Arsenal 2 Tottenham Hotspur 3

One fan talked of how the win had comforted him through the pain of his dog dying. 

Others were struggling to get out of bed for their Sunday league game, weighed down by a mother of a hangover and sleep deprivation.

Yesterday history repeated itself, although it took seventeen years to do so.

Tottenham Hotspur beat Arsenal or the team many Spurs fans refer to as 'the scum' 3-2 at the Emirates.

One fan described how, "The carnal scenes that followed were akin to something from the Roman Empire as grown men kissed and hugged each other in complete abandon. Shirts were dispatched by the players into the crowd and supporters danced on seats singing “We’re not going home” which they didn’t for a good twenty five minutes after the final whistle."

After the match Tottenham fans were cordoned off by the police and taken on a slow march around Highbury, including a circuit of the old stadium.

Fans were thus afforded all the time they needed to ensure their songs of celebration resonated through the physical fabric and minds of their old enemy.

Strength in numbers brings out the provocative in us all. Walking around Finsbury Park mosque, one of the touring crowd unleashed the Star of David.

The Spurs connection with Jews has often been commented on. Many Spurs fans refer to themselves as the Yid Army although no-one is sure quite why. One obvious link is the number of Yiddish speakers in Stamford Hill, an area which border's on Tottenham's south side.

Yiddish refers to a Germanic language spoken by Eastern European Jews. According to Wikipedia, 'There are well over 30,000 Yiddish speakers in the United Kingdom, and several thousand children now have Yiddish as a first language'


On the subject of football

Check out Tottenham's Ghanain fans' World Cup celebrations.

Round Midnight Jazz and Blues Bar Angel

One of the best nights and warmest welcomes afforded in Angel these days is provided by the Round Midnight Jazz and Blues Bar.

Warmth, swagger, style, blues.

The crowd earthy, sexy and a little unhinged.

Could arguably be taking up from where the Marathon Bar left off.

Free entry.

Link to bar

Wembley Stadium

On the night England were defeated 2-1 by France.

Beyond the North Circular City Cows go Crazy for Carrots

London: half moo - half pavement.


Half green half grey.



In 1966 Time magazine talked of London's ‘Greenness & Greyness.' It noted that ‘Melvin J. Lasky, a London-based co-editor of Encounter, believes that "London is the only European metropolis that has managed to maintain a combination of greenness and greyness, vitality and yet a certain gentleness. Paris hasn't got it. Rome is oppressive, Berlin is a special case. And all the others are villages."

Beyond the North Circular city cows go crazy for carrots.

The Great Brain Robbers - David Cameron, Nick Clegg and George Osborne - Fail Mail Street Art

Fail Mail?

I knew enough about who's who, to begin to chuckle at the site of the guy's Virgin Media overalls.

By the evening time his piece de resistance shone out through the Old Street rain.

This work was put up in a week during which a small minority of 50,000 demonstrators ransacked the Conservative party headquarters, ostensibly in protest against the government's decision to increase the amount universities are allowed to charge students.

"Dead Leg" Clegg read the Fail Mail poster.

Nick Clegg seemed to break rank with the Prime Minister when he claimed, "I really think tuition fees are wrong. I think it is wrong to saddle young people with twenty five thousand quid of debt before they've taken their first step into adult life." This was however, before rather than after he decided to join Cameron in government.

The posters talked of the Oxford gang still at large, and of George Raging Bullingdon. Such a message seems to resonate with other claims made over the past few weeks that the Con-Demed policies constitute more violence on society than the actions of those who broke into Conservative headquarters.


One girl spoke on TV about how she had 'a little cry' with her mother when she realised how much debt she would be saddled with by the time she comes out of university. Girls who don't have mothers or fathers will be left to cry to themselves.

Girls with wealthy fathers, who will pay their tuition fees for them, wont need to cry at all.

It is a thoroughly miserable time to come from a poor background.

Halloween on Old Street - 2010

Model gets the Halloween treatment on Kingsland Road

A witch tried to steady her broom and hat as she searched in her wallet standing at the end of a big queue which stretched to just outside the kebab shop on Old Street.

A lonesome Incredible Hulk wandered across the street, the night for him had come to an end.

Meanwhile a banana and a lamp stand chitted and chatted as they mosied along in their group. An effeminate voice from a passing car softly serenaded, "Hello Banana".

Fake coagulating blood was de rigeur.

Love dressing up.

London - Dunston Road - bikers hit and run

The Flash-BMX Scene

Walking along Regents Canal to Kingsland Road from Hackney - on a dreary cold October night I came across what I thought, from a distance, was an extraordinarily large gang of local kids on bikes.

On closer inspection I found that they weren't the group of territorial thugs I had feared they might be, but were instead a relatively friendly bunch of BMXers setting up two jump ramps. Several guys wearing jeans sagging from their arses, ran here and there, building the ramps out of pieces of wood.

There was a generous crowd of Hoxtonites swilling from bottles, chewing the fat and showing a half-baked interest in proceedings.

I overheard one of the crows criticise a guy that had been pointed out to him by a girl for being 'so generic' - momentarily I felt sick - the girl shrieked with laughter and mocked him for being 'so cruel'.

Chemistry built on sadism.

The police turned up; at first two officers, and then a big van, all illogical it seems, given that the van then reversed back into obscurity - almost as if the whole thing was some ill thought out bit of action in a badly programmed computer game.

Otherwise there were some impressive tricks and moves being pulled - the jumpers or BMXers or whatever you call these practitionres on wheels - put on an awesome spectacle - it was a great way to refresh from what had otherwise been a night of red wine and conversation indoors.

Two kids from the flats across the canal were let out side to watch. They jumped up and down and screamed with excitement.

That's what I love about this place - with so many creative types - you never know what's round the corner.

Questions: Does anyone know if this kind of meet goes on on a regular basis? Any idea who organises these things? When and where the next one is?