nicknames

i thought you grew out of calling people by nicknames when you left school.

then i realised yesterday that i have a large amount of friends that i only refer to by nickname.

here are a few examples. there are more, but these are the just the ones i have photos of.

obviously there is good twin...

   photo © jess

and bad twin...

   photo © jess

here's the dude

i imagine a lot of people have somebody in their group called 'the dude', but this one actually was known as 'the dude' before the film 'the big lebowski' was released.

of course you can't mention the dude without thinking about the earl...

the first earl of stokes, to give him his full title.

the fellow on the right i know by a variety of names...

i usually call him benito, but he is also known as von greenburg and on special occasions as bengreensonofhilarygreen.

i used to work with benito for a good few years. in the last couple of years we were joined by this character...

he was referred to mainly as junior or brooks junior. 

he was however, also called 'napoleon dynamite', 'art garfunkel' and 'sleepyboy'

charlie also worked with me and benito...

but for some reason i always refer to him as 'my special boy'

in theory, gerry used to work with my special boy and junior

but these days i know him as 'danny boy'

( the earl occasionally refers to him as 'the budmiser' )

this is neelie. she used to assist me quite a lot

i never call her neelie though, to me she's 'little one'

the next three friends i've travelled the world with on various shoots.

there's chris...

to be honest i only ever call him chris, but since an early age my daughter has always called him 'skully'

here's chris in new york with my mate neil...

since 1997 neil has been listed on my mobile phone as 'alan batter'

whenever me and chris chat and mention neil it's always... " i was on the phone to batter the other day " or " fancy getting batter out for a few beers ? "

it's a long story and stems back to when the three of us spent a month working in mongolia.

also in mongolia was elvis

i've known him as elvis for so long that i've almost forgotten his real name.

two of my oldest friends now. i went to college with these two.

firstly there's bigfoot...

seen here with me at an arsenal game a few years ago.

and of course, the top man... 'h'

i occasionally call him 'hugh'

my daughter usually calls him 'uncle manley'

when he opened the front door to me on christmas day wearing a sequin-trimmed cowboy hat, i can't really tell you what i called him !