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January 2005

dangerous glove photography

it’s not always easy to get photos of gloves. these two were in the middle of quite a busy road junction outside Paddington Station.
i had to pre-focus my camera and dodge traffic to get the second of these photos !
unless you know what you are doing, i urge you not to follow my example.
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finding bicycles

i’ve decided to formalise the bike signs and set up their own category. if i have time i’ll go back through the archives and recategorise some old pictures.
here are a few signs i pass every morning to get us started. There’s usually a way round most of these signs.
for example, in this case, you just need to hide your bike. if they can’t find it, they won’t remove it:
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here is a no bikes sign with a long explanation (including the threat of having your bike towed away!):
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and here is a very short sign:
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what a difference a day makes

i took this photo of two bollards having a chat in the street yesterday morning. one had a januty hat, and i suspect they were talking about something but it seemed rude to stop and listen.
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this morning it was a different story. the two of them looked quite stand-offish. i noticed there was a christmas tree between them so perhaps that’s relevant.
i suspect old jaunty-hat wanted to have it up all year round, but no-hat didn’t want to. i once had a christmas tree up for three years. but then i took it down.
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cokes on walls

my absolute favouritist favourite thing about doing this blog is spotting strange themes on my walk to the office. it’s often not until the end of the walk i realise what the theme was and by then it’s too late to go back and get the pictures.
so i find myself taking pictures of everything just in case i find another one a bit later.
today’s theme (albeit a mini-theme) was ‘coke on railings’.
here was my first find. i took two photos of this one:

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when i saw this i thought it might be a new way of encouragin recycling. i think people would be more likely to do it if they could display their empties along railings like this:

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and here is my second spot – this time a MaccyD’s coke:

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magician’s lorry

this is like one of those magician tricks where they show you an empty box from the side then proceed to throw a cloth over the top then extract a live rabbit.
i suspect that modern haulage companies are concerned about transporting valuable cargo in their standard lorries and so have decided to use these magical ones instead.
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belated leaves facts

the leaves have long since left the trees, but i noticed this new sign was on display at Paddington Station this morning.
it’s worth a read (click it for detail). i love how they’ve tried to make it as unreadable as possible by incorporated science and phrases like ‘non-stick type surface’.
it’s a shame they didn’t use the word ‘mulch’. i would have liked it even more then.

click to read

temporal comments

i’ve started a new category today which i’ve called ‘temporal comments’. These are a kind of graffiti but is simply piece of paper or card with a few words on it.
parking tickets was the first one, and this is the second (which was displayed on my train this morning).
of course it could be some sublimal advertising. but i doubt it.
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pavement tomatoes

here are some sliced tomatoes sent from a different eye.
i suspect this was a blatant plug for his/her new blog, but it looks good, so far so happy to spread the word !
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urban rug

another method of avoiding the congestion charge. fly by rug.
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chained bikes

i’m sure we’re had this sign before but not for a year or so, so here it is again. and this time it’s got an interesting horizontal line background for you to enjoy.
i walk past this sign every day and often consider padlocking a bike to this fence, but first removing its greasy chain.
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a lost favourite

this toy looks highly loved and no doubt someone would have spent a very sad night without it.
the twin dummy bit is interesting though isn’t it ? Perhaps it belongs to (a) siamese twin(s)
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protected television

there’s nothing more boring than digging a hole so workmen often listen to the radio.
but what do they do if they are addicted to Celebrity Big Brother (which is quite good at the moment [shame on me] ) ?
The answer is to take a telly to work and put it by the hole so you can watch whilst you dig.
perhaps it’s a sony workman watchman ?
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two bollards

have these two guys just had a fight or is the red on a paramedic ?
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disciple

how’s your daily walk going ?
i’ve tried to pick up the speed of mine to start preparing for the marathon. i arrived at work quite out of breath and eagerly looked at my pedometer to see what my average speed was (so i can get some feel for how long my marathon’s going to take).
unfortunately my pedometer wasn’t impressed and actually showed my walk was slower today than usual. i suspect technical trouble.
anyway, on my walk today i saw this little clothing label on the floor which made me think of how i’m doing on my spiritual walk.
the label says ‘M’ which could mean Medium. but i think it’s not as good as that. so i’ll pretend it means Male.
Recent world events have re-emphasised the fragility and uncertaintly of life. When things happen to others it makes us realise how any of our lives could (and will) just ‘end’ at any moment.
This little label on the street has really made me think about what i’m actually doing in life/death. Which is quite a healthy thing to do at the beginning of a new year.
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what a lot of bins

a walk in the park:
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upsway down (bin headstand):
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heading back home:
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only squares visit dirt piles:
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