other people's rubbish

I recently acquired a new addition to my penthouse geek pad, turning it from a unique attic space into an amazingly retro hang out.

as with many other unique items in my house, they are things that are seemingly unwanted by other people, found by me on my travels, chucked out and neglected.

yet unlike many of the other unique items that I have brought home, my girlfriend was actually rather impressed that I had rescued an abandoned vintage record player.

I had learnt from previous experiences that if I do not act quick enough, then I am likely to lose out on these spoils to somebody else, and so when I noticed a huge pile of random rubbish dumped outside a property alongside its 'to let' sign, I knew that I wouldn't have long if I wanted to lay claim to the metal mystery box and a wooden case below it that I had spotted and had got me intrigued.

it was lucky that I had invited my brother to swing by, as I dragged him out on a brief mission to investigate further, I politely rang the doorbell before rummaging through the contents of the front garden, prepared to ask if I could help myself to any unwanted goodies, getting no answer, we preceded to unravel the mystery of the mystery boxes.

on top was a reel to reel cassette machine, looking like a control panel of a time machine, even if I had no real use for it, it was still spectacular from an aesthetic point of view.

but the true treasure was below it, a complete record player in a beautiful wooden case, with a Hulio Inglesias 7 inch still on the turntable.

again, I was thankful for my brothers assistance as it would have been too much for me to have carried home myself, and when the journey was done, I plugged it in with trepidation.


Everything worked perfectly and it provided the impetus for me to finally get my arse in gear and rearrange the geek room that had been a work in progress and a storage space for far too long.

the lovingly reconditioned Shcreiber cabinet that had been fly tipped and dragged back from an underpass near Waltham Abbey made its way into the attic, to live out the rest of its life alongside the large wooden trunk that had been chucked out from an old couple down the road that were moving and is now full of fancy dress clothes, the broken briefcases that had been dumped a few roads away and the ikea display cabinet that was actually bought brand new, I put on display my girlfriend's set of Hatori Hanzo samurai swords, plugged in my brothers lava lamp and with all our extra bedding, tomato tins and toilet rolls tucked away out of sight in the eaves of the loft, the geek pad suddenly seemed to be wonderfully realised with these new additions.

there is still work to do in there, it is still a work in progress, but as I now set up to build up a small collection of classic or equally kooky slabs of vinyl through scouring charity shops, I have a rather enviable chill out pad that I'm proud to have put my own unique stamp on.

my virtual micro-festival weekend

what a truly wonderful weekend it has been, so wonderful that it even managed to distract me from the fact that I had turned almost thirty.

I received some wonderful gifts, mostly Batman related, some I had asked for and others that I hadn't, surely testament to how well people know me (or how my geeky reputation precedes me).

and of course, it isn't all about gifts, indeed, how shallow life would be if it was... I am also grateful that I got to spend the weekend with a bunch of great people that dropped round my house for what was intended to be a micro-festival in my backgarden but I couldn't be bothered to make a huge amount of effort for, so was more like a standard houseparty except there was a tent pitched, a couple of acoustic guitars knocking around and a miniature drum kit set up.

perhaps next year I shall arrange a small P.A system and a brief running order of performers (I doubt it tho) but with drinks flowing, some good music, a go on singstar, a couple of jam sessions in the front room, acoustic singalongs and a Batman cake (given as a present) I must admit I wouldn't have changed it at all.

i was surprised and relieved to wake up (quite late) on Sunday morning and still feel vaguely human, after drinking a combination of cocktails mixed by my girlfriend over lunch, Pimms punch (a present from my mum) throughout the afternoon, vodka and cokes (a Morrison's savers vodka, not the Jamie Hewlett designed bottle of Absolut that my girlfriend had bought as a present) throughout the evening and Sailor Jerry and cokes (yet another present that had been bought for me that day) into the early hours of the morning, I am thankful that I was still in control of my senses and my stomach lining.

with a slightly sore head and a dry mouth, sudden and brief downpours and the sound of music drifting into the house from my next door neighbours shed/boom-boom-room, it felt almost as if we were waking up at Glastonbury

and the festival vibe was far from over, deciding that we were up to it and that the weather may hold out (although, of course we took waterproofs) we headed out to check out the opening weekend of the London Pleasure Gardens at Poontang Dock, taking in the views of the Thames Barrier park before venturing into the new festival site, not exactly knowing what to expect...

and it was certainly unexpected, within a few minutes of arriving we had gazed upon art instillations, watched a colliery band cover Kanye West and witnessed stilt walkers twirling flags.

with no real agenda of what we wanted to see or do, we found ourselves watching eighties one hit wonders Musical Youth, joining in a hokey cokey world record attempt, and finally experiencing the surreal genius of Glastonbury legend, Woody Bop Muddy.

we even bought a Disney Christmas record from a charity stall before hopping back on the DLR and heading back homewards, where me and my girlfriend made splendidly low maintenance meals, drank hot choc, ate cake and watched half of an actually funny rom-com.

and as the weekend drew to a more than satisfactory close, I kept my eyes open long enough to take in the first chapter of 'The Court Of Owls' (thanks Mike)