Going Underground

Espresso cups and saucers, £32.99, London Transport Museum shop

I got a perfect Christmas present this year: my very thoughtful brother bought me a huge bag of Colombian coffee beans from Monmouth Coffee Stores, together with this box of espresso cups and saucers. I was seriously chuffed, and am happily spending January wired to the moon while everyone around me detoxes. The cups are from the London Transport Museum shop, which is full of great quirky gifts.

It's a weirdly compelling shop. You can order a sofa covered in the fabric used on Underground trains – they look better than they sound – or buy a striking London Underground film map, which has the usual station names replaced by film titles (below, £9.95). There's also everything from mugs bearing the name of your favourite Underground station – should you have one – to a shopping bag (£9.99) designed by Ella Doran which pays tribute to the number 38 bus.

Love 38 bag by Ella Doran, £9.99

Apart from the coffee stakes, here are some other good things about 2011 so far...

Reading Skippy Dies, and Justine Picardie's biography of Chanel. Watching The King's Speech and looking forward to Black Swan.

Booking ahead: to see Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss star in Children's Hour at The Comedy Theatre, London. Then there's Derek Jacobi in the Donmar Warehouse production of King Lear, and Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller. Both Lear and Frank are courtesy of the magnificent National Theatre Live, which brings London's best theatre productions to your local cinema. I know, I sound like their PR person, but I think it's brilliant the way they are making theatre accessible like this.

Staying (in my dreams): at the brand-new St Pancras Renaissance, with its Marcus Wareing dining room; and Fergus Henderson's new hotel in London's Chinatown.

Trying out: sailing in Dun Laoghaire harbour; baking at the brilliant Cake Cafe in Dublin, probably the best cafe in the city.