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January 2004

glove

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pub sign

here is a sign screwed to the top of a pub table so no one steals it. it’s obviously very important.
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skiddy

it snowed, then it melted a bit and then it froze. the result is very icey.
in fact, walking to work this morning was very much like walking across an ice-rink. by which i mean there was a mighty pipe organ playing 70s disco tunes in the cheesiest of ways. possibly.
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as if it wasn’t slippy enough, i spotted a few discarded banana skins too:
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some people were fighting back. here was a curly wurly (still in its wrapper). a curly wurly is an excellent anti-slipping device thanks to its elaborate design:
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bonnet writing

i’ve used the word bonnet a number of times recently. i’m glad about that.
this morning i noticed a number of cars with snow writing on their bonnets. here is one saying London.
the other says Arsenal which must be a satirical comment on the Hutton report making a statement on Sadam’s supposed military arsenal.
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there were a number of other cars around which also had writing on them. all of these contained offensive words (some were even spelt correctly) so i didn’t take any photos.

photo

here is a bit of photo i found. it was very dirty and there wasn’t any other bits around. this one isn’t even worthy of including in davescollections
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the beast of london

i suspect there is a giant (king kong style) cat living somewhere in london. i shall search for evidence, but for starters here is a footprint in the snow on a phone box.
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encased in ice

anything blaine-in-a-box can do, the queen can do better. he she is on a one pence piece encased between layers of ice.
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and here is a towel nearby:
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and a little further up the road, a mattress:
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and finally, a cigar in very good condition:
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how fast is snow ?

when it snows people do strange things. skid mostly. but cars go at different speeds. some way too slow. some way too fast.
how can you indicate this in a sign ? how about this which is a direct replacement for a speed limit sign which was there this morning:
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they tried the same at the train station too:
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footsteps

not for the first time in my life i was following my own path
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crazy weather

it snowed this afternoon. i know this because it took me 2.5 hours to get home from work. but it was interesting as people broke the rules and spoke to each other.
when i found a train which was working i was dissapointed to find on my exit that the next carriage along had no working lights. i would have LOVED to have been in this spooky carriage. anyhow …
this sign came hurtling along the road in front of me down Praed Street like it was on castors. it was a nice advertising techique as everyone turned to look at it. it also got stuck in the middle of the road so lots of car drivers looked at it too.
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a man on the train said to me he loved the snow and when he grew up in Wales he used to go sledging using a Volkswagon Beatle bonnet. my reply to this random piece of information was “i didn’t know they made hats”. i don’t think he understood, but then neither did I.
why were there so many VW Beatle bonnets in Wales ? I asked him and he said “I dunno, but they had loads. even the schools had some”.
(American visitors will note that a ‘bonnet’ is a ‘hood’ – which is also a head covering so the joke still works).
here are some wires looking good in the snow:
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have you seen it ?

t610.jpg brother edd has lost his mobile phone.
he had it yesterday but hasn’t today. can you have a quick look around and see if you can find it ?
It’s a Sony T610. he’s checked his pockets but it’s not there.

on reflection

here’s a thing i often see and think is fantastic. is it an accident or deliberate ? either way, look out for it next time you walk up tottenham court road in the northerly direction.
this new building on Euston Road displays a ghostly reflection of BT Tower on the left hand side.
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very tyred

it’s usual to leave your bike chained to something random in london, usually without the front wheel. the idea being that bike thieves are too stupid to think about doing a wheely as they steal your bike.
here, someone has gone for the opposite approach. they’ve chained their front wheel but taken the rest of their bike with them. i like that approach.
it’s a bit like those car radios you can take out so they don’t get stolen. people with those should leave the radio in the street and take the car inside. primarily because cars are worth more than the radio.
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beautifully broken

here is another broken BT multimedia payphone thing. the colours are fantastic. it may be broken, but it looks good. there aren’t that many things/people you can say that about.
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dog travel

travelling by dog is a good way of avoiding the congestion charge. unfortunately you still have to pay to park your dog at a meter. i still remember when they called them inches.
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