rush

no real time to blog this morning.

i'm off to the airport.

er... here's a photo of some coffees

hmmm...

and my new key-ring

and a 8 year old pair of trainers i found in my office

oki-ni edition adidas montreals in kangaroo leather.

er... i've got to go.

self-portrait in w1

i had a shoot in w1 yesterday.

the pr person who arranged it is an old friend of mine.

she knows the story.

a minute or so after i arrived, she rustled up a coffee for me.

then after straightening up the tables and chairs she left me to it.

she knew i'd take some nice photos of the place...

but she also knew i'd take some self-portraits.

in fairness, we had discussed the next photo last week over the phone.

for the third time on the bounce that we have worked together,

she decided to join me for the shot of shame.

today i'm editing in n7.

today she is on a plane to new york.

see you soon 'g'

saturday

an iphone documentary of my saturday.

1

my friend elvis invited me to qpr v man utd at loftus road.

the invitation said "no jeans, no trainers" so i had to smarten up my act.

yes, i set my phone up to video myself walking towards it so i could then
take a still from it to show you what i was wearing....
what's wrong with that ?

2

i opted for a pair of miu miu trousers and my fragment design x cole haan wingtips.

this was taken on the 17 bus... upper deck of course.

3

did i change shoes to get on the tube at the cally ?

no... these bad boys have part of the uppers in 3-m material

so sometimes, like here, they seem two shades of grey.

at other times, as in the previous pic the 3-m kicks in and they take on a different look.

4

tube to holborn and change to the central line.

waiting for the tube to shepherd's bush i saw this poster.

i do think david oyelowo is being overlooked again.

maybe i should chat to my favourite minicab driver* about it ?

5

the novelty of wearing proper trousers and shoes wasn't wearing off yet.

do you know cole haan ? nike make the soles.

very, very comfortable.

6

this was me on the tube to the bush, dreading some spanish tourists,

who didn't seem to be the brightest bunch, would stand on my rhythms

or run over them with their outrageously big suitcases.
still, at least i had a spanish word ready for them*

7

self-portrait at shepherd's bush tube station.

i felt like a tourist... but without the suitcases.

8

window shopping on the way to loftus road.

some good gear in this place.

i may have to return to w12.

9

getting there.

10

great camo on loftus road.

nice work mr tree.

11

i've been looking for a new camo for ages.

maybe tree camo is the way to go ?

12

i like qpr's stadium.

brrr ! it was cold by the way.

or as gooner jeff would say... "taters innit ?"

13

i was escorted to the w12 suite... not bad !

14

the place was laid up for a big meal and there was everything you'd need for the 

day right there. pass, programme, betting card.

15

i cannot praise the w12 suite hospitality highly enough.

the staff, the service, drinks and of course the food.

there was some sort of decent soup for starters and this was my choice of main course.

a load of chicken wrapped in bacon, resting on a bed of mustard mash, wearing

a pastry hat. it was pure genius.

like a diamond bullet through the temple.

if somebody had asked me what i would like to eat before sitting in the cold

watching 90 minutes of football this is exactly what i would have chosen.

ropey photo ? maybe. good food ? definitely.

by the way, after this i had a heap of cheese and some tequila shot jelly thing with

some sweet biscuits... oh and lashings of

beer !

16

at 2.59pm we made our way to our seats.

the view was pretty much spot-on.

17

sir alex was just in front of us. he was up and down like...

well, like qpr in fact.

18

during the making of united's first goal, arsenal reject and owner of the nickname*

i can't really mention here, injured himself and was replaced by the over-rated

danny wellbeck.

by the way, i think harry redknapp is trying to hail a taxi in this photo.

19

half-time in the w12 suite and it was business as usual, more beer, hot steak pies

and even a cup of coffee ( though they wouldn't make me a flat white )

20

you know the old joy division song "love will tear us apart" right ?

for a few minutes before and for maybe 10 minutes after he scored united's

second goal of the game, the away fans were all singing

"giggs... giggs will tear you apart, again"

maybe you had to be there ?

21

united were in no hurry to re-start after giggs's goal made it 2-0 with 10 minutes

to go. strangely enough, for a team looking down the barrel, qpr seemed in no rush either.

lots of shoulder shrugging and heads down from the hoops.

on a side note, i don't think i saw one player all day wearing black boots.

22

after the final whistle it was time to leave my comfy padded seat,

which i noticed was labelled with my friend's name.

i've pixellated it here to save his family from any embarrassment

at him being exposed as a qpr fan.

23

i won't lie... this was my third steak pie.

on the beer front i have no idea how many i had.

let's just say it was more than somewhat.

24

as we waded into the beer and post match analysis, old bacon-face tried to

explain to sky sports how he could still steer qpr away from relegation.

i had a great day at loftus road and i hope they stay up... seriously.

25

on the tube back to kings cross there was a kid who kept playing keepy-up

and showed some great skills.

i swear if harry redknapp was on the tube with me he'd have offered a couple of 

million sheets for the boy.

26

what can i say ?

i had a really, really good day out.

the w12 suite membership at qpr is amazing.

i have already decided not to renew my season ticket at arsenal for 2013 /2014.

if the price was right i would definitely get a qpr season ticket. it's only a 30 minute

journey from n7. there's a great friendly atmosphere there and perhaps best of all

i'd get to see my friend elvis a bit more.

thanks a lot elvis, it was a great day.

see you in the premiership next season ?

* ask me in person

* ask me in person

* ask me in person

michael jordan

it was michael jordan's 50th birthday last week.

that's the thing with this blog. it's hard to please everybody.

some people love it when i talk about trainers. others hate it and like

to know about photography or restaurants.

some people ask me coffee advice, others moan when i post so much about coffee.

so i know some people will say "mike's birthday was two weeks ago"

while others will say "michael who?"

i took this photo of a little thing which came attached to a pair of air jordans

i bought last year.

i wanted to show this to say happy birthday ( but it's a bit late now )

but also to mention how michael jordan changed basketball and brought it to the masses.

when i was a kid nobody in england seemed to know about basketball or could name

any players. now basketball is worldwide and kids in england all know mike.

the first team they will name is the chicago bulls and they all know the jumpman symbol.

i've seen kids in mongolia, belize, chile, samoa and borneo all wearing michael jordan

related pieces, sometimes it is a pair of air jordans other times it's a chicago bulls

shirt or cap.

it's funny isn't it ? how one man changed a sport. 

but he also changed more than a sport, he changed the way people think about

footwear and sportswear. 

would nike be where they are now if mike had signed for adidas ?

obviously i'm rambling but i bet there are a lot of people out there who don't

play or watch basketball, don't buy any jordan related items but you'll know the name.

you'll have seen the jumpman symbol or kids wearing the number 23.

see, even the number 23. it was just a number before, now you see 23

and it's mike's number.

i know. too many words, not enough photos today.

normal service will resume tomorrow.

sunday stuff

the other week i was at home and took a few snaps of things i wanted to show 

to you. it seemed like a good idea at the time. they are just a few things

i thought were kind of interesting, but now i'm not too sure.

maybe it will bore you too much to show them all in one post so i'll spread 

them out a little over the next few days and mix them in with other stuff.

for instance i really wanted to show you this little bag i was given on

the flight home from bangkok in january.

ordinarily on flights i'd get given an eye mask or a pair of socks.

on eva air i was given this decent bag

bulgari branded too

obviously if it was my airline the bag would not have been brown.

it would have been in a camo pattern with orange trim.

but until my plans for a boutique airline take off (leave it )

this bag will do nicely.

i like the hook thing, but mmmm... imagine if the bag was in a dark green camo

and the lining was in orange. green netting but orange interior.

oh and there was some stuff inside it of course

although it looked quite interesting, and it was better than nothing...

some perfume stuff, eye creme, toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush and

one of those efforts for getting fluffy bits of your jumper.

when i get my airline up and running... even up and flying

my camo flight bags will contain a little can of beer, a twix,

a usb stick with some photos of me on it, a bape key-ring,

and one of those pens... you know, the ones that have a photo of

a woman inside them and when you hold the pen up, her clothes fall off.

after the in-flight meal of fish and chips, chicken fried rice, curry sauce and chips,

or if you're a vegetarian... nothing.

i would have a team of highly trained baristas offer flat whites all round,

then a team of pole dancing flight attendants would bring around slices of 

lemon drizzle cake and macaroons.

afterwards while you were just at the most exciting part of your in-flight

movie, it will be interrupted with the announcements that toothbrushes 

and toothpaste are for sale at £20 a pop.

what ?

ny n7

i almost forgot to give you the reveal after showing you this

obviously i was only going to go one way with this.

i'll be honest with you, it's not exactly my idea.

a japanese company called nexus 7 did it a couple of years ago

but when i looked on the internet it was pretty much impossible

to find a decent image of their amended logo.

so i removed the top half of the 'y'

tweaked the lower half, and drew the top myself.

maybe it's not quite there yet, but it's certainly a good effort.

i guess white on navy blue is the traditional colour combination,

but

white on black works pretty well too.

the reverse

yes, that's not bad

and of course

with my favourite colour involved.

what am i going to do with this logo ?

i'll reveal all in a few weeks time.

iphone friday

though i try not to use my iphone camera much, there are times when it's 

the only way.

so i reckon from now on i'll do an iphone friday post and show you a few shoddy 

phone pics from my week.

let's go.

1

what can i say ?

sadly this was in n7.

2

i don't know...

perhaps there was method in the madness of the dog owner.

perhaps it was safer to leave it in the phone box rather than tie the creature

up outside the shop where he could potentially...

any thoughts ?

3

as if the price of an arsenal season ticket isn't lumpy enough,

my friend dd always buys a match day programme as well.

i guess it's something to read while those idiots are trying to play football

on the pitch.

on a side note... those two blokes behind him.

what are they looking at ?

4

i think the bryan ( sic ) munich fans were having a barbecue just before kick-off.

i won't lie... i'm not a fan of any german team but hats off... they did play well.

or perhaps they played satisfactorily ( leave it ) and arsenal were just poor ?

5

ten minutes before half-time and the tie was effectively over.

so i decided to beat the queue and grab some food.

i think these were described as chicken goujons.

6

for the benefit of m1, this is where my seat is...

into the stadium at gate 'd' and then through entrance 7.

it's quite well signposted eh ?

7

after the game i had gooner jeff shoot my traditional portrait.

8

some kit for a little shoot in w1 on wednesday.
orange, camo, union jack.
it's all good.

9

stuff i carry.
camo and orange.
good stuff.

10

my friend dd's son came to do some work experience with me one day.

after the shoot i took him to the millennium for a spot of late breakfast.

as you can see, the boy made a few errors with his breakfast choice but
he'll learn.

11

new season's releases at supreme just happens to coincide with half-term.

12

just around the corner from supreme i met with the boss for a coffee.

i photographed my flat white, of course.

13

the boss had a new phone and joined me for a little flat white photography

before we chatted about business cards, stickers, sleep and the colour orange.

it was a good chat.

14

when i got back to my jam jar i noted that one of those smart cars had joined me

in my parking space. cheeky !

15

a little while later i had another flat white at a sock club meeting.

16

the bloke next to me was wearing stüssy pro leathers.

i'm pretty sure there were only 75 pairs of these released worldwide.

i could see that that he was wearing stussy socks too.

i should go now before i start rambling on about socks right ?

have a good weekend.