my black and white bape tees

yes i really do have two of the white 12's and the black on black 9's

pigeon sh*t

i saw these pigeons 'dancing' the other day when i was having

a disappointing coffee.

they made me think of jeff staple.

jeff is doing his utmost to make the humble city pigeon respectable.

for those of you who don't know jeff, here's the best way to learn about him...

www.stapledesign.com

i have a pigeon t-shirt which i picked up from his

shop 'reed space' in new york last year.

it has the trademark pigeon poop on the back !

( the poop is life-size )

i also have a special pigeon t-shirt from two years ago which he gave away to 

those brave people who queued up outside reed space for the new balance

grey pigeon drop. 

it also has a small backprint...

hmmm...

and a new era pigeon baseball cap that he also gave away

complete with... you guessed it...

jeff signed the cap as well... on the underside of the peak. top man.

he also signed the box of the nb pigeons for me...

peace to pigeons indeed !

so, let's have a look inside the box...

these are the only pair of new balance in my collection and i'm never going to

wear them. they will stay in the box or on display here in whitfield towers.

here's the back view...

and guess what is printed on the insole of the right shoe ?

you knew it.

team shot

yesterday i assembled my bathing ape t-shirts for a team shot.

it felt like christmas when i found these bad boys in my wardrobe, still unopened.

most of the t-shirts are pretty plain, but this one has swarovski crystals on it.

i only wear it for special occasions, for example when gerry gets a round in.

friday

i hadn't been to the nordic bakery for a week or maybe longer.

so yesterday morning i dropped by for a coffee.

there's something about the place. the beautiful design, the calm atmosphere 

with no music playing, the friendly staff.

the interesting range of cakes and sandwiches, and of course, the coffee.

if you haven't been to the nordic bakery... 

please stay away. it's my place !

election night at whitfield towers

thanks to jess for the fine cheese

the rolls-royce of kitchens

we had a new kitchen fitted at whitfield towers a couple of years ago.

the bloke who turned up late every day to fit it, used to say to me

" you've got the rolls-royce of kitchens here mr. whitfield "

it was a nightmare of a job, and took much longer 

than planned to fit everything properly.

i promised the boss of the kitchen fitters that i would take a few

photos when it was all finished and to get into the spirit of his

workmen, i finally did some quick snaps for him about a year later.

so here it is... viewed from the living area

as you can see, it's quite small. perhaps 'the fiat 500 of kitchens'

would have been more accurate.

here's what it looks like as you enter.

not a pizza box in sight. nice and tidy.

this is the surface of the lower units

some sort of imitation wood.

there are no handles anywhere instead you open cupboards by scraping

your knuckles and trapping your fingers underneath the doors

with a sprinkling of industrial language thrown in.

the work surface is made out of corian.

made in germany and fitted by cockneys.

corian is amazing stuff. it's kind of welded together so there are no joins

also the sink is all part of the work surface.

smooth stuff.

here you can see my favourite part

the coffee maker.

also there in the corner is my collection of artist edition becks beer

bottles... there's a damien hirst, tracey emin, jeff koons and

yoko ono !

also some bottles of salt i brought back from tokyo only to

discover that you can buy them in a shop around the corner from the nordic bakery !

the hob effort is by miele

who i was told on a regular basis "make the rolls-royce of kitchen appliances"

the oven thing and the microwave are also by miele

i think the microwave is my second favourite bit of the kitchen

the corian worktop is a good old effort

one continuous piece, all curvy and smooth. 

i think the metal bits are for resting pans on

smooth as you like

this is where i would traditionally store breadcrumbs and bits of meat,

but no, not in this kitchen. it's all curvy with no places for

rubbish to collect.

and it also has a glass splashback running all around the walls

the glass was fitted by a bloke from norfolk who was so useless he made the 

kitchen fitter look professional.

still, it's all good now. 

and the finished kitchen... well, it looks like... dare i say it ?

5pm shoot

nothing much to report from my 5pm shoot.

michelle from the pr company was there to make sure the place looked perfect.

she also kept an eye on my car which was parked just outside the

restaurant on the mean streets of london e2.

the restaurant looked very nice indeed. no harsh spotlights, 

decent chairs, not those horrible high backed dark leather efforts

which hide the tables when i'm trying to shoot wide interiors.

as usual i took time to knock out a self-portrait...

and as usual i managed to look miserable and / or moody.