The View from the Shard

From Friday you’ll be able to view London from Europe’s tallest building, as the View from the Shard opens for business. A ticket allows you access to the the building’s highest floors, from which you can enjoy a 40km-wide view over the city and its environs. Don’t forget to pay close attention to the displays on your way up – you might see a few familiar faces in surprising situations. Adult tickets start from £29.95.

Manet: Portraying Life at the Royal Academy of Arts

See the first major exhibition of Manet’s portraiture at the Royal Academy, which brings together works from around the world to highlight the artist’s skill in this complex field. This unique exhibition features more than 50 paintings, which depict everything from Manet’s friends and relatives to popular society figures of his day. For those looking to make a weekend of it, the nearby Athenaeum Hotel’s Manet Experience package offers a perfect combination of culture and luxury. Until 14 Apr

RAF Photographer of the Year 2012, at the RAF Museum

See stunning images of Air Force life at the RAF Photographer of the Year exhibition. The competition is now in its 23rd year and attracted more than 900 entries in 2012, depicting everything from life during overseas operations to the RAF’s world-class equipment. Not only can you see photographs by winner Corporal Mike Jones and many others, but you can also explore the rest of this fascinating museum, which features military aircraft displays, a 4D theatre and a chance to learn more about RAF history. Entry to the museum and exhibition is free.  Until 15 Apr

Snowdrop Days, Chelsea Physic Garden

Admire 10,000 newly-planted snowdrops in the Chelsea Physic Garden, which hosts this stunning celebration of the delicate white flower. As well as the garden displays, you can examine different varieties up close in the Snowdrop Theatre, or buy your own from the Chelsea Physic Garden shop. The Snowdrop Days are accompanied by programme of events that includes guided walks, lectures and workshops. Adult tickets are £9. Until 10 Feb

London Dungeon Car Boot Sale

Why exit through the gift shop when you can take the attraction home with you? Anyone who has enjoyed the deliciously terrifying delights of the London Dungeon will be delighted by the news that, on 3 February, the Dungeon will be selling off props from its old location at the Pimlico Car Boot Sale. You can purchase everything from cut-price period costumes to ghoulish fake body parts at this relocation sale, which precedes the start of the attraction’s new reign of terror at the Southbank in March. 3 Feb, from 11.30am

More events in London

Over the last few nights Southbank strollers have been treated to a series of dazzling light displays on seven of London’s most famous bridges.

To celebrate the 50 nights of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the road and pedestrian crossings have been fitted with thousands of LEDs, lasers, and searchlights that bring the bridges to life like never before.

The lights are on from 9.30pm until 5am each night, with special moments at each bridge every hour on the hour.

From east to west, the bridges taking part are:

• Tower Bridge
• London Bridge
• Southwark Bridge
• Millennium Bridge
• Blackfriars Bridge
• Waterloo Bridge
• Golden Jubilee Footbridge

Dazzle: Bridge Illumination runs until 10 September and is part of the Mayor of London Presents series of events.

Have you seen the bridges lit up? Let us know which is your favourite – Millennium and London Bridges are the frontrunners!

Bt ArtBoxes
There are around half a dozen of these funky replica phoneboxes dotted around the Southbank. The boxes have been imaginatively decorated by a variety of artists, and will later be auctioned off to raise money for ChildLine. See how many you can spot!

What’s your favourite thing about the Southbank? Let us know in the comments below.

Calling all London cinema buffs! Win a year’s worth of movies at ICA, as well as a family ticket to BFI IMAX and a BFI DVD package.

You’ll get two tickets per month throughout 2011 to use at ICA, which has a unique programme of world cinema, artists’ films, independent documentaries and international film festivals.  Plus there’s all the excitment of BFI IMAX, the UK’s biggest cinema screen! And finally, a load of DVDs to enjoy at home.

To win this fantastic film prize, all you have to do is enter your details here

By day an economist and by night a freelance scribe, Serbian expat Mal Božić takes a day off to play flâneur in London as part of our World in London series.

On my first day as a Londoner, above the entrance to the Knightsbridge serviced apartment building where I was staying, I saw this plaque (below). It turns out I wasn’t the first Serbian resident there. Encouraged by those Serbs who came before me, I set out to discover my own virtual little Belgrade within the cultural maze of London.

Here’s a typical trek through it.

Most Serbs start the day with a good, strong coffee. It may as well be from Monmouth in Covent Garden (filteruša for the Mitteleuropa northerners, a latte for the Italianate Belgraders, and for my southern compatriots: the nearest Turkish restaurant for your strong black stuff).

Properly fuelled, it’s a short Boris-bike spin to Daunt Books for some paper media. Its exceptional Balkans section includes the stunning memoir of a Serbian Londoner, by Vesna Goldsworthy. Read it, weep, laugh, then call your mother to tell her you love her.

Heading further west, it’s time to be confronted by one of Serbia’s eminent enfant terrible. Marina Abramović is back in town for Frieze and she will be treating us to a retrospective at the Lisson Gallery. For all who couldn’t make it to her run at New York’s MoMa this year, here’s your chance to catch up with the godmother of performance art.

By now hungry, I might head up to Maida Vale’s Babylon Supermarket for its industrial quantities of Plazma, a delicious, evil calorie-bomb biscuit to which Serbs get addicted during toddlerhood.

For something daintier, it has to be afternoon tea at Claridge’s. This legendary hotel is the birthplace of Alexander II, the current Serbian Crown Prince, born at a time when continental elites were camped out in London waiting for the Second World War to end. To ensure Alexander’s claim to the throne, Churchill’s government temporarily placed suite 212 under Yugoslav sovereignty.

With the sun setting, it’s over to the Southbank for a glass of an oaky red at the BFI, before catching a Serbian film. The recent month-long Goran Paskaljević retrospective was a treat. Really, a fitting bookend to a rewarding day in London.

Do you have any more tips for enjoying Serbian culture in London? Let us know in the comments below.

The Jellyfish Theatre opens to the public at the end of August with premieres of two  inspiring plays about climate change, specially-commissioned for performance in the venue:

• OIKOS by Simon Wu, 26 Aug- 18 Sep

• PROTOZOA by Kay Adshead, 23 Sep- 9 Oct

Find out more about the plays and the progress of the theatre’s construction at www.oikosproject.com

Visit London Blog Giveaway

The Red Room theatre company is offering five pairs of tickets for Oikos, the first play to be produced at The Jellyfish Theatre, for any 8pm evening performance between 26 August and 4 September.

Just send your name and email address to submissions@theredroom.org.uk before 20 August when the winners will be randomly selected and contacted for their choice of performance date.

Plus, leave a comment below about why you’re keen to experience The Jellyfish Theatre!

Tuesday 20 July marks the bicentennial of Colombia’s Independence. And what better way to celebrate than a huge party at Vinopolis!

Colombia Fest at Vinopolis presents live music from world-renowned band Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, traditional Colombian dancing, a Colombian DJ and a special-guest appearance by Miss Great Britain, Tara Hoyos-Martinez (her parents are Colombian).

Meanwhile, there’ll be delicious food platters of empanadas and chorizo, accompanied by Colombian drinks: Sant Fe Rum, Nectar Aguardiente (a fiery aniseed spirit) and Colombia’s premium beer, Club Colombia.

Best of all, Vinopolis and Visit London are giving away three double-passes to Colombia Fest at Vinopolis on 20 July.

To enter, leave a comment below telling us how you’re celebrating summer in London and email competition@vinopolis.co.uk

The deadline for entries is 11.59pm, Thursday 15  July. Winners will be notified by Vinopolis on Friday 16 July.

Don’t want to chance it? Buy yourself a ticket today at www.vinopolis.co.uk

Tickets cost £29 in advance or £35 on the door.

We travelled from Glasgow to London just to catch the They Might Be Giants show as part of Southbank’s See Further Science Festival. It was definitely worth the hours on trains!

The band’s set was preceded by an appearance of Festo, the AirPenguin which had kids and grown ups alike gawping at the ceiling in amazement! I was worried that the rock concert would be overwhelmed by the penguins’ presence, but once the New Yorkers took the stage, nothing could stop the infectious rhythms and catchy tunes.

This was my third TMBG concert, and I was especially impressed that they put the same effort and energy into this family show as they do at any other. Our kids sang and danced their way through songs more familiar to their folks such as Istanbul, and clapped along to their favourite new gems including Electric Car and Seven. My two-year-old spent most of the show in the aisle, twirling and clapping slowly, mesmerised by the new experience of real live music.

The addition of confetti canons was a stroke of genius and had all the children dashing down the aisles, returning gleefully with arms laden, only to throw it repeatedly over their heads, giddy with joy. They made it clear that “we believe in science” – a truly fitting message given the concert’s place in the science fest.

Southbank Centre and the Royal Society’s See Further: Festival of Science + Arts is on until this Sunday 4 July.

The sun was shining on London’s most picturesque riverside tourist spot, and as I was strolling past The Royal Festival Hall with the great London Eye rising up in the background, I noticed a hive of activity going on outside the colourful Giraffe restaurant and wandered over to see what all the hype was about.

I was welcomed with a warming pot of Rude Health porridge and then treated to a live feast for the eyes whilst competitive hopefuls cooked up porridge oats on mini stoves, adding all manner of exotic ingredients.

Crazy concoctions included, sweet maple porridge with sausage and bacon, Boozy Breakfast – white chocolate, macadamia nuts and brandy-soaked cranberries, and my particular favourite Porrichino – a layered attempt to win the porridge crown – made up of espresso and rum-soaked sponge fingers, rum-soaked sultanas, Greek yoghurt, caramelised almonds and chocolate dusting.

The overall winner was a spicy take on the popular winter breckie: Mexican Mole Porridge containing lime, chilli, chilli paste, ginger, cumin, coriander and lime zest.

Anyone still hanging around then got to see PorridgeLady (winner of the world Porridge-Making Championships), cook her award-winning Spotted Dick Porridge Pudding and then sample it with hot custard. Yum!

Finally, I got out of the cold and ventured into Giraffe for a stack of fine blueberry and banana pancakes with maple syrup, before wandering off to hunt down some free lunch…