a jolly belgium dog sign
seems cats are banned too.
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November 2005 Archives
posh seats
i bet you have to wear a shell-suit if you want to sit on these.
beer
british people can't get enough beer. so we've finally got 24 hour drinking. and there's compulsary beer road blocks, such as seen here, next to the public toilets in covent garden. very convenient.
random beligian events
the chap sitting next to me on the eurostar was about the same age as me (ie 400 months old tomorrow) and he put a giant pair of headphones on, plugged in his giant portable cd player and played load music. despite looking very uncool the music he was playing can only be described as 'light vocal'.
i did notice when he changed the CD that he was listening to two rick astley CDs, both of which were signed !
after checking in to my hotel i went out for a meal in a restaurant and the person next to me left her magazine behind. being on my own i decided to read it (it was in french). i managed to understand most of this article on hemorrhoids, and there was also an article on constipation, so all based were covered. haemorrhoids are the third most common belgian ailment you know ?
mannequin pis
it's the wee wee chap again.
the tahiti room
i'm in brussels for a conference and rather than staying in the expensive hotel where it's being held i decided to do a google for 'strange hotel brussels' and came up with this place i'm staying, which is half the price and twice the fun.
the hotel is called the welcome hotel and is very cool (the photos section of the website shows some of the other room designs)
i'm staying in the tahiti room
the strange world of daytime television
this is some daytime television quiz appartus i think
courthouse hotel
this is a fancy place to visit
trapped
a very sinister scene: a man trapped in a phone box by a bollard and a big doc marten boot in the foreground.
slippery floor sign
it's always great to see a new variant of an old friend, and this is a great one. i blame his winkelpicker shoes.
knowing right from left
knowing right from wrong xcan be tricky, but knowing which is your right and which is your left even trickier.
esther came up with this great trick for remembering and we decided to share it with you here in case you need to teach anyone else (particularly school children) how to remember which side is left and which side is right.
esther made this up (at least she claims she did). you start by putting your hands in front of you with your thumbs pointing towards the middle and your first finger pointing in the air, like so.
you then look at your own hands and the one which forms an 'L' shape is the left hand one. brilliant !
cracked camera
here's a picture of andrew's camera with its broken screen which is quite pretty in a strange way.
found music
here's some sheet music i found in the street. i've left the photo big enough for people to read and play
one thing leads to another
kezia won some glitter in a bran tub at her pre-school winter fair. bran tubs are funny things. it would be good one time to have a few live hamsters and gerbils living in one. everyone would enjoy that.
anyway, kezia and i then went home and she made this glitter picture which she insisted i photograph to post on the blog. so here it is
a lovely dinner
our friends invited us over for dinner last night and we had a lovely time.
here are the pink puddings:
kezia and alice
simeon at the end of the long table
where to go curling
the place we went curling was Fenton's Rink and it was most excellent. you must go with a group of friends and have a go.
i've put a few more photos here
an actual olympic gold medal
i'm unlikely to ever own one of these:
primarily because it was won at an event in the past and was awarded for the women's curling. an event i didn't take part in:
Debbie Knox won it instead:
cleaning and curling
curling is a funkypancake sport. not because i'm good at it though, because i'm not.
look at his utility bin.
beyond brushes, which are an essential part of the game, you also get to wear the most fantastic shoes.
initially they looked like normal trainers:
but you can pull the rubber bottom off (called a 'kipper') and reveal a super-slippy teflon sole, enabling you to whizz about on the ice like a mad thing
and look at all the other gadgets and gizmos you can get:
uneatable
i sent kezia to stand in front of this sign as i was too scared.
a week of meetings
i don't know if you noticed but this week's blog was all preloaded on sunday night. i'm just so stupid busy at work.
on monday i went from meeting to meeting and ended up eating only 4 cough sweets all day (but i did manage dinner in the house of lords, so i guess that made up for it). yesterday i ran from meeting to meeting and the whole day passed in a blur.
at one point i passed this sign. i went to the meeting at the top but the other two looked at least as interesting, if not more so. i'm especially curious about the bottom one (london deanery think tank).
controlling london
can you spot the coffee cup ?
trading waste
what a great idea. i'll swap you my rubbish for your rubbish
police information box
nowadays you can get all this information from their website
a chilly morning
it was a bit chilly when we arrived at church yesterday morning
the power of chocolate
we had lots of people round for lunch yesterday. it was amazing how quickly the children gathered once the chocolates were opened.
333 chasing 260
regular reader vin sent me this great photo of our favourite minis. he writes:
Today I saw 333 chasing 260 through Brentford. Had to give chase
myself but couldn't get any closer than this - they are very nippy. I
felt like I was in the Italian Job. I found them parked later, but
this shot conveys something of the thrill of the chase.
4 towers
2 BBC towers, BT tower and All Souls tower. one day i'll take my SLR to work and get this with a bit more wider lense-ness
who pushed the chairs over ?
i suspect it was these three chaps
lizard on the loose
someone had been waiting their whole life to publish this headline !
caption competition
what is kezia saying to esther here?
a fantastic sign medley
how fantastic is this great medley. i especially like the people falling up and down things.
dogs on leads!
quite an agressive sign here. all in capitals. injury and death in red. any underlined. the result is slightly obscure though.
the saddest mannequins ever ?
why is she looking so sad ?
it's because her friend is falling apart
it's no yoke carrying that thing around all day
napkins
is starch the secret ?
WARNING DANGER
what on earth is this about ?
the bollard vs cone debate
i call both of the items in this picture 'bollards'. i know others don't but that's the word i use. so that's what i'll call them here to. and anyway, it's a great word.
this plastic bollard seems to be threatening the metal bollard
and has already attacked this chap:
(my recent 'those are cones, not bollards' email came pointed me to this which shows painted bollards)
mens cut price ladies fashions
this shop had shut down. obviously not enough men wanted cut price ladies fashions. it's a tra(n)vesty
mouse trap experiment conclusion
remember the mouse trap experiment set up exactly one week ago ? well, it reached its conclusion today.
the winner was peanut butter. so that's the best thing to put in your mouse trap it seems.
this was a test
this big bit of paper was taped to the floor outside the tate modern a few weeks back. few people obeyed the instructions. initially i didn't but then returned and did. this was noted by two observers who chalked a line on their counting chart.
dove
another bird appearing to have no head. this picture looks a bit better bigger, so don't be frightened to click it
here it is half a second later (proving it does have a head)
egg bacon chips & beans
have you seen russells' fantastic egg bacon chips & bacon book ? if not you should.
my copy is going to be well worn i can tell !
more details on russells' blog or get it here
a dancing sign
look at this fantastic river-side dancing sign.
a good day for numbered minis
117
284
371 (sorry about the photo)
and here's one from keith who spotted 369 in the car park of Beaulieu motor museu /abbey /palace in the New Forest, quite a long way from its London home
mad chicken
this is a fancy breed of chicken which has mad feathers on its head preventing people from seeing its face. unfortunately it also gives the appearance that its head has been chopped off ! (which it hadn't)
two herons in a tree
here they are a bit closer up
we can hardly believe it ourselves
YES ! EVERY ITEM IS A POUND !
the heaviest dog sign ?
it turned out there were loads of these dog signs all over edinburgh, most (if not all?) had their weight on the side.
i wasn't sure whether these posts were actually for doggy use ?
tomato flavoured pepsi
esther went to a party yesterday afternoon so we took kezia for some ice-cream in pizza hut. she was very concerned that we knew that the pepsi didn't taste of tomato, even though there was a picture of it on the container.
for american readers, when i say tomato i actually mean tomato.
how to build an electric windmill
we happened to drive past this windmill being constructed yesterday so we stood and watched as the propellers were lifted in to place. quite amazing.
coffee pot reflections
note the jolly waitress !
guineas on the loose
jane was busy doing a toy sale at preschool yesterday so i took the girls to the various curious Wellplace Zoo.
the place has free-range guinea pigs everywhere. esther counted 32 but i think there may have been some double counting as they kept running down little cut-throughs.
in addition to the guinea pigs and taxidermy (nothing is wasted!) they have a collection of fibre-glass dinosaurs !
this one was holding the no-guinea-grabbing sign
expect lots of photos over the next few weeks (i'll spread them out so we don't have zoo animal overload).
a mad man shouting at a sausage
there was a fancy meal in a Scottish gallery on one night of my conference last week. we sat amongst all the famous paintings and ate our scran.
this chap shouted like a complete madman at this sausage for about 5 minutes before we were served with haggis. i think i'm going to adopt shouting at haggis in to our family dining routine
here's the starter (haggis, neep and tattis i think)
scottish beef
scottish chocolate pudding
of course if you'd tried setting up a table and having a meal during the day you would have been thrown out:
rob parsons
jane and i went to Oxford last night for the Returning Home The Prodigals (a quick skim of the front page of this website explains what it's about). It was very good.
rob parsons
Rob Parson wrote all those excellent "The Sixty Minute"
great train journeys of the world
getting the train from london to edinburgh should be one of those epic train journeys. but it wasn't realy. but it had its moments, like this one, which is a power station with a nice field in front of it.
rubber duck
it's such a small thing, but having a plastic duck in a hotel bathroom is a great idea
the edinburgh cleaning lorry incident
at first it wasn't clear what i could see, but i knew it was going to be good:
a rival white cleaning company wanted to stop the green cleaners from cleaning their patch. rather like the great ice-cream wars, these chaps are fiercely protective of their patch
in the end the chap from the white van ran out and physically stopped the green one from going any further.
edinburgh castle at sunset
more photos on the same here (my flickr account)
holyrood place
i think it looks better from the inside
camera obscura
if you are in edinburgh on a sunny day, you must go and see the camera obscura. it's quite fantastic, especially the bit where you can lift up cars etc..
here's the town
and here it is with the light on
up a hill
i walked up a hill in edinburgh yesterday afternoon just before sunset and got this nice silouhette of a person. he took the same kind of picture for the person ahead of him and so it goes on.
binoculars(s)
binoculars are one of those words which are fun to abbrev(iate). in our family we call them 'binos', whilst kezia calls them 'oculars'. we have some friends who call them 'binocs'
whatever they are they are quite fantastic and it would be good to spend one day a month wearing them instead of normal glasses.
bru-bite
i thought a typical scottish drink would be lager and irn-bru. it wasn't. and now i understand why.
harry potter's platform 9 3/4
this is a great thing at Kings Cross station. How long would it have taken them to set this up, and how many smiles has it brought to the faces of people who pass it ?
i suspect there's a high smile to investment ratio.
busted by the ticket man
there's something quite funny about this pen scrawled graffit on my train. we need some legal wipe-clean area on our trains where people can graffiti rather than doing it on the seat backs.
beware of falling rocks
so that's how the dinosaurs dies out.
pink moped outside the ten bells
this pub has a grizzly connection to london history, but i don't want to provide a link so i won't.
christmas on oxford street
selfridges has a rather nice london themed christmas window display. it's a bit cartographically challenged, although i kind of like the idea of trafalgar square having the thames snaking round it.
there's even a religious element to their christmas display
meanwhile they also have a load of santas in a fridge
and a load of seals
glove
(this one is for new reader ellen who wrote a short story of odd socks once and found me via the russel davies' always excellent blog)
the patter of tiny feet
is there the patter of tiny feet in the funkypancake household ? we're not sure, but it might be a mouse.
so, as an experiment i've loaded 5 mouse traps and strategically placed them in the loft.
the two on the left have peanut butter and the two on the right have chocolate as their bates.
the fifth trap is off to the left and has no bate (but is set). This is a control-trap (important for all experiments i think).
which trap (if any) do you think will catch a mouse (which we don't even know exists) ?
[apologies to any vermin lovers out there]
bluey green
i think this one looks quite nice bigger, so click to enjoy more
tate modern
photo by esther
we had a family outing to Tate Modern yesterday. We originally were planning on seeing the Jeff Wall photos, but on the way esther spotted a Rousseau painting on a Bakerloo tube station (at Charing Cross?) and she said she had learnt about it at school. So we went to that exhibition instead which was very good.
photo by kezia
esther and kezia had little computers which they wore round their necks which explained what all the pictures were about and showed little graphics. it's all very modern and not like museums we suffered as children (sorry mum if you are reading this!)
photo by kezia
we also did some photo practice in the turbine hall of the Rachel Whiteread construction which still hasn't been knocked down (though i noticed some of the base blocks are now glued to the floor)
photo by kezia
satellite repair man
i can see this satellite dish from my office window but they are taking it down which is a shame. And i'm going to miss the day the crane comes to carry it away :-(
wallace and gromit
we went to see the curse of the were-rabbit yesterday and it was very good. wallace and gromit
i didn't take any pictures in the cinema itself for copyright reasons, but here's kezia with a giant bucket of cola
justin's fireworks
one of my colleauges at work has an anual firework spectacular party at his house and we were priveledged enough to be invited.
here are esther and kezia and their friend watching the fireworks:
here is justin watching his handywork
and here he is once it's all over
run jump and play
it's not just the clown who's mad (as seen here). They even encourage kids to have 60 minutes of active fun a day. no doubt they do once stimulated by the sugary caffeine drink held within.
in the background you can see the 'harley street' sign and i expect someone nearby is seeking medical help for their kids hyperactivity.
there is nothing serious about music
on wednesday night i went to see Faust in london. it was probably the best gig i've ever been to. completely madness
the singer sets up an ironing board and (hot) iron and very nicely irons one of the audience's shirt.
and afterwards looking very pleased with himself
you can see all my faust gig photos here. go on. they are quite good !
faust fans
this is what people off the Internet look like.
eeeeeeels
i saw some chaps fishing on the south bank yesterday and approached for a closer look they had caught an eel
they were being very kind to them and had set up a small play pool for them to swim around in which was nice
camouflage
look how this leaf is blending in with its surroundings. leaves are usually green as they look down at the grass and copy its colour. here we see that once outside of their natural position they have to adapt to different situations.
flags
what flag is this hanging alongside the old jack-union ?
umbrella trap
if you look carefully you can see a red umbrella trapped in an umbrella trapped. the phone box has come along to rescue him. (or perhaps he set the trap ?)
get safe online
protect yourself and your pc online.
worth reading for anyone who's connected to the Internet. visit here
please do not
please do not ... over expose photos ?
security awareness
here is poster number 46. it asks us to report anything we see which is suspicious which i think is quite wide-reaching.
scanners are coming to my station next month so there's no doubt plenty of photo opportunities to be had soon !
st george's gardens
st george's gardens is a funny little place in the middle of london, full of dead reformers (except for the ones who got body-snatched i guess!)
despite all the great names buried in this place, there's a number of huge tombs.
this one had the identification faded away
it made me think that even if we're fantastically successful in life and get buried in a massive tomb then eventually any memory of the real us is forgotten. if it's just all about living, dying then being forgotten it all seems a bit sad !
(thankfully i belive there's more to life than that so no need to get all depressed !).
here's a picture from outside the gates.
henrietta mews (because she's a cat?)
odd shaped head
this chap has a very strange head and oddly bent feet. and he seems to be picking up that poo without any gloves on.
it similar to this one and these ones.
the empire clock
this is a great thing. it's a clock that shows you the time across the (now defunct) british empire. it's at goodenough college for anyone wanting to inspect it in more detail.
kezia and daddy
kezia drew this lovely picture of her and me. i love the toes and fingers. i'm on the right.
7000th post
i missed the fact i'd done my 7,000th blog post on monday. ooops. hoorah belatedly and thanks for continuing to visit !
also, i passed the 4000 mile mark on my walking measurements last week.
i'm still thinking about what to do for my 400th birthday on the 1st December. i'll be in brussels on the day itself, but i'm sure we should do something blogwise.
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