Saaf London Yoof (Bermondsey Boy)

Talking on the phone, "Na, I got in trouble...slap rand the 'ead for lettin a firework off in a shop and it weren't even me, it wus that twat Keiran... I gotta go t dinner tonite but I don't wanna. I wanna get a load of green and smoke it... Yea I'm seein' a gel, called, um, her name is someink like Tennerife... yeah thats right Tenisha. She was well drunk last night. She was goin' like that [gesture of jerking off] it were well lovely. hehehe [bart simpson laugh]. I wanna get two patties when I get off or someink I'm starvin, where you gonna be?"

Well lovely.

A Rememberance Poppy

Slipped from someone's lapel laying face down on the floor of the crowded tube. Nobody sees it, until at Bank a smart woman leaving the train bends over and plucks it off the floor and smooths it down as she cradles it in her hand.

Tube People Individuals

She looks downcast. In the packed carriage perhaps nobody notices. She covers her face with her hands. Her fingers reach up to her eyebrows. She digs her fingers into her eye sockets and rubs her eyes roughly. The flesh on her cheeks rolls round under her palms. And then she looks up. Could be crying. Could be tiredness. Her thoughts are inwards but show on her face. Unresolved thoughts. She grips her mouth with one hand. Unconsciously distorting it as her thoughts toss and turn. After, her mouth looks fuzzy, lipstick lightly smudged, like a painter doing an impressionist portrait. What thoughts? What troubles?

Drayton Park - Morning Images

The new Arsenal Stadium looms giant over Drayton Park train station. Even half finished it has form and structure, a huge oval curve like the modern buildings we saw in Spain in the summer. Two huge new bridges span the cutting the station fits into. And sadly, where there used to be a patch of scrap land that a few trees had self-seeded into (siver birch that flickered in the breeze and gleamed out of a dull corner) the builders have cleared and trampled and driven heavy plant leaving behind a mud-patch.

Bus Station Rigmarole

The bus sits for a few minutes on the bus stand. The lights go on and off. The driver sits in the dark looking out the window at the queue of potential passengers building. Driver gets out of his seat, takes his cash box out of its position in the door and walks the length of downstairs and upstairs checking. Not sure what for, they never seem to pick anything up and haven't got a spare hand to pick up much anyway. Once the check is complete, go back to the cabin and change the destination sign. An irritating driver will sit back down for a quick fag and a peruse of the newspaper. Others will rev the engine and light the lights whilst the forming queue shifts on its feet.

Today the driver was irritating.

Things I'd Forgotten About Tube Travel

1. That when two colleagues manage to travel together they will discuss relatively private things with one another even when you are standing with your face 10cm away from one of theirs.


2. That in the above situation it is quite appropriate to look the other way whilst earwigging and they will pretend you can't hear their conversation.


3. The Metro - just enough of a read to keep one occupied for 3 stops.


4. In crowded trains, a person who is vertically challenged may well lean on you for support when they can't reach the handrail. So far I've had a very obnoxious woman do so and today a short man who felt it was ok to lean back on me completely.


5. City men like oxen - broad of shoulder and feet planted like rocks (no chance of moving one inch to allow other passengers to board).


6. Staking your place on the platform, hoping to be exactly right for when the doors open to let you on. Jostling for a better position when the platform is too crowded to get on the current train in readiness for the next train. Flashes of irritation when someone who came after you jostles you out of your prime position (bastards - obviously better practised at it or with wider shoulders).


7. Women doing a full make-up routine whilst the tube rattles down the tunnel (yukaroo).


8. Which end of the platform the exits are and the corresponding carriage doors to enter through in order to maximise speed of exit from the station (have now got it back down pat for interchanges at Old Street to Northern Line and London Bridge for mainline rail, and exits from station at Peckham Rye, still working on it for Bermondsey Jubilee Line).

Suits Are Like Oysters

Let me explain. Its a theory. A theory that struck me the other day on the way home via the tube. It has to be the way home because on the way everyone is very spruce and smart and most unlikely to have enough disheveledness to reveal what I based my theory on. So anyway, suits are like oysters - dull on the outside with secret beauty to be revealed when opened. I base my theory on the following observations:

• navy blue suit, shocking pink lining
• grey suit, pillarbox red lining
• navy blue suit with feint check, blue and gold shot lining

I rest my case.

Monday's Life Class





Disaster - the nib of my pen broke and I didn't realise it so I struggled to scratch a drawing with a finer nib. This led me to use a brush more. Then I found a funny brush with splayed bristles that made a sort of multiple line line. Interesting.

Candid Arts Trust: open access sessions and more formal taught courses in both life drawing and painting. Behind Angel tube, Islington - first left down City Road. Contact: The Candid Arts Trust, 3 Torrens Street, London EC1V 1NQ, Tel: 020 7837 4237.

Gorgeous Weirdos

Double jointed fingers, while a thing to be admired when young due to the rare nature of the skill, in an adult man manages to look just deformed (apologies for my total lack of PC-ness). He was a nice looking man with flecks of grey in his full head of black wavy hair, brave enough to wear a pink shirt and tie with his black suit. But on seeing him finger the pages of his book and the knuckles bend backwards I was repulsed and couldn't see him in the same light again. I noticed he was reading a computer manual (on the way home on friday evening) and was carrying a Sainsbury's carrier bag with food shopping for one and was slightly over-weight in that sits-at-a-desk-all-day kind of way. He changed from being nice looking to a computer nerd with weird fingers in a flash. Angel came, I got off.

The Timetable Bodies

Theres a set of three timetables on poles that stretch across the platform. Behind the timetables two pairs of legs wander around, facing one another, standing very close. The female legs belong to a tiny body, in skin-tight jeans and a cream cord jacket. They are bumping their pelvis against the male in a sort of I'm trying to keep warm and tease you at the same time kind of a way. He has his hands in his pockets and while not exactly participating isn't retreating either. I'd hazard a guess that those were young people, early 20s and enjoying every minute of it.

Tube People Individuals

A very long time ago I began a couple of pieces of writing - one was called Tube People Stereotypes, the other was called Tube People Individuals. Tube People Stereotypes had many entries, Tube People Individuals however only had one. Today I found another.


Red head. Long Plait curled up into a top knot with a black jet clasp holding back the fringe. Two long curls descend from beside her ears onto her ample bussom. A ruffled shirt and a long string chain interspersed with beads. Fishnet stockings and long-pointy-toed shoes. She is reading Digital Fortress by Dan Brown through rectangle clear-plastic-framed specs. Full makeup bluey grey eyeshadow and thick black eyelashes, red lips. Now this is the 21st century personification of Toulouse Lautrec's brothel darlings (and I only recently wrote about them - she is this post, or at least she could be!).

Hello World!

New job is keeping me from blogging - its funny not having my own PC yet, funnier still that they put VERY strict controls on the internet access and therefore my blog updating is less frequent due to overtiredness as I get used to getting up at 7.00am (not long until thats actually before dawn - my body clock has never been keen on the up-before-dawn thing). I will soon be used to it and my life/work balance will be back to normal. But I'm still here and I still love you all. Lovey darhlink kisses all round. Mwaw mwaw.

Monday's Life Class




Trying to get to a point where I actually like the end result of the ink. They still look better in the flesh than in the photos. But I think I need to start being braver and getting more tone on, darker.

Candid Arts Trust: open access sessions and more formal taught courses in both life drawing and painting. Behind Angel tube, Islington - first left down City Road. Contact: The Candid Arts Trust, 3 Torrens Street, London EC1V 1NQ, Tel: 020 7837 4237.

Peckham Yellow




Escape from the stuffy confines of the overheated building walk down to the station past the tree with yellow leaves bright against the dusk sky captured sunshine. Sun catches the top of the reformed cristian church of god building. Up the stairs with yellow painted risers to platform 2 where the rooftops of peckham stretch out towards a pale blue sky with silver lined clouds

Train View

Beside some flats some youths play basket ball in an enclosed court. Next door a little boy stands at the edge of a puddle formed in the middle of an empty playground, uninterested in the play equipment around him, he stares at his reflection.

Train Person No.1

Blond girl gets on with a man who could look like an anti-road protester in his olive green canvas jacket, apart from the fact that his sidies are gently gel'd into curls and his face is covered in glitter.

Monday's Life Class






Having missed a week I came back to some quick fire drawings. Top row: 10 mins and 5 mins. Second row: 2 mins. Third Row: 30 seconds. Final longer drawing.

Candid Arts Trust: open access sessions and more formal taught courses in both life drawing and painting. Behind Angel tube, Islington - first left down City Road. Contact: The Candid Arts Trust, 3 Torrens Street, London EC1V 1NQ, Tel: 020 7837 4237.

Office Decor

I have to choose how I would like my office decorated. Its a hell of a decision - I'll have to live with it for the whole of my stay, its a divided space in one of those victorian schools with the window set up high so you can't stare out the window. I was thinking very pale grey or perhaps lilac. Oh the pressure. Its enormous.

End of the First Day

Slam door train from Peckham Rye to London Bridge over-head lines. A view of the rooftops over the south of London, golden sun shining as it goes down.

Canary Wharf and the gaggle of skyscapers around it catch the sun. Millwall Football Stadium. Gherkin and Nat West Tower. On the right hand side. London Eye, Post Office Tower and lots of posh flats painted bright colours on the left hand side. As we come into the station Tower Bridge, London Assembly and a sparkling new Southern Train painted white and green.

Today I stood in the Peckham Library looking out of the Children's Library windows at the best panoramic view of London ever, well maybe.

On the eve of my new job i worry that i will over-sleep and not get in on time. This is keeping me awake!