new streetcleaners
they do things differently south of the river. here we see a new type of street cleaner, which is really just a fun sized tractor with a fancy trailor.
mysterious goings on
i think the e-landlord might be doing some work on the server at the moment, so apologies for any temporary blog disruption which may have or continue to occur. how i missed it when it was gone.
it’s just like the wispa bar, but i suspect they may be gone for good.
on the subject of old sweets, everyone must have seen this by now. Relive the sweets which made your teeth what they are today.
advent day 9
day nine of the advent calendar picture challenge – it’s a nativity scene
[would you allow me to put this photo for this on hold until saturday ? only, my mum is going to provide us with a lovely nativity when we visit her in her Christmas grotto (you’ll see what i mean in due course)] ?
update: here is a photo of our church nativity with a mysterious visitor
self portrait
on the long walk to work i occasionally see people checking their reflection in shop windows. someone’s come up with the idea of a full length mirror in the street so people can simply check what they look like.
this mirror was particularly unwide suggesting it’s targetted at the skinnier commuter
advent day 8
day eight of the advent calendar picture challenge – it’s a snowman
here are the photos. i took these last january when a massive snow cloud plopped its content on london. i was meeting a friend over in westminster and got these photos. the one on the left is a snow man in traffalgar square and the one on the right is a couple of snow-men wearing massive snow ball hats (which must have been incredibly heavy!)
i REALLY tried hard to find a snow man today but failed hence the old photos above
danger, molars
this is a sign outside a dentist near the old bailey. the old bailey is where your worst criminals in the UK get their trials. a convenient location for any dentist
inflationary bounces
here is a giant inflatable thing in the middle of London’s business district. perhaps they are trying to encourage the economy to bounce back
street taps
here is one of the government’s water-for-street-people-for-christmas street taps.
trains
“it turns a bit cold and the country falls apart” is a common phrase in the UK. it’s also a true one. my trains were broke this morning and the staion announcement said
“hello, we don’t know what’s going on i’m afraid. there might be a train every hour, but we don’t know and we certainly can’t tell you when the next one is due”. Luckily at that moment a train arrived and we all squashed in.
now i’m here, i hope i can get home again …
here’s a photo i took before all the train palava. can you guess what it is ?
advent day 7
day seven of the advent calendar picture challenge – it’s a festive dog
so, here are the pictures:
here is esther’s toy dog, recently adopted by kezia. i’ve put it in our plastic green teapot for comedy effect
and here is a robot dog i bought for 50pence outside a shop in Brick Lane, London. it was very cheap as it only has three legs. we’ve had much more fun attaching clothes pegs and small wheels to the third leg than we ever would have had if it had its full compliment of legs. buy broken stuff is my motto. (how our friends look forward to their christmas presents from me)
i was going to take a picture of a teeny weeny small plastic dog i used to play with as a kid with brother edd, and now esther and kezia play with it, but it was sadly not in the places i expected it to be in. if it turns up i’ll let you know !
the office party
it was the office christmas party last night. my camera is a bit duff in low light so i didn’t take too many shots, but here are a few:
jane and i (left), herve (right)
will, jane, me and herve (left) and Boy 34 (right)
i’ve made it my business to stalk boy 34 whenever i see him at an office do. jane told him off for ruining the website which was good of her ! Like any good employee he blamed his boss
gloves
glove at marylebone station last night:
glove temporarily abandoned by some loo police at the office christmas party
advent day 6
day six of the advent calendar picture challenge – it’s a star
here are my photos (from our henley trip)
the lift button in henley rowing museum and a broken fairy want with star on the floor at henley train station:
and here is Jeremy Paxman with his kids. He’s a star of BBC TV and radio.
henley with esther and kezia
jane went riding this morning so i took the girls to henley
we had a good time, especially in the play park. we also went round the Henley Rowing Museum with jeremy paxman who was there with his kids at the same time as us (it’s a small museum and kezia kept running up and pressing buttons on the interactive displays that he was looking at)
advent day 5
day five of the advent calendar picture challenge – it’s a leafy berry thing (or it might be a fir tree or fish bone)
here are my attempts. this was trickier than i imagined as there isn’t much folliage in london. instead i found these whilst walking back from a Christmas street fair in the village with esther, kezia and jane. kezia and i (well me mostly as kezia was strapped in to her buggy) went in search of the berries whilst jane and esther came back through a short cut.
so here we have holly and a mega close up of some berries (twice actual size)
not my best photos ever ! here is a much better one i spotted a few days later
arthur beresford pike
someone has chalked the words Arthur Beresford Pike 1855 – 1965 on the street outside the Middlesex Hospital near my office.
A quick google for such a fellow reveals he was an architect.
very strange someone would just randomly chalk his name on the street, and get the dates of birth/death wrong.
i love mysteries
why are old dolls so scarey ?
we’ve just been to visit the fantastic Pollocks Toy Museum across the road from my office.
here are a few photos of some of the dolls:
and here are some dolls doing a comedy line-up (notice the mysterious floating head on the left hand side):
framley museum
i can’t recommend this highly enough (so i won’t)
