old skool

 Paula & me...having a good giggle and reminiscing about school

 off for malaysian at C&R in chinatown

 Paula & Joe by the London Eye

Paula & I by Gib House (where she and Joe have lived since she left school)

i met up with an old school friend the other day.  Paula and i were at all girls boarding school Queensmount in Bournemouth together and its been at least 23 years since we've seen eachother.  it was so great because we just slipped right back into giggling together again, which hopefully didn't drive her husband Joe too mad throughout the day as we walked around the southbank, popped into Tate Modern and watched the skaters at Somerset House ice rink.  Joe took some lovely photos of us and it prompted me to scan a few from our school days which I had brought with me for us to cringe over!

 aww...bless us in our horrid green & gold uniforms! 

(i'm 1st on the left and Paula is 3rd)

 Paula & I with my lovely grandma at my 15th (i think?) birthday 
- look at all that healthy food!

 in our 6th form dormitory - Paula, me, Cathy & Victoria 
- looking like proper young ladies!

looking slightly more brazen and bold at 16
- Cathy, me and Paula with my brother at his school play!

pretty pretty wheel guards

surprise, surprise Dutch company Simeli have come up with these pretty rear wheel guards to protect your clothes while cycling (as spotted via Design Sponge).  I already have a guard fitted on my dutch bicycle - but i am still very tempted by these beauties!

cookie monster

 mum and her pups....the wee one with her tail out is hopefully mine

if things go according to plan!

my friend Emma's lovely dog Bunny has just had pups (they are Cairn/Norfolk Terrier cross).  i think its time for me to get my longed for four-legged pal!  last night i had a strange dream - i found a lump on my neck, found myself falling in rivers a lot and had a wee dog called cookie-monster.  lets hope only one of those comes true...the last one obv!

hibernation

oh yeah....this is my kinda card....(from here via here)

wardrobe wannabe

more comfy cosy slouchy from see by Chloe via apartment 34

eggy weggy

mmm mmm mmm...how delicious does this egg in a basket look...wish i had a spare avocado, i fancy this for brekkie tomorrow.  will have to go out and get one and have it monday. yum yum double yum. 

 

multi mattresses

 new tenants perhaps? Leghorn Road, NW10

these are breeding, the one on the bottom has been there at least a year

Leghorn Road, NW10

spotted a few on Leghorn Road yesterday when en route outta town for the night and then again on the way home today on Tavistock Road - all busy in bedsitland this January!

in the middle of the road goddamit - priceless!

Tavistock Road, NW10

Mattress Beauty

what a corker - spotted today on High Street Harlesden NW10...niiiiiice.

wardrobe wannabe

cosy and cute cavern cape spotted via sfgirlbybay

Mattressland, Dublin

sent from a friend in north city Dublin...no messing about with being propped up against a fence/wall/whatever...its flat on the ground where it can be properly utilised. brilliant.  we need more international contributions!

mattresses and foxes

just back from a bike ride over to Queens Park where i find yet another fab foxy (see also here and here) beside the Police Station on Harvist Road.  on the way home it's a red-letter day for mattresses too as i spotted a double and single en route.

 opp the Furness Road Primary School - Palermo Road, NW10

a double spotting on Nightingale Road, NW10

stuff and nonsense

many people don't understand...but i do...there is no shame in it (image from etsy via pinterest)

mattress update

yesterday it was my friend Mandy's birthday and i met up with her and some of her lovely friends for lunch and afternoon drinks at the prince bonaparte in Chepstow Road. as usual it was rammed but we managed to bag a table and i had some delicious beer battered fish and chips, while another friend who ordered roast chicken was a little shocked when a whole chicken turned up on a huge wooden cutting board! i had cycled down so when it came time to wobble home after midnight, thankfully the roads were empty, and it was just me and several urban foxes - i spotted five on my way back.  i also spotted a couple of great mattresses.  by the time i got home there was a vixen howling in my back garden, she's been making a right racket the past few nights and apparantly is calling for a mate.  i told her she needs to get her furry butt over to Kensal Rise as all the other foxes are hanging out of there!

 on the way to Mandy's after the pub - Acklam Road, W10

 at the top of where my brother lives i spot a mattress 
and two foxes - Felixstowe Road, NW10

 what an absolute beauty...so lovely i had to take a close up
- College / Ashburnam Road, NW10

and this morning i get an email from my aunty to say that she is babysitting for my cousin while he is in Paris for the weekend for his wife's 40th...and the only photograph they sent was this...ha ha...brilliant!

international mattress-spotting - Paris, France

in the dock

 

today was the first clear blue sunny day in what seems like weeks so i decided to hop on the bike and head down to Portobello Road.  firstly i nipped into love kr to drop off a couple of my Mattressland Calendars and lovely shop owner Paula has already been bitten by the mattress-spotting bug and recruited another friend - brilliant!  she had a few pics of recent spottings in the area (which i had missed) including one which had not only a bed but a whole bedroom suite...with wardrobe too...ha ha!  then it was down the road to Portobello Dock.

I wanted  to check out the fairly new development down there which includes The Dock Kitchen and Tom Dixon's design shop. Mr Dixon has also acquired the water tower over the bridge which he has clad in wood and is converting into his own private residence - jammy sod - bet the views are fantastic.  The Dock itself all looks and smells very luxurious and i'm keen to test out the restaurant soon.

 

the water tower - new ho\me of Tom Dixon

the shop

 

 shed in a shop

 a shiny Brompton

a curious and beautiful random painting of a nurse 

on the wall of the shop...wonder if she's local

i cycled on toward Portobello Market, which was absolutely rammed as usual on a saturday afternoon so i didn't last long, where i spotted some delicious looking brightly coloured bicycles.

 

 

then it was over to say hello to the lovely boys at halfpipe on Golborne Road - the best bike (and skateboard/snowboard) shop in north/west London - to give them a calendar in thanks for all the free tire-pumping and bike twiddling they have done for me this year.  i think they would have preferred something edible or drinkable - so must bring a beer and chocs with me next time.  then i headed homeward up Chamberlayne Road and popped into Circus Antiques, another of the lovely new shops which have been springing up in Kensal Rise, to buy something for my bro for his birthday - before a last pitstop at 8 station terrace for a coffee and a pastry before finally going home.  i'm sure i can smell snow in the air....and my nostrils were pleasantly surprised when i walked in the door as my flat still smells rather deliciously of ginger ninja-bread men after last night's bake off - way better than expensive candles!

 

 

attack of the ninja-bread men

BEWARE...ninja-bread men on the loose...aaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiieeeeeya!

tonight i succumbed to the urge to make some ninja-bread men ...ha ha ha...great fun.  not sure about ninja...more like revenge of the blobby! the first batch got a little burnt and set my smoke alarm off, but i was wondering whether a battery replacement was needed so that was handy, and the next batch looked more tasty but still in need of some post-holidays weight loss boot camp!  i have quite a few and of course as always happens when you make things, you then don't feel hungry (hmmm may have something to do with the bowl licking!) but am sure i can chomp on a leg or two with a cuppa.  all in all tho they are pretty tasty for  a first attempt...only next time MORE GINGER, LESS NINJA!

 

 

christopher bucklow

i adore the work of Christopher Bucklow particularly his Guest series - quite literally like visitors from outer space who come bathed it starlight. Christopher Bucklow is a British artist best known for his paintings and photography who has spoken in interviews of his interest in nature, the cosmos and the exploration of consciousness and the unconscious and these themes clearly influence his style.  the Guest series are a formed using sunlight (a kind of pinhole photography) which he achieves by making silhouettes on aluminium foil and using a home-made camera.  the differing shades and sparkles depend on the levels of sunlight - creating this otherworldy appearance.  stunning....oh how i wish one day i could own one.