so, what did we buy at the auction ? not much. but what i did get was this fantastic piece of TV memorabilia.

it's a T-shirt, jumper and board game which you can only get from being a contestant on Supermarket Sweep. I got it for £3. no one else bid.

but that means that someone at esther's school has a parent who was on supermarket sweep, won the prize and gave it away to be auctioned for school funds.

Dale Winton himself has apparently touched the merchandise you see below.

click to see it in all its glory

here's tony. he often comments on the blog so you'll know him by his cutting wit. if he looks confused it's because he's lost in music. there's no turning back apparently. yes. he's caught in a trap.

he babysat as we went out auctioning which was very kind of him. and doesn't he looked pleased about it ?

gelatine blows stuff up doesn't it ? not a good plan to put that on your nahds or face surely ? might be good for a face lift if you don't mind your face being a lifted very quickly a few inches above your head.

and why did i say inches. i'm metric boy. through and through.

you suddenly feel a bit old when you become a parent. you suddenly realise you ARE old when you start going to school parents events. where did our lives go ? good job the blog has an archive so i can keep track and answer that question at least for the last year.

meanwhile jane and i went to an auction at esther's school this evening. there were many delights and many expensive items were bought (but not by us).

and how strange to look around and see other parents who we don't know, yet our children may know each other really well.

it's all just too bizarre. luckily there was beer, chocolate and a flappy number to help the auction go smoothly:

the weather is like my head at the moment. full of a thousand different bits of a thousand different things all dropping down at the same time. oh well.

a 6am start working from today quietly downstairs. About 7.45 i heard a thundering noise, the door opened and esther and kezia arrived !

Here they are giving you a good morning wave.

today i have been mostly listening to this. it brings a tear to the eye.

i had a media training thing at work today which was very funny.

here is me (I?) doing an appalling pretend TV interview.

i've got my eyes closed in this picture. i'm probably trying to block the whole thing from my mind.

you'll be relieved to know that i've decided to stick to blogging rather than becoming a TV presenter.

which is why there weren't any bikes attached to this:

someone's obviously bought a school and is selling off the contents. teachers are £20 and children are £15. doesn't say how much dinner ladies are.

this was a car bridge until a few weeks ago. now it's a danger to those below

richard sent me this photo from his car dashboard. it's fantastic. you could wait thousands of years to see a date like this !

here is our friends' dog in a lovely fairy hat.

i've found this question really difficult to answer as i have so much stuff which i really enjoy but there's nothing i would be absolutely gutted if i lost.

so, in the end i decided to give you a picture of my bass guitar for no other reason than i've had it for ages and it's a nice red colour.

20 questions

everything garuanteed

look ! they've painted flowers on it. lovely.

it's tricky being a police man. all that running about and arresting people. luckily they have a catering corp who arrive at crime scenes and offer people a nice relaxing british cuppa.

"now you just sit down love, there's a cup of tea on the way. there you go. now can you explain why you are carrying that blood stained axe ?"

remember this squiggle ?

well another one has turned up next to it:

to me this represents a massive rain cloud dropping rain on the earth. but i could be wrong.

some days i think my morning walk from paddington to tottenham court road is a little excessive. particularly when it's raining.

rain is brilliant though. massive drops of water simply falling from the sky. excellent.

here is a street cleaner and a bus in the rain. i think it looks nice so i've given you a big version you can use as your desktop picture if you like.

(click for big)

life is an education. especially if you are teacher. i have to make do with learning from looking. today i learnt that tellies won't work if you leave them in the rain.

postboxes are like open woulds and letters are like the salt we rub in to the wounds. the postmen are the skilled doctors who tend the wounds and make them well.

sometimes the wounds get infected as you can see here.

this mail box is for stamp mail only, which means letters regarding philately.

People aren't as interested in stamps now we've got the magical Internet. for example, i've got a lovely collection of email headers nicely mounted in an album which i regularly analyse with a magnifying glass

another numbered mini

here's a flower i saw near paddington station this morning. it's nearly black which is an unusual colour for a flower (because bees are scared of the dark and won't go near black flowers for fear of being sucking in to eternal torment).

of course in the light of my office it now looks dark purple and is therefore a pointless slightly battered flower picture.

here's two trees having a sack race up a street. it'll be egg and spoon tomorrow and a three trunked race on wednesday.

the highlight will be the parent trees race on friday when a number of extremely competitive giant pine trees will come barging down the street (much to the embarrasement of the junior trees).

lost. a tortoise shell cat. or was that a cat skinned tortoise ?

marylebone high street is the place to spot fast moving celebrities / millionaire dot-com business people. here is martha lane-fox.

i could have got a photo of her from the front but she was carrying loads of bags and talking on her mobile and i was a bit embarrased so i waited until she'd passed.

will you just LOOK at the size of those turnups !

bill bailey once said "hardest job in the world - selling doors door-to-door"

there are lots of crazy people in london. it makes you wonder where all the lost marbles went. i found one. near a hospital (but not a mental hospital)

wobbly bridge with the globe and tate modern on the other bank

i heard this morning on the radio that they are going to make a knightrider movie. at that moment i was standing by this sign.

how spooky is that ...

looks like he couldn't do hair either:

just when i thought i'd seen them all, here's another type of street cleaner:

i'm starting to really love spam after a period of finding it very annoying.

it's thanks to the random combinations of words they put together to get through the spam traps. here are two i received today.

how would you charade them ?

we went out cycling this afternoon in the blistering heat with esther (still painted like a dog) on jane's tag-a-long and kezia on the back of my bike.

there are bluebells everywhere this year and they look fantastic.

There's god right.

And he sent jesus his son ok.

and he died so we don't get what we deserve when we die essentially.

and jesus has gone back up to heaven, but will come back basically.

and meanwhile we have the holy spirit who is like god being with us in the interim marvellously.

and the holy spirit is a bit like the wind (in that he blows all your sermon notes off the lecturn if you aren't careful).

he is the fan outside the church on the way home.

we had our annual church meeting today which is always good fun. there was a nice competitive edge as there were 10 nominees for 9 places on the PCC (the church council).

i didn't let you down, dear readers, and got voted back in. hoorah.

meanwhile the children went to the church hall and were painted (and treated?) like animals by some nice volunteering ladies.

it's becoming traditional to have someone at church looking like they are smoking but not. last time it was kezia and today it was Big Eye Tony. He's using a cheesy bread stick thing as a cigar to comical effect.

Interestingly he's holding a pad of paper which has the words Big written. It may have said Big Eye. i'm not sure.

here are lots of people eating nuts and other breakfast options

jane has the gift of hospitality as can be seen in this photo,

Richard, along with his wife julia and daughter bethany, stayed the night at our house. Richard and Julia slept on the inflatable bed which takes about an hour of manual labour to inflate. By the time i had finished i was ready for bed.

Depending on what you think the photo looks like then it's not what you think it looks like. it's actually jane and richard checking whether there is enough air in the bed.

you'll be pleased to know there was.

we decided against sewage and went to hillier gadens instead. it was most excellent and the weather was excellent.

here is the entrance:

and here are jane and kezia amongst the folliage:

i've just been researching what to do as a family activity today and this caught my eye. it's the Reading Trail. Looking at the map, it looks like you get some good nature to observe:

sewage works, gravel pit, other works, a weir, a main road, a television trasmitter and some electricity pillons. what more could you want for in a family day out ?

cheese and potato pie (mashed potato with cheese on), ketchup, top of the pops and subtitles. lovely.

i found this yesterday, and can you believe it, i forgot about it until just now !

this is boy 48 and is now posted on davescollections

just a few hours later, it's like this. nature's quite amazing really.

i went with jane and kezia to take esther to school this morning so i know what to do. on the way back we saw this abandoned scooter.

i suspect it was abandoned by some 4 year old joyrider. it's lucky it wasn't set on fire. or perhaps it was an insurance write-off and is waiting for the local scooter garage to come and take it away.

so as to avoid making too much noise i popped outside whilst the kettle was boiling and was amazed by all the little water droplets on the lawn. they looked fantastic and the lawn was covered in them. these pictures don't really do them justice.

i'm working from home today which usually involves getting up early and trying to put some hours behind me before the family wakes up.

that's my best working time and it also means i can finish my working day earlier.

sitting wirelessly in our dining room, listing to Air's Moon Safari very quietly in the background i spot the door stop.

i know that if i pull it back and let it go it will make the most amazing boinging noise and wake the whole family up.

i know that's a very bad idea, but now i've got the idea in my head it's difficult not to do it ...

as i walked back to my house this evening there were loads of fresh baby birds making their first excited airborne voyage. they sang nice tunes to celebrate the gift of flight

a vicious unbrella handle:

this van sells stand-by fire protection. i was glad to see this in action. it's a street based fire extinguisher.

here's a piece of paper with some writing on it. i thought it was referring to Jags at a little chef, but i don't think it is.

here's a comedy thing. it's two guys at either side of the road holding a piece of string between them. the string was a few centimetre off the ground a represented a significant tripping hazard.

i wondered if it was a cunning trick to make people trip over in the middle of the road (perhaps they work for the local funeral directors, or were resting paramedics).

they would have been better off doing this kind of thing on the pavement. if they had lifted the string high enough they could have knocked people's hats off.

If they were trying to catch cars then i don't think a piece of string is the answer. that's like trying to catch an oil tanker with a kids fishing net. sort of.

the milkman now has a telly, a bar stool and an exercise rowing machine on the back of his float. something for every occasion.

since that miracle eye-sight cure was launched a few days ago people have been abandoning glasses and lenses everywhere.

another sign pointing to the illusive platform 9

it's been a day for finding odd shapes that look like other things. there was the wombat this morning and now here's a little dog made out of wet pavement i saw when i finally made it back home.

one advantage of having a bonus two hours in paddington was spotting two new numbered signs

ho hum. there's been a security scare at a station outside london this evening so there are no trains from paddington station at the moment going home for me. so i'm trapped with only a free wifi connection and a carton of ribena for company.

it's great for people spotting though. i just bumped in to an ex-colleague i haven't seen for nearly 10 years.

here is a picture of lots of people from my lofty pirch. it doesn't really convey the chaos down there at the moment:

we always put our customers first (except when there's a fire)

i like to spot chairs. and cupboards. and here both are chained together.

a cupboard with castors can make an ideal urban vehicle.

what's this ? andy thinks it could be a wombat. but who's andy ?

a slight movement closer to the road since yesterday. i hope this isn't a suicide attempt.

here are some ducks in a row at paddington station:

and here is an escapee a few miles away near Harley Street. it's nice weather for ducks today so it should be ok:

remember nigel havers ? well i saw him again today. in paddington station this time. he's my most photographed spotted celebrity. (i've seen Simon Pegg three times and Dennis Norden three times, but only snapped them once each). Nigel's IMDB entry is here

click for big version

just when i thought i wasn't going to see any more numbered signs in paddington station i saw this. it's page 123.

i thought the purpose of a census was to extract information on members of society so we all know where and who we are. when it happens everyone has to take part else it's not a proper census.

it's certainly not the case that we are all doing our own census and can pop in if we want to ask our own questions as is implied by this sign.

i didn't require a census so i walked a different way (i hobbled)

here is a sign in a tunnel. i assume it was put up by the street people who live in it. they were probably annoyed by all the tourists chatting whilst they were asleep in their cardboard boxes.

"shush. tramps sleeping" would have worked better

these wires on are the south bank near the ITV studios. when i worked at a previous place i walked past this space every morning and enjoyed the occasional glimpse of GMTV being presented al fresco.

i once saw dale winton and loraine kelly you know.

it's well known that celebrities don't operate correctly unless they are literally wired in to a television studio. these wires indicated to me that there had been some celebrity interest at a point earlier in the day and i had missed it.

oh well.

london is a higgledepiggldy place. it's not uncommon to find two building next to each other with a random overhead tunnel connecting them. often these walkways are angled up or down to reflect the different levels of floor heights in the adjacent building.

but what if one building is built at 90 degrees to another ? what if one building has gravity working downwards, but the one next to it has gravity working sideways ?

well, the answer is to have an overhead tunnel with a rotation slightly built in.

if you come to london you really should track this amazing gravitational altering device out. It's in Covernt Garden next to some theatre.

Our friends' bands Pure Reason Revolution have their debut single out this week. it's most excellent.

They are on Poptones which is Alan Magee of Creation records label.

here are some CDs and vinyl in Virgin Records on Oxford Street:

this bin moves around a fair bit. yesterday it was by a bollard further down the street. today it's in the middle of the street.

i find this very interesting and will try and keep an eye on it for you.

a double finder this evening. firstly i saw an abandoned jacket on my tube train so i reported it to a guard as i thought it could be considered a 'suspect package'.

the guard wasn't that bothered and just picked it up and swung it over his shoulder, which isn't the best way of diffusing a potentially terrorist situation. but at least then we knew it was't a bomb.

then, when i got to Paddington station i found these glasses on the platform. i picked them up and took them to a guard, who, guess what, wasn't that bothered. he tried to give them back to me. i said "they're not mine, i just found them" but he wasn't convinces, so I ran off to get my train.

there was a great thunder storm this afternoon when i was in a meeting. i took this photo a couple of minutes before whilst the clouds were gathering.

they are doing up the whole area round St Pauls and it looks great (it'll look even better when they've finished sandblasting the cathedral itself).

i noticed today that they've put up these heads on sticks.

the sculpturer is great at faces, but is lacking when it comes to hats and bodies.

or perhaps they are people with really long knecks and their bodies are underground ? if you go down to St Paul's tube station you can see their feet dangling through the tunnel ceilings. possibly.

i worked near this clock for 3 years but never spotted it. funny how time sometimes passes by without us noticing.

this wasn't actually an abandoned glove, but it was nicely positioned for a photo with St Paul's in the background.

this theatre is proudly advertising nothing. all it's advertising had been painted black. but they still had all the fancy light bulbs illuminating it.

i just received the following from my friend elton:

just a note to say, if you put a convex mirror in the corner of your lounge, you can get the reality T.V. experience without electricity or licence fee!(you can have an argument with yourself, whilst you drink tea, and look around the room at the same time!) love to all.

P.S. the mirror could be used for games if you can think of any!

a cigarette and a pen. both straight items. both lost in the street.

it's esther's first day at school today:

and here's a sad jane and kezia:

following the huge popularity of my pants last week, here are some new pants. i bought these in Reading on saturday for £3.50. they are cream and brown and made of a very unpleasant towelling material.

you can almost taste the quality.

read this book. it is MOST excellent.

i accidentally read the adult version which has got a more cartoony cover instead of the kids version which has an old people's boring cover. i suspect the kids version has the swearing taken out.

it's one of the best books i've read in a very long time. here is my copy with it's half price sticker on it.

it was raining so esther and kezia made some hats. they are made of paper. and so were the hats.

esther's hat is actually a paper canoe, whilst kezia went for the simple chef's hat .

we were invited for lunch round at rachel's house today after church, along with our friends clive and heather. it was very relaxing and the food was great.

here are esther and kezia with Rachel doing some plo-doh (as kezia calls it):

and here is clive playing with some nails:

and heather with kezia:

here is my usual breakfast - nut muesli. i've tried to seperate the different nuts in to their own sections for your enjoyment.

kezia has been most entertaining this morning. she started the day by marching round the house banging her drum whilst playing the kazoo.

and later she instisted on carrying the plastic santa all round town whilst we went shopping.

here are esther and kezia on the train:

christians are good a corny slogans. that makes me proud.

(via i like)

20 questions

and here's the second song: Skin In My Bin MP3 (386KB).

it's a story of a man who loves a woman too much with a catchy singalong chorus

i promised that if you didn't provide any good suggestions i'd give you some music from when i was a poor student. the poverty was not just financial, it related to talent too.

so here's the first one: Good Looking MP3 (845KB)

It's some old folk set to music. back then i had very long hair, but i don't think i looked too much like a girl.

i was completely un-indated with photos for the readers faces celebratory annual blog gallery exhibition.

if you ever comment on the blog or ever pop by for a read then send me a photo and i'll add you. it's nice to see who we all are !

maxx and sarah (and thomas):

tony and brother edd:

cheryl and michelle:

26 questions

have you noticed the trend for spam to include random nouns ? i just got one with the subject line which includes "exorcist fireproof buttercup lacquer"

but what use those random nouns ? it seems a shame to delete all those spams when they've obviously been sent especially to my email account by someone who genuinely thinks i want to buy their product (i don't, but the spammer doesn't know that).

So, i propose that you print them out and use them for your name game of spam charades.

we'll need to work on this idea together a bit more.

for starters, what is the indicator which the performer has to do to indicate that the thing they are miming is a Spam ? If you can describe it, i'll try miming it and take a photo to add to this entry (which is currently photoless)

after my lunchtime square dinner, it seemed appropriate to have a round tea. so pizza it was. with big eye tony.

here is something you don't see everyday. unless you work in a factory which makes them i suppose. but i don't, so i don't.

notice the early evening shadow. lovely.

here's a classic celebrity spot - it's Simon Callow, of 4 weddings and a funeral fame. he was walking down the road in the opposite direction to me and by the time my camera he'd got a long way !

But it definately was him.

waitrose is posh. as is Marylebone High Street. but not posh enough to have hands on it's posh waitrose at marylebone clock.

here is a sign about a found cat. i don't think this is the same cat that was previously lost (unless it's in disguise, which it could be, because cats are quite cunning).

however, i wonder if the original cat loser would be interested in taking in this newly found cat. i have telephone numbers for both parties from the signs, so i could arrange a meetup.

here is a nice clock chiselled out of stone. it's probably stone age or something

hoorah. one year of blogging completed today. people i've mentioned this to have said:

"only one year ? it feels like longer".

i'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

i went for lunch with colleagues today in Brick Lane which is famous for curries. a new restaurant had opened which sold .... curries.

if you want to find it, simply walk down Brick Lane. it's on the right and is between two other curry houses.

the restaurant and food was very nice. but there weren't any plants in the plant holders:

and there weren't any fish in the fish tanks:

but luckily they served nice square meals:

i've never been to the tower of london. i know others have and have said it's very good. here is a photo of it from when i popped out of Tower Hill tube station earlier.

some people just don't get the hang of easter. here are a load of christmas cards i saw near harley street this morning.

look what they did to the chair. they've put it in a body bag but haven't taken it away. why would anyone do such a thing ?

i like collections. i've even got a collection of underpants.

here they are. click for a good look.

here is someone dressed as a dinosaur (or could be a dragon) trying to convince people to buy a camera. unfortunately there weren't many people walking down the street so (s)he didn't have many people to talk to.

it also meant that anyone who did walk past got a very warm welcome. which was not always welcomed.

i'm not convinced this was the best marketing strategy for the shop in question.

if i walk really fast i can get to the far side of London Zoo and back in my lunch break.

i don't have time to do anything when i get there, but it's a nice walk on a nice day

you can see quite a lot without going in:

maxx asked for something uplifting after the sad chair and zimmer frame pictures. so here it is.

a magic lifting ladder which just appeared outside my window:

funkypancake - you ask and i'll blog it !

look at this poor zimmer frame. it's jack-knived. i hope no one got hurt.

probably a pensioner trying it for speed and took a corner too fast:

this is obviously a common occurance as they have special breakdown lorries to collect them:

here is a little bit of photo. i looked around and couldn't find any more so it won't make it to davescollections

there was a standoff between the automated cleaner on the right and the pushalong cleaner on the left.

by the time my camera had booted up they were on opposite sides of the road (the pushalong cleaner had pushedalong).

still, a nice street tableau i'm sure you'll agree.

the usual two minis were parked next to each other and this one was just round the corner ...

this poor chair has been abandoned outside a restaurant. its front legs are missing.

the other chairs sit and laugh from the window of the restaurant. they think they are so prim and proper.

but they too could be so easily cast out in to the street.

but i look again and i see that i was mislead. the chair outside is kneeling and bowing its head in homage to the king and queen chairs through the glass.

it is a scene of respect and not pitty. how wrong i was

Marleybone High Street is a very fashionable place, so where better to see what this summer's fashion is likely to be ?

i just hope this summer is going to be a warm one (the reflection in the window is deliberate so to preserve at least some modesty).

remember this ? well it ended up in a magazine like this (full page on the left and blown up on the right):

i've become nothing more than a commodity. a brand to be bought and sold on ebay. there'll be taxidermists knocking at my door next.

i was alarmed to see that the cleaners have sacked a bin. what did it do wrong ? or was it simply putting their own jobs at risk by providing a place for people to put their rubbish ?

i just hope that other bins don't hear about this and start an uprising. where would be without bins ?

it's been a while since i last reporting on the mad london milkman. with the warmer weather, he's finally got himself a fridge for the back of his float. and a vacuum flask.

i'm still not convinced he's totally right for the job.

26 questions

the funkypancake blog turns one year old on the 16th April 2004 (this friday). so what shall we do to celebrate ? it's up to you.

if you don't come up with anything decent i'll submit you to some of my old songs (like the 6th month anniversary). and then you won't be happy.

or should we have a junior pop idol contest ? or a lost glove-a-thon ? or a random-misinterpreted-street-sign.

or should i invest in a spellchucker and/or thessorious ? or more dressing up ?

READERS' FACES

if you are a regular reader or an irregular reader or even just a random picture looker, then send me a photo of yourself and i'll compile a Readers' Faces with links back to your blog if you want (a bit like the commenters' links page)

Send your photos and suggestions to blog@funkypancake.com

esther takes photos at Polesden Lacey. At least she did last year.

Here is a family portrait.

(tony please note - i'm smiling in this picture)

we went to Polesden Lacey today. we went last easter too. there was no chalk fire engine this time.

however, there was this funny little animal which popped out of a clump of grass next to where we were having a picnic. it was shaped abit like a mini-squirrel but without the tail and was very jumpy. it was also quite ferret like.

we've not a clue what it was. any thoughts ? i managed to get some photos of it as it popped it's head up. it was quite small and far away, hence the poor resolution:

update: as sandi spotted, it's probably a weasel:
here and here

oh dear. but now i'm not sure if it was actually a Stoat.

Apparently, "the stoat is sometimes mistaken for its close relative, the weasel, but it is larger and has a distinctive black tip to its tail, whereas the weasel's tail is all brown". we have no tail pictures to investigate. i don't think i saw black on the tail.

if it were a weasel, perhaps it tricked us

yeah. i get my pillow back tonight.

is it a coincidence that this appeared here today ?

so what did i learn ? not sure.

certainly that i need chocolate more than my pillow (the longest i managed giving up chocolate was 5 days).

i also learnt that if i'm tired enough i'll sleep with a degree of discomfort.

we had a second easter egg hunt later in the day:

jane hid one in the lock of the garden shed which seemed a nice idea until it got stuck. oops:

raw materials supplied by Aunt Bessy, but expertly cooked and delivered by Jane.

we had our friends over today. it was tony and his family.

it was nice so we sat in the garden. jane served the drinks through the window. but it didn't open enough. so people had to stoop to order.

i spotted it. the first ant of 2004.

i've posted pictures of esther and kezia shifting our guitar gear in and out of church many times before. kezia is really getting in to it now though. in this one she appears to be smoking a fag (it's actually a white chocolate finger biscuit)

easter certainly brings out the vicars. we had a really good service at church this morning - it was family service (kids stayed in) and there was a communiion. it was a real celebration of what God, through Jesus, did.

there was also a baptism of one of our friends' children which added to the fun. they brought their own vicar with them so there were two official vics there.

and then there was matthew, seen here. he's also a vicar but you wouldn't know to look at him standing their with his Easter bucks-fizz champagne.

we all stood around pondering the power of the resurrection and the fantastic things that God does whilst drinking champagne and scoffing cake.

bucks fizz and chocolate cake makes a good alternative communion.

at our old church they give out grapes to children in the communion which is a nice idea. they should wrap them in breadcrumbs - that would be even better

we all got up at 7am this morning to search for easter eggs in the garden. it was a bit chilly, but good fun.

we also learn readers wear their hats on the following occasions/reasons:

• when I have exceptionally bad hair
• when I want to get ahead
• when i go see my boy =)
• always!!
• when I'm in the jungle
• baseball games
• when i'm feeling too lazy to make my hair look inoffensive to passers-by
• to hide bad hair
• for medical reasons

and my favourite:

• while drinking gin

26 questions

we went to Clandon House which is a National Trust place today. When we arrived it was raining so we became our own parents by suggesting we had a picnic in the car. jane really didn't enjoy it (as seen here).

Then the girls did a quiz to find easter eggs in the growns which was most excellent.

it's Good Friday today so we spent the day out in the funkypancake estate.

jane did all the work as i am totally rubbish at anything gardeny. here are some grass clippings in a bag.

i saw this sign on a seat in a very posh furniture shop. ideal instructions for the easter period

i'm always disturbed to see big chunks of hair in the street.

or what ? or nothing ?

the classic two options: take it or leave it.

this window is covered in wet paint. perhaps it's special invisible paint which can turn an old wall in to a window. what a great idea that would be.

i do see some drawbacks with it though. young people would go round the neighbourhood painting on people's walls just to annoy them.

i have proposed to the makers that for privacy reasons it's probably best that they invent a two sides version - ie when you paint on the outside wall the effect is only visible to those on the inside who can then see out. If you want to see in to a house then you'll need to paint the inside wall.

For a window-effect as seen here, you'd need to paint both sides

mmm. chocolate. lots. everyday.

here's some of what's in the fridge:

26 questions

i suspect someone misunderstood when they said they were going to clean up the streets of london. 500 rolls of toilet paper was probably not the solution they were looking for.

is this man about to land on a dog ?

when the huggin gets nasty it turns in to wrestling.

another picture of the london gherkin for your delight.

this incivility (is that a real word) is spreading

and this on the roof of the bin:

here is a sign of a fire hose. it's nice to see a spiral.

it isn't an actual fire hose, it's just a drawing of a fire hose. ideal for fighting pretend fires perhaps.

camera, wallet, phone, pedometer and prescription pain killers:

26 questions

xfm have added a faster, better quality streaming stream to their live stream (on a boat on a stream probably). you have to download the abacast client and it takes a whle the first time to get gong.

so now you can listen to top music and have a chuckle (particularly the 4-7pm UK time shows)

i love it when something is labelled to say it's not doing what it should do. it simply draws more attention to the object in question.

puddle duck would have been even better:

and a hill for hugging is a nice idea. unless you get court hugging the wrong person:

this cashpoint is brokened. so they've put a little sign on it which is a nice idea. i like the way there is a receipt hanging out the top right hand slot of the machine.

the machine itself obviously thinks it's working - or is it just sticking its paper tongue out at us in a style of mockery.

remember they painted over elvis ? well, he coming back (thanks to the black paint wearing off)

in the oldened days they used to put heads of criminals on spikes in London. to commemorate and to see if there is public support for such practices to be revived, someone has left their hat on these spikey railings.

just like the other one, only one week and four hours later

self portrait in the house of commons loos

i was lucky enough to be invited along to a reception at the House of Commons on the Terrace overlooking the river. it was mad weather which made for a good rainbow and a nice sunset.

pages 57 and 136

pages 85 and 78

page 44

there's a photo on the shelf behind this man's head. but is it a lost photo ? i don't know. and i didn't ask. everyone loves a mystery.

this canal boat looked quite vulnerable coming down the thames amongst all the big boats.

here is a concreted-over door a set of gates attached.

it's a double security feature.

26 questions

the upstairs of this shop in Fleet Street must have had some history associated with london underground. but what ?

this is a good street name:

and this is the world famous london shoe library:

remember the incorrect sign. well, the cafe has obviously employed a reading-expert who has now put jacket potatoes in the space marked jacket potatoes.

the same shop also has a nice picture menu. i like picture menus. you can see what you'll be getting. saves visualising.

i especially like how they've crossed one of the plates out. or perhaps they serve it with lines on.

i like obsessives. here is a particularly good one.

it's a study of road signs

we are meant to report anything suspicious to the authorities in these hyper-sensitive times. but where do we draw the line ?

this morning, whilst walking to work, my path was blocked by this plastic stone plinth. it wasn't there on friday.

it could be packed full of manure (as favoured by the modern day incendiarist i believe). but i strongly suspect it isn't.

another paddington train station sign with a page number. page 30 this time.

it's interesting to note there is a glove thief about in paddington station. it's not me. i only take photos of gloves.

(20 questions)

there's always the problem of where to leave you straw hat. it's not always easy.

esther got up to preach her sermon only to discover she was slightly too short.

it was a wet, cold and miserable day in henley (weather wise), but we were rewarded at the end of the day with an amazing rainbow.

my camera hasn't got enough of a wide angle to get the full crescent and hasn't enough zoom to get the full detail. ho hum.

here's a close-up

i'm mentioned in passing in the Observer newspaper today:

how exciting ! (thanks to dan for finding this)

a long time ago we had two cats. one of them, billy, used to love drinking tea from a mug. here he is in action. file 32KB in RealMovie format

more history from my old computer - ancient webcam pictures from when i had hair and didn't wear glasses all the time.

here is a photo of my stylophone. the 'styl' was a play on words referring to the electronic 'stylus' pen you use to play the instrument. today it could stand for 'style' of course.

My instrument was played and signed by Rolf Harris himself. Click on the pictures for a proper look.

i don't generally do sound. but here is a sound i found down the back of the cooker (on my old computer):
Ooooooh.wav (85KB)

if you are interested, i've just updated my found photo website to include the latest find and an old thing which i forgot to put up last year !

www.davescollections.com

here is an old dog which i found whilst searching through some old photos. it was taken in france last year. this dog would be a good friend for these two

jane (my wife) (20 questions)

(thanks to wavingatmyself)

sometimes face painting is deliberate. sometimes it's not.

esther went yellow and kezia was a rabbit until she started eating a chocolate covered cake

three play marbles

i don't often get angry about things or people, but this woman does cause me much mirth / annoyment (depending on my mood).

i have a standard response to her rudeness which generally works well in most situations of potential confrontation. i say "thank you, have a really lovely evening". today she went too far and i didn't say anything.

i approached, paid her my 40 pence, went to extract my paper from her claw-like grip and she looked me in the eyes and said "never do that again".

"pardon ?" i said

"NEVER give me copper coins. i don't want them. never do that again"

my mistake had been to include two 2 pence coins and one 1 pence coin in my money.

so, i shall save up all my 1 pence pieces and make a special purchase of my 40 pence paper next week. i may even be ready with my camera:

and here she is close up:

she is the complete opposite of this man

here is one of the blokes from Adam and Joe (not sure which one) on a bike.

minutes before i walked past Rhona Cameron. The streets were full of celebrities this evening

(updated 27nov09 as of course it was adam buxton - and also updated link to their BBC 6music page)

another one. proves my earlier point. love is dead.

"please can you tell me where i can find the dead man who has been taxidermied and put in a box" ?

a simple question which had an incredible effect on the person i asked. she creased up in fits of giggles and ran off to a back room. this was not an unusual response unfortunately.

another receptionist who overheard my question said "is he a student".

eventually i found Jeremy Bentham in the South Cloisters of UCL. to save you the embarrasement of asking for him, here he is with some information:

more info for those that like to click and read:

a bit of a self portrait here:

and here is the pub sign and BT tower (again):

the first question of the 20 questions is 'who am I' ?

the answer is probably 'various'. but here's a start.

i'm a pedestrian taking a different footpath.

do you like this sign by the way ? it's very sturdy with its wooden support structure.

following the covering of st pauls and the BBC headquarters, the Marble Arch at, er, Marble Arch has now also been hidden.

it's a giant game of tourist hide and seek.

this picture didn't come out as nicely as i'd hoped, but here it is anyway. it's about 50 joggers all running fairly slowly in single file through hyde park.

it's a grown up game of follow the leader. when i took the photo i hoped the railings in the foreground wouldn't cause a-fence (offence)

a white canvas ready for ordaining with cherries, jellies, smarties and little metal ball bearings which look like sweets.

jane's parents have been cleaning out their loft and have obviously reached the corner marked '70s cutting edge mass market technology'.

here is jane's old portable tape player. it's massive by today's standards:

they also brought round jane's old soda stream with some original gas canistors. I never had one as a child and am quite frightened of the thing. there's too much opportunity for things to explode in my opinion.

here's the logo to keep you going for now. what a logo:

i'll tell you more if we survive the recommisioning tests

i've been working from home today which is why there's been little blog activity.

this evening we had a band practice at church. Lynda brought a picnic.

it consisted of cake, biscuits and tea/coffee/hotwater making facilties (and some snoopy mugs).

she's that kind of person. and we are very glad.

there's another challenge at the excellent sh1ft.org:

it's a 20 question interview which you can answer in photos: