tallulah

my friend nicola has a shop called tallulah.

sometimes i take photos for her website and what-not.

here are a few i found the other day.

let's see how many pics it takes for you to guess what her shop sells.

1

no way do you know after this pic...

do you ?

2

hmmm... maybe you know now ?

3

yes ? no ?

4

that's right

5

it's a gentleman's outfitters.

6

what ?

7

oh alright it's a lingerie boutique.

if you're in the oval area... ( no, that's an old joke )

if you're in the islington area ( not as funny, but more geographically correct )

then yes, i recommend a visit to tallulah.

or if not, you could just check out the website

www.tallulah-lingerie.co.uk

i think it has some nice photos on it.

a boring towel story

a few months ago i was asked to photograph some tea-towels.

i shot them at whitfield towers.

1

2

3

4

but they just weren't looking right.

so i re-photographed them in somebody else's place

1

2

3

4

and the job was a good 'un.

5 pics i just found

i was just tidying up folders on my hard drive and found these 5 pics.

i think i've shown some of them before but they're all quite nice

shots and there's no harm in me posting them again.

1

my breakfast one day in thailand last year.

ham and cheese omelette with some peppers, baked beans, hash browns

and some extra bacon ( for the win )

2

my next door neighbour the day she picked up her new motorbike.

she has a second bike now, a 900cc because this one wash't big

enough for her.

3

a photo shoot i bumped into on the great wall of china a couple of years ago.

grrr ! it was hot up there on the wall.

i'm glad i wasn't wearing a wedding dress.

4

talking of wedding dresses.

i love this pic. it has so much going on in it.

the bride having a moment to herself, the groom inspecting his buttonhole

( and no doubt wondering what the man utd score was )

two ladies getting changed into more sensible shoes for the walk to 

the reception ( and the charge of the light ale brigade )

the officials from st. paul's smiling politely and trying to hurry the group

away so they can pack up.

oh and on the right, a lady and her husband having "a few words"

5

some bloke who was one of the hired muscle at a shoot in a disused factory last year.

he was almost as keen on sitting down and posing as i was.

almost.

beijing street food.

i'm pretty sure it was about an hour after we left the peking duck place

that the team i was with in beijing went to visit a food market.

hmmm... i thought. a food market ?

yes, i could definitely go for a bag of chips or a slice of pizza.

do you think i found chips or pizza ?

no.

what was on sale at the food market was this kind of stuff.

small sharks on sticks

or snakes on sticks or what are those things ? bugs ? lavae ?

oooh... what the heck are they ?

they look like they might be sweets you know, those milky things,

some with lemon tops, some with cola tops.

but i think they're probably some internal part of a fish or reptile.

any ideas ?

these looked pretty normal.

some sort of meat i guess.

or how about these things ? 

they look pretty safe.

some stalls had menus so you could at least see what was on offer.

once i saw chips weren't featured i pretty much lost interest in eating

oh. somebody buying a starfish on a stick

what the freak !

who is going to fancy eating a giant centipede on a stick ?

i mean, obviously if the kebab shop is closed at 2am i guess you'd go for it

but this was at 6pm or so.

deep fried spiders ?

you wouldn't find these delicacies in glasgow.

oh dear... cockroach kebabs anybody ?

like me, most of the people there were more interested in taking photos than eating.

i certainly hadn't seen anything worth tucking into.

then all of a sudden i spotted a stall selling cups of potato faces

i didn't think i'd see any happier faces than these at the food market.

until i saw this little lad with an unidentified meat kebab in one hand and 

an octopus tentacle kebab in the other.

it was with a heavy heart and an empty stomach that i waved goodbye to the food market

and headed back to my hotel ( and to a burger and chips from room service )

what ?

grabbing some peking duck

so...

to re-wind a little bit.

remember my mickey mouse story the other day about trying to find a certain peking duck

restaurant in beijing ?

well when we finally found it, i started taking a few photos,

and here they are.

some ducks hanging around waiting for customers

a mains extension behind where i was sitting.

er...

a sticker on one of the fridges in the restaurant.

any ideas ?

the main room in the restaurant.

it was a tiny little joint.

i'm pretty sure an estate agent would say it had character.

these lads were in a fridge in the main room of the restaurant.

you can see them on the right hand side of the previous pic.

i guess they were waiting to be taken to the oven.

this was the owner of the place.

he was a very nice chap.

some ducks in the oven.

you have no idea how hot i was taking this photo by the way.

one of the duck blokes just about to fill the oven 

did i mention it was hot ?

i went outside to cool off for a bit and to get some fresh air.

while i was outside griping i spotted this bloke hanging around.

i nipped back inside and saw the owner shredding ducks feet ( i think )

with his hands

his daughter was helping him too.

i'm no expert of course. i mean, i could be wrong.

but i think these were ducks feet.

or bits of ducks feet.

maybe the good bits ?

i poked about in the kitchen for a little while.

it was hot in there too.

the bloke on the left just kept throwing the cleaver onto the block.

the lad in the middle lazed around and the other one seemed to be doing all the work.

i tried to get a closer pic of some of the food but i must admit,

the bloke throwing the cleaver around was getting on my nerves

more than somewhat.

this was the order from our table.

i asked for chicken fried rice, chips and curry sauce.

i had two hopes.

what turned up at our table was a whole heap of dishes to share.

i have no ide what this was but i spotted some meat and armed with 

the worst chopstick skills in north london, i went for it.

ok... they might have been pulling my leg but i was told that this was a plate of duck intestines.

i was hank marvin by this point as i hadn't eaten anything since a sketchy

meal on the aeroplane maybe 6 hours previously, so i waded into the duck

intestines and pretended they were chips.

no idea what this was.

i didn't eat any though as i had just broken the world record for the number of

duck intestines eaten in a 5 minute period and was pretty full up.

i went for a wander around the place and saw this lad carving up 

an unlucky duck.

i thought at the time that he should have used a better knife. that cleaver looked a bit

over the top to me. but i was pretty fed up of having cleavers thrown near my

noggin at this point so i kept my thoughts to myself.

this was the restaurant's office.

i noted that they had certificates on the wall.

i didn't get close enough to see what certificates they were though.

i went back to our table for a drink and there was more food on offer.

no idea what it was but i'd guess duck, as that was the only creature i saw kicking around.

but as i said, i was pretty full.

after a little while we said goodbye to the owner and tried to find our driver.

if you're ever in beijing i would recommend you try to find li qun.

it is a very highly rated peking duck place.

but they don't do chips.