bapestas and roadstas

i have some heat on display at whitfield towers at all times.

this is part of my bathing ape collection...

two pairs of bapestas, two pairs of roadstas.

an essential part of my crate.

coffee, coffee, then more coffee

friday 30th july.

my quest for the finest coffee in london took me to the caffeine triangle again today.

i had an hour before i had to drive over to parliament square for a shoot and i found a parking space on golden square with surprisingly little effort.

the challenge was on... to drink a coffee at each of the three points of the caffeine triangle and to make a comparison.

so... firstly i dropped in to the beak street branch of fernandez & wells

and had a stumpy. just about perfection

then i swung into caffe e vida

and had a latte with an extra shot. hmmm, nowhere near as good.

finally i skulked across golden square to the nordic bakery

and had a strong latte with a home made biscuit. very nice.

i must admit that i had the right old 'hattie jacques' by this point, but i was in a very good position to rate all three places having just sampled three coffees in under an hour.

my findings are:

fernandez and wells: the best coffee. hands down the winner of my best coffee award.

cracking food too. v friendly staff and a nice vibe.

on the downside i would say it's a little cramped and not the sort of place you can linger or particularly relax.

vida e caffee: the coffee is good, just not as good as the other two places. it's possibly the quietest of the three and has lots of seating and perhaps best of all, lots of good magazines and newspapers to read. free chocolate with coffee, friendly staff and they do a loyalty card.

the nordic bakery: very good coffee, very cool place even after 3 years it still seems fresh and stylish. no music, beautiful interior and definitely the sort of place you can linger for a long long time. the staff are sweet and the food is very... well... nordic i suppose.

in summary it depends what you're after. if it's purely a great coffee head to f&w. if you want to chill, head to the nordic. if you want to relax and read some expensive magazines and people watch, plump for vida e caffe

by the way, as soon as i got to my shoot maybe 30 minutes after leaving golden square, they offered me a coffee straight away !... i settled for a glass of water.

london transport

my two favourite ways of getting around the capital city

fiat 500 and the routemaster.

old and new panoramics of whitfield towers

looking through some old prints yesterday i found these...

12 prints which when cobbled together make a cheap panoramic view of whitfield towers back in 1996

and today i did some more shots to show how it looks 14 years later...

damn... i love whitfield towers !

best goal celebration ever ?

you've got to hand it to these icelandic lads... they sure know how to celebrate a goal.

combining their love of fishing with football, check out what happens after this cheeky penalty.

genius !

j-ro

here are some of the results from the shoot i did with j-ro last week

on my coffee table this week

and on my coffee table this week...

book

the uncommon reader by alan bennett.

a funny little story.

cd

the original soundtrack album from the film "twin falls idaho"

i've had this album since the day it was released and every so often i play it to death for a few weeks. a great album to play in the background while you're having a meal or relaxing.

but is it just me or does the singer sound like vic reeves when he does his pub singer routine ?

dvd

fish story

released on monday. don't ask any questions... just go out and buy it. trust me on this one.

the millennium cafe, holloway road, n7

when i'm in need of a quick coffee and two poached eggs on brown toast, i usually take the short walk to the millennium cafe. 

the coffee is good

and it only costs £1

also look at this lot, standing guard over my breakfast

all present and correct.

golden times !

cold comfort farm

i know it doesn't sit very well with my tattoos, with my collection of nike air force 1's,

japanese bossa nova cds and bathing ape tees, but honestly... this is one of my favourite films.

perfect sunday evening viewing.


"i saw something nasty in the woodshed"

panoramic view of piccadilly

i had a meeting in piccadilly this morning. afterwards i did this cheap panoramic view.

i was standing with the criterion theatre on my left and the criterion restaurant on my right.

from here it's a two minute walk to caffeine triangle so you know what came next.

kitchen shelves

when our kitchen was being built a couple of years ago there was a gap at the end of the units. the designer asked if i'd like some shelves to fill the space. he asked how many i would like and how far apart they should be. i told him that i wanted them to be configured so that i could fit a football in each space. no idea why i said that... perhaps i was seriously thinking about exhibiting three footballs in the kitchen ? it sounds like the sort of thing i'd do.

anyway, this is how they look today.

on the bottom shelf...

a couple of years ago on the final morning of my first trip to tokyo i wanted to spend my last few yen just before i caught the bus to the airport. the nearest shop to my hotel was a 7-11 and i spent my last few bob on bottles of salt. well, i thought they looked nice and also i could pack them easily into some trainers i'd bought.

middle shelf...

my artist edition beer bottles. from left to right: jeff koons, tracey emin, yoko ono, damien hirst... er and then some that i can't remember.

and top shelf...

a very important piece. a dumb luck rabbit, signed by the artist gary baseman.

the story is that this rabbit is so dumb that he cut of his own foot for good luck !

wall hanging thing

for my birthday a few years ago, jackie gave me this...

it's called a uten.silo and was designed in 1969 by dorothee becker.

it hangs on the wall just outside my office and is something i look at every day.

it looks great when it's empty and then when you add things to it it becomes your own little work of art. an ever changing piece of art too.

some of the things i can see on this photo are:

a jesus action figure, two obey vip bracelets, a sew-on patch, new york subway fridge magnet, japanese breath fresheners, some floral handled tools, a key-ring from western samoa, paul frank union jack wallet, wrist compass, pez dispensers, g.i. joe, matches from a now defunct restaurant, mexican playing cards, a spirit level given to me by michael marriott, a tin angel of guadelupe, passports, a sample piece of paul smith leather a miffy magnet, note from jess, chopsticks, spongebob toy, underwater torch, corkscrew, eames house of cards, maps of tokyo, nyc and madrid subway. a booklet about the nutritional value of food served at white castle, various key rings and phone ornaments, permanent markers and a mark whitfield cd.

gonzalez y gonzalez

i picked up this little book of matches at a mexican place in new york in 1994.

 i just checked and not only is it still going, at the same address but listen to the great music they play on their website:

www.arkrestaurants.com/gonzalez.html

magnifico !

the caffeine triangle

yesterday i had a coffee at the nordic bakery. it's still up there in my top three places.

the coffee is great and it's the most relaxing out of the caffeine triangle.

today however, i was in the mood for a bit of reading with my coffee.

and vida e caffe wins hands down on an occasion such as this.

watches and belts

for as long as i can remember, i've always liked watches and belts.

i think the first belt i had was one of those elasticated things with a snake fastening... do you know what i mean ?

the first watch i had was a timex and i remember being fascinated by the glow-in-the-dark hands.

today i mainly use this belt...

black leather original fake, with kaws trademark chomper design etched into the leather.




as for watches... well after 15 years of wearing a rolex gmt master, last march i sold it and bought this bad boy...

panarai luminor gmt



and i'm still fascinated by the glow-in-the-dark hands

infact i'm a big fan of lots of glow-in-the-dark products... hmmm... maybe i should do a post showing all my glow-in-the-dark favourites ?

new heat

it's time to bring some new heat to the streets of n7

white brown and yellow bapestas.
they are basically the same silhouette as nike air force 1's

same trim

same sole

same heel

team them with a pair of old levis

and we're good to go

representing n7