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October 2005 Archives
guess the building
what which london building is this ? it's a b-list in terms of buildings go, but is still quite imposing.
walter looking sideways
my colleague walter was happy to volunteer to be the first person to feature in my 'people looking sideways' category
pig medley
with apologies to all vegetarians ... and pigs
bournemouth fence curious
mermaid with funny arms
yellow polka dot bikini
red sunglasses
jellied eel
ice-cream
oakley court and bray studios
jane and i went for a walk down the (side of the) thames yesterday near Eton/Windsor-ish. From the north side of the river you pass Oakley Court Hotel and Bray Studios.
Oakley Court Castle is famous for being in various films including Saint Trinians
next to the Castle are Bray Studios
tim's party
we were invited to Tim's 40th birthday party last night and had a great time.
here is the glitter ball in the outside marquee
and here is the cake (it's tim fishing)
busker
the south bank is the new covent garden for buskers. this chap was particular energetic and made me laugh.
a lovely night out
the girls are away for a few days so jane (my lovely wife) and i took full advantage of our free weekend by going to Sonning Mill which is a great place.
here's the view from our table (the people who were sitting this had already gone through to the theatre)
pubbish
pubbish is a good word. it was written on a piece of paper outside a publisher's office near where i work so perhaps it's a contraction of 'publishers rubbish'
but i think it better describes the feeling of wanting to nip to the pub. "i'm feeling a bit pubbish. fancy it?"
the james bond cupboard
remember this ? here's some more detailed photos
three back legs
a strange dog, but also no eyes and ears (and what's going on with the chap bottom right?)
bird flew
it's a day for sequences today, so here's a sequence of a pelican flying in st james' park
they never seem to get very high
it seems to be about shaking your wings enough to fling yourself out of the water
before giving up and splatting back down in the water
the interesting trolley man
eagle eyed vin spotted the interesting barrow man here and asked for more details, so here he is in a sequence of four pictures i took from up the Monument a few weeks back.
here he is with a 'customer' ?
tidying up
preparing to move off
on his way
and that's all i have. it looks like offal in the trolley. or perhaps it's poultry.
the hottest day
it was as hot as summer's day today, official the hottest day ever or something (for October i think). and london was packed. the BBC has some interesting weather news here
i had a meeting on the south bank and took my big camera to get some decent shots. unfortunately i'm clueless so most of my photos were rubbish (i need to go on a course ...)
anyway, it's also half-term holidays so london was full of tourists, especially just here.
grass van
i think i took a picture of this van once (or one similar). vin sent me this to illustrate his comment here.
vin also sent me the excellent bird photo and i now want to see a vin-blog !
reunited !
can you believe it, i managed to reunite this chap with his lost travel card! hoorah for a happy ending.
in all my time collecting photos for davescollections, this is the first one i've reunited
for those interested in the story of reunition:
from the ticket i knew his local train station, so i found which train operators run out of that station and phoned their lost property department. they put a note with my phone number in his file and when he went in to buy his replacement ticket he got the message to phone me
final castlerigg photos
early morning
visited by aliens:
sunrise
the tourist board
ian hislop
i spotted ian hislop in front of me as i whizzed by tate modern on the way to a meeting. he nipped in to this cafe before i caught up with him, so i took this dreadful photo through the window !
i think you can still tell it's him !
royalty passing
here is the queen's husband prince Philip in a car.
and here is another car with someone important in. they should really put their names on the outside so we could identify them easilyer
cut backs to the hanging garden
oh no ! they've chopped the hanging garden. the amazing thing is those hanging baskets are SO high, at least a few metres off the ground (compare to the people in the photo below).
chocolate bar on railings
it's been nearly 2 months since i ate a chocolate bar ! woweeee
fun in nottingham
jane and the girls have been in Nottingham for a few days. here is brother-in-law kev with all the kids
angry interviewer
the interviewing chap (rather than the interviewee who i didn't recognise) looks really angry. the sound man has responded by bashing him with the hairy thing.
plants on the move
we've been aware of the plant uprising for a while but never have we seen one so evolved and aggressive as this one ! photo by mrs funkypancake mrs funkypancake's sister
133
matt, funkypancake's web-landlord, spotted number 133 and gave chase. he saw it in amersham which is about 30 miles away from london.
i think brother edd spotted a stash of them in a car park in guildford which means matt's don't gain the prize for the most remote (unless my geography is completely out which wouldn't surpise any of us!)
a friend with a strange hobby
andrew, who goes to the same church as we do, takes pictures of street lamps. how cool is that ?
here's an example:
esther's front tooth fell out
big day in our household yesterday. esther's tooth fell out (helped by her) at approximately 5am. it looks like the replacement is well on its way though.
she's written a letter to the tooth fairy telling her not to deliver the cash until next sunday as she's away this week visiting relatives (esther not the tooth fairy)
what became of milkfloats
they became bin lorries.
red bands
this picture is for john and danny who are elastic band farmers. they also farm various other things on the streets (like photos, gloves etc). i only take pictures of my finds (except photos), but they take the whole object !
mysterious bollard contraption
what IS going on here ?
personalised sign
is it right to pick on kendall like this ? good avoidance of capital letters though which i fully support
vin's birds
Vin is a regular commenter on funkypancake, and sent me this fantastic bird picture which he made reference to on his comment here.
click to enjoy it's excellentness. i really should spend longer trying to take my photos !
abandoned CDs
it must be autumn, the CDs are falling.
spoons
we had a GP, a physiotherapist, a social worker and a medical records officer for lunch yesterday.
thug for life
click on the pictures to see the big versions as they are worth studying in detail
(it's a genuine banksy)
gravity catch
gravity catch is a great name.
before and after
i realised today that i walk past a number of 'before and after' adverts so i undertook to photo them for you.
here's the first. it's advertising "hi-lites" but neither the before or after pictures look very convincing. this poor chap looks as disappointed after as he did before.
then there's this chap. he looks a bit happier at the end, but the wording is a bit disturbing 'stays on better?'
but my all time favourite has to be this one which i thought was a missing person advert. then i read 'trial' and thought it must be one of those social-injustice posters. but instead it's some sort of advert for something which takes 6 months.
this woman certainly looks a lot sadder after only 6 months which is a shame.
hanging garden update
the hanging garden just gets longer and longer. it's like a wall now.
a repeat viewing - 268
last seen on the move
found train pass
i found this train pass on the way to work yesterday morning. it's still got a month to run on it and costed 235pounds and thirty pence. i phoned his local train station and they took my phone numbers so if he gets in contact i can hand it over to him in person.
i'll let you know what happens and if i do meet him i'll be sure to capture the moment on camera and post to davescollections
(i've obfuscated (great word, but probably spelt wrong) all the sensitive details on the picture)
update: reunited here
filming a commercial
no one exciting or excited here for sure.
no livery
i've noticed many of the dust carts i pass have had new liveries (paint jobs). this one hasn't.
horse
shame about the blob
no houses on skis
helen (on the right here) sent me this which she claims means no houses on skis.
we're due a cold winter this year which i'm actually quite looking forward to. i like a bit of cold (assuming i have a nice warm coat). (and hat).
washing machine
we can tell from the pipe connectors
bird flu
i'll catch the armagedon zeitgeist by doing a post about bird flu. except this is simply another animal outside the glasses shop on tottenham court road. it seems they've stuck with the recent bird theme
i spotted this one from a restaurant where i was having a business lunch and kept an eye on it as i dinned. after i walked over to where it was standing and took this photo.
the bird itself looked a bit upset i thought (not to mention a bit beaten up), but then i noticed the crossed arms were built in and the hands were sticking randomly out. i took a leaflet and noticed that the hands were very nicely manicured and a lady's voice said 'thank you' very politely.
it definately wasn't the same person inside as before
survival of the fattest
plant bullying.
no hard hat no work
what a great motto. good enough to use as a blog subtitle for a bit i feel.
no biking or skating
look at this skaters amazing thumb !
pret whooping
i walked past pret on oxford street just before 7.30 when they were all being whooped up for the day by their leader. i was out in the cold rather than in with them being whooped, but i'm not a real whooping sort of guy so that was fine with me.
polite parking notice
i love this no parking sign. it says: "polite notice please do not park out side the gate otherwise ready for =clamp="
and scribbled down the side it says "no fat people please" which i suspect was added later.
stand-ard bearer
here's a posh chap carrying two music stands over his shoulder. it looks a bit like i've blocked his face out to protect his identity. perhaps that is actually how they do that face blocking out thing ?.
foggy
i walked from paddington to brick lane yesterday morning to give a presentation. it started off very dark (because i left home just after 5.30) and was very foggy.
then, it got really nice and sunny:
but as soon as i passed the barbican it went foggy and really cold again:
and it was still foggy at lunchtime (note the lack of top of natwest tower)
414
here's 414. i also spotted 463 yesterday but i was getting some money out for my evening paper so didn't catch it before it zoomed round the corner. my mistake. sorry.
sunday is funday (at mcdonalds)
the sermon at church yesterday was about what our attitude to sunday should be. you can read what was said here.
we're studying genesis at the moment - the Bible book, not the band, although 'genesis the early years' would be quite a cool sermon series, or how about Genesis BC (Before Collins).
but we've been learning lots on how God created the world as a cool place. hopefully you catch a bit of that excitement here on funkypancake.
anyway, sunday at mcdonalds is 'funday' apparently. so much fun in fact that they dressed one of their people up as a bear with a wonky face.
glove and shoe (and soles)
here is a glove and some shoe parts on the banks of the thames. i assume this arrangement was (wo)man made. but you knever now.
more cycling
the weather in england is quite mad at the moment. it's more like summer than summer was. we've been taking advantage of it again and yesterday afternoon went for a cycle ride.
the mystery thing
here's something from last may. it's esther and kezia spotting something on the floor. but what is it ?
it's a thing:
esther doing her homework
esthe's school homework was to take a picture of her house by day and night ! she's only 6 but took to my digital SLR very naturally.
learner
you can never be too careful when you are a learner. this car already looks to have had some scrapes.
eat as much as you can
it would probably be wiser to do 'eat as much as you like' rather than 'eat as much as you can'. the latter is asking for trouble.
and how can you have such an offer as a take-out service ? you could feed the entire neighbourhood and claim it was for yourself. And all this fun for just £3 !
hassock of the week
another quality illustration
pizza and poppins
yesterday evening (after a walk up some hills) we had a family pizza and (mary) poppins night. here is the pizza that kezia made for me - it's my jolly face !
frog or toad ?
i saw this frog on the path near our house. (s)he sat very still whilst i took his/her photo
any idea what sort of frog/toad it is ?
i should ask frogwatch (which sells watches for frogs so they can tell the time)
Griff Rhys Jones
i had a feeling i'd see a famous person whilst walking to the station this evening. so much so that i took off my headphones and got my camera out, so i was all ready when Griff Rhys Jones walked out in front of me a bit further down the street. he's a really nice chap !
box boy
i found this great box in our garage and decorated it with a nice smiley face to greet paul and liz at our front door. i used to share a house with paul when we were at university and such japes were common place.
unfortunately i ran up stairs with it on my head to surprise esther who was trying to go to sleep and stubbed my toe and made it bleed.
see how i suffer for my art.
paul and liz
paul and liz came for tea last night and we had a lovely time, but i forgot to take their photo before they left. so i ran down the street and paparatzi'd them through their car door (which is why they are looking a bit worried)
please ring
an instruction on a pile of rubbish
new transport plans
things have got bad on london's tube network, with parts of it closed for maintenance. so they've laid on alternative transport, including these first class private booths which can be delivered directly to people's houses. brilliant.
nothing is ever wasted
look how some has used an old cup as a handy cigarette dispenser. it's a very convenient holder for a packet of ciggies.
please note, funkypancake does not endorse cigarrets - for health and spelling reasons.
the double decker basket trolley
usually the basket and the trolley are not good friends, yet here we see them working together.
no low flying dogs
here's a very high dog sign. what would a dog being doing so high up ?
biscuits
i've had no chocolate bars for about 6 weeks now i think. that's a bit amazing (for me anyway).
however, i have rediscovered the joy of plain biscuits, as seen here in a busy meeting
a prog rock album title ?
i remember taking a picture of one of these signs back in november 2003. it seems the experiment continues.
although perhaps they should consider a 'sign casualty reduction signal timings experiment' as this sign is looking a bit worse for wear.
and wouldn't 'Pedestrian Casualty Reduction Signal Timings Experiment' make a great title for a prog rock album ?
outside broadcast
more south bank 'this morning' outside stuff. one of these days i'll go by when they are actually recording something.
multipoo
we have ralph to thank for these pictures from austria.
it's the wonderfully titled 'multipoo'
rachel whiteread in the tate modern turbine hall
there's a new giant construction in the turbine gallery at the tate modern. i visited for approximately 4 minutes on the way to a meeting near by and got these photos:
it's nice to see such a giant thing, which appears to be quite flimsy. i really wanted to swing my work bag in to one of the mountains to see it it would all fall down (but i decided that was a bad plan - especially as by that time i only had 2 minutes left of speed-art viewing.
i doubt everything is ever going to live up to the weather project in this space, but this will do for now !
dorothy l sayers
blue plaque of dorothy l sayers.
392
this was a real 'quick on the draw' picture as i saw this mini come zooming round the corner. i'm regularly very impressed by how quick my camera starts up ready for picture taking. hoorah for it.
estonian dog sign
helen sent me these fantastic dog signs from estonia.
i like this dog which seems a bit random of leg. the sign in the background is also very good.
and here's a dog sign for a hotel door:
basic meal
here's the remains of a luxury meal on a bench. i think this contains all of the recommended daily amounts for all the basic food groups, but i could be wrong.
resting in a graveyard
they call him davey-drum-stool-leg (but we don't know why)
a skip full of categories
it's a skip full of categories
cup at the fair
there's a pun here somewhere.
the esther and jane day
when kezia and i were in henley, jane and esther were in london visiting the aquarium and the natural history museum
they also managed a ride on the london eye - here's a moody photo taken by jane in the fog
and here's esther looking out of the pod
and here's the view of westminster (showing how mucky her camera lense is)
(all photos by jane)
kezia silhouette
yesterday kezia and i had a daddy/kezia day (and jane and esther had a mummy/esther day). kezia and i travelled to henley and went to the Rowing Museum which also features Wind In The Willows exhibition.
this photo is kezia inspecting her audio guide standing next to one of the displays.
apparel master
how good is this advert ? i took this photo in the BBC radio studios a while back. the word apprarel is great and we should all try and use it at least once in the next week.
jack of hearts
slightly chewed:
the sun in the rain
i took this photo on a rainy june day, but only just thought of the title.
fantastic bin sign
this sign is fantastic. click on it to read the full, anonymous text. what sort of person goes to the trouble to write this kind of sign ? and will the mystery bottle bag leavers read it ?
washing machine
this machine has seen better days
they put up a fight
some of the hanging baskets on my way to work have been removed. it looks like they didn't go without a fight as can be seen by the plants remains all over the floor.
steve wright
it's steve wright on the steps of all souls church
cement
esther is already better than me at spelling. but what a fantastic way to spell cement - 'sment'. kids today are using phonetic txt-spk before they've got the hang of proper spelling.
one of esther's friends writes esther's name as 'Sd' which is quite cool.
on the edge of their patch
the cleaner on the left is eating a sandwich whilst watching the other cleaner removing a massive pile of litter on the other side of the road.
my 1000th 400th birthday
on the 1st December 2005 i shall be 1000 400 (measured in months from my birth). i think that's quite exciting.
but how should i celebrate the occasion on the blog ? i think i need to start preparing now, so all suggestions greatly received ! something participative which involved you the reader would be good too.
have a think and let me know
my friend paul (an accountant) has pointed out that i'll actually be 400 months old not 1000 ! oops. i'm sure i'm 1000 somethings though. i need a new battery for my mental calculator.
but, as paul points out, it's still worth celebrating a 400th birthday.
the beauty and the bins
look at this bin. it's holding a bouquet of flowers. but why ?
it's trying to woo the bin on the other side of the road
and here's looking from the other side
supergrass
jane and i went to see Supergrass last night who were most excellent. the support was son of dave who was a kind of one man band which was ... good to begin with but then lost its novelty after about three songs
i didn't take too many photos as there was a very drunk chap sitting next to me spilling his beer, shouting and generally jumping all over the place in the seated area. i would have been annoyed with him, but he knew all the words to every song, so i think he was just a really excited fan having a great night out !
bath
looks inviting ?
someone hasn't rinsed it out
fitness magazines are rubbish
there's a magazine publisher round the corner from my office and they occasionally leave interesting rubbish for the bin men.
here's a good example. it's a load of men's fitness magazines with a note on top saying 'rubbish'. i wonder if that was written by their editorial department ?
visual development unit
is this place for giant eye transplants ?
power plant
this chap doesn't know his own strength and has smashed itself out of its shell.
down and out by saint pauls
this bollard has seen better days. note the teeny weeny people (you may need to inspect the big version)
footways are for pedestrians
i used to think walking was a relaxing activity. but it's not. party i think because i move at speed. and most other people don't. and my speed is generally constant and other people's aren't.
bikes on pavements are a very annoying thing. almost as annoying as nearly being run over on zebra crossings i find very vexatious. is that a word ?
more ghostly apparitions
i took this long shutter speed self portrait at the same time i took this one. i think i like the wonky colours on this better.
the amazing austrian dog meddly
just look at this beauty. dogs everywhere ! a fitting finale to the austrian dog sign bonanza
the bin site-seeting tour
i messed the contrast up on this picture so you couldn't see the bins in the foreground. after some random fiddling in Photoshop i ended up with this very strange effect, which i quite like. no idea what i did.
mr denis norden (2)
after nearly 5 years of searching i finally got a close up of Denis Norden. Here he is on Tottenham Court Road yesterday morning
do not park in our bay
a very good sign sent from matts the web landlord ages ago. you can feel the frustration.
i particularly like the way it says 'deb
bies' at the end
how offputting
these toilets are in a National Trust property. as men stand and wee they are greated by a group photo of the elderly volunteers smiling back.
slightly offputting. (apologies if you're eating)
paper boat
here is a boat from budapest photo'd by peter
Hell Fire Club
jane went to a ladies' church convention yesterday in london so i looked after the girls. kezia and i started by going to McDonalds and eating bacon butties and ice-cream, then we went to our friends house to pick up esther.
after that we went to West Wycombe where we went down the caves which are associated with the Hell Fire Club.
here's kezia in the dark waving my torch about
the caves themselves are mostly man made and really amazing, especially when you learn about the kinds of secret things people got up to down there. the official website is here which lets you follow the tour through the caves.
here are kezia and esther outside the front entrance:
after going down the caves we walked to the top of the hill to see the church and mausoleum, collected conkers and had great sandwiches in the cafe.
once again, it's interesting that all the action in the caves happened mid to late 1700s which was the time people were being buried in bunhill fields. it's like i'm trapped in some time warp at the moment !
bunhill fields
i went to a meeting last week next to Bunhill Fields cemetry. Apart from being a really quiet place away from the bustle of the main street nearby, it's also 'home' to a number of notable characters, including:
john bunyan (writter of Pilgrim's Progress)
poet William Blake
Daniel De-Foe (writter of Robinson Crusoe)
there are many other 'notable' persons in there too. it's interesting to look at the dates and compare them to when the Monument was built (following hte Great Fire of London in 1666). i had no interest in history at school, but it's weird to be stumbling on all this stuff in the last few days and see they cover a similar time period (give or take a century).
even weirder is that we're doing an Isaac Watts hymn in church this morning. The message of Jesus hasn't changed in 2000 years so i guess i should be surprised that hymns singing about it are still going strong after just 300 years !
But it is strange to be singing songs that were written by a man whose 263 year old grave i walked by a few days before !
dummy
two versions as i wasn't sure which worked best
the monument
The Monument is one of those funny places which people just forget about. i had a meeitng a few minutes walk from it and i was a bit early so i paid my £2 and went in
there's 311 steps on the cantilevered stone staircase which seemed to go on forever
right at the top of the Monument is a drum and a copper urn from which flames emerged, symbolising the Great Fire. The whole thing is 202 feet high - the exact distance between it and the site in Pudding Lane where the Great fire of London began on 2 Sept 1666. The Monument was built to commemorate the Great Fire of London and to celebrate the rebuilding of the city.
thanks to 300+ years of public access the viewing platform is covered in graffiti
of course the thing that once stood high above the city is now lost amongst the taller building around it, like the new gherkin building
but there's still a fine view of Tower Bridge and the river
face and automatic hand dryer
hand dryers always have brilliant instructions on them. this one is particularly good. it's nice how the words are in CAPITALS AND UNDERLINED. the title is quite strange too - what if you had automatic face ?
caption competition
you people have been much better at making up captions for things than i am, so please can i have some suggestions for this one.
is a bollard blowing up a balloon ?
cow
this cow just appeared near my office with a mysterious sign round its neck.
passport photos
i walked past this little scrap of paper yesterday morning and after a few steps i thought "i wonder if that's a passport photo", so i went back and found it again.
here's a photo of it. it was stuck in a muddy puddle under a little bush on the edge of the road.
i managed to kick it out from under the bush and flip it over and it WAS a passport photo !
once i knew what it was i was happy to put my hand in the muddy rain to retrieve it for the collection.
i can't explain the joy of finding a genuine passport photo, especially in such unlikely circumstances. so i won't.
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