so long soph #3

we are lovely ladies of leisure who luncheon at story deli. soph also scored a barbour jacket for sixty pounds and some sweet vinyl after lunch. we were trying to get to the tate but were thwarted at every turn.

weekend!

ellie in the medieval battleground that is london fields on a sunny day (this is saturday after work).

and on sunday, soph matched everything.

up on the roof of bow brook house making the most of the sun while it was still kind.

after many wanderings (wonderings) all through the east we ended up out the back of brick lane...

... with brooke and antony.

a day well spent

finally, a day off that was sunny (though still chilly), and fun and hilarious. i spent it with soph but started here at leila's. doesn't look like much but is one of my favourite places; they sell fresh produce, sausages, couverture chocolate and many picnic-y type things. big plans for summer fun.

and then we kind of accidentally ended up at this madonna exhibition. it was so funny. all of the stuff (costumes, magazines, albums, barbies, merchandise etc etc) came from a private collection and it was really quite incredible that one person could incite such fervour (and one person would spend so much buying into that).

the costumes from evita were beautiful. though the curation and the venue left a little to be desired.

the guy in the background was taking a picture of himself with a picture of madonna...

then on to rochelle's canteen for luncheon.

it's in an art school and is only open for three hours every weekday. food was delicious, service fantastic and the light is simply amazing. i'm coming back as often as possible.

oh, this is my garden. it's shared between the row houses all down my street.

and my backdoor.

a familiar sight. i'd hate to say i've found a replacement for 78s but i've certainly found a substitute in rough trade. they may have exclusive mix cds and live recordings that you get free with some records, but they don't have a crew like grumpy, froggy, (formerly)bandana guy and smiley (though he's been awol for a couple of years now).

labour and wait and reward

i went out this morning, through the scrum that is brick lane on a sunday, down to cheshire st to a little shop called labour and wait, with the specific purpose of buying myself a stove-top coffee pot. i'm granted one free bag of coffee a week from work so i thought i better have means to put said beans to use.

hello!

ps - i love the light that comes through my window.

flour and tomato

i was sitting outside story deli this morning (it was closed), talking to mum and dad and watching all of their supplies arrive. though i've heard it before (via soph and 'notes by naive'), ellie has most recently informed me that they make the best pizza. in the spirit of unwise eating i shall have to experience for myself i think.

bits and bobs

a very social week...

on my way to soph's for dinner on tuesday

hippy nic is in town with his girlfriend, anna, who is/was a vivien's girl and is doing quite well for herself. met up with nic on wednesday and wandered around looking for food and ended up on the vegan bus in a carpark near brick lane. really, really good food.

i am my father's daughter. (thanks dad!)

victoria park again on friday. they don't call it Picturesque for nothing, i must have taken this same photo 20 times every time i'm in the park.  a very cold and grey day.

young sophie in my living room on friday night. we devoured a very posh cheese platter and a bottle of wine before brooke even arrived. and then dinner,  out to yang's briefly and potentially out on the town, though it was too cold and way too hard!

hood

a building in the process of being demolished. it's around the corner from my flat and across the road from the post box.

walking down pitfield street towards old street there are a lot of off licenses and fried chicken places, and this, an independent art-book store that has many many wonderful hand-made stamps.

and back to rivington place to pay a proper visit. they have an exhibition of photographs by a south african by the name of santu mofokeng. beautiful black and white documents of southern africa and auschwitz that are surprisingly apolitical.  they also have a young man working there that has, at first glance, the same spectacles as me. i of course mentioned this and we then discovered that in fact they were quite different - his weren't made of plastic and also had wire ear-hooks. so much cooler than mine. he mentioned that the ear-hooks were essential for dancing; i guess his glasses used to fall off a lot, he didn't seem like much of a head-banger.

inside. the deal with this place is that it is mostly funded from charity, like the lottery commission, and barclay's bank. it cost eight million pounds apparently. i mention this because while it's quite nicely finished from a design point of view, the material finishes don't feel very expensive (for want of a better term). i myself don't mind this so much, and i think it will age beautifully.

this is the junction of pitfield and old streets. i encountered this as i was on my way home (via brick lane and various other places) and i thought to myself 'how urban and grimy' in an only semi-serious manner. you must admit, it is quite a departure from young perth. 

a very long day indeed

it's still christmas on broadway market (though everything is half-price).

ellie, kat and i wandered down to wapping and found a contained pile of porcelain.

not entirely sure what it was, but ellie salvaged a dove and a geisha from the rubble. the strangest thing is that it was battery-operated.

the town of ramsgate. a pub, not a town. it was still christmas here too. i had winter pimms (pimms, apple juice and hot water) and bangers and mash. it was sweet, though i never need to eat again, nor do i want pub food very often at all.

wapping is full of opportunities to smuggle outlaws out of the city via boat (a la great expectations).

this church was rebuilt after the fire by wren, survived the blitz and various other things that i can't recall. pretty impressive though. now there's a back pain clinic and a pretty garden.

we ended up back on brick lane at story deli.

new friends.

that turned out to be a fun game.

sophie, victorious.