2.

Never have a bath before your street art has been placed. Otherwise you have to go out in pyjamas, and no matter how big a coat you wear, no matter how cool your suede boots are, you are still in pyjamas. And everyone knows. Not that many blink an eyelid round here. I've seen mums in the school playground in pyjamas. In fact since the invention of that weird and wonderful body suit for grown-ups we all know and love as the 'onesie' I've seen grown men, hard nut-smoking-baseball-hat-wearing-men, wearing pyjamas in broad daylight on these streets. And don't try to tell me they aren't pyjamas. They're pyjamas.

But, still, I was embarrassed and though I headed to the pub on the corner way after what in my day would be closing time, it was still heaving. Please no one come out and catch me. I hung one on the bike rack outside. Two guys came out just as I discovered my bit of wood to tie it on was not long enough. I didn't look up. Or connect with them in any way. I just carried on, fully engrossed in fitting a heart to the bike rack. At midnight. In my pyjamas. I do this everyday. It's all totally normal.

This being Hackney, of course, they totally ignored me too. All totally normal. I remember a friend of mine once saying it was the only place in the country you could go to an Ash Wednesday service and leave without needing to wipe off your ash mark. He reckoned it was because there were so many more much weirder 'looks' out there. In retrospect I think the fact that he was black probably helped too.

Oh and then to photograph or not to photograph. I've always really resisted that sense that if you haven't photographed an event you feel as though it didn't really happen. And especially in this social media age I have been skeptical of people needing to photograph/locate/tweet/update every damn thing they do, as though nothing has any agency unless recorded. Yet there's my heart. And there's my phone. And I can't escape the fact that I want to record it. But it's dark and iphones are crap in the dark. Good job it's still there the next day! But it is something I am reflecting on... how would the daily discipline differ if  I didn't photograph it? Would I dare to leave them in riskier places? Mind you, outside a pub at midnight in Hackney in your PJs seems pretty risky to me!