1 The February issue of Monocle will arrive on newsstands – and subscribers’ doormats – this week. But if you are a potential kiosk client, I just thought I’d tempt you to pick up a copy.While Monocle has section editors with their own patches (Nic Monisse gets to rule over the fertile design landscape; Christopher Lord, well, lords it over business; and so on), the magazine delights in exploring the links between disciplines and the interconnectedness of all that surrounds us. That includes how global affairs affect business (hello, tariffs), how design affects educational outcomes and how good architecture can improve your health.One of my favourite stories in the issue picks up on this theme. The University Children’s Hospital Zürich was designed by Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron and, wherever possible, it used timber in its construction. The facility, affectionately known as Kispi, also features courtyards filled with native plants where the young patients can go to warm their faces in the sun. Every bedroom is made to feel like a cosy cabin. It’s a perfect example of the interplay between seemingly disparate spheres: how architecture can ease the anxiety of patients and parents, and how aesthetics and science share a common goal.The issue is packed with 25 such stories offering a hopeful and inspiring look at the year ahead, and the people, products and places we should embrace (with their permission, of course).2 Somehow, someone I met in my twenties – when I was a whippersnapper writer and he was a promoter (among many things) of Absolut Vodka – has ended up as a constant in my life, despite the fact that he moved to the countryside with his partner and children. Even the children, now adults, have featured in my life. On Tuesday I saw the whole posse at the British Film Institute because Tate, the daughter, has produced a short film called Out of the Peat (directed by Tabitha Carless-Frost and Theo Rollason) about the discovery of a body in a bog. It was all part of the London Short Film Festival and a competition section themed around panoramics. Perhaps the best part was the Q&A with the all the young directors – every one as eloquent with words as they are with images. It was a line-up of talent at the start of something – and some of them were no doubt making connections that will persist across decades.The other good bit was walking home. As its name suggests, the BFI Southbank is on the southern shore of the Thames so I headed up onto Waterloo Bridge to cross the river’s dark waters. The night was cold and the sky black, and the city in every direction looked like a place of promise. From St Paul’s Cathedral to Westminster, London was at its finest. I would have lingered but that body in the bog made me think that it would be wiser to get home and bolt the door.