Tat London Journal

'Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.’  So said the great Taoist thinker Lao Tzu.  I don’t know where I sit on the enlightenment scale, but I have taken his advice and recently found myself chopping a lot of wood.

Hey hey hey, there’s plenty below to keep you sweet. You could practically decorate an entire house with these picks — though you wouldn’t have a bed, or really any of those anchor pieces of furniture. But you’d have a decent collection of chairs, a few lamps, and some pictures. And honestly, I’ve seen worse houses out there.

Good golly, Miss Molly — going to Frieze Masters last week was the first time I’ve truly wanted to be a millionaire. Well, perhaps not the first, but the yearning to own some of those works of art really took me by surprise. Antiques have much the same effect on me. For most of the below, one doesn’t need to be a great millionaire — just someone with a little weight to their pocket.