Tree Huggers Beware...

The council are greasing the trees to keep the monkey's out of the trees. This is the sort of thing that encouraged monkeys to grow wings and serve the Wicked Witch of the West. Trouble Downt Mill indeed.

DJ Derek

Put it in your diary's Dulwich. This night has fun factor 10 written all over it.

Isn't Street Car Amazing?

Yesterday we had a family outing to See Nicola & Jeremy's Cousin Juliette (happy birthday by the way). It was the first time I've come across streetcar. Jeremy's hot on this. Once a member you can locate cars close to you (apparently there's loads in London now), book it out online, swipe your card on the car, and hey presto you're off. bring it back by a certain time, and bob's your uncle, fanny's your aunt.

Doncaster 1 Leeds Utd 0 (ie Bad)

Well, what a disapointment. Leeds United's support swamped Doncaster's, but yet again we we're left sour faced by the outcome of the Division 1 playoff final. You're right to ask "should I give a monkey's?", and i'd tend to agree. I do find it really unnerving being a northerner (and a Leeds supporter) in South east London. Millwall and Chelsea notoriously don't get on with anything to do with Leeds. So yeh, this post is all about me standing my ground and staying true to the football I believe in. Dogged, Ball breaking passion, with flare and speed (none of which was on display on Sunday). What was refreshing for me, was that Yorkshire took over a bit of London for the day. Thousands of gravelly, gruff joyous Yorkshire Folk swearing their heads off in harmony. It would be my dream for me to have a Yorkshire district in London one day. Much like there's a turkish area or jewish. Imagine the shops; Ikley Moor Bar Tat's, Pudding & Pies, Compo's Fish & Chip shop, and a Ferret pet shop. I can only dream.

Slick Rickery

As I was riding to the Tate I passed this fine beast of a car going through Peckham. Sweet innit? I've spotted a few cars like this in ED and in London. My guess is that we've been importing vintage Cuban & American cars because we're tired of the same old ford mondeo generic boring cars. Which is fair enough. I'd much rather drive something with character. For me their loss is our gain, and our gain is also our loss. If we take all their classic cars, when we visit Havana and the likes we'll be grumbling that we don't have an authentic experience anymore. Thoughts?

'Tatey Salad?

I set off on my bike for the first time from East Dulwich to go to the Tate. I took the no 23 cycle route for the first time and I arrived at the Tate in no time at all. Piece of Cake. After wandering around outside looking at the street art on the walls of the Tate, I venture into the Turbine Hall to be greeted by a lot of people watching a giant salad being made. It was part of the Long Weekend program. I stood for about an hour watching a small orchestra play Mozart, lots of people chopping salad, then throwing it over the bridge into a big green canvas sheet, they mixed it up with spades and pitch forks before plating it up to us. It was surprisingly good, and I even managed to get a bit of cucumber in mine, whereas most people just got leaf. A few folk asked me what it was all about, poo pooing the bollocksy art. I had a few theories, but I think you have to work it out for yourself.
Or read the free newspaper you got and repeat what that said to them. I like art, and I like salad.

You're All RyeT

A number of my friends and work buddies who live in East Dulwich have been banging on about The Rye Hotel for a bit now, and like most things people say "you have to go there/you have to do this" I've ignored and stayed clear. Well frankly that was just stupid. This place is excellent. The food is great. The beer gets you drunk. And the crowd seems like a good bunch. Plus there's a huge garden for some serious bbq action. So yeh, you were right. This is my favourite pub so far in SE London. Jar anyone?

G Framed

This is our friend Gabe. He has a habit of getting in the way of my camera (generally in a pointy finger pose), so for his birthday we had a picture of him framed at The Arterie, a picture framers on Northcross Road. It took the Framers less than a day and cost 18 golden nuggets. Top work and greatly appreciated by all. Thankyou

Dog Festival

So last Saturday was Dog day in East Dulwich. A frenzy of all things canine; obstacles, behaviour lessons, a sort of doggy model show and the compulsory bum sniffing. Not my bag personally. But lovely day for it.

Marrakech....

So we've just got back from Marracrazy, we departed on the sunday the 11th as the May fair on Goose Green was setting up their stalls. We we're a bit jealous that we were missing out on it, but we did, in the end settle for a nice break in Marrakech. It truly was a special place, totally frantic, but an all round treat. If you ever fancy a trip, i'd recommend going for 5 day, do a trip to setti fatma, and maybe a day dash to Ossuirra. Oh and stop here, great location & very reasonable.

One last thing about Marrakech, be wary of buying leather poofs out there. we Bought one and its made our front room stink of horse shit.

Bandstand Thankyou.

So a big (belated) thanks to Bandstand, Mr Rob Da bank, Mark Ronson, The cuban Brothers , The Queen of Hearts for taking time away from her throne to play tennis with us, and not forgetting the young lady who gave me a glitter show and a glitter Tash. Top one, nice one, lovely. More please.

The Music Man

I've been meaning to plug this chap for a while. There is a music man who has a stall in Northcross Road's Market on a Saturday. I've stopped and chatted to him on a number of occasions to ogle his collection of CD's. Generally I've walked away guiltily knowing that I've just wasted his time, but I thought this should come to an end. And it did. So I bought "An England Story" on Soul Jazz records for about 8 quid. It's a real carnivalistic bass biscuit of a summer CD. The music man described it as "Raucous Throughout", I'd a agree. On the whole I'd give it 3.5/5, mainly because I'd have rather have original uptown top Rankin, rather than estelle's.

Moving on. You can bag all sort of super sounds from the music man. stuff from BBE Records, Soul Jazz Records, all sorts of jazz classics, soul, reggae, dub, obscure rarities, electronic, and my guilty pleasure; disco . Plus he's got loads of flyers for great stuff that hovers just on the horizon. Visiting this store reminds me of when I started getting into music, when I'd visit a chap in a record store in Huddersfield and he'd feed me music like dj shadows endtroducing, dj hype's super sharp shooter & DJ Qbert. Magic. And exciting.

Thanks Mr Music man. See you Saturday.

ps. To our neighbours who repeatedly play Justin Timberlake's "round and around" song. Go see the music man. you've got no excuse. shame on you.

Wow?

We spent a very pleasurable satursnacks wandering through Forest Hill and Nicola's childhood memories (her old family house, the flat she almost bought, her primary school, secondary school, past the hairdressers where she used to sweep up hair... you get the drift). Then Nicola pointed out that you get the best view of London from around this neck of the woods. She wasn't wrong was she? Proper Loveliness.

Eve & Teena Charles Curtain Co

Along the bustling North Cross Rd is this little beauty. I must have walked past it numpteen times without it registering on the radar. Isn't it brilliant? Surely if you wanted people to buy curtains from you, you'd have some nice ones in your window? Or are they good? Tack meaning good or Tack meaning wack?

The Doors to infinite Knowledge, Peckham

We wandered past this place t'other day on our way to getting my phone unlocked in Peckham. I had no idea what goes on here, I suppose I just wanted to know what Francis Bacon had to do with it. I couldn't find anything on the webternet, but I'm guessing Franky Bacon was part of the gang and it's beliefs.
Apparently these guys are like an old school scientology crew. I delved into what they do, and apparently if you sign up you can "become not only the Masters of your own lives, and Architects of your own destiny, but also incorporate the highest existing ethical ideals into your personality". If you want that, give the door a knock, if you want your phone unlocking head to the internet cafe on peckham high street (a fiver a pop).

Pony Parking

As I was fast-walking to the East Dulwich station I had to stop and grab a shot of this. It was too good to miss, unlike my train, which I did miss. I think you have to sacrifice getting into work on time for a little pony now and again.