Highgate Cemetery.

When my love came down to London to see where I'm living nowadays, we visited the amazing Highgate Cemetery in the north-west of the city, not far from me.

The images above were taken during a tour of the West Cemetery - the older side, where a guided tour is compulsory, and very much worth the while (£5 students, £7 standard ticket).

A visit to Hightgate was the one concrete thing on our agenda for the weekend - which may make us seem (not unjustiably) morbid, but was mostly because he had spent a long time researching the vampire sightings of the 1970s which purportedly took place there. There's also a rumour that Bram Stoker took some inspiration for Dracula from the atmosphere of the Highgate catacombs.

I would recommend a visit to Highgate to anyone. It is unlike anywhere I have ever been. Established in 1839, it's a Victorian landscaped cemetery, and the older West side is a wild, overgrown and ornate space. Some of the gravestones are so elaborate, and the guide had several stories about them for us on the hour-long walk around the cemetery.

Words feel a bit clumsy to describe what it was like beyond the gates - it's a little like stepping back in time, a little like entering a dark fairytale. The atmosphere is totally enthralling - and all I can do is recommend a visit if you're in London.

It's a little off the tourist trail - but arguably all the more enchanting for that.

Snakerider.

Since my Tye-Dye Ouroboros shirt from Kaarme arrived a few weeks ago, I have hardly been out of it - it's no secret that I am infatuated with Hallie Liebling's sick designs. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a second serpentine beauty: the Snakerider shirt, pictured above.

http://hal-coholic.blogspot.com/2011/10/kaarme-giveaway.html

Go and shop the Kaarme collection now, before some other lucky sucker gets their hands on the last few pieces.

www.kaarmeconcepts.com

And go follow http://hal-coholic.blogspot.com, but follow at your peril - it's addictively good (excuse the pun, its true).

ουρά - tail, βόρος - eating.

I find the Ouroboros to be such an evocative symbol; there is something so strongly human about its self-reflexivity, cyclicality, and depiction of the eternal return - the constant recreation of oneself.

I don't think I'll ever be brave or convinced enough to get a tattoo, but I think I would choose this; because as well as it being something I find aesthetically pleasing on many levels, it will never lose its significance. It is inherently about change, regeneration - and in my eyes, recovery, or an understanding that these are forces we must all contend with, and learn from.