For many years I have avoided going to the cinema due to a dread I have for being stuck in one place for over two hours without any alcohol. It’s not that I’m an alcoholic; I just think that there are few activities that are not made better with a glass of wine in your hand (driving, eye surgery and operating heavy machinery spring to mind).

This is why the Silent Cinema nights have really grabbed my imagination. Every month they show a classic film in the beautiful Andaz hotel (formerly known as the Great Eastern) next to Liverpool Street Station. It is called Silent Cinema because you wear wireless headphones; this means you can fidget as much as you like and not hear your neighbours fidgeting, go to the bar or the lavatory with minimal disturbance and you can still hear the film. How modern is that?

I went just before Xmas to see, 'It’s A Wonderful Life'. Now recently single, I decided to bring a prospective ladyfriend. We met in the lobby, she looked delicious in a little dress trimmed with rabbit fur, I looked ridiculous in a jumper like Andrew Ridgely wore in the video for 'Last Christmas'. We were ushered upstairs by our host Damian Barr who welcomed us and the other guests with a very strong gin-based cocktail. As we settled onto our comfy sofa, drinks in hand with the film just about to start, my date looked at me as if I was this most dashing man in London. Let the romance commence!

It wasn’t to be; the film for the evening was 'It’s A Wonderful Life' and as soon as it started, I started crying and did not stop. Though she liked this display of sensitivity, she told me that she prefers her men a little more rugged; a little more like Jimmy Stewart in fact. The next film they are showing is Casablanca, another weepie. I hope my next date likes her men tearful.

ANDAZ LONDON, 40 Liverpool Street, London EC2M 7QN

Go further: Watch movies in Berlin's DDR-style Kino International or on the waterfront in Paris.

There's no better time to travel than during a global financial meltdown. Price wars between airlines have led to plummeting ticket prices, and posh hotels are practically giving away their beds. Promotions on all kinds of products – ranging from hot chocolate to haute couture - make it possible for even unemployed bankers to get a taste of the good life. We asked our local bloggers to uncover the best deals, and to tell us about the simple and inexpensive pleasures that can always be found in their cities. With cheap tickets and insider advice, there's no reason why a shrinking economy should stop you from expanding your horizons.

London

Image from '28 Days Later'

Interest rates have been cut again and still no one is spending. Oxford Street reminds me of the film '28 Days Later' where London is deserted except for a few flesh-eating zombies; the markets of East London, quiet just before Xmas when you would expect people to be spending heavily, seem to be dying.

This is worrying for the Britain’s finances. But if you do go shopping it does mean that you won’t have to wade through crowds, you will be served promptly by desperate staff eager to help and prices have been slashed. And you can do this safe in the knowledge your actions have been sanctioned by Gordon Brown himself.

The smart restaurants that would not even pick up the phone last year are now offering bargain “Credit Lunches.” Take Le Gavroche for example. They now offer a lunch for £48. That’s for 3 Michelin stars and includes wine. It’s not just Le Gavroche, all London restaurants are offering cheap lunches. I am now almost a regular at Kensington’s Launceston Place for their £18 set meal. One place on 171 Farringdon Road in Islington, the Little Bay Restaurant, even lets its customers decide how much they want to pay for their meal. We’ll see how long they stay open for. 

Don’t forget that the pound is as weak as new born lamb so your dollars, euros and zloty are now worth more. If you can, like me, be paid in foreign currency then you get to play the tourist in a developing country but in London! Once proudly one of the most expensive places on earth London is now almost affordable. £3.50 for a pint of beer? Why that’s only 4 euros!

Inside Princess Louise Photo: Kelpenhagen

But you don’t even need to pay that much. For some reason lost in mists of time some of the most beautiful central London pubs are owned by a Yorkshire brewery called Samuel Smith’s. They only sell their own brand alcohol so you get Bitter for under £1.80, Lager for £2 and a double Scotch for £3. Pubs such as the Princess Louise in Holborn or The Champion in Fitzrovia are perfectly preserved examples of Victorian pub architecture. That’s where real Londoners are sitting out the recession. It’s better than borrowing more money to buy more things you don’t want even with such tempting interest rates.

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How to go on holiday for less than 150 euro

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Crisis? What crisis?

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Paris for recessionistas

Recession? Not for Istanbul's tourism industry

- On June 17 2010 Sebastian Horsley was found dead in his Soho flat just a few days after his memoir 'Dandy in the Underworld' was adapted for stage at Soho Theatre. Last year Henry Castiglione caught up with Sebastian Horsley in Soho. Here is  what came out of their meeting - Soho will be very empty without Sebastian Horsley:

If you spend any time in Soho, you are sure to run into Sebastian Horsley. He is distinctive for his height (usually exaggerated by platform boots), his clothes and remarkable good looks. Everyone recognises Sebastian but no one is quite sure what he does. He has had many occupations: an artist who had himself crucified in the Philippines and swam with sharks; a playboy who made a million on the stock market and spent it all on drugs and women; a sex columnist fired for being too graphic. He is now the author of a lavishly praised autobiography, 'Dandy in the Underworld'. Johnny Depp is keen to make it into a film though Sebastian is not sure if Depp is good-looking enough to play the lead. Sebastian is currently turning the book into a one man show but his main occupation is being Sebastian which is more than enough work for one man.

Photo: Aye-eye

We met at Lorelei which has been a Soho institution for more years that the owner cares to remember. Regulars called it the mermaid due to the mural of a mermaid on the wall, We both had the pasta which is cheap and basic “the great thing about the Mermaid is that whatever you order it always tastes the same” Sebastian quipped.

My first question was about being a Londoner:

Sebastian interrupted “I don’t consider myself a Londoner, I live in Soho, I am a Sohoer or a Sohoite. I would not live in Chelsea and I get ill if I go south of the river. Beyond Hyde Park is a desert to me. Any invitations to art galleries in Notting Hill go straight in the bin. Soho is a village; it even has a village church. It is a community of misfits.”

Sebastian lives in a flat off Dean Street. One wall is lined with skulls and he keeps a loaded revolver by the bed. Due to difficult financial circumstances he has had to take in a lodger. She pays very well but keeps him up at night with her constant visitors.

So where would you live if not in Soho?

The launch party for Sebastian's retrospective at the Spectrum Gallery stopped the traffic

I would move back to Hull, failure is less apparent in the provinces, or go to Los Angeles but that’s could be because they won’t have me.” Sebastian was meant to go to America to promote his book earlier this year. He got as far as JFK when he was stopped by immigration, questioned for 6 hours and sent back to London due to his “moral turpitude.” “I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is, they all know about the book. The bad news is, they all know about the book.” Sebastian remarked at the time.

Apart from Lorelei, where do you like to eat in London?

I don’t like haute cuisine. When I go out I only want people to notice me, I don’t want to be upstaged by the food.” Sebastian frequents the old cheap cafes – such as the Star café - that Soho used to be rammed with but have increasingly been replaced by chain coffee shops.

After his book was launched in September last year he took over cult Italian restaurant Zilli’s. Sebastian is also an unlikely regular at celebrity hangout The Ivy on 1-5 West Street. Sebastian loathes celebrities but they took some art from him and paid him in meals. “They took some syringes from me so I called them the IV.”

Where do you get your fabulous clothes?

I don’t go shopping and I don’t wear designer clothes. I ain’t no clothes Horsley. I design my own clothes and get them made. “Sebastian is one of the very few if not the only person to have had a collar named after him at Turnbull & Asser (71 Jermyn Street). It is called, aptly, The Horsley. You will note its distinctive lines in the photos. Suits come from amongst others Richard Anderson on 13 Savile Row. Sebastian’s unique style is an inspiration to designers such as Comme de Garcons who used Horsley as a model during Paris Fashion week last year.

How do you think Soho has changed?

People are always going on about how things were better in the past. Were they? Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.” But Soho is changing. The Colony Room, long time hang out of artists such as Francis Bacon, is closing. Sebastian is part of a campaign to keep it open. “People will look back at the closing of The Colony Room as on par with the destruction of the hanging gardens of Babylon or the burning of Byron’s papers.”

The great thing about lunch with Sebastian is that you will be amused, challenged, flirted with but you will never get a direct answer to your questions. Recommendations are not what Horsley does. Sebastian’s Soho is as much about attitude as it is about place. Read his book, come to Soho and seek out his company: “Come to my room at 7.00pm. If you’re late, I'll start without you.”

'Dandy in the Underworld' by Sebastian Horsley is published by Sceptre in the UK and Harper Press in the US. It comes out in Germany next year.

Go further:

Local view: Catherine Sanderson's Paris

Local view: Melissa Maldonado's Berlin

Local view: Jerome Weatherald's London

Local view: Lauren Elkin's Paris

Local view: Gilles Valentin's Istanbul

Local view: Adam Kuban's New York

Local view: Christophe Abric's Paris

Local view: Maaike Gottschal's Amsterdam

Local view: Jozef Spodniak's Prague

Local View: Dana Boulé's Paris