The Spoon Drawer

Opportunities for young people are in abundance in London. The capital has loads to offer in terms of education, internships and careers, with offices and connections to hundreds of internationally recognised brands; but only if you can afford it. London is becoming increasingly autonomous from the rest of the UK due to its inflated cost of living, the result of highly concentrated spending in London which has left other major cities in the country wanting the same treatment. Governments have been highly criticised for focusing growth in London, which has resulted in families being priced out of the area. Students and young professionals in London must be resilient, cost effective and efficient about their living situations if they are going to survive the high price-tag of the enviable London lifestyle. Here are some tips for living comfortably on a low income in the capital. Accommodation Housing is very expensive in London, especially if you’re in a highly popular p

During my time working in a Wetherspoons I was invited to attend the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers ( ALMR ) conference. As a supervisor, I was told it would be beneficial to bolster my understanding of the industry’s future direction. For some reason, the immediate image that struck me was an old-school town meeting, in which someone has the floor and votes are counted in yays and nays. What I discovered was an industry dominated by a peculiar mixture of anxiety and excitement, unsure of the future but excited to help shape it. I already knew at this point that pubs were changing drastically to meet the expectations of younger crowds. In my adopted home town of Brighton, traditional establishments are being closed to make way for chic pubs with attractive interior designs and craft beers on tap. This is a winning situation for all but the landlords whose pubs are being closed; consumers can expect superior quality establishments in the future, and the hospitali

That time of year has come around so fast once again. Creating that dream luxury Christmas may seem like a rather daunting task, but with quality gifts to be found online and on the high street with greater ease and with more variety, you’re actually spoilt for choice when it comes to finding the perfect presents and stocking fillers... photo credit: wwarby   So I’ve compiled The Affordable Luxury Christmas Gift Guide 2014 , a great collection of everyday luxurious items that can also be found on your local high street, with something for everyone in the family, as well as covering your friends and colleagues.

I reflect almost every Christmas on how lucky and thankful I am to have my friends, my family and my health. I've been looking into ways the more fortunate amongst us can help the less fortunate without disrupting our own lives and budgets this Christmas. From what I've gathered, people really do wish they could do more for others during the Christmas period, but it’s tough when there’s so much happening in our own lives during this time, taking on more could just cause us to spin out of control; and what about our budgets? Christmas is a very tight time regardless, so how can we afford to spend more? Donate Contraband Got a loft full of old toys? Pass them along to Barnardo’s who give them to children in need. You could even give blood this Christmas and help the fight against blood disease; it costs nothing to give, is quick and can help save someone’s life. Got an old computer or Mac lying around? Computers for Charities will take your beloved old machine

The way we live today dictates that businesses are open longer, more frequently and in more places at once in order to surpass competition. Even the companies previously considered more independent and bespoke are known to have up to, and often over, at least ten branches across different cities around the UK. Such fast-paced demand means that more traditional methods of bookkeeping, accounting, management and customer service have all had to be improved and updated as companies up their game. News has emerged that the popular café, EAT , has replaced its age old spreadsheets with cloud-based financial planning tools in order to keep up to speed with the pace of twenty-first century business. This conversion illustrates the need for much more sophisticated account management and financial reporting software that was previously reserved for the serious big time players in the finance industry. Now that high street companies are making this transition, chances are that much o

Most of the first world uses the web but how many people know basic web design skills? Website design skills are now just as important as knowing basic mathematics or science. Almost every company has a website and most people now use social media daily. Basic coding and web skills can increase your job prospects and can even help you maintain your own blog.  http://mrg.bz/ohJ7O2 HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) is the language or code behind every website. It contains all the information about a site, such as the text, images and links on a webpage. A website would simply not exist without HTML. It is the ‘back office’ of every website you visit and one of the most important skills every web designer needs. The versatile HTML can be used to design websites of all varieties from huge eCommerce businesses such as Amazon to personal blogs such as my own. But HTML does not work alone, you might have the content but how do you want it to look? This is where CSS (C

Source: Flickr I had always forgotten about essays during the summer when I was at university and it is probably the same for some other students. The first few weeks back are always slightly relaxed and the work load is not as bad as it will be the rest of the year. Fresher’s week will be great and you might start to forget why you are at university, I know I did. Essay deadlines will soon begin to stack up towards the end of the term. You might find yourself snowed under a lot of deadlines at any one time and the stress that comes with it will not be too far away. I remember feeling like my work load got too much towards the end of each year at university and I often considered paying someone to write my essay for me. It would have made life so much easier but I never went through with it. If you are anything like I was, your student loan will be spent on bulk buying beer at the beginning of every term and you might have to live off plain pasta for a few weeks bu

I recently read up on a new concept in clubbing that's apparently been sweeping London and has now made it down to Brighton: early weekday morning club nights. No, I'm talking about wild after parties into the small hours, which have been popular in clubland for a long time now, but actual sessions set up to take place before revellers head off to work. This brave new concept is known as Morning Gloryville and as soon as I'd heard they were on their way to Brighton I knew I had to give it a go. Brighton's first pre-work club night/morning took place last Thursday, from 6:30am until 10:30am, in what's now called Shooshh , but will be better known to most under its previous guise of the Honey Club. With a strict no alcohol policy the event isn't billed as somewhere to carry on the shenanigans of the previous evening's debauchery, but rather an opportunity to start the day with some no holds barred dancefloor action. The organisers claim there is no more

I've been reading this month about the popularity of Hot Tub Cinema , a unique experience whereby you can enjoy cult classic films whilst lounging in a hot tub atop a building, among friends and strangers. Hot Tub Cinema is currently taking place in trendy Shoreditch (where else) but will be upping sticks to Bristol next month to give the west country a taste of this fun new phenomenon. So what's it all about? The pop up events bandwagon has been growing in popularity to the point where it will surely soon become passe. I predict we are reaching pop up saturation point so there is a limited window to get involved before we are so inundated by pop up shops, restaurants, art exhibitions and happening wine bars that those of us who are genuinely cool will have to wash our hands of them, just like when Jeremy Clarkson ruined stonewashed denim for the rest of us. Still, for the time being, there's a little mileage left in the concept, and this watching a film in a jacuzz

With the impending vote for Scottish independence almost upon us, those of us in favour of keeping the unity are becoming slightly concerned with what seems to be a final push for separation. Three weeks before the referendum and support for Scottish independence has grown 4% to a very worrying 47% ( see stats here ). While Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling battle it out with a selection of various politicians and celebrities publicly supporting both of them respectively, the rest of us with much less influence can only watch on. Personally, despite being a big advocate of liberality, freedom of speech and independence to be given wherever its wanted, I am against the bill. Of course there are serious economic advantages to union and resounding complications that can ensue from such as exclusion from the EU and the loss of various trading advantages. Yet my reasoning for opposing independence is simply the age old one of convenience and habit. Scotland has been unified

Having not been lucky enough to visit the Edinburgh Festival myself this year, I thought I would take a look at what the critics had to say so I could bring you the low down of the best jokes from the Edinburgh Festival 2014.  Telling jokes in the pub is somewhat of a pastime for me and my mates and what better place to get inspiration for one-liners than the Edinburgh Festival? One-liners are a tricky beast, often resulting in a sort of “ah” sighing sound which is designed to signify that people are unimpressed. But the Edinburgh Fest is a comedy hub so I expected the crème de la crème when I heard that this year’s best one-liner had been voted for by a panel of experts from over 7,000 one-liners and then chosen from the panel’s short list by the public. The winning joke was from the 2010 winner Tim Vine, dubbed the king of one-liners for a reason! “I've decided to sell my Hoover... well, it was just collecting dust

I recently decided to get a bit of decorating done at home, to freshen my bedroom up a little. Now I'm not the most handy of chaps so this was never going to be a full scale remodelling of the place, with laminate flooring, MDF partitioning or crafted drilled in shelving units. However, I did fancy a new lick of paint and wanted to get the place looking a little more modern. Armed with a couple of pots of Cornflour White paint and some old sheets I set to work on clearing the room out so that I could get underway on my modernising project. Slapping the paint up and down the walls was fun for about ten minutes, but soon got tiring. I was also somewhat unprepared for quite how much effort is involved. I mean it looks so easy on TV... In the end, I was pretty shattered, but it did leave me feeling emasculated and with a satisfying glow of achievement. The room certainly looked fresher and I was already visualising the wall art and rearranged furniture to help make it feel the way

About three years ago I made the switch from Windows-powered PC to my first ever Apple computer. It was a second hand MacBook and I'd convinced myself that if I were to be taken seriously as a writer then I'd need such a machine to look the part. It cost considerably more than a similarly spec'd Windows laptop but I was determined that I'd have my flashy status symbol device. After all, you can't sip cappuccinos in trendy independent Brighton coffee shops whilst hammering out your musings on life on a scruffy looking Dell. If your laptop doesn't have a glowing Apple logo shining out to all and sundry then frankly you don't belong and you should keep that ugly old Windows machine hidden away behind closed doors. A lot of people scoff at the perceived arrogance of Apple users. There is a common complaint leveled at so-called "fanboys" that they have a completely blinkered view of their Apple devices, partly to justify the premium they've paid a

If you’ve recently begun living away from home for the first time, or you feel the time’s right to become more independent, understanding basic money matters is essential, even if it sounds like a bit of a yawn. So here’s a quick run-down of the stuff you really need to know. Applying For Credit Products Sooner or later you’ll probably need to pay for something urgently that your savings alone won’t cover. Unless a friend or relative can give you a loan, you might want to enter the world of credit. There are quite a few things that could affect your credit application, including: Taking out credit in the past and not paying it back, or you’ve been late with the repayments Not being on the electoral role, as this is checked to prove you’ve given your correct address Bouncing Direct Debit payments, as this could make it look like you have difficulty managing your money Not having a credit history. That’s because it’s hard to judge if you’re credit worthy if you’ve never taken

There is little doubt that technology has come a long way from the humble chalk and blackboard. In modern education, new technology and  learning processes are being implemented all the time in order to prime students for the modern world. However there are some who believe that global education needs a helping hand to really deliver what students need to survive in the modern jobs market. In fact,many believe that ‘21st Century skills’ are exactly what each student needs to succeed in our information based economy. If so, what are these skills and why are they needed? Assessment and Teaching of 21 st Century Skills Project The push behind 21 st  Century skills for students is a result of the collaboration between 3 technology companies (Microsoft, Intel and Cisco) and several countries such as the US, Australia, Singapore, the Netherlands, Finland and Costa Rica. This project is not concerned with global standards of education but aims to assess 21 st  Century ski