1. Try Patogh's at 8 Crawford Place for lunch or supper
A very friendly Persian restaurant where the kitchen is in the bosom of the ground floor (you can eat upstairs if you want to).
2. Magnificent Maps at the British Library: ends 30th September, 2010
At last my chronic arthritis in my knees is responding to treatment and so I was able to visit the British Library to see their brilliant exhibition of the maps they hold in storage for the Nation. (You may remember they did a London Map exhibition three or four years ago). One hasn't been seen since Henry Vlll's time when it was hung in Whitehall....find some time to see this fantastic display of maps.
3. Sign Up for a Summer School course at the V&A
Go to www.vam.ac.uk/courses or call 020 794 211
4. Take a Clay Shirky or 2
His new book Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age may have the dumbest title but that doesn't stop it being an elegant read as Shirky analyses the amount of free time now being had by younger people now they are no longer hooked to television and how they still stay connected.
See also Clay Shirky: Here Comes Everybody.
5. Listen to Jazz Matters by the late John Dankworth & Cleo Laine
Tracks 1-6 feature Cleo in a series called The Blues Ain't with tracks 7-14 given over to John and entitled World Jazz. This maybe their best ever set of recordings.