Raindrops in Manchester, Bunko my kitten, North Face ipod gloves, not daft woollen mittens, parcels from Amazon tied up with string, these are a few of my favourite things. And here are the rest…
- My Swiss Army Knife. *
- My signed Henry Rollins books. **
- My ‘Life on Mars’ jacket. ***
- My collection of pop up books. +
- The Family Slide Collection. ++
- Handbags. +++
- Baseball Boots. ~
- Moleskine Notebooks. ~~
* I don’t carry it around but I do love it very much because it’s so useful (yeah I know that’s the point). It’s small and doesn’t have the horses hoof thingy which is ok because I don’t have a horse.
** I have several books with very nice messages written in them. I’ve exchanged the odd email with Hank in the past and some of the messages relate to stuff from the emails we’ve sent each other. I once sent him a link to a second hand books website and he found something he had wanted to read since he was a kid and was really excited about it. He sent me a reply saying ‘Thanks for the turn on’. That one made me blush.
*** My office used to be the ‘Life on Mars’ production office and when they moved out they left a few random things behind including two old seventies style coats. They sat in the corner on the floor for months and so I started wearing one of them. It was never claimed so I have had it ever since. I love it dearly and have worn it a great deal. It is a greeny brown army style jacket with deep pockets and I used to jokingly tell people that it belonged to John Simm until I heard someone repeating it in all seriousness.
+ I currently have about half a dozen with my favourites being by Robert Sabuda. I like having movable books where all the bits work properly and nothing’s ripped. I think this might be a hangover from being at primary school with knackered pop up books. Some pop up books are engineered very badly so I don’t buy just anything.
++ Forget the stereotypes about sitting looking at boring holiday slides, I think slides are great. As a kid I loved sitting in a darkened room looking at pictures I rarely got to see. I love the colours of seventies pictures. I love the retro furniture and fabrics. I love seeing my parents looking young and cool. Why were slides so wonderful? Perhaps because viewing them was an event in itself.
+++ I’m a bit obsessed by handbags which is apparently just like one of my Grandmothers so it’s genetic and I can’t help it. I have a weakness for good quality designer bags (not the hideous ones covered in logos) but I am very good about using them daily for years and years which brings the price-per-wear right down. I currently use two bags on a regular basis; a Mandarina Duck for weekends and a Radley for work.
~ I love baseball boots. I am probably too old for baseball boots although I did see Paul McCartney wearing some and he’s ancient. Seeing my boss wearing a pair of Converse boots has put me off that particular brand a bit so I tend to wear Vans or Vision.
~~ I keep a diary and this is the only kind of notebook I use. I can’t remember how I discovered them but they are amazingly cool. I like the pocket in the back and their uniformity. So far I have filled about eight but I am quite lazy about keeping my diary and only write it about once a week so a Moleskine can last me a year.