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January 2004

end of the line

trains are good value (but not in the monetary sense). there is still lots of opportunity to see big mechanical things which are all greasy.
the buffers (i mistyped this the first time with hilarious consequences) at paddington station are a good example of this.
if i were a train driver i’d been tempted to use the buffers to stop my train once in a while. just for kicks like.
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private party

there was a sign on this pub which said WE ARE CLOSED FOR A PRIVATE PARTY.
unfortunately the party obviously got out of hand as they had completely wrecked the place and various men in hard hats were carrying bags of rubble and old floor boards out in to the street.
i would have got some better pictures, but i was running to another meeting which turned out to be 30 minutes away (and not my allotted 20 mintes). i arrived on time, but out of breath.
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today has been mostly …

… tedious beyond belief.
but life is like that sometimes and days like this are rare.
highlight of the day was someone describing something as ‘same meat, different gravy’. i chuckled, but no one else did.

esther’s art

esther came up with her own art concept this afternoon. it’s masking tape twisted widely and stuck on to a piece of paper. on to that she dropped multicoloured pencil sharpenings (the big bits) and dusted it with the small pencil shavings. it was her own idea apparently.
it’s more of an installation than a picture so we can’t move it from the kitchen table (because all the bits will drop off).
since it’s a temporary exhibit i’ve reproduced it large here. i think it’s actually quite beautiful.
the next step is probably fly paper art. we’ll stick fly paper around the room and throw some random rubbish about, see what sticks and plop it down on to some paper. houston, i think we have a concept.

click to view big version

very funky pancakes

A massive thank you to Cheryl of BatonNOiR for my lovely pancakes and help with my colour scheme.
I don’t know if she cooked them especially (or whether she had a stock picture of pancakes), but they look good. They have a mysteriously purple color and bits of banana on top which makes them very funky.
i’m even happy to use the lazy American spelling of color on this occasion. but ONLY this occasion !
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The Dinner Project

One of my daily blog reads is Texas T-bone. He’s recently published a cook book made up of contributed recipes. it’s even got one of my recipes in there !
check out his dinner project page for more info, or download the pdf (145KB) here (right click and save might be safer than just clicking).
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joke d’jour

i just reminded myself of this. It isn’t really a broken joke. it’s simply not very good but i haven’t got a category for that.
Why do they call policemen coppers ?
Because the change is good as a rest.
i made that up myself you know …

noise

The BBC place in Portland Place (Broadcasting House) has been hidden for a while for security reasons. whilst it’s under wraps they’ve decided to put some big art displays on it.
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Read More »noise

people are everywhere

i see people everywhere. here is a plastic man protecting some bin bags and a man in the shape of a blob of paint. why do they look at me so ?
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more dangling

there was more dangling today. walter was so excited by what was going on that he pointed at john and laughed
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butter fingers

i walked down the street and picked a buttercup.
actually i picked a ‘butter up’.
i should have picked a buttock up but i didn’t see one.
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singing in the rain

this man was singing “i can see clearly now the rain has gone”. it was raining so i suspect his vision wasn’t that good afterall. he did have a nice wah-wah vibe going on though so i forgave him.
my favourite version of this song goes “i can see clearly with my glasses on”.
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Waterloo – couldn’t escape if I wanted to

waterloo station is made of girders (like irn bru). they do look very nice and act as mirror to the minimal pairs of metal lines which the train run on at ground level. i wonder if that’s what they meant to do.
more likely they were just concerned with keeping the roof up.
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ofcom documents

nerd alert – switch off now if you aren’t interested in telecoms regulation …
i’ve noticed that a number of people have ended up at this site looking for the Oftel / Ofcom Review of the retail leased lines, symmetric broadband origination and wholesale trunk segments markets. How disappointed they would have been to end up here.
So, as a service to the telecommunications industry, here is a link to the main document. It seems to have got lost on the Ofcom site. I’ll have a word with their webman and see what happens.
the same people might also be interested in the Ofcom broadband review and the discontinuation notices
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green gunge

i walked past this basement entrance and noticed green gunk oozing out the side of it. i suspect it’s just an insulating sealant of some kind. but what if it were evil terrorists planning an evil green gunge attack on the city of london ?
what if they’ve created a green gunge machine which works based on some self-sustaining chemical reaction and will produce enough goo to stick us all londoners to the streets ?
hopefully, once they see this they’ll realise i’m on to them and they’ll turn their evil machine off and we’ll all be saved.
so, if we haven’t all been glued to the floor by green gunge by tomorrow, you’ll know who to thank.
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teddy

having kids makes you realise that this bear is one of two things: chaff or chum.
if it’s chaff then it’s simply another teddy in someone’s collection and it’s loss will not be noticed (it may have been thrown out deliberately).
if it’s a chum then it’s a vital friend of the child who will be missing it dearly and searching high and low for it. there will be tears and sleepless nights for all involved.
let’s assume it’s chaff so as not to upset ourselves on a monday morning.
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more blue hair

last sunday we went round to our friend sally, tabatha and zac’s house for lunch with a number of other people (there was no festive melting skull table decoration this time). i got to play their PS2 all afternoon and got thoroughly confused about who’s heads i should be chopping off.
i wasn’t allowed to post this pictures last week as we used them in a competition at the party last night. but i can now. zac is looking good in his wig and glasses, whilst sally is looking mighty fine in the famous blue wig.

(click photos for big versions)
and here is another one of sally: