Day One Hundred and Four - Hamlet Road, SE19

St Paul's Church, originally built in the 1860s, rebuilt (by the looks of it) in the 1960s.

Merry Christmas everyone and see you on 2nd January.

Day One Hundred and Three - London Bridge Station, SE1

My train was cancelled this morning so I took the opportunity to take an alternative route to work, via London Bridge (and then onto the Jubilee Line to Westminster and the District Line to St James' Park), so that I could take a picture of my favourite billboard ad ever. It's been there years and I laugh every time I see it. I think they both wish he had a bigger package.

Day One Hundred and Two - Victoria Station, SW1

Self Portrait.

Day One Hundred and One - Brewer's Green, SW1

More boozery ('tis the season), this time in Tapsters, a (shudder) wine bar near work. We were saying goodbye to my boss of the last two and three-quarter years. He's a very nice chap and I will miss him, especially as there's still no news about who we'll get in his place. Grrr.

Day One Hundred - Charterhouse Street, EC1

An unofficial one-hundredth-post celebration in The Fox and Anchor, near Smithfield Market with Will. There's a review from the very same night by my new beer hero, Stonch, here. I pretty much agree with him, but I'm still not sure about the pewter mugs and wonder if they're just an excuse to give you short measures. There's a pint line on the outside of the mugs but the barman seemed rather cavalier with the froth and it's not like you can see inside, is it? Very nice beer though.

Those cubey things you can see are the pork scratchings, which are the meatiest "scratchings" I've ever had. Nice.

Day Ninety-Nine - Hamlet Road, SE19

Never noticed this plaque before, but then the area in front of this house has only recently been given a bit of a makeover so it may have been obscured previously . Ira Aldridge was an African-American actor who came to Britain in 1824 and apparently caused quite a stir. It looks like he lived in England for about thirty years, but the plaque is silent over exactly which of those years he spent in Upper Norwood. More info here and (better) here about someone I'd never heard of before. See, those plaques are worth putting up.

Day Ninety-Eight - Victoria Station, SW1

The first signs that they're starting work on the total refit of Victoria Underground Station - the ticket office is now above ground, confusing tourists on a regular basis. Which I'm all for.

Day Ninety-Seven - Victoria Station, SW1

First seasonal sighting of the Salvation Army band. Ding dong merrily on high, etc.

Day Ninety-Six - The Red Rose Club, Seven Sisters Road N7

Went to No Signal at the Red Rose tonight. Beforehand I ate excellent Japanese/Korean food with Dave and Richard at Hana, which is just across the road from the venue and has become a bit of a must-do before gigs there.

The gig was full of fans of Sunn O))), and therefore not yer usual Red Rose crowd. They were there to see Stephen O'Malley of that group play with Oren Ambarchi, who often collaborates with the band. Their set was ok, nothing special, but made better by the application of dry ice at regular intervals. Of the other acts on the bill, Herve Boghossian and Tetuzi Akiyama played a pretty acoustic guitar duet, Mark Wastell (tamtam, pictured above) and Joachim Nordvall (laptop) conjured dark satanic wastelands, and Z'Ev (percussion) and the unspeakably bad Osso Exotico (shit keyboards and electronics) made a bloody awful racket. Nicely put together night though. How do No Signal manage it? Tiny venue, a good mix of big names and names that should be big, and sold out. Well done chaps.

Day Ninety-Five - Cardinal Place, SW1

It's Christmas! Well, nearly. And I'm back with another Finepix f440.

If you want to see what Cardinal Place looks like in daylight (and without a Christmas Tree), watch the new advert for Thorntons, as it was filmed there. The green sculpture in the last shot is the giveaway.

Oh, and the double double double decker bus.

Intermission

You'll be pleased to know that I have a new (to me) camera on the way. With any luck it'll be here by the end of next week.

Meanwhile, here's something to keep you occupied while you (and I) wait for the picture-taking to resume. Foreign readers please note: London still looks exactly like this.