I took a trip to Barcelona recently, to visit a friend. After just four years in the city, the chica originally from Bow in East London is having a great time. She is now super organised, has the kind of techy business acumen that leaves you open-mouthed in wonder and her newly acquired Spanish sass is her very own brand of 'a Londoner does Barce' - it's great. Being in her company was a great memory jerker that all complaints aside, Londoners don't drag themselves around. We know what we want and we rarely mince our words. Instead, we hash a plan and we get on with it. It dawned on me that her amazing success in Spain might be a direct result of growing up in East London. She's a grafter and when she sees potential, she makes it happen. 

I spent a relatively 'chilled' four days with her, and while I was in awe and loving local haunts, hikes up Montjuic and devouring masses of (too much) Spanish food, I was also reminded of all the incredible potential in my own borough back home.

Some of the recent arts and cultural activities that I'm really excited about are all in this area:

The local passion for getting our very own market is undeniably up there with regular events and festivals for the area - all hot things to look forward to. But of course, we have the Ploughmans and the Haringey Market keeping our appetites and glee alive - who can complain?

The weekly Monday night Spanish swap at El botellon, where you can swap English for Spanish with the added bonus of stuffing your face with tapas and drinks and getting to know new people were also in my thoughts. The current influx of the Spaniards in London really shouldn't go unnoticed. If you ever wanted to learn a new language, I would suggest taking this great opportunity to learn Spanish without having to pay for it.

On a walk through El Raval in the heart of Barce, I also spotted the work of Francisco de Pájaro - the Spanish guy behind Art is Trash - and again my thoughts returned right back home. It's a very exciting time to live in this borough. If you're not familiar with his work, take a look at this and a great piece written about his work here. We've had the absolute privilege to host his work in Haringey and to be part of creating and responding to the art of this age using reusable materials. It may seem like an obvious concept but I have not seen a street artist execute such humour and wit in such attention-grabbing, unapologetic ways in a very long time. His work is one to follow.

I'm also really excited about dance in Tottenham. Coming from a performing arts background, I've always enjoyed watching and taking part and although many years ago I had to go outside of the borough for both, that is no longer the case. There is now so much available on our doorstep at the Bernie Arts Centre, with the help of teachers like Julia Pond.

I've been to Barce five times now (it goes without saying: me gusta Barcelona!) but on this recent trip, I learnt something valuable. It was the realisation that although I can't make it sunny here in London (a great pity), and I can't get us a city beach (best to just get over that thought); we do have unbelievable culture on our doorstep - without having to get on board a budget airline in order to enjoy it. So it's not such a wild idea that I'm hashing a plan to do just that: stepping out to enjoy.

This was written in February 2014