i love our room and the way it is filled with things made of wood. There are speakers and tall shelves full of stacks of books and LPs, and a chest of drawers which is our first piece of furniture. There are origami birds made from a ream of yellow paper I’m fond of. Years ago when my Mother went to night classes and made things, she made a lamp. It lights up any room with a homely orange. It is one of the first things I pick up when I move out.

There are stacks of The Sunday Times’ Style magazine that this same nice Mother sends me every week since I moved away from home. Sometimes I read them, mostly I accidentally stack them on top of things. There is yesterday’s curry, and a dress hangs on the back of the wardrobe. Sometimes the cat comes in to put fleas in the bed. Sometimes she comes in to curl up in the red duvet and purr.

When I am home during the daytime I make crafty things. I make finger puppets and filmy flowers and candles, often sat behind the big wood desk in the chair that is slowly breaking. “Creak” the chair says one day, and bends over as the legs fall off. The windowsill is full of pots of daffodils left over from spring. Every year I buy new ones. Slowly they collect at home waiting for a day when I have a house and can fill a garden with the bright yellow flowers.

There are the big wooden speakers because you’re an audiophile. We listen to Star Trek boom through them as it plays on the giant old CRT monitor that was saved from being dropped out of the window. Wharf, who I feared and disliked as a child, is lovely now I am older and not scared of him. I have become to be used to waking up mid-night and seeing Captain Picard strolling about on screen. It is comforting and nice. More so when it is still dark and I realise I have a few more hours to sleep in bed before my alarm tells me the train to commute to London is waiting.

For a long time, this is one of my favourites rooms I have lived in.

The words ‘Affordable Art under £4000′ do not strike me as shouting “this will be a fun night out. Gather your chums, drink wine, eat some cheese and look, here’s a big polar bear made out of mirrors.”

Clearly it turns out I’m completely wrong and that’s exactly what it means. I won some tickets from The Future Tense, and I’m very glad because I wouldn’t have gone otherwise.

Here are some things that made me smile from the second we found the building. I knew I’d like it when I saw moving nonsense and said mirrored polar bear lurking by the entrance. A bit Kinetica-Art-y, if you’ve ever been. Not only did they make me very very happy, but unless I provide you with moving imagery and shiny objects, theorists say you will switch off. Quick! Pow! Wham! A quick video of the moving stuff:

It was a brilliant mix, some more traditional art mixed with sillyness. Pieces that would look great in the next ad man’s studio, and others at home where people who look nothing like Ad Men live. Mostly made up of a big mix of paintings, there were some good spinning things to look at outside, bigger installations, and hanging artsier paraphernalia. And there were lots of little Stig men, standing about.

Here is some more nonsense that made me smile. Or perhaps just the above, in big picture form.

Good old historical video uploaded on to youtube, rehashed into drawing-historical-video-on-youtube! Woo, art discourse.

Clearly there were many intellectual, wise and deep pieces. I have just chosen lots of cartoons and silly things to show you. None of which will be going on my living room wall but are pleasant nonetheless.

So, many good things. And there was wonderful cheese tasting. For which we set an alarm and arrived very promptly. It was very good and sat happily in our tummies with the copious amounts of free wine. A night I didn’t expect to be half as good.

Next time I’d happily buy a ticket immediately.
Thanks, @TheFutureTense

“What’s going on here?” says the Robot.

“Oh I see. I have become a giant cake. A slightly scruffily iced cake with chocolate finger marks on my forehead, but a cake nonetheless.”

This is homemade, geeky, yellow and knitted: four quick reasons why I love this. I couldn’t make a crochet variety so I went for a knitted pacman (via the fantastic carissaknits). I think he’s lovely.

To start with pattern was a bit of a struggle with terminology I’m not used to like ‘wrap and turn’ but it’s fairly straightforward. I had to enlist Mother-help on picking stitches up. Maybe one day I will master this complex art.

This recipe had even people who do not like bananas eating it.

Each stage is neatly illustrated by an unrelated Robot. This is because Mike gave him to me and I spent an evening pretending he was a cooking assistant. This is, apparently, what four weeks in a new house without the Internet will do to a person (namely, me). Recipe’s from the good folks at Domestic Sluttery. For both Robots and people to eat.

Ingredients:
* 115g butter
* 170g caster sugar
* 225g Self Raising Flour
* 2 eggs
* 2 large/3 medium bananas

Instructions:
1. Heat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin. You can get some fancy pant loaf tin liners here if you want to look super professional!

2. Mash the bananas in a bowl. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl cream your butter and sugar. Once it is nice and fluffy beat in eggs.

4. Mix in the bananas, and the walnuts if you are using them and then stir in the flour.

5. Pour your mixture into the loaf tin and whack it in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes and then lower the oven temperature to 150C/300F/Gas 2 and bake for a further 30 minutes.