Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out: April 10, 2006

i once had a factory in hackney wick

today, i bought a pub...somewhere near london fields.
i've been in hackney wick for 6 years.
we were some of the first settlers here.
this marks the end of an era...
the pub we will be moving to is half as good as what we've got now...so 'fuck you very much' the either corrupt or stupid LDA that have shafted us so proper.
if this turns out to have been a (not-so) cunning plan to procure my home and land for so little, to later sell on to developers, i will revenge myself on the people responsible.

whatever.
time to move on and stop worrying about it.
i've had enough stress and sleepless nights.
you may or may not have noticed how much my work has sufferred in the middle of all this.
i realised just how much today.

most of the weekend we were thinking about buying the mill in essex.
then, while i was being kept waiting for a meeting with stylist namalee yesterday afternoon (at SH) i had a mental flip and decided that we needed to stay in london.
so that amongst other things i a) keep a studio and b) my diary isn't all pictures of trees and goats...or pictures of goats with trees etc..

this was the pub we were looking at first off a few months back that i didn't want, that now i do.
the pub that almost went up £100,000 during those 3 weeks and thankfully didn't.
the pub mrs.perou was beating me round the head for losing as in those three weeks, someone made an offer on it but fortunately (for us) their 'chain' broke and it went back on the market, today.

soon i promise to not be talking about houses and property so much.
and i'll take more pictures, honest.

today frances posted up a load of ant and dec from the current arena shoot.

and i went to the proud gallery charity auction thing.
LOADS of photographers there en masse: i went with the harry (borden).
work of varying greatness and prices.
some bargains to be had.
i was very happy to meet the people who bought mine for £1000.
it's horrible at these things if people don't buy your work: feels like you're the last to get picked in a school sports team...i guess: never happened to me: i was the captain of the school basketball team (i was tallest) and used to stroke breasts for sussex (championship swimming).

stratford also came along and was quite well behaved.
saw darren (who used to be the drummer in 'elcka' back in the day) who i hadn't seen in 10 years.
also jason pierce (from 'spiritualised') who had completely forgotten our shoot at the factory but remembered the picture...it was a christmas cover of the NME...stratford was also on it...also many moons ago: shows i don't get out much.
and dan (mrs.perou's old mate) amongst others.

amused myself that alex proud was asking rankin who the guy in the bowler hat was as i was leaving.
seeming they both came to my solo show at BLINK a couple of years back.
and i don't exactly blend in places.

stopped with harry at 'le sacre coeur' in islington for dinner.
it's changed hands and it's now to be avoided.

this picture of the ms.hood is from a lighting test we did today.
i'm glad we tested it: i wasn't supposed to be coming out anything like this...