do not use
this urinal had been ripped off the wall in heathrow. ‘welcome to england’ it should have said. but it didn’t. instead it said “do not use”. in case you were thinking of, say, using it.
October 2003
plane toilets
plane toilets are interesting. the plane on the way back was a 767 (i think) so had toilets all over the place. my intial trip to the loos was a little unsuccessful when i opened a cupboard instead of the toilet door. they all look the same these days.
Anyways, no smoking in the toilets right. if you do they throw you off the plane. if you mess with the smoke alarms they fine you lots of $$$ (probably means American’s are more likely to mess with the smoke alarms than £££ UK people).
however, if you do smoke in the toilets (!) then don’t throw your fag ends in to the paper waste
and just to really confuse you, here is a nice ashtray !
You can also get some larger than life sanitary items:
And another mysterious sign about not taking stuff out of toilets or something:
or how about this (which i assume means don’t throw all your belongings down the toilet:
so many signs in such a small place
hound etc
here is a row of signage from the side of the Arlanda Express in Stockholm. I saw the sign of the dog described in the train safety instruction book so walked up and down the train looking for it on windows etc.
I didn’t find it, so reread the booklet to find that it said the sign was on the outside of the train. As we approached the airport I asked the ticket collector which end of the train dogs were allowed. She said “at both ends, but if you are disabled then you can have them in the middle”.
So i ran down to the front of the train to get the sign, but when i got there the sign wasn’t there. in fact it was at the back of the train which went whizzing a few seconds later before i could take a photo.
so i made the chap i was travelling with wait 15 minutes for the next train. i postitioned myself at the back of the platform so i could get the photo. the train arrived and … the dog sign on this train was at the front. so i ran down the platform just in time to get this photo:
definately worth the wait i’d say. look at the variety of signs, and the very angular dog
back home
hoorah. back home. but now to bed. more stockholm remnants to be posted tomorrow ….
ancient swedish story
this was in the vasser museum:
it reads:
Melker Pavelsson was mongering fish at the market – large and exquisite herring. At the bottom of his firkin, however, the herring was >>small and no good <<
makes you think
Vasa Museet
the museum also had a comprehensive glove collection showing gloves are not just a modern day stockholm phenominum:
skum
put out fires by firing skum at it
the hotel (again)
it turns out the hotel i’m staying in has recently recruited a complaints manager as they are having so many people complain about the state of the hotel at the moment ! hehe. my letter has been emailed …
they’ve even started wripping plaster off outside my room !
another glove
found this on the way to the conference
arab strap
Arab Strap were most excellent. A bit like the Tindersticks meets to the Pogues. The venue, Debaser, was excellent too. Wish i’d been there instead of the ‘stuck-in-the-80s-michael-jackson’ place i went to saturday night. oh well
set list:
glove
not sure if this is a repeat, but i liked the angled cobbles which we haven’t seen before
the lift
the lift in this hotel is it’s main redeeming feature. it has a sign which says “hit” next to the button and it also says “Hiss for Hogst”. I’ve hissed like a punctured snake everytime i’ve gone in that lift but never once managed to summon a wild pig.
bat for meddling
a lovely idea. if some kids is thinking of doing some meddling then give them a bat.
baby changing instructions
here is a sign from a baby changing shelf in the blokes toilets in skansen. the kid looks like a bird which is a shame.
it’s also interesting to note that like the german’s the swedes mark their male toilets “Herr”. this is confusing for those who speak english who are used to her being the female possessive and him being the male version. if you are a german or swede reading this then it’s probably worth you changing that if you get a chance please.
stick to ‘blokes’ and ‘birds’. everyone knows what that means. and we are full circle back to the picture of the bird on the baby changing signage
skansen
there is a fantastic outside museum thing in stockholm. i wasn’t convinced it would be any good, but thought i should go there this afternoon (so i did).
it has lots of authentic old swedish dwellings, and is one of those fancy living museums where people demonstrate what they actually did.
it also has some animals in. here is some people being filmed watching the bears. i suspect the film crew were hired by the bears so the people could see how the bears felt being watched all day. it seemed to have back-fired as the people weren’t bothered.
here is one of the bears (and a fox)
and here is me outside an authentic dwelling.
Go to skansen if you are in stockholm. it’s excellent and really cheap !
autumn
here are some nice autumn scenes for you
phone box
here is a nice swedish phone box for your enjoyment
