Brick Lane Bargain Hunter

Dystopia

The new science fiction film Children of Men is set in a disturbing, apocalyptic Britain of the future. So which grim location would a group of terrorist kidnappers chose to shove the hooded hero Clive Owen out of a van?

Round the corner from my workplace, of course.

(the junction of Leman St and Dock St, London E1)

It really is time that I got a new job.

Benchman

Marcos & Gareth

Outside Cat

Two nephews, one niece

We sailed the kids up through the drab bleached cut-price neon wholesale-only sweatshop fashion highway into a deserted shopping arcade, wandering past the beautiful brown Shadwell people in swathes of pink and orange and turquoise and black, with ninja eye slits and mobile phones and big trainers. We bounced above the glinting docks on a red and blue train with no driver, spotting yachts and swans and a giant inflatable octopus and bubbles in the afternoon light over a floating rectangle of sand. We showed them the massive masted last surviving tea clipper in the whole wide world, soundtracked by a bandannered busker playing a didgeridoo. They walked along a tunnel under the Thames and back. We stood at the argent shining base of Canary Wharf and snapped our necks back to try to make size sense of the multistacked floors and vast repeating patterns of windows. The sun baked and brightened east London and we ate spiced chicken and walked home through the park to wrap up in blankets in the garden and make shadow puppets from the street light.

Their lasting memory of the day is of a dead dog washed up with the plastic water bottles on a beach out at Greenwich. The rotting black and fly-punctured furless streamlined cantering carcass of an indefinable breed, pulsating with stink and murky wet whispers of a vile unnatural death.

“Not something you see everyday!” said Jack, aged 9.

He told his Mum about it and also, later, confessed to having accidentally used “the f word” on her answerphone. So I am wondering if they’ll be allowed to come again? I let them have jelly (American jello) for breakfast. What can I say? It was a one time offer. I figured they are only reckless little kids for a tiny while.

Still raining

Top of the Hill

Springtime in Cheltenham

Shedgirl

Dangerous Tip

Half-team

Altab Ali Park

The bit of my desk that I look at the most.

Baishaki Mela

Brick Lane

Icecream Fence

Uptown Manchester

Flower power

Downtown Manchester

View from my hotel room

May Day in our garden

The last day of April

The Whale: "I didn't do it on porpoise!"

Respect, my arse.

So I came back from a (most fantastic) holiday in Barcelona to find out that George Galloway is in Celebrity Big Brother. What an absolute fucking tosser. His constituency is one of the poorest, most socially troubled areas in the UK suffering severe housing and health problems. He should doing the job that he is being paid for as a public servant, not pissing about on a game show bitching about the other freaks in the Big Brother house. Please support the “Why isn’t he at work?” campaign and sign the petition here .