In need of some cerebral stimulation? Get yourself down to the Wellcome Collection, just opposite Euston station for Brains: the mind as matter. Its free and has a tantalising warning on the website… that the exhibition ‘contains objects and images that some may find disturbing, including medical specimens and surgical film sequences. It is intended for...

The 2012 Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities is in its 158th year, having started back in 1829. This year it’s happening on Saturday 7th April, at 2.15pm. The outside nature of the race means there are loads of places to watch the boats go by for FREE. So all you need is some dry weather, a blanket and a bottle of something fizzy to have a great...

Free demonstrations, talks, tours, entertainment and more at the Science Museum Lates from 18.45-22.00 every last Wednesday of the month. There’s a theme and February’s was surgery. We went along to the Who Am I? experiment and had our faces snapped in 3D as part of a research project with Great Ormand Street Doctors. There were all sorts of things...

The National Portrait Gallery opens late on Thursday and Friday evenings for the Late Shift. There’s a bar, a dj playing chilled out tunes and lots of talks and tours, most of which are free. We went on the ‘Queering the Portrait’ tour, which runs each Thursday at 7.30pm from 9th – 23rd February. We were taken round the gallery by a group of...

Poppies Fish & Chips in Shoreditch serve up proper chips, fish cakes, battered sausages and pasties in a gorgeous retro 1940s-Britain-themed restaurant. The chips were just like they should be – fat, and crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. Service was great, our meals came quickly and the food was cheap too. Two fishcakes and chips cost £7.90,...

Last night I experienced the best dumplings I’ve ever had in London. A trip to China Town has never been very successful for me. The food is over-priced and greasy and they rush you out in an hour to get more tourists in. So I still to east London for my Asian food-cravings. But last night, I was taken to Jen Cafe, a tiny place with about 8 tables, jutting out...