Feedback = Coffee

Bob wanted to spend Saturday puttering around the house, playing guitar and watching TV, so I headed out in search of a bit of art and some internet access (since our home internet connection was being temperamental, yet again). I went to the Camden Arts Centre for the first time and it may just be one of my new favourite arts spaces!

The exhibit I was there to see, by Aernout Mik, contained several thoughtful and disturbing film installations on war, and his Raw Footage film was especially difficult to watch and equally difficult to leave. As I exited the gallery level (which contains four substantial gallery spaces), I noticed a feedback questionnaire on a table near the exit. Since I had enjoyed my experience at the Camden Arts Centre so far, I picked up one of the questionnaires and was even more pleased to find out that turning in a completed survey would get me a "free hot beverage" in the centre's café! The café turned out to be a wonderful place, with lovely food (not the generic stuff that you often find in London arts institutions, that all seems to be made by the same three companies); free wifi (too bad I didn't bring the laptop), which isn't easy to come by in London; friendly staff; a nice outdoor garden space; and great reading material to peruse over your yummy treats.
I spent a very long time in the café, reading the last three months of Elle Decor (the UK one--um, I guess I don't need to specify that here, do I?) and today's Guardian over a delicious latté and some chocolate cheesecake. Even after I left the café, I couldn't quite seem to leave the centre, since its small, but well-edited, bookshop was well worth a long browse. Great gallery spaces, interesting curating, a beautiful building, friendly café, nice outdoor seating, superb bookshop, and a convenient (at least for Bob and me) Silverlink train stop almost directly outside the centre: the Camden Arts Centre is definitely a place I'll make a point of returning to, again and again. When I finally tore myself away, I headed down the road to Swiss Cottage Library, where I used the internet and checked out a few books just before they closed. I returned home to find Bob lounging on the couch, happily proclaiming today as the first London lazy day that he didn't leave the house. He was a little bit less happy to hear that I'd eaten chocolate cake without him, but he soon got over it and we settled into a quiet night at home with some simple pasta for dinner and a movie for dessert.