we had a church bbq brunch after church yesterday. very welcome and nice and tasty. he's big eye tony with bbq cleaners in the background.

big eye invited us round for lunch last sunday and it was very marvellous. here he is grinding something for the rice pudding.

and here he is advertising beans sonically.

here is sally talking to big eye tony. but what's he said to have this reaction ?

feel free to suggest what mr big eye said to elicit this response

big eye won a family game of rummy cub and celebrated in style

here's the latest on tony's loo. he's now replumbed the basin and the bath so it drops water on people coming through the front door.

an english's man house is castle, so it makes sense to revive some of the ancient traditions i suppose.

big eye is doing a big job in his bathroom and wanted to share it with us, which is nice. he's going to keep us informed so we can offer help and advice as he goes. it's going to be an opportunity for some really bad puns which will no doubt drive us round the bend. eventually i'm sure he'll be flushed with success

our friend big eye (him who has his own category), sent me these pictures. i think it's a do it yourself people carrier, and he's demonstrating an ideal way of carrying extra passengers.

an acorn fell on tony's head from a great height and made a comedy lump. it wasn't quite so comedy for tone though.

last night was time for a last minutely arranged pizza with mr big eye tony

our friend big eye likes to watch telly outside. which is a nice plan. assuming it's not raining.

big eye invited us over for sunday lunch yesterday, and plenty of others as well.

here is Big Eye with a Big Pie (built by carolyn)

carolyn chats with dave and richard

esther and kezia get on with some drawing

and finally, big eye wanders off knowing that Em, Piers and Jane are doing the washing up

i went for a walk yesterday afternoon with Richard drummer and Big Eye Tony. our walk took us by some bird hides so we decided to become bird experts.

tony big eye is already a bird expert it seems, but Richard was less so, and, as you are already aware, i'm generally clueless on matters of nature.

here is tony with his fancy binoculars (bins/binos/'oculas)

if you want to know what birds we saw then there's a list below:

i played bass yesterday morning for the first time in about 2 months and i think we rocked a little as we also had richard drummer and jane on her strat.

anyway, big eye tony used to complain about the drums being too loud, but he's in a different place now. specifically that place is behind the drums having a sneaky go after the service !

during the talk about vicar suggested that the word 'praise' in the Bible is a bit like the modern equivalent of 'advertise'. i thought that was very interesting and it's made me think. Both about God and advertising !

here's big eye tony, taken with my new 50mm f/1.8 lens which i am loving (ideal for the dark british winter).

i saw big eye mending a tap today with a drill.

i told him they mend taps in america simply by pushing them hard. (no need to insert punchline here)

with the bit between his teeth he managed to pull this strange face

we visited friends on sunday and our friend (and regular blog appearer) big-eye-tony said to jane "what are you thinking about jane" and she said "toe-knee".

no-one would have known jane was thinking this unless they'd asked. what else does she carry in her mind ?

anyway, so tony took a photo of toe-knee with his new camera

and i took a photo of his photo

jane and i went to big eye's for tea last night. "we had a most excellent time. if ever he invites you round i'd recommend you go."

Mr Big Eye should print this quote out and put it in big letters on a bill board on the front of his house like they do on West End theatres.

he should also display the 'approved by funkypancake' crest on his home made products. such as these potatoes:

big eye is always thankful whenever he appears on the funkypancake blog.

i'm always thankful he's happy with the pictures i post !

here he is looking very smart:

26things

we had a practice with our young people's band in church today for the christmas services. when we arranged it we didn't realise this morning was also a day for people to do gardening in the church yard.

so whilst we practiced and made loud noises, various friends would pop their heads up at the window and stare in.

here is one such person. our old friend 'big eye tony'. he looks like he's about to sneeze on this picture. perhaps this was his special window-cleaning technique ?

here are two people we've seen before. it's our old friend Big Eye and the lovely Sally.

our old (he's 50) friend Big Eye came round this evening and stood under our tree.

i think it worked well as an environmentally friendly hair piece (peace?).

what's the most bizarre thing you've ever worn on your head in public ? i'll tell you mine if you tell me yours.

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.

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

i went out for pizza with Big Eye Tony last night. i opted for the chocolate cake for dessert. i was offered cream or icecream and cheekily asked for both, expecting to get a little of each.

the waitress looked at me like i was insane and worriedly hurried back to the kitchen. this was obviously one scenario she had not been covered by her training.

when it arrived, instead of two half-portions they piled extra portions of both on to the plate. hoorah !

it's sunday so it's church so i see big eye tony so i take another photo of him. from this angle he looks like a roald dahl character. in actual fact he's a jolly nice chap and a very good friend.

i went to Pizza Hut with 'Big Eye' this evening. was very good. as a non dairy and wheat eater it was good to stuff cheesey pizza down my gullet. it tasted mighty fine.

we didn't dessert, so instead took a photo of the ice-cream machine. it's actually an ice-cream dispenser and not a machine as such. you're not meant to take these things literally of course, so i let it pass.

please note: this is second picture of me on the blog in one day, both sporting my new cemetry fleece. i can only apologise and will cut back on the me-photos.

(i've noticed no one has commented on the blog since i included a picture of myself) !

here is Tony and his BIG EYE