A Nice Weekend....

Weirdly enough I havent had a weekend as good as this one in ages. Sorry if it has no importance to anyone, or doesnt interest anyone, but to all who were involved they will equally admit it was a dope time. I apologize for the lack of decent photos, a lot of them are random shots on my pentax scanned on my shitty scanner, or they have been taken by randoms just picking up my camera. Anyway to start it off, it was my girlfriends birthday weekend. So the plan for me was to head up friday and stay till tuesday, with a bbq and party shindig on the saturday and then a family meal on the monday. I packed up all my stuff to head over friday, which was a slog in itself, I had the job of carrying up all my clothes, my camera stuff, a canvas, some snacks, and the speakers for the party. Lugging these around was the most un fun thing I have done in a while. But I man'd up and onwards I went. I was on a few trains missioning it to her house, I was to lazy to que for the large baggage barriers so I just squeezed through the normal ones which left me stuck in a few. I found it hilarious as it pissed off every cunt trying to rush through. Anyway to cut that boring story short I arrived and had a good sit down to relax my arms as they felt as if they were gonna fall off. Friday night was really a relaxing evening, with MustB turning up later on in the evening. All we did that night was have a blaze, watch City of Paranoia, and play some GTA, which to me is still time well spent.

We had a pretty good sleep that night, but we had to wake up early to get everything setup, it was only a gazebo, some chairs, get the bbq's out and mow the lawn. Some how I got set the job of mowing the lawn, which to be fair is actually a nice job when your in the sun. I was also appointed the chef for the breakfast which was going well until I couldnt get away from her nieces. So I flopped a bit on finishing the cooking, but the main portion was done, well I had started it! We ate and had to pop cost-co to get some supplies for the day. I was soon tempted by the booze section. A few minutes later we had a 1L bottle of Courvoisier in our grasps. Back at her house, we poured 

ourselves some yak and awaited the first people to arrive. First person to arrive was an old crew member from the FMS, known as Soar or Bora. Was nice to see him again, he has recently moved back down to London after finishing his Uni course. More people turned up through out the evening. It was a crazy mix of people, graff heads, explorers, college friends and the car lot. Its quite astonishing when you get a bunch of random people together from all different places and communities but they all get along. I think thats the first sign of knowing you are surrounded by a good set of people.

A few people...

I love children.

The whole day just consisted of eating bbq food, chatting rubbish, drinking and having a good smoke up. Which as I have said might seem boring to a few people but it was a proper chill out. There was some funny moments when I got a phone call from Patch asking if he can have a shower when he arrives. He had been a naughty boy the night before and had just walked out of a police station, which to me is classic! I can see why he wanted a shower, he was covered in Fail Rail dust and dirt. He explained his story to us all, and it was a funny one, involving videos which will probably be uploaded very soon for all of your viewing needs. Also trust me in saying it will be one of the funniest UE videos in a while. The evening went on and it ended up moving closer to the cabin house for warmth, and for the fact there was Sega Megadrive games and GTA being played again.

Badmen

Even more badmanurisms....

The night drew to a close and we all pretty much flopped into bed. All of us apart from one who bombed something silly, which well, kept him up all night! We awoke to a very very fresh day. Probably one of the best all year so we realized we couldnt waste it. I was supposed to be going on a picnic with the misses, yet a couple of people had an idea of going painting at South Tottenham. Which well, seemed like a decent proper plan to both of us. We quickly decided a paint and a picnic was the winner of the two ideas. So we all got ready, had a quick clean up, big ups to Yaz for cleaning nearly everything up in the morning before we had even woken up. That deserves a mega high five, so thanks! So in we jumped to some cars and we sped off to Chrome and Black to grab a few cans of paint to do some simple things. We quickly jumped out, grabbed a few cans each, we decided on white fills, with purple outlines. Easy enough and only meant we needed 3-4 cans each. On the way someone said lets stop by Mr Siologens, we knocked and had no answer, so we carried on to grabbing some food and disposable bbq's. Straight after grabbing more supplies we headed to the wall in the back of the Markfields Project.

We were amazed by this little speaker. Thanks scott!

We finally arrived at the wall, and my word was a good sit down needed. I swear it was the hottest day I have ever experienced in London. To add to the struggle I was carrying the cool box filled with meat, drink, ice and now ice lollies. Plus my paint and everything else in my rucksack. Anyway a sit down in the shade, a quick zoot and a few drinks and I was nearly ready for a paint.

Mountain Dew and Strongbow, chillin!

I do apoligize for my attire, no top and a dodgy t-shirt made into a headscarf. But more so I apologize for the shorts rolled up into hotpants. It looked stupid but fuck me was is a millions times nicer than wearing them normally. This is how it looks when standing up, even more ridiculous, but I rocked it hard.

Rocking the Hipster Look

We had a fat chilled paint session. We spoke to a load of the blokes repairing the wall who ride. They had some mad motivation, they were doing hard laboring, for no wages, in the hottest weather known to any englishmen, and it was just for the love of riding the little park that had been made. I was last down at this wall painting about 5-6 years ago, and they had only done a few tiny sections. To see it now it looks amazing, so props to the guys who have slaved away at creating it! I havent really got that much to say about the actual painting of the pieces as well, we just painted them. So you can just have some actions and some photos of the quick pieces painted.

 

Okae by Bora FMS

Muff FMS (Muffin) Haxo MPS and Site FMS

Click for Larger Image

Anyway we finished our paint session and Urban Fox turned up, but to be fair we were all pretty ruined. I wanted to jump in the dirty aids canal just behind the wall but Patch had been scouting on his iPhone and there were some big reservoirs just over the canal. The only way to cross this was to climb onto the disused railway bridge and bop across that to the reservoir. So after waiting for a semi clear time, we all bopped up and stashed all the stuff we wouldnt need to take like the cool box, I mean fuck was I lugging that thing around. We had families and their children all staring at us, but no one seemed to say a thing. I think the warm, sunny weather just puts people into good moods.

Prawn Cracker Canal Munch Up

Badman Bridge UE

We crossed over the bridge and jumped down, dodging some old raggo motorbike which had been dumped. Straight away a large hole in the fence was spotted so in we went. We had to proper trek through brambles and stinging nettles. This was more of a mission than half of the exploring stuff posted on forums. All we could think of was what the reservoir was going to be like. We half expected some form of security I think, but we finally stumbled out of the bushes, all itching like mad, and scratched beyond belief from the brambles. But we all simultaneously ran up the bank to behold the freshest looking reservoir, which looked even better considering the heat. We took a quick wander around until we found a suitable place to sit down, take clothes off and go for a relaxing swim. We all stripped down and got to the waters edge, but my word the water was cold. All of us were to pussy to be the first to just jump in and brave the cold, but Lucy being a G was the first. We all followed like loosers though. It has to be one of the most refreshing feelings going though. We forgot about how dirty the water kind of looked, and just had a good swim. It didnt last to long as we were all tired and very unfit, but we cooled off and did what we set out to do. 

 

The view

Man'in Up

Fucked up Double Exposure

Swimming!

We all ended up snapping a quick group shot just before hopping out and getting dry in the sun real quick. We headed off back to our nifty stash point on the bridge. None of us could be arsed to go back the way we came so we headed out on the main road to the front gate. We ended up walking past some fishing hut by a car park. I think people must pay here to fish in the other reservoirs. Here is when we all spotted the funniest poster going, it said that the reservoirs or some of the lakes contain killer shrimp. It made us all think would we of gone swimming knowing they were in there? Either way we joked about it and walked back to grab all out bits and bobs. I think 2 of the funniest things I had witnessed for years happened while we were back at the bridge. Patch decided taking a pooh on the bridge would be hilarious, so we all stared on as his poop plonked into the canal below. I cant explain how immature but funny this moment was. But it was an all time classic seeing pooh drop for 10ft before hitting water. The next thing to occur was a pretzel being thrown, but it was how the pretzel landed on a swans back. Now it doesnt sound very funny, but when you see a swan spazz out and go mental for 30 minutes just because it has a pretzl on its back, it makes it pretty damn hilarious. We have no videos or even a photo of this happening. But all I can say is a certain someone has 1Million cool points.

Patch  Haxo  Site  Zero  Muff  UrbanFox

Now as I have said, this whole post is a load of shit, and I bet 80% of you who read this are honestly going to think what the fuck is this prick going on about. But it was one of the most fun, random and on the spot weekends I have had in a while. It involved spending time with people who are safe as, chilling with them, painting with them, and generally being a yob with them. Everyone who was involved I really do thank you for being out and about and joining everyone else. It really did make the weekend.

St Pauls Cathedral...

Me and Zero from Silent UK have struggled to find anything worth leaving the comfort of our homes for recently in London. We used to find bits worth exploring on a weekly, even daily basis. We could just drive into London, find a building or crane and take a quick look, or just go draining. But eventually we did get bored, we had seen all we thought we could see, and only the odd little thing popped up from time to time. Whilst driving around London we would always ponder at the idea of climbing the scaffolding that has been covering St Pauls for the past 15 years. We always kind of laughed the idea off when it was brought up. All we had in our minds was how much the police would fist our bums if we got caught on a national monument. It wasn’t as if it was a little day trip to Cane Hill or West Park Asylums.

Flavor Flav's New Clock

The scaffolding had been working its way around St Pauls Cathedral for the past 15 years whilst St Pauls was undergoing its renovation works. It had finally reached a section around the back, out of sight from Cannon Street. This didn’t mean it was out of sight, but it just gave that slight cover needed to quickly pop in and have a look. We had a little wander around but there was a few parties going on down the little back street. Nothing major but it kept us out for another night. We hadn’t even thought about returning until one night every lead we had was dead or a no go. It was some stupid time in the morning but we didn’t want to go home. Both of us mentioned St Pauls, but we were both still a bit iffy about it. We knew the scaffolding had alarms, which scared us enough as we had no clue how they worked. Were they infrared beams, did they work like a PIR, did they work as a shock sensor, and would vibrations set them off, with no clue we decided to just attempt it and stay way away from them. On top of that worry there are CCTV cameras all over London’s streets all being fed to a big room being watched 24/7, and every passerby is more paranoid than the police themselves.

Taking in St Pauls Cathedral

We waited for a good time to quickly hop the fence. Inside of the fence it was a quick scarper around looking for the best way to conquer hoarding they had put up to stop people from getting onto the scaffolding. The only way was to free climb around 10ft on the open brick work walls. It doesn’t sound like a great height, but trying to get your fingers into tiny gaps and pulling yourself up isn’t the easiest thing when you’re a lazy, kfc fiending explorer. We managed to climb up onto the first level of scaffolding, but we had to openly shuffle along to actually reach the main scaffolding. Not knowing how the alarms worked we did this so slowly, we must of looked like Muppets if anyone had actually seen us doing it. But stage 1 was complete, we had reached the main portion of scaffolding that had to climbed to reach the roof. Being too scared to just climb the ladders to the top, we climbed the outside of the scaffolding but sandwiched in between St Pauls and the scaffolding, it was a tight squeeze. Trying to fit a person, with a bag and tripod in a foot and a half gap whilst trying to climb becomes a bit strenuous after a couple of floors. Also the higher we got we had to dodge the figurines of the babies and any other obstacle that they built into the decor.

Snapping Away

As we climbed we saw more and more of the scaffold alarms, we worked out where they were if we had to make a quick escape, or just for future reference. I remember ploughing up and we saw some crazy suits that the workers must have been using when carrying out the renovation. If anyone remembers in Back to the Future when Marty wears the suit and pretends to be a Martian, which is what these yellow suits looked like. I wish I had got a photo wearing one; I would have had the steaz. The more we climbed the more awkward the gaps around the back of the scaffolding got. You had more and more ledges over hanging getting in the way, or just making the climb even more awkward.

Chilling with the Gargoyles

As we reached the top floors we had no clue what to expect. After climbing the V&A museum a week or so back, which had cameras ALL over the roof we didn’t know whether to expect similar or worse security. So we took a quick wander around the roof, we acted more ninja than Shinobi. Ducking, diving into any cover as we worked our way around the roof. Surprised as we were, there was nothing. As bad as it is I reached a comfort level where I felt happy and content standing on the roof, as if I thought I was supposed to be there and owned the place. Even though I knew it was not a place we want to get caught, it just felt normal to be there. I can’t even remember how long we were up there. As usual it doesn’t seem like long, but it was most probably a good couple of hours. We snapped away the most cliché shots, and to be fair we knew we had to just get the basic shots and try not to hang around for too long. I say that as Zero shot one of his mega pano's. So as he did that I just sat there with my new friends the Gargoyles, watched London as most people do when up high. The usual street cleaners, the odd police car driving around, more concerning was the cleaners in the offices just opposite.

 
I think we wanted to push our luck and try getting inside of the Dome. We took a quick look around and there were doors. But there was no way around them or other ways in. So that idea was quickly thrown out. We later checked and the doors are secured in place with huge dead bolts, so there was no way we were getting in them. We had missed out on the dome, but at the same time I wasn’t dis-heartened in the slightest. Knowing that I was standing on top of St Pauls, a monument in London that nearly anyone in the world knows about or would recognize straight away. Just knowing you managed to pull it off makes you feel gayly happy inside. We kept snapping away and realised it was time to get hell off, it was fast approaching 6am, when London really starts to get busy.

We made out move to quickly shoot down the scaffolding, still bearing in mind not to set any sensors off. So it was a climb on the exterior again, which actually seemed harder than the climb up. We made it to the bottom and jumped off the scaffolding down the hoarding. That was the biggest sigh of relief I had experienced in a while. Not only because of being exhausted, but the thought of having my bum searched by the police if caught had no place in my head anymore. It wasn’t going to happen as far as I could tell. We hopped over the original fence, and did the casual walk around the front to get some exterior shots. Staring up from a bench at the front was a good feeling, it strangely felt better than any other explore. Even doing big cranes and sky scrapers you take the same look up after escaping, but this one just felt better. I think I had half come to the conclusion that London was quite dead for exploring, nearly everything has been done, and anything new was just a slightly different angle of London’s skyline, or another drain under a different part of London. Even after exploring the Shard, it was a boring building, just London from another slightly higher, different angled view. All these things are nice to explore and see, but they had lost that pizzazz they first had. As soon as we got in the car, we did our usual high five, fist bump, spud to kind of congratulate ourselves. The relief that we had both got away with it was amazing. I remember the next day after sleeping we both said we want to go back when the weathers nicer to get better photos. We still have never made a return trip, maybe being too scared of getting caught; I think we thought we had pushed our luck by visiting once. Or we were just too lazy to revisit. Either way I’m glad we kept it to a one time only trip, it made it seem more special.

Weekend with Putup...

When I visited Australia a few years back now, the only person to bother giving me a proper reply to meet in Brisbane was Putup from I81B4YOU. I actually sent a few messages over flickr and he was more than happy to organise some bits and bobs exploring wise while I was over. Even though I ended up meeting Zodiak1, with out him I wouldnt of got anything done. So when I got a random message on Flickr from Putup basically saying 'Im in london do you want to meet?" I jumped straight to the oppurtunity. He had no phone so contacting him was a pain in the arse, but he headed down to sunny Croydon one day, and off me and the girlfriend went to meet him. Its wierd how even though you have never met someone you instantly know thats the person your meeting. So with the introductions done we headed straight to Graphotism's warehouse to grab some paint for the weekend. As usual we ran into shitty school rush hour and we arrived a tad to late and they had closed up for the day. Putup grabbed a few photos and we then headed up to Pimlico where I had arranged for him to stay in a friends squat.

Gary MSK - Stolen from Putup's Flickr

Crazy style, looks dope though - Stolen from Putup's Flickr

Random Van - Stolen from Putup's Flickr

We arrived at the squat in Pimlico, which was the first time I had seen it as well. It was probably one of the nicest squats you could of stayed in. It was a house which had just been refurbed into flats, it was a damn site nicer than my own house! We chilled there with Patch for a few hours. Had a bit of a smoke and the usual chat about shit. We didnt even realise the time till it was 9pm. I had to head off home, so we left Putup in the safe hands of the new comfy squat the had acquired. We organised to meet him the next day at victoria before heading back down to Graphotism to grab some paint and supplies. After I  had stopped going on about the revok canvas on the wall, and then checking out the little blackbook that was on the counter. We grabbed our paint etc from graphotism, had a quick chill down there as I grabbed some decent shots of the wall that Me, Skam and Must had painted a few months back. Then we headed straight for Clapham, where we had organised to paint in the old squat before the party that evening started.

Aroe NT

We headed straight up to Clapham, made a quick stop at a good old tesco's to grab some burgers, some snacks and then some beer. We then made out way over to the squat. We were the first to arrive and straight away got the bbq fired up. I wish someone had filmed my comical way to light it. I just poured on a fair bit of petrol, which was probably to much now I look back, but it was hilarious. I tried lighting it with some matches, which to my eyes had gone out. So when I chucked them onto the fire and it ingulfed in 5ft flames, nearly burning my face off, I kind of had to laugh. So the coals were kinad starting to warm up at least. I quickly got my paint ready and started my piece. I decided to opt for the anal up the stairs, and around the corner wall. It was nice and big but just a bit painful to paint. I never got a finished photo of my piece but this is what it looked like the morning after. After a long slog of painting inside, choking to death on paint fumes, and after making good use of the bbq for lunch. Me, my girl and Putup just chilled on the roof and in the garden.


 

Stolen from Facebook

As usual we were just chatting shit for hours, but it was nice to talk to another writer with the same kind of views and stuff as you. Especially from someone who has been in the game a fair few years. Some of the stories Putup had were so jokes as well, I could of listened to them in ages. I suppose it helped that he was interested in Tattoo's etc as well, which always means you will have stuff to talk about, but I kind of left and still thought there was still hundreds of things to say. Before the evening was completely in, and it was dark we deaded up to the roof for a proper chill out. We had some weed, and just took in the view from the roof whilst the sun set. It was a pretty cliche thing to do, but at the same time it was something you felt you had to see concidering it was the last day there. We just sat and talked rubbish again. I think we were all still recovering from the dodgey Iroklak paint fumes.

Click for Larger Image

It came to around 11pm and we had to head off. The party had come to be a bit manic as well. People started to ruin the house, which was quite yobbish and fun, but there was still an occupant of the squat staying for a few more days, so it was a bit harsh on his behalf. I think the next day some people helped to clear it up and left it in a fairly organised mess. But we left Putup there as he was going back to the Pimlico squat again that evening. It was a tad crappy to leave as I could of spent a lot longer with him, and wish we had gotten up to some more painting whilst he was over. But with the short notice it was hard to get stuff organised, especialy not having a car at the moment, it makes doing anything painting wise horrible. He had to go back to where he was staying the next day to grab some supplies as he hadnt expected to stay for the one day let alone 3! Annoyingly his trip to Holland the next week, never happened due to school holidays and the prices being so ridiculous. Also me having no time of work booked meant I wasnt free to get up to anything either which sucked big time. I was hoping for some kind of action, or to just help him see a hell of a lot more while he was over.
 

Taking in the View from Claphams Rooftop

I think to sum up the few days, all I can say is its such an experience to just meet people with the same intrests but from other parts of the world. If the oppurtunity ever arises, definatley take it. Even if you dont get up to much, its just nice to be able to spend a day or two with someone that you have never met before. Im hoping he enjoyed his time over here. It was a shame we couldnt even get much exploring/urbex done while he was here, mainly due to the tube exploring situation, but just down to the fact theres not much to do in London anymore. So not that a lot was done, seen or painted, but im just hoping he half enjoyed the little tiny things he got up to in his stay. But definatley check out his blog!

Best girlfriend going!

Putup

Anonymous Actions...

Got some nice action shots sent through, thought they were definitely worth a post. Not often you get to see some nice actions from the UK, hopefully you will all enjoy. Supposedly  the panel wasnt finished so sorry for no finished picture!

Typical Tube Shot...

I took a typical tube shot that most hipster scene kids with a camera have taken...I wanted to be a cool kid for once...

Pentax MX 50mm f1.2 Fuji 800

Must Skam Site Graphotism Wall...

Was given an offer at graphotism to paint the wall just outside the warehouse. It was definatley a nice opportunity, especially when the only writers you see painting it are Aroe, Gary and other NT boys. So it was nice to be able to paint it myself with Skam from JKS and Must from DLC. Was a great days paint, first time I have ever bothered with a bit of a joiner background type thing. I took this joiner a week ago as there was no vans or cars in the way for once. Im still surprised its not been painted over and its been up for a fair few months now!

Click photo to enlarge!