Herman the German Friendship Cake is an edible chain-letter. Except you grow him for 10 days in-between the receiving part and passing him on to a friend.  When you get Herman he arrives as a bowl of slop. You then need to care for him  through exercise and feeding, so that he grows into a fully-fledged friendship cake. Then, when he’s 10 days old, you split him into 4. You keep one quarter yourself; add extra ingredients and bake him. The other three quarters you give to a friend each, who then start nurturing their own Herman.

Here’s the instructions for each day:

1. You get Herman and put him in a large mixing bowl and cover loosely with a tea towel.
2. Stir well
3. Stir well
4. Herman is hungry. Add 1 cup each of plain flour, sugar and milk. Stir well.
5. Stir well
6. Stir well
7. Stir well
8. Stir well
9. Hungry again. Add the same as day 4 and stir well. Divide into 4 equal portions and give away to friends with a copy of these instructions. Keep the 4th one.
10. Herman is very hungry. Stir well and add the following:

• 1 cup sugar
• half tsp (teaspoon) salt
• 2 cups plain flour
• 2/3 (two thirds) cup of cooking oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 cooking apples cut into chunks
• 1 cup raisins
• 2 heaped tsp cinnamon
• 2 heaped tsp baking powder

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 those aged 14 years and over.’ How exciting!

There’ll be over 150 artefacts including real brains, artworks, videos  and photography.

There’s also a load of free events running alongside the exhibition. Next up is Brains on Film where there’ll be short film screenings all about the grey matter, and guest speakers too. It’s on Saturday 19th May from 3pm – 7.30pm.

Free comedy every Wednesday at Off Broadway on Broadway Market. Mid-week merriment courtesy of Words Words Words happens from 8 – 11pm and showcases both local and national talent. It’s advised to get down early as it’s not the biggest of venues.

The Sun have just reviewed Roisin Conaty – who’ll be performing at Words on 16th May. In 2010 she won the Fosters Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe festival.

Future Shorts Film Festival showcases global cinema. It’s in it’s second season, having debuted last autumn. Screenings have been taking place all around the globe, including in Russia, Finland, China and the UK, from March 1st – May 31st.

This time around there’s 7 shorts in a range of styles from documentary to plasticine stop motion, all ‘infused with tainted love’. There’s still 3 more showings on in London for this season:

Thursday 17th May at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith

Sunday 20th May at Soho Joes, Soho

Thursday 24th May at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith

Tickets are £8, £6 concessions and the evening lasts around 2 hours.

I went along to the showing at the Horse Hospital in Russell Square. The screening room was intimate and there was a make-shift bar for a glass of wine during the films. There were some fantastic shorts – one of my favourites was Bear by Nash Edgerton about a birthday surprise involving a bear costume, that goes horribly wrong.

I can’t recommend Future Shorts enough! You see some truly original and innovative material, pushing the boundaries of mainstream cinema. And all for under a tenner.

It happens along the Thames from Putney to Mortlake in London.  Here’s a handy map to show you where the best places to watch it are:



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 happening around the whole huge building including live gall-bladder surgery for Surgery Past and exploration of the science behind heart-break and heart attacks in the Heart Zone.

All the current exhibitions were also open, and some paid-for ones were also open for free. Hidden Heroes detailed the invention and history of everyday items like the milk bottle, zip and rubber band (above). So interesting!

The next one is on Wednesday 28th March.

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 academics/art historians who had chosen a selection of portraits that had thought provoking depictions of gender and sexuality.

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, with a battered sausage meal priced at just £4.95. They serve up all other chip shop favourites too.  If you’re in the area and fancy some quaint British nostalgia with some bloody good chips, check out Poppies.

Fancy some free theatre and music tonight at 93 Feet East on Brick Lane?

Two wonderful ladies have set up a new theatre company called Oryx and tonight is the launch night. There’ll be free pop up plays, Folkroom Records DJ’s and actors from the Mountview Academy for Dramatic Arts.

On their website, they explain what they’re all about. “We aim to challenge audiences through the re-telling of classic tales in partnership with new writers and emerging theatre talent around London.”