I saw my ex the other day and we had a laugh at our daggy hats, it was practicality over style that wins the day as you get older. I told her how I wear high-visibility clothing after work so people leave me alone and street salespeople don’t approach me. Also how I would wear a legionnaires hat to deflect the police when I was painting legal walls. It is all quite funny but says a lot about the society we live in. 

That got me thinking about some of my antics in the late eighties as a graffiti artist when I would dress like a derelict and shuffle around with bags of spray paint on solo missions. Sometimes to get to a wall you had to walk through areas the police patrolled and if you looked like a derelict they left you alone. You couldn’t just catch the bus at 2 am you had to walk and cover a lot of ground. 

It was a big effort to get to certain walls on the train lines that were not close to where I lived at the time. These days it is all about fine tea and a session of QiGong, work, family and the occasional chance to paint.