Hands up who doesn’t have any money. Yup, my hand is reaching towards the ceiling… I’d better stop that now, it’s making typing difficult. After the overindulgence of Christmas and New Year and my ‘sod it’ attitude to budgeting, January has already gotten off to a frugal start. With the Credit Crunch at London bars, well, crunching it is looking like my nights out are going to be confined to one night at the weekend with the occasional trip to my local cheap independent cinema. Great.

However, if you’ve been reading the papers recently, you’ll have seen reports about Wetherspoons stepping up their assault to dominate the high street by slashing …

I have a guilty little secret. I don’t feel Christmassy. Not one little bit. Now it’s kind of worrying given it’s Christmas Day NEXT WEEK! Yup, just nine shopping days left until Christmas… Oh God, can’t breathe. Yes, I am one of those idiots who has left all of her Christmas shopping until the last weekend of December. I will have to descend on Oxford Street with a big stick and the lame hope the crunch will keep away the crowds.

I feel like a right Scrooge. It hasn’t helped that one of those bugs struck me down and left me bedridden for five days, it’s hard to feel festive when I feel …

I know that there’s a credit crunch at the moment, but that hasn’t stopped a huge number of bars, restaurants and clubs opening their doors across the capital the last couple of months. Maybe they’re trying to capitalise on the December party season. I know that we’re all a little lighter in the wallet region, but hell it IS Christmas.

The last couple of months has seen refurbishments and launch parties aplenty, I have drunk so much Champagne I swear my liver has evolved to deal with glasses of bubbly at an increased rate. So here are my tips on the best new additions to London...

The South has seen something of a boom recently as venues have opened in Battersea and Clapham especially at a faster rate than ever before. …

You may remember a while ago I was concerned about the looming threat of a Happy Hour ban in London (see London Happy Hour Ban). This threatened to remove one of the last glimmering hopes for wallets across the capital as Londoners got ready for a VERY long credit crunch winter with no beer to warm their bellies.

I was extremely happy, therefore, when I read reports that the government had done something of a U-turn on the Happy Hour ban in London. After all, it’s not exactly fair to punish responsible drinkers for the binge drinking habits of the minority. Although I’m partial to the odd Happy Hour binge, I don’t think stopping me from partaking in great …

I was lucky enough to win a cocktail making set in a raffle a couple of weeks ago and I have to admit I’m yet to show off my mixology skills. Working in this job I’m often lucky enough to talk to mixologists about the art of cocktail making (it’s more than just sloshing a couple of spirits together, you know!) but I’m not so sure I could emulate them. The closest I’ve ever come is making a couple of lethal concoctions at house parties in uni a few years ago – these did not end well. I'm far more likely to spend the evening at cocktail bars these days!

If, like me, you want to know more about mixology and cocktail making – especially if you’re …