the usual suspects

a couple of days ago i visited one of my favourite haunts...

the nordic bakery

i visited the original golden square branch but they nowadays have two other

venues in sunny london town.

then last night i visited one of my least favourite haunts...

the emirates stadium.

in fairness it was a pretty good game.

after being 2-0 down, arsenal came back to draw 2-2.

afterwards i posed up for gooner jeff, wearing duckboots and mittens.

yes, it was a bit nippy in n5 last night.

one last look at thailand

i know i said i was done with thailand photos but today i need

to have one last look back via a few photos which i hope you'll

see are of a higher quality than those from my iphone.

so here we go. 11 more predictable photos.

1

no idea really ?

perhaps i was just testing my camera ?

and no, that's not my belly, it's just the way the t-shirt is hanging.

2

one of the swimming pools and the huts where you can get

a massage or do yoga.

3

arsenal shirt, manchester united hat.

the thai people seem to love english football.

this bloke told me he had the shirt for every premier league team.

4

finalhome watching the eastern european girls while waiting for happy hour.

5

steak, egg, potato croquettes.

a rare non-omelette morning in sala samui.

6

most mornings at sala samui.

7

one of my favourite views.

sunset on my birthday.

did i mention... etc, etc...

8

another of my favourite views.

night time on the little beach where sala samui is situated.

a great place to watch the stars, to observe how quickly they move

and then to realise they're aeroplanes.

now, my favourite three views from samui and bangkok

9

this was just before sunset.

me in the garden of sala 44

standing next to the private pool where i used to swim many lengths each day.

union jack logo polo shirt by lacoste

cargo pants by dqm

bapestas by a bathing ape

10

this time in front of one of the resort pools one early evening.

t-shirt by comme des garçons

trousers by paul smith

undefeated x converse all stars

11

and finally, in bangkok outside the metropolitan hotel

t-shirt by comme des garçons

camo cargo shorts by a bathing ape

bapestas as before.

right, that's it.

no more photos from thailand. it's all uk from now on...

( though i might be shooting in tokyo in march )

stuff

ok. i know it's january 29th but today is the first day of how my

blog is going to be this year.

different stories or observations all lumped together into a daily post.

a bit like when i used to tidy up my blog folder i suppose.

anyway, here goes.

1

orange foamposite nike air force 1's.

if you know me well, you will know that orange is my favourite colour.

there used to be a french lady in my building and one day a few years ago

i did a shoot for her. photographing some small white corian tables she had made.

i shot them on an orange background.

i used to like it whenever she spoke of the photos... the way she said "orange"

in a french accent. it made the word even better.

yesterday i had a shoot in a casino and my client is a french lady. when we were

experimenting with the lighting, she said that she liked it when the walls

were "orange" coloured. the way she said "orange" in her french accent...

on the flip side, have you ever listened to the way americans say the word ?

maybe it's a certain american accent but the way they pronounce "orange"

absolutely murders the word... a bit like they do with the word "mirror"

there's a tv advert for florida orange juice at the moment. 

keep an eye out ( or an ear open ) for it... and you'll see ( or hear ) what i mean.

i'm not trying to knock americans ( or praise the french ) i just find it interesting

the way some words can be made to sound better ( or worse )

i also appreciate that i have far from a perfect grasp on pronunciation.

for instance the way i say "bath" and "butter"

( good job i rarely use those words in the same sentence )

too many brackets ?

( thought so )

2

iphone pic alert !

a t-shirt i was given the other day.

it's a promotional t-shirt for a company called

anumberofnames

3

no idea why they are called that.

4

i have a lot of people saying they like it when i publish photos that show

behind the scenes at my shoots. i will try to publish more of them this year.

here's one that my friend took on saturday with his phone.

maybe you had to be there but i think this pic captures what was going on perfectly.

5

self-portrait from the same shoot

6

iphone pic again.

a take-away coffee from the nordic bakery yesterday.

check me out wearing proper shoes.

i have more but i'm in a rush.

see you tomorrow.

self-portraits in ta17

ta17 ?

yes... ta 17

road trip !

after a long, slow drive along my favourite 'a' road ( the a-303 )

and an even slower drive along a tiny 'b' road covered in deep snow.

i arrived at a cracking little place in ta17.

during the leisurely shoot there i took time out to pose up.

1

t-shirt by supreme.

jeans by evisu.

duckboots by nike.

2

i will return to ta17 in a little while.

i liked it there very much.

birthday presents

i had a few parcels and what not waiting for me when i got home.

perhaps the nicest was an unexpected birthday present from a friend.

i don't know how he knew it was my birthday but i'm glad he did.

look at what he gave me.

an eye mask.

a harris tweed eye mask !

( with silk trimmings, velvet backing and padded with lavender )

nice one sam, that's magic darts. cheers.

i also received an email on the day i arrived home, which had a birthday

present in the form of two attachments.

two illustrations of my favourite person.

1

oh yes !

2

outstanding !

thank you cesar.

final iphone pics from my holiday

at last. the final few iphone snapshots from my holiday.

1

i had a one night stopover in bangkok on the way home.

my hotel was decent and it's name began with an 'm'

in my room there was this big golden rug... it really tied the room together.

it was the nicest rug i've ever trodden on. it was bouncy.

2

the view from my hotel room window.

the king waving at me.

excellent.

3

if you've ever been to whitfield towers you'll know that i have a bit of a thing

about cables.

the cabling on the streets of bangkok was out of order.

very shoddy.

4

the traffic was pretty gruesome too.

5

do you like tuk tuks ?

i'm a fan.

6

that's a bad sign.

but it's a good sign.

7

big woman trying to snatch some lad's handbag.

8

outstanding breakfast cereal boxes.

if i wasn't such a gentleman i would have taken a couple of these home.

9

after breakfast. 

all packed up and ready to head to the airport.

that golden rug though...

10

i like luggage.

i've had this burton snowboards bag for years now, maybe since 1995.

it is still in tip top condition and one of the best designed bags i've seen.

that rug though...

11

for an iphone pic, i thought this was quite nice.

flowers in the hotel reception.

12

the lady checking out of the hotel next to me had some style...

a bathing ape bag and missoni converse all stars.

very nice indeed.

13

do you ever buy anything at airport duty free shops ?

the lady who checked out of the hotel next to me bought me a new watch.

maybe she'd heard that it was my birthday a few days previously ?

14

after bangkok airlines, perhaps my second favourite airline is eva air.

they look after you very nicely indeed.

15

this was my plane for the flight home.

sadly just as we were about to take off, the pilot turned this bad boy around

and took us to a quiet spot away from the runway 

where a load of mechanics came over to try and fix a fault with the plane.

not what you need just before a 12 hour flight but fair play to eva air,

they handled the whole thing really well. plus they fixed it... right ?

16

plus the lady sitting next to me was studying how to fly planes so i felt safe.

17

full stretch and i couldn't even touch the seat in front of me.

magic darts !

18

if i had any gripe with eva air it would be that i wasn't that impressed with the films they had available to watch. "looper" was the only film out of the list of new releases that i fancied watching and after sitting through 45 minutes of it...

well if i wasn't on a plane i'd have walked out.

in the end i settled down to watch 'amelie' for the nth time.

the stars on the ceiling were a nice touch eh ?

19

even though i knew my cab driver would be late

( his son is a famous actor by the way )

i still studied the line up of usual suspects... the men in black...

the 'limousine' drivers holding up their namecards.

if i had that job i swear i'd wear all white just to stand out.

20

after 40 minutes my cab turned up.

45 minutes later i'm back at whitfield towers.

last time i looked out of a window it was at the baking hot streets of bangkok.

the mean streets of n7 looked somewhat different.

brrr ! / grrr !

getting there

i'm getting there with the iphone pics from thailand

but i think there are too many for one post today

( plus i'm in a hurry )

so some today then the rest tomorrow.

1

finalhome relaxing in the sun, waiting for happy hour.

2

a shock non-omelette day.

once again i was tempted by the offer of steak and egg as the daily special.

in the distance i could see the omelette man gently weeping.

3

i saw this little monkey most days.

on my penultimate day in samui i could no longer resist.

4

the little thing was so cute that i forgot to be miserable.

5

final morning. final omelette.

textbook.

6

packing my bag for the flight to bangkok.

7

i want to give a big shout to bangkok airways.

seriously, they were absolutely magic.

they're what you'd call a boutique airline and they own koh samui airport

which i think i mentioned previously is probably my favourite airport in the world.

8

inside the gents at koh samui airport.

outstanding !

9

hello lads

10

i believe i showed the in flight meal in a previous post. this photo is just to show 

you a bit of thai writing. isn't it great ?

11

blinding legroom on the flight from koh samui to bangkok.

at full stretch i could just about reach the seat in front of me.

12

this irked me more than somewhat.

we're flying with a really nice airline. perhaps the friendliest most helpful

staff you could hope for. great service and as i said before, plenty of legroom.

so the american bloke in front of me rests with his foot on the wall for the whole flight.

would anybody really do this ?

it's disrespectful right ?

13

i know this is a rubbish photo but what i'm trying to show is...

the american bloke's friend... another american businessman.

he rested his foot on the wall for the whole flight too.

it's as if they were having a competition to see who could put their foot highest 

on the wall for 45 minutes.

no... i found that rude.

it was rude of them to put their feet on the walls but i also didn't appreciate

being able to see their ugly-ass shoes for the whole flight.

grrr !

i'm going to end it here for today and leave you all to think about good manners,

etiquette, common decency and the code of being a gentleman.

don't put your feet on airplane walls.

don't eat fried chicken on a bus and leave the box on the seat afterwards.

don't push in when people are queuing.

don't ride your bike on the pavement.

don't talk about how much better everything is in australia.

don't put yellow peppers in an omelette.

what ?