Weekend catchup
Friday: Finished work at 2:30, took the train to London, trekked across London to Hackney and checked into my hotel room. Freshened up a bit, got changed into a nicer shirt and went to have the dinner experience of my life at Roganic. Being very happy and full, I took tubes and trains back to Hackney, showered and chilled before trying to find some sleep in my hot room (it cooled off later).
Saturday: The Victoria Line was out (which links central London to the Overground nicely at Highbury&Islington) so I had to take the Overground all the way to West Hampstead and then the tube to King's Cross for the Vivian Maier exhibition (which warrants its own short post) and then lunch at Pollen St. Social (blog post in a bit). Walking back from lunch towards Oxford Circus, I happened across the Pride parade which was ace. I guess I probably caught the second half and was a bit sorry I missed the first because it was really good fun to watch all those delightful characters, even those with a rather serious message. Because of the train/tube outages I didn't bring my camera because I wasn't sure I'd manage to take it back to the hotel and make it to the gig in time so I only had my phone. Just two samples, the rest are on flickr.
I then made my way to the Southbank where I wandered around a bit, watched a few performers and the world go by before I got some early dinner at Pitt Cue Co.'s trailer underneath Hungerford Bridge. They provide their take on American style BBQ with various and repeating dishes throughout the day. When I got there, they Pulled Pork had just come out of the oven and I leapt at it. Served in a cardboard container on top of a portion of zingy 'slaw, dressed with a spicy sauce and hot pickles and a chunk of excellent bread, this was excellent street food indeed. Considering the location and the quality of food, 7 pounds was still acceptable, I thought.
Another trek across London to Hammersmith for an evening I'd been waiting for almost all of my life or at least since '85 when I bought the Scarecrow album, to see John Mellencamp live (again, a separate blog post for that but just to say it was amazing). Then, the worrying bit of making it back to Hackney on public transport began, various lines were partially or completely closed so I had to take first the Piccadilly and then the Central line to Stratford. Despite various delays, I caught the last overground train and made it to Hackney Central, saving a wad of money which would have been the taxi fare.
Sleep was hard to come by as tunes from the evening were still going through my head so eventually got about five and a half hours of sleep before getting up, packing and walking to The Roost for the day's photo shoot. Quite a few people were there already and the place was buzzing with photographers and models getting ready. I only had two things planned: Last July in the morning and druidess1982 in vintage dresses by bethany_eowyn in the afternoon. Here are two preview shots, a full post will follow after I'm back from holiday:
nevla was kind enough to give me a lift back and I was home just after 8, being rather shattered. I backed up the photos, caught up with telly and got a relatively early night.
Saturday: The Victoria Line was out (which links central London to the Overground nicely at Highbury&Islington) so I had to take the Overground all the way to West Hampstead and then the tube to King's Cross for the Vivian Maier exhibition (which warrants its own short post) and then lunch at Pollen St. Social (blog post in a bit). Walking back from lunch towards Oxford Circus, I happened across the Pride parade which was ace. I guess I probably caught the second half and was a bit sorry I missed the first because it was really good fun to watch all those delightful characters, even those with a rather serious message. Because of the train/tube outages I didn't bring my camera because I wasn't sure I'd manage to take it back to the hotel and make it to the gig in time so I only had my phone. Just two samples, the rest are on flickr.
I then made my way to the Southbank where I wandered around a bit, watched a few performers and the world go by before I got some early dinner at Pitt Cue Co.'s trailer underneath Hungerford Bridge. They provide their take on American style BBQ with various and repeating dishes throughout the day. When I got there, they Pulled Pork had just come out of the oven and I leapt at it. Served in a cardboard container on top of a portion of zingy 'slaw, dressed with a spicy sauce and hot pickles and a chunk of excellent bread, this was excellent street food indeed. Considering the location and the quality of food, 7 pounds was still acceptable, I thought.
Another trek across London to Hammersmith for an evening I'd been waiting for almost all of my life or at least since '85 when I bought the Scarecrow album, to see John Mellencamp live (again, a separate blog post for that but just to say it was amazing). Then, the worrying bit of making it back to Hackney on public transport began, various lines were partially or completely closed so I had to take first the Piccadilly and then the Central line to Stratford. Despite various delays, I caught the last overground train and made it to Hackney Central, saving a wad of money which would have been the taxi fare.
Sleep was hard to come by as tunes from the evening were still going through my head so eventually got about five and a half hours of sleep before getting up, packing and walking to The Roost for the day's photo shoot. Quite a few people were there already and the place was buzzing with photographers and models getting ready. I only had two things planned: Last July in the morning and druidess1982 in vintage dresses by bethany_eowyn in the afternoon. Here are two preview shots, a full post will follow after I'm back from holiday:
nevla was kind enough to give me a lift back and I was home just after 8, being rather shattered. I backed up the photos, caught up with telly and got a relatively early night.