Don’t let January get you down, there’s plenty of things to keep you going this weekend – no matter how broke you are...
Inspire your sorry self with some cheap-ass, super slick gym wear
Struggling to keep up your #NewYearNewYou resolution of working out like, *all *the time? Here’s a trick that actually works – invest in some fancy sportswear because, in the same way that you get excited to wear a newly purchased item of normal clothing, the same is true for sportswear. So you’ll HAVE to go to the gym. Or at least hang around outside it.
Luckily, H&M has got a new sportswear range and they’ve opened a pop-up store in Shoreditch to celebrate. Leggings are, like, £14.99 and sports bras £9.99.
H&M Pop-Up, The Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London E1 6QL
Go hard with the nice boys that stood up for their female fans
Obvs Slaves are pretty great anyways, but we like them all the more ever since they told fans they’d stop gigs if they heard of any women in the audience being groped, always make sure there’s a female security person in the pit and encouraged their fans to follow teenage activists Girls Against to better educate themselves.
Most of their tour is totally sold out but, there’s an extra date in Manchester on the Saturday if you’re quick (and tickets are less than £15)!
Slaves, Ritz, Manchester, 16 January.
Dream of warmer climes with new Eastern restaurants
Because anywhere’s better than here RN, thanks. First up, the chef of Rosa’s Thai Kitchen (you love Rosa’s, right?) has opened up a Laotian pop-up in London’s Victoria at the site of the next soon-to-be opened Rosa’s. What’s Lao food? Dunno but it sounds spectacular – sharing plates include chargrilled sea bass with chilli dip, papaya salad and home-pickled salmon. Yum. And it’s £6.50-£10 a dish.
Also,check out Shuang Shuang in London’s Soho, a Chinese ‘hot pot’ restaurant where you make up your own steaming dish of goodness by choosing the broth, the dipping sauce and then the ingredients, which include everything from monk fish cheeks to live large clams. Make a bowl for less than a tenner.
Laos Cafe by Saiphin, 25 Gillingham Street, London SW1V 1HN
Shuang Shuang, 64 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 6LU
See your city in a new light with the festival that promises big things
The world’s largest light fair (yeah, that’s a thing, alright?) is coming to London and promises to be fan-bloody-tastic. Across four nights, different artists will turn spaces and landmarks in London into bonkers brilliant light installations from a gigantic elephant stomping his way down Regent Street to dresses made of light adorning shop windows, there’s plenty going on and, it’s all free.
Lumiere London, 14-17 January, various locations.
Go hard or go home at the cinema
It’s a rough old ride at the cinema this weekend. Most people will be heading to see Leonardo Dicaprio get mauled by a bear and stalk Tom Hardy in his bid for Oscar glory in The Revenant, but if you fancy something a little different, head to see Room, the film adaption of the Emma Donoghue’s book of the same name, about a woman who’s kept as a sex slave as told through the eyes of her five-year-old son. It’s really good. If a little (actually, a lot) bleak.
The Revenant and Room are in cinemas nationwide from 15 January.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.