Portobello is pretty close to work and I usually get a takeaway from the same place every single day and take it to the park (weather permitting).
I’ve been oscillating between Falafel King and Makan across from it, for lunch for nearly a year now.
(Falafel King – Freshly made falafel as you wait + home-made salad and sauce. It’s the only thing they make and they do it well. Makan)
I eat at one place exclusively for months, a loyal regular, then abruptly switch to its neighbour.
When I go back after a long stint away they always look at me reproachfully and say
“You havent been here for so long!”
“Oh! It hasn’t been that long… has it?
“Yes yes, very long.”
Then I feel like I’ve cheated on them
The park nearby is a hot-bed of drama. There are a steady group of afternoon drunks, both men and women, drinking lager and squabbling loudly. Every now and then a cop strolls by to scold one of them.
Once they had to get rid of a man who was lying face down on the grass with his pants and underwear pulled down below his bum.
So far I’ve resisted the temptation to buy junk I don’t need from the market. I wanted to buy this empty cigar box, but the guy wouldn’t sell it to me because it was full of ‘vintage’ cue tip chalk.
I know. I had never heard of ‘vintage’ cue tip chalk before either. Apparently there is.
He then gave me a 5 minute spiel on the relative worthlessness of the box compared to all the beautiful used ‘vintage’ cue tip chalk from the 40′s and 50′s (or so he told me). I didn’t have the heart to tell him I’d only buy it and end up chucking the cue tips.
So I just didn’t buy it. Let some eager pub landlord with a pool table invest. Maybe he can frame them. Would look pretty nice if he did.
Still looking for a wooden box.
Portabello Farmer’s Market Sign
Market stalls empty as the market winds up
Shadows
Banksy Portobello
Basket with large metal plate
Green stone pig among garden pots
Rather like the pig. If only I had a garden.
Coins & a painting of a sherpa
Table of junk
Stone Necklace Closeup
Coloured Pots
Brass ware
Stalls under the sun
Handmade T-Shirts in a stall
Odd Green Dress
Nepalese Top
More Stalls
Cat T-shirt
Trunk full of Junk
A small pug on a rug. It is like a Dr. Seuss poem
Pug on Rug Black & White.
Notice outside Makan, my regular lunch place.
Westbourne Park Tube at Sunset
Westbourne Park Stairwell suddenly transformed in gold
Sometimes I think I need just one room of my house full of artistic piles of junk. (That pretty much describes every room, except for the “artistic” part.)
I can’t decide if I want artistic piles of junk or streamlined minimalism. My personal love of junk compels me to collect things and then horde them but I want the homes in the photos on pinterest, match cousins and elegantly framed art. Damn those people and their show homes
I so want to go to london soon again … is it on everyday???
Thursday and Friday are the junk, but Saturday & Sunday is the whole shebang, farmers market included.
wow … must see if i can come next month for a few days :-0
well, fingers crossed that it will be sunny few days
that would be a bonus … but if not Tate Modern here I come
That’s just when I’m off to today. Yaoi Kusama before it ends hopefully
wow .. have fun and yes I am envious sitting here in rainy Dublin having to do some work
I know I’d end up buying the junk. Odd green dress, definitely.
I really REALLY want to. That green dress would be a good costume.
I have a green coat. Spent weeks looking for it, and I ended up spending a phenomenal amount of of money for it, but it’s a work of art and everyone always notices it. I love being noticed.
Hint, hint.
Well then I can only hope you are in the theatre or the movies or tv. Is this green coat a regular green coat or is it theatrical in any way?
I would have wrestled you to the ground for the green pig.
I’d let you have it because I don’t have a home or garden and that pig deserves a nice garden. (I think one of your blog posts said you had a beautiful garden?)
I imagine that green pig would look lush hidden in some foliage.
I don’t have a garden yet, but the house we’re moving to in Portland does. And what I need for that garden is a green pig.
Your blog is like a freaking treasure trove to me! LOVE IT!
thanks!
Love these photos. (It’s taken me forever to load these. I’ve been trying to get to comments for the past two days. Crap internet connection.) I want that suitcase full of books. It would look so good in any room, minimalist or cluttered.
thank you
Oh dear – I was sure i resized them down
500KB they should be about.
hmm maybe its still too big.
I had the same problemin st lucia. in fact it refused to load images period from wp.
suitcase shelves are all the hipster rage these days. I really want to buy one and mouth it somewhere
mount. that is not mouth
I was wondering what you meant by mouth at first. I doubt it’s the size of your photos. You wouldn’t believe how slow the internet is at work.
How slow? (now its you need to spin how slow it is in a yo mamma style joke)
So slow that it took me two days to load the speed test website. (Verdict: 15kbp/s)
Fuck. I’d start bashing my head on a hard surface. I have a full-blown internet addiction
I have an internetted iPhone to deal with the pain.
Over the course of testing this app I’ve grown to actively hate the iPhone
Thanks for this post. 30 years ago I used to work just off Portobello Road and spent my lunch hour cruising the market & buying unpopular antiques – now the only unpopular antique is me !!
there can be no such thing as an unpopular antique. what kind of work were you doing?
Also why didn’t i reply to your comment before? how rude of me. i must have missed it.