BADGES IN BERLIN, BUTTONS IN BERLIN, PINS IN BERLIN.

In Britain we call them badges, in Germany they're called buttons, in the USA they call them pins, but they also like to say buttons as well.
Anyway I had a design emergency recently and neeeeded to make some badgebuttonpins here in Berlin. I tried several places but in the end I found the BEST.
His name is Patty, he makes 100% classic trad 25mm metal badges from the designs you give to him.
Wonderful stuff. Not expensive either.
There's something cool about badges that'll probably always be cool, and when you have a bag full of new ones they make a lovely jingling sound.
Here's Patty's website: www.maechtigeshaeuflein.de.vu

... thanks to Nils for the tip!

Wing Commander

To celebrate my arrival back in Berlin, I'm posting a photo of an unusual pigeon that I met at Schlesisches Tor U-Bahn station on my way to work this morning.
There are a lot of pigeons there.
Rumour has it, they have a fake ticket printing scam.
Want a cheap ticket? Ask a pigeon.
But ACT CASUAL (that's the pigeon rule, dontcha know)!

Wash Hands Before Eating.

I took this photo on my last full day in India, in a busy part of Delhi.
The yellow writing on the wall reads "TO BE DEMOLISHED".
Shortly afterwards, my stomach was demolished.
Didn't take any photographs of that happening though, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Now I'm back in Berlin, rebuilding my stomach with German bread and bananas. All bananas sold in Germany are grown in Dusseldorf, where banana farms cover miles and miles of countryside outside the main city, believe it or not!

BEAR BIN IN BUNDI

I encountered this bear-shaped bin in Bundi.
Is this normal?

JANTAR? MANTAR!

In Jaipur now.
Spent a day taking photos, under the scorching sun, but with an (Indian) umbrella, in this place built a couple of hundred years ago, full of giant Hindu sundials and other astronomical/ astrological instruments. They call them Jantar Mantar.

I call them Gigant Antfarm.
The ants here are HUGE.
(Hindi word for ant is "makora").
There, you just learnt something.
Imagine a Makora Pakora.

BERLIN...DIA!

I'm not in Berlin at the moment.
I'm wandering around deepest Rajasthan in India, shooting an album cover for Shpongle.
Here I am in Alwar two days ago helping a pigeon that my our friend Niranjan rescued from crazed and hungry dogs. Photo clicked by lensmaster Rupert Truman.

People actually like pigeons here - food is left in places all over towns so our featherbrained heroes get enough to eat. Amazing.
The pigeon didn't give me rabies either. Amazing No.2.
I constantly have the feeling that I'm hallucinating here.
INDIA!

Joy To The World

I've just changed the settings on this blog so anyone can post stupid (or not) comments without having to be registerizederized first. Now you have no excuse... apart from the fact that a) you're not reading this blog, and b) you have nothing to say!
Or?

Genius.

Having spent half my life living in London, I'd become totally accustomed to the fact that stuff costs way more than it should and when it arrives (stuff) it's usually a bit disappointing. Money moves very fast... in the opposite direction. That's how it is.
Stuff is cheap in Berlin! I've said it before and I'll probably keep saying it until all my friends move here to be with me and bathe in the glow of genius bargains each and every day.
Not only is it cheap but it's GOOD.
As proof, here's a photo of this morning's breakfast, cost about three quid.
How do they do it?????

Oh, and breakfast was at Cafe Marx, near Görlitzer Bahnhof.
(Wasn't very Marxist though... unless "Seal's Greatest Hits" contains subliminal communist messages - it was playing rather audibly).

Bike! You like?

I've bought a bicycle.
It's shiny and blue and a good deal too: 200 Euros from a shop on Lychener Strasse, not bad for a bike like this. It's a Dutch Sparta and feels like it's made of IRON, and the price includes a year's guarantee. Even better, it has two handbrakes, rather than the annoying "rucktritt" (back-pedal brake) so I don't fall off every time I re-adjust my footing. Now I only fall off when I drink too much.

I slice down the streets like a hot knife through German butter!
Sparta, I love you.

Water... from the SKY!

For weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks now, it's been hot and sunny or even very hot and sunny almost every day. Almost like summer! Yesterday night it rained though and luckily I was there on Shönhauser Allee with my camera so you won't think I'm lying.
I can truthfully say I miss the rain.
But I won't.