Following on from Luiz Hara’s top five, Drisk from ‘Obsessed with London‘ has jumped on board to share his top five favourite things to do in this fair city. If this leaves you wanting more, read his top five secret spots now…

1) Have a drink at Milk & Honey
As a city we’ve always been a little saddened by the fact we didn’t experience the joyous drinking occasions of prohibition, but with all the secret drinking dens popping up we’re certainly making up for it now. Milk & Honey hides behind a nondescript black door in Soho and, for members and those in-the-know (non-members can still book at certain times), serves quality drinks in a classic speakeasy setting.

2) Drink tea and watch a gig in a church-cum-music-venue
 Union Chapel was recently voted London’s best live music venue and with good reason; it shows a great variety of artists in a beautiful church setting. Being a church you can only drink alcohol in the bar area, but drinking tea while watching bands makes the experience all the more charming.

3) Window shop at Dover Street Market
The fashion concept store from Comme des Garçons’ designer Rei Kawakubo is sure to fill people with wonder and dread in equal measure. The shop itself is amazing and filled with wonderful clothes, but the prices may make you swallow hard – in which case retire to Rose Bakery on the top floor and allow yourself to daydream.

4) Visit the Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is one of London’s most beautiful landmarks, both inside and out. And it’s well worth a visit, whether it’s for the behind-the-scenes tour, an opera or ballet. Those willing to stand can get tickets to see some of the world’s greatest performances for as little as £5.

5) Immerse Yourself in Cinema
For film fans, Secret Cinema (despite no longer being all that secret) is a must, whether it’s donning a dressing gown in a ‘mental asylum’ for ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ or your best oversized pinstripe suit and splurge gun for ‘Bugsy Malone’, there’s no finer cinematic event in London.

Check out this incredible video by aerial photographer extraordinaire Jason Hawkes. And then check it out again. Beautiful.

Want more high flying action? Below, see some of his photos of the Olympic Park from above, almost-ready and waiting for the Games to begin.

Discover more amazing views of London from above on Jason Hawkes site.

Or check out more great photos of London we’ve posted.

Last week a surprise package arrived at Time Out Towers – a limited-edition Diamond Jubilee blue/red Mathmos lava lamp. Our reaction – shock, awe and then delight. Once we got the groovy rocket plugged in and the lava started flowing, I am not sure what happened, but the next thing we knew, the theme from Austin Powers was blasting out of the stereo and we were all dancing like idiots. This actually happened. It was such great fun that we wanted to share the experience with you and so we have one of these royally hypnotic lamps to give away.

All you need to do is tweet us at @timeoutlondon which celeb is distorted in the oozing lava above…(clue, this pop star is performing at Lovebox this year). The winner with the correct answer will be picked at random and contacted by Wednesday May 23. 

For info, see Meter listing.

Photography? Please. So mainstream.

Instead, discover the work of I M Rawes, one man with a microphone and a dream. Across the capital, he captures the sonic essence of bustling streets and quiet, hidden corners for his exhaustive London Sound Survey project.  Says Rawes: ‘Amongst the daily urban hubbub there’s information about who lives here, what they get up to, how they enjoy themselves and what they believe in.  [Sounds] announce developments in technology, the city’s growth, and social and demographic change. They tell us of shifts in the make-up and scattering of London’s wildlife.’ And it all makes for oddly evocative listening.

His latest project is a sound map of London’s hidden waterways, arranged in classic tube map style. Click from spot to spot to soak up the watery ambience, from surging torrents and hectic traffic jams to tranquil, bubbling streams.

Have a listen to New Seven Sisters Bridge below, or visit the map to have a look listen around for yourself.

New Seven Sister Bridge (CC-NC-BY: London Sound Survey)

For info, and other highlights of the week, see the Hot List.

It was originally called ‘Dybbuk Box’, until some bright studio spark pointed out that the Dybbuk part sounds awfully foreign, and the whole title might remind audiences of Richard Kelly’s dire 2009 sci-fi mess ‘The Box’. So it’s been tediously re-titled ‘The Possession’, but judging from a new trailer, this new horror movie produced by Sam ‘Evil Dead’ Raimi looks a cut above your average exorcism thriller. The general idea seems to be ‘The Exorcist’ with a Jewish twist – all those po-faced bishops replaced by po-faced Rabbis, and presumably no mention of the power of Christ compelling anyone. There are a few images here – particularly the last one – which are genuinely unsettling, and the tone looks a lot closer to Raimi’s trashily enjoyable ‘Drag Me to Hell’, rather than the seriousness of William Friedkin’s original possessed-girl flick. We’ll find out when the film is released on August 31.

A horror fan? Check out our 100 best horror films.

Peek out your window this summer, and you might sense there’s an extra buzz in the air – and for once we’re not referring to the Olympics. A new green initiative – spearheaded by the InMidtown Habitat design competition and the winning entry from UK-based 51% Studios – will see eco-friendly flat pack beehives and bird boxes springing up across central London. Initially starting with 20 beehives and hundreds of bird and bat boxes, the green spaces of Holborn, Bloomsbury and St Giles are set to be transformed into a hive of wild activity as the scheme aims to nurture urban wildlife populations. The studio’s upcycled designs, fashioned from 100% recycled materials including leftover fibres of cars and fridges, fitted perfectly with InMidtown Habitats’ “zero to landfill” ethos – meaning a brilliantly urban approach to biodiversity that won’t swarm the city’s waste levels. So don’t be surprised at the increasing numbers of birds and bees in the capital this summer– we predict a delightful influx of winged visitors. Lisa Paul

One recent Saturday morning, I dragged myself out of bed at an ungodly hour (it felt that way at the time) to Rough Trade East for a Technology Will Save Us workshop. The lure of learning to make a musical instrument (a lumiphone to be precise) was even more strong than that of my lie in! I hadn’t soldered anything or even looked at a circuit board since school but it all flooded back to me as I attempted to follow the simple instructions to build my little Lumiphone. The workshop size was just right with the perfect combo of guidance/independence and the whole thing was a surprising amount of fun. I am not going to lie to you – when it was all finished and my small LEDs lights came on and it all started making noise, I was super chuffed. Technology Will Save Us are here to help us get over our fear of technology and show everyone how simple it can be to make things. I think they are onto something. Their next workshop sounds equally good – making a plant thirst detector at Rough Trade on May 23 (7-9pm). Head down and you too could look as happy in goggles as me below! Sonya Barber

Book now at  twsu-thirstyplant_3.eventbrite.com.

Have you ever appreciated the rapier of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II – an exquisite sword crafted from solid gold, set with glittering jewels, and commonly regarded as the epitome of the Renaissance sword? We’d bet good money that you didn’t even know it existed at all. Until now, that is…The team at the Wallace Collection are about to teach you a thing or two, as they unveil this fine rapier as the star of their latest exhibition – ‘The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe’ – which places weaponry on the must-see museum map. Delving behind the unsung history of the Renaissance rapier, this free exhibition neatly explores the historical and social context behind these lethal objects with razor sharp attention to detail. Wielding a sword in the street may be a public offence nowadays, but back in Elizabethan London it was all the rage. Rapiers were not simply for gentleman duels: they were fashion statements, status symbols as devastatingly beautiful as they were lethal. Expect bling galore, the finest regal costume and priceless fencing manuals. The exhibition runs until September 16, and with Olympic hysteria steadily building in the capital, there’s no better time than summer 2012 to get to grips with sword-fighting, the ancient precursor to the modern Olympic sport of fencing. Lisa Paul

For info, see wallacecollection.org.