheaf in Fitrovia to hear more. Just turn up, £3,  7.30pm

GASTRO: You probably can't get a table for love nor money, but Beard to Tail, Shoreditch's most-talked about new restaurant since the last one, opens tonight. Fans of eyelids, lymph nodes and gallstones will be delighted to hear that it's another restaurant that uses the complete animal, rather than just the popular cuts. Plate of nerves, anyone?

Random Back-of-the-Toilet-Tissue Calculation Of The Day

If the turds of every Londoner were laid end to end, and side by side, you could construct a feculent carpet of four hectares every day. It would take three weeks to totally cover Clapham Common. Repaving the whole of Greater London with homegrown shit would be a 108 year undertaking.

Assumptions: 8 million bowel movements in Greater London per day. Each contribution is a cylinder approximately 10 cm by 5 cm by 5cm. That's 40,000 square metres, which is 4 hectares.

Weather forecast
Boring.

Secretly Hidden False Rumour Of The Day
Transport for London are reticent to let anyone visit the numerous 'ghost stations' on the Tube network, citing health and safety regulations. The real reason is that they contain ancient Dwarven ruins. Down Street has a Balrog.