Bartolomy’s Diary

It’s the last day of the year and 5 years since the millenium have passed already……….

Hanging out in the Dragon Bar tonight for a few me thinks….meanwhile been sorting flower shots out, made more scans and edited the existing ones, was a full day’s work, here are some results.

We hit casa Wills @ half 8 in the evening where his missus Julie is preparing cocktails for everyone, Jeremy H. and his mate Toby are there too and “Mr Maxim” Paul Burgon, with his charming g/f Hik (I hope I spelled this right…) who confides to me not to mention his weight gain, to which I regretabbly reply that I can not do that and use this in the next conversation with the wannabe Irish heifer…..it even gets to a point where bellies are being compared……..it doesn’t stop there I am affraid……

Next is J.H. of Zimmer who tells me he has gained some of his weight back, I wouldn’t have dared to say so myself, the fatkins diet has obviously failed ….

We end up going to the pub for one just before closing time, a fine idea by Director Wills who starts to look worse for wear, then back home and the dirty dancing begins…… I could say a lot more but I think I let the pix do the talking. We leave at 3 am and must admit we had a very nice time, do like going out locally…….

X-mas was great, spent X-mas day in bed and watched films The Island which was ok…..then saw Enduring Love which I thought was really good. And finally saw Ray which was great too.
In between movies Terri and I went for a walk, walked thru Abney Park and took a few medium format b/w pix.

On boxing day it was of to Essex and spent all day with Terri’s fam., great fun and a lot of food…..
The next day we hung at Terri’s parent’s and left in the afternoon to see Lesley and Mick in Shoeburyness and indulged into the leftover grub and washed that down with various bottles of Stella.
It then started to snow big time……and we were forced to leave early (just to make sure coz it did look overwhelming), by the time we reached Pitsea there was not a flake to be seen……….

Today sales site, sales site and more off it, added another 200 images, and the sub total is close to 1,100 images sofar.

Tonight it is drinks @ casa Wills………..time for some chatz :-0 It seems that digi cam is working again, how this can be is beyond me, it still will have to be checked anyways but will take some shots tonight.

Tomorrow I am going to hang some frames inside the house.

Friday prolly off to Richmond On Thames to drop the camera off.

Well from those intentions on Friday came nothing, as just b4 I intended to leave I saw a blinking light on the back of my camera, I called Nikon support to find out about this, and they tell me it is a common matter that they discovered recently about a component that needs replacing…..great, this is something that just would not have happened with a film camera……

Instead I end up adding 200 pix to the sales site that day, and the next….I figured I’d make myself a tad usefull., I did not fancy a 2 hour trek to Richmond On Thames on a Thursday afternoon just b4 the holidays to drop a camera off that will just lie around for 2 weeks anyways……. so no F5 and no D70 as well…….well I still have me Pentax 67 so all is not lost, and as I have not shot film in ages I decide to shoot x-mas etc. in large format…..
We are off on Boxing day to Essex (”da hood”) and then the next day prolly visist some friends as well, while we are there…..

Seems that Andrew Wills is throwing a lil’ partee on the 28th, quite fancy that, that is if he hasn’t gotten cold feet already……

Saw King Kong last night and must say it was pretty good, normally I am not into all this CGI stuff at all, and sometimes it was a tad overdone. New York in the ‘20 looked far too polished for my liking.

Spoke to Russel who admitted he had been “on it” all day after as well, I am jealous…………..
the rest of the pix from last Saturday can be seen HERE

Meanwhile the sales site is getting filled, something I neglected as well, did about 35 last night and today already added 50 odd…..it is tedious and repetitive but it has to be done. Should have something ready within the next few weeks…..Then also the blog and the portfolio site will be all merged and housed under the bartolomy.com url…. right now the sales site is under lock and key

Going for a run, then pick my F5 up at Graham Playford and then it is off to shoot a few frames of Brian, I may shoot some film…..if I remember how to insert the canister :-0)

Food and wine @ EV was nice (part of the Tas restaurants near Waterloo) and also great to see Ben and Sally and catch up with bits. On our way back the train came grindingly to a halt just inside Kings X station as someone had jumped in front of it.

Yesterday working on the-b3nch, paperwork and such….and found some old negs from the Milano days (owwww beware !). Shot in 1991 me thinks, yours truly at its fattest, 50 pounds heavier :-0, and Gallina, ow…those were the days. Da dude in pink is Derek Rocky Carter Strand, and those girls…..well I have no recollection of them at all…..

Today more b3nch, more paperwork and also have the design for lebook sorted, extra great yah0000z to Harry.

Had a lovely dinner (we arrived a fashionably 2 hours l8) at Russel and Matt’s place in Hackney Wick, hope to shoot some pix there sometime soon.
Terri said the pix look like taken in a school youth center……….

Tonight it is off to Waterloo and have a meal with Ben and Sally at the Ev’s.

The stairs are done for now, the banister will be taken care off in the new year when we have picked new bits to replace it with. Them stairs are the best looking ones in da street for sure (it wants to be after 7 days work).

I have talked to Harry who will make me my Lebook design who have been chasing me for weeks, it will have 4 pix (one fashion, Iggy Pop, a flower and one shot of the-b3nch). When ready I will show a screenshot.

Saw a few films as well, Asylum which was pretty good. Then Broken Flowers the new Jim Jarmusch film, with Bill Murray which was great, enjoyed that a lot. Sharon Stone looks hot!!!

Spoke to Dan Bailey, had not talked to him for like 2 years, and he has decided to go freelance good luck m8 :-0

I am thinking of going to Holland again real soon and finish the ebay stuff off for my mom and I have 2/3 weeks left to get my portfolios up to par so will need to sort some prints out as well.

I found some more negatives, still have not found the holy grail with my best stuff, Metallica from aardschok’84 (some great b/w pix), and stuff of Manowar (swords etc.) and a few other bands. I keep suspecting Stefan Schipper, who I remember borrowing my Kiss negs from 1984 (no make-up)……where are they? He tells me he has thrown away loads of the old concert stuff, I am shocked to hear this, and with a bright smile he adds “your stuff was chucked too” better not m8ey coz hell awaits for sure!!!!!!!!!!!

Some pix of: Viv’ Campbell (now Def leppard) and Ronnie James Dio ‘84, Warrel Dane of Sanctuary now Nevermore ‘86
Biff of Saxon ‘82, Manowar ‘84.
Rick Parfitt of Status Quo ‘86 (the only shot I managed to take), Matthias Jabbs of Scorpions ‘83.

Not really looking forward to x-mas, then again ……………. I am looking forward doing absolutely nothing at all……for a few days.

Crystal Suite and I have parted ways, I keep quiet about everything for now, oh well at least the stairs are getting finished :-0)

I went to B&Q yesterday to get me some polystyrene boards and some black paint to get some reflector boards made up as they are needed for Thursday in Selfridges, funny thing is they do not sell them, I walk back and see a couple of guys moving house and guess what, they have 6 boards standing outside, I decided to buy two of them there and then….when I comeback I decide to finish the stairs off once and for all.
The woodfiller I use is a shade darker (on advice from young mr. Wills) however the end result is a complete disaster and it looks like I will have to sand all the corners off again and re do it all again……wahey….

I get an email from Jeremy H., it is quite embarrassing and for future reference it ought to be publicized:

hey bart

just got distracted in the internetcafe and ended up reading your diary. hate to say it but i actually really enjoyed it. good honest reportage with photos that shows the heart that beats behind the six foot seven baby exterior.keep it up. meantime, make up some shit about bumping into me surrounded by fit birds but i was so busy giving away cash from my bulging pockets that i barely had time to talk, so i just gave you some free drugs and a couple of grand and said “happy chrimbo bart…see you on top of the pops.”
or something like that.
keep it real.
jeremy (excellent bloke) h.

Truth is the women he runs into aren’t fit at all and I’ll see you on TOTP behind a zimmer my son!!!

I meet Claudia at Selfridges for a meeting and find out that 400 bookings have already been sold, that equals 4 mths work…..by the way this is going the shop will have to open more than 4 days a week…..I also manage to see the article Olivia did for the Times, for some stupid reason I decided to check the Sunday Times, and not the Saturday one where the article was placed in.
If you wish to see the article then go HERE

I go to Borders and pick up a copy of Shoo magazine that has used the pix of the shoes and the silver. The silver tear sheets are un useable, and the photography and styling credits for the seven page spread are almost hidden, wheras all the other stories have bold type, large format text……………I wonder why.

I then head off to see Brian whois is mid argument with some American sailors, who are pig ignorant “we went there coz we gave them freedom of religion”….oh really…… This goes on for about 20 odd mins and then I happen to start talking to a young lad who stands a few meters away from all this and find out it is his son who has come especially to see him (he lives in Birmingham) as Brian has been nominated for a human rights award.
The award is organised by the human rights campaigning organisation Liberty and Justice and The Law Society and is sponsored by the Bar Council.
I shoot some shots at 1600 iso, as I hate using a flash anyways….and the results are much to my liking…..

I come home and talk to Richard Meerding whois an old army buddy of mine, it has been more than 15 years since we last saw eachother, we decide to stay in touch and meet up on my next visit to Holland for sure. The day before that I spoke to Eddie Kooi on MSN.
Richard da man in his glory days…… :-0

Time for a lil’ reunion for sure…….:-0

Been working on a spread for 125 magazine (to submit a story for their “music” themed issue). I decided to scan my 10 fave shots from the early ’80’s in, thought it would make a nice story.

I found out about a site where a lot of my old army buddies have submitted some info and off course I have been mailing a few….looking forward seeing them.
I also ran into a bunch of army scans from 1987/1988. I will place a few just for the hell of it.

Yesterday Terri’s parents came over and with grand children Liam & Louise, we took them for a brief walk thru Clissold Park, the light was gorgeous could not resist taking a few…..

I just came back late last night from a six day trip to Holland. Been neglecting this site a lot simply as I am over bizzy doing several things, mainly Crystal Suite and I have neglected a lot of other things simply due to lack of time, and this needs to be sorted over the next few weeks.
The-b3nch has been at a standstill, my design for le book still needs sorting, Brian has not been photographed for the past four weeks, I may sneak some in today, website is delayed/neglected

Holland was ok, went to my brother, Monique and the kids for two days, which was nice, and then off to me mom and see me dad in the care home, besides that photograph and write down many items of my dad’s collection which are to be sold on ebay over the next few weeks, like I really need this extra work

I was supposed to meet Claudia, who had forgotten and was in Selfridges instead, so I ended up going towards Brian a bit quicker to find out he was not arround. So after re-checking 2 hours later and he was still not there, so I left pictureless and met Claudia at Salvo’s, where I emerged from 2 hrs later.

Pix: Terri @ Ponti’s at Stanstead (avoid that place!!!), Madeleine @ my brother’s completely fixated by TV, 6 frames and never knew what “hit” her….nuff sed.
Us two taking the train journey back to Rotterdam airport (forget Schiphol!!!!).
My mom in her kitchen watching her soap “Jonge Leu &…” which is a soap spoken in our dialect and is extremely popular and will be shown on national TV as wll, with subs off course heh heh. And Terri ready to be picked up from Stanstead.