Rat bar

The rat bar has just entered the fray for London’s hippest night spot.

Sporting the Banksy rat as one of a collection of graffiti art the cavernous enclosure boasts pizza and drinks just off the graffiti laden Leake Street in Waterloo.

The drinks all range around the £5 mark apart from the odd cocktail and you can get merry on an espresso infused Black Death or a sambuca laced Rat Tat Tat.

If you haven’t had enough with the rat inspired cocktails there are the stylised rat masterpieces on the walls designed by Wu Tang Clan artwork designer Gary Alford.

The pizzas are reasonable and so you can have a full evening out with mates and drinks in a hideaway drinking den on Leake Street and pretend the real world doesn’t exist for a bit.

It’s a pop up, so get there while you can.

Equal abortions

Our human rights court has officially branded the Northern Ireland abortion law against a woman’s human rights yet Westminster still doesn’t interfere.

It amazes me in this day and age we’re still having a debate about abortion.

A woman’s body should be her choice and no one else’s.

Mainland Ireland is on board with legal abortion now its time Northern Ireland followed suit.

Heels!

Not been to a Drag Act in a while...

Fancy something low key and friendly?

Heels could be for you.

A friendly bunch of Queen’s get together at Henry’s every month to sing some surprisingly good covers and do a bit of over the top link syncing.

And there are prizes!

Sugar Tax

The fool hardy plan to institute the sugar tax is the wrong way round to tackle obesity.

Sugar is a cheap means to make up nutrition and taxing it only hurts poor families.

It would be better to work on making vegetables cheaper than a food stuff for emergencies more expensive.

Krav Maga

Krav Maga has proved to be a very controversial martial art. It has been practiced in this country since 1996, Simon has been teaching it in Lambeth since 2012/2013

I am greeted by Simon who is keen to see Krav Maga taught in schools, having taught it in a few in the London area already.

He believes learning a martial art, not specifically Krav Maga, is a good way of building the confidence not to engage in a fight in the first place. He does not believe learning a Martial Art of this nature would lead anyone to take matters into their own hands to any greater degree.

The class is challenging, but manageable. Though if you’re currently a little unfit I would advise you go on a few walks and do some press ups before going. The work out isn’t impossible, but it is a challenge, so best not rock up when you’re still ill or you haven’t done any physical exercise in ages.

The taster course takes you through a series of self-defence moves, a couple with dummy knives. Despite a small stature they are all moves I am capable of performing, although on one occasion one of the men is so tall as to make the ascribed moves a little difficult to perform effectively. However, largely the promise that these moves would work for any body type largely holds out.

Martial Arts attendance is not one of my hobbies so when given a quite frankly mirth enducing cod piece to protect my nether regions and asked to kick someone between the legs I take to it a little tentatively. There is something supremely unnatural about going up to someone you’ve never met and then kicking them in the cod piece for no reason. There may be a lesson in there somewhere.

The lesson ends with no punches thrown. The course will set you back £35 and they recommend a couple of months to really make a difference. The aim of the course is to make these self-defence moves so habitual that you can rely on them even when taken by surprise in a real world situation, where an adrenaline peak may be clouding your thinking.

Simon stresses these self-defence techniques are for a last resort only. However, I press him further on whether this class offers anything in terms of helping people stay safe without having to use these combative techniques, he has less to say on this subject.

He does not teach any of the jabs to the throat in this class, which have caused so much consternation and all the moves though they would leave an assailant hurt, would probably not cause lasting harm. He does however teach these moves to adults, with what he says are appropriate cautions.

Simon got into Krav Maga in response to a violent burglary at his home. Knife crime in London is currently going up, so looking into self-defence of some form, may not be such a bad idea.

Folk in the south

Follow The Lost Cavalry around venues and it seems you unearth musical delights.

A Valentine’s event last night brought a number of folk acts together to folk about.

Salt Moon

This three piece combine cello, double bass and electric guitar with a female singer.

The style is occasionally reminiscent of Fairport Convention.

The songs tend to the tongue in cheek and melancholy, even when ‘love songs’, the vocal itself unquestionably strong for the style.

The Lost Cavalry

Again they performed well.

The arrangement is creative without being sloppy and the vocal performance really is hard to match.

Some of the songs tone have hints of Kurt Cobain, unusual for a lead singer who often sings beyond the rafters.

Patch and the Giant


These guys were the last to perform and a real treat.

They will be playing in Brighton tonight at ‘The Folk Room’, afraid all the details I have.

You will be treated to layered folk styles, unexpected brass and a haunting melancholy.

I would urge you to check them out in Brighton if you are free.

Valentine’s for the world

Today is St Valentine’s Day, I won’t go into the story today, you can find it out in your own time.

On this day so often linked to love the news has exploded with more stories of sabre rattling in the U.S.A and North Korea.

Those at the Olympics are launching themselves into the sky from ski slopes and snowboarding half pipes in spectacular style.

Yet the powers that be in North Korea and the U.S.A feel it is far more important to threaten something horrendous.

Hydrogen bombs have been condemned across the world, we really need no more.

Destruction on that scale helps absolutely no one.

If you are good at Oragmi and you do not have anything else peaceful to do I suggest you take the Japanese example and start making collections of Oragmi shapes.

No one ever got more than a paper cut from Oragami.

Have the best day possible.

I really would recommend watching some of the Olympics.