more from jane austen's house

ok where did i leave off last time ?

oh yes. the quills.

the quills were most difficult to get to grips with.

somebody gave up on writing with one and did a drawing instead.

not bad.

nan alert !

lavender ready for crushing and for...

well whatever nans do with lavender.

lavender as i have touched upon previously, is pretty much like crystal meth to nans.

they can't get enough of it.

what the what ?!

some sort of instructional board in the bakehouse at jane's place.

some post it notes left in one of the new 'exhibit' rooms

which was probably jane austen's shed.

hmmm...

is that a premature exclamation mark ?

was it originally going to be a longer sentence ?

perhaps

colonel brandon was the man who ( insert quite rude punchline here )

south korea ?

i have a story about some south korean ladies.

maybe on wednesday i'll tell you.

complaint post it note regarding quills

a very polite not too.

i would have used a long swearword in there...

but it was too difficult to write.

oh my word

somebody had to write do the whole paraphrase thing.

mind you... it is one of the greatest opening lines of all time.

right ?

good shout !

and thanks for your publishing company too mr brown.

hungary ?

wasn't mr biro from hungary ?

i'm just saying.

right, that's your lot for today.

may i politely suggest that while it's a sunday, why not settle down and watch

pride and prejudice ? or sense and sensibility ?

or my personal favourite... emma.

back to normal-ish stuff tomorrow.

black and white saturday

black and white iphone saturday.

it's a double cheap post.

1

some tongue tabs i cut off a pair of trainers last week.

i'll show you the shoes when i photograph them properly

and you will see why i cut off the tongue tabs.

2

doing a stock take of my hair product last week threw up some interesting points.

it appears that there is a thief in whitfield towers as my tin of green dax

strong hold is missing.

the police have been informed.

3

new belt alert !

i picked this bad boy up from supreme last black and white saturday.

4

an italian p.r. girl on a shoot with me wearing the trainers that converse forgot.

5

and finally...

my last ever game as an arsenal season ticket holder ended prematurely

when i left the ground with 25 minutes of the game remaining.

( it's a long story )

on the way home i spotted some policemen and horses getting ready for the end 

of game crowds. the happy arsenal fans and the unhappy wigan fans.

thanks to arsenal for two years of quite rubbish football. seriously. 

oh in fairness i saw a few good games. i think both games against spurs

ended 5-2, maybe even 5-3. 

i saw arsenal batter 10 man blackburn last season and 10 man newcastle this season.

my favourite game was when swansea came to the emirates this season

and when wigan came last season.

oh and the pies... the pies were good.

back to colour tomorrow.

iphone friday and the flat whites of shame

i haven't got many iphone pics in my folder at the moment so i might 

add on some bonus pics at the end... or maybe i'll sort some iphone pics out ?

i'm writing this a few days in advance and by the time you read this i'll be

hopefully flying somewhere between n7 and whatever postcode they have in beijing.

sadly i'll miss the final day of the premiership.

sadly i'll miss eurovision.

in the meantime here are a few pics from my trusty iphone.

1

so...

there's a new coffee machine at whitfield towers and my mission is to make a really

nice looking and hopefully tasting flat white some time before christmas.

i will be documenting my success ( ahem ) with my iphone and sharing with you.

2

whereas the first pic looked possibly to be like a leaf.

this one is just plain rude.

3

a heart ?

perhaps.

4

maybe there's a little heart in there somewhere ?

5

hmmm... kind of a heart but it goes off a bit.

plus the whole thing is too bubbly.

i'm having problems stretching the milk at the moment.

6

this was rubbish

7

hold tight...

that looks a little bit like a leaf, right ?

8

a strange one.

not great but the milk was better with a velvety texture.

just a shame about the pattern.

9

no.

this is almost like a cheaty flat white.

the milk was all wrong.

10

wait a second.

this is not bad.

is it a leaf ? is it a heart ?

not bad anyway.

11

if i say so myself. i'm definitely making some progress.

there's the makings of a leaf in there somewhere.

12

no.

it's gone all to cock again.

13

but then again...

14

the milk is ok. good texture...

let's face it. you're losing interest now aren't you ?

15

but check it out. good coffee, good milk.

just poor baristical skills when it comes to the pour.

16

bags !

17

oh come on...

that's not bad at all.

i'd take that all day.

right ?

18

i'm definitely getting there.

anyway by this time it was 6pm and after drinking 18 cups of coffee

i decided to give it a rest for a while.

what ?

plates and quills ( jane austen's house part two )

ok so maybe jane austen wasn't everybody's thing.

maybe yesterday wasn't too clever either.

what if you don't know 'arrested development' ?

hmmm...

normal-ish service will be resumed soon i assure you.

but in the meantime here are some more pics from jane austen's house.

there's a room where you can do jane austen type things, like writing with a quill

or making lavender bags ( if the nans haven't stolen it all )

you can also 'decorate' a plate.

this is not my work. i just take the photos.

it's a nice drawing don't get me wrong.

but was the arrow necessary ?

i'm no expert, but i doubt this claim.

17 ?

32 ?

as they say in california... do the math

( leave it )

money-grabbing b*tches

this one is quite decent.

too many capital letters for me though.

this was my favourite.

no words, just a drawing of something.

no idea what though.

here's the bit where you can write with a quill

and some plates in the background.

i didn't have a go at a plate but i did try with a quill

this is perhaps my favourite jane austen line.

well... it was until it took me 10 minutes to write it with a quill.

to be honest i think it was a dodgy one.

i've seen them used on telly and they write for ages.

this quill was good for half a centimetre of ink before it scratched like a

( insert dodgy punchline here )

plus i got ink all over my fingers.

grrr !

more jane austen stuff tomorrow i'm afraid.

maybe i'll throw in some af-1's and a flat white just to mix it up a little.

until then. time for me to pack.

the final countdown

ok maybe jane austen isn't everybody's cup of tea.

how about arrested development ?

no ? well how about this ?

and here's something from me so it's not completely the cheapest blog post

of all time.

not my best angle i'll grant you.

so i was photographing furniture last week.

marc newson is one of my favourite designers.

can you guess what the first photo on tomorrow's blog will be ?

jane austen's house ( part one )

i'm going to stretch this out.

at the end of the week i'm going to the land that google forgot, 

so there will be no 'live' blogging.

what i'm saying is, i'm going to have to line up a few blog posts to 

publish while i'm away.

and seeing as i don't have much to report on, i'm going to make the most of

my recent visit to jane austen's house.

so here we go... part one.

1

jane austen's house is a nan-friendly zone.

lavender everywhere.

2

they don't have a cafe there.

just as well really, as i reckon it would be jane austen time themed

and that was a dark time for food in my book*

3

right. that's your lot for today.

more and hopefully more entertaining pics tomorrow.

*food i like, by mark whitfield ( n7 press )

last saturday

four photos from last saturday.

1

i debuted my latest pair of af-1's.

my april i.d's using premium soft black leather teamed with leopard print 

pony hair on the tongue and swoosh.

2

when i catch a bus i like to sit on the front row of the top deck.

it's what i call the driving seat.

from that viewpoint you can do some serious people watching.

look at this bloke. wearing a pink onesie, pink timberlands with pink laces.

it's what's known as a "strong look"

3

another day another flat white.

4

another saturday in soho, another stag group.

golfers eh ?