peter mandleson in our garage
for some reason this front page picture of peter mandleson has unearthed itself and is now in pride of place as you walk in to our garage. i’m not sure i like it.
September 2009
old phone
i think i must have bought this from a jumble sale some time ago. what a horrendous thing. now in the pile marked ‘bin’
lady bird
insects are brilliant. little armoured chaps going about their business.
the world
i went to the lovely town of bath yesterday to see whether it’s worth me applying for associate membership of the royal photographical society. (i think it is by the way!)
all over bath is an exhibit of photos of different parts of the world showing the impact of global warming etc. I think the exhibition is touring round different towns as i think i may have seen some of the pictures in london.
anyway, it really brought home to me how far away New Zealand is. But at the same time how the world really is so small (before anyone mentions it, i know this is a scale map, and not actual size)
on the way back i popped by stonehenge (more photos to come on that) and there was a lady wearing the world as a hat. again, not actual size. but a reminder of our impending departure on the 11th October.
lower bristol road
as low roads go, the lower bristol road looks pretty low. and a rather wet drive.
my lovely wife jane …
… is amazing. and totally in charge of our emigration. which is handy.
my old coat
here’s my old fake fur coat which i used to wear for everyday activities back in the days when i threw away all my sensible clothes to force myself to wear comedy clothing in an attempt to bring more joy to the world.
instead i probably looked like a cross between a tramp and huggy bear from starsky and hutch. i think i smelt more like a tramp though.
sadly, even though it’s fake fur, i think the coat won’t pass New Zealand’s biological and fashion quality controls and may become an item in the ‘unlucky dip’ at our house cooling party.
red kites
you know what, i’m going to really miss the red kites when we leave
sometimes there are literally over a dozen swooping by around our house
and if i’m working from home they often swoop lower than our upstairs window meaning we can look down on them
just the other day one sat on the roof across the road. i just had time to grab my camera before it whizzed off again. i hadn’t realised their faces were so blue. i guess that’s why they call them red kites.
strange things found and saved
moving house is a funny old business. here are a few things we’ve found
a lovely long candle which was up in the loft, melted, went wonky and fused to another lovely candle.
my old celebrity folder i used at university. i kept some of my backstage passes on it, like nigel kenedy, frank & walters and some other bands. And my favourite stickers, like jason donavan from when he grew a rather fancy beard
inside that folder in blue biro on a blue background was ‘Ed Steward waz here’. And you know what, it might have been written by your actual Ed ‘stewpot’ Stewart, because i did meet him once.
And finally, here’s a near tragedy as jane doesn’t like this tremendous barometer depicting Calais in bloom. So she threw it in the dumpster bag and it went in the back of the car. She didn’t figure for my cunning though and I carefully extracted it at the dump and saved it from the most horrible end.
strangely this beautif commemorative barometer caused someone else some anger about 20 years ago when a house mate put it in the freezer to see how low he could get the thermometer to go. I found it in the freezer all frosted up and the thermometer feature has been busted ever since.
bee in a rose
i knew someone who had a bee in her bonnet we all laughed as everyone knows bees should travel in your boot (or ‘trunk’ to any american readers).
do not dare open
i didn’t
fanastic place sign
straight forward sign telling you how far stuff is. great arrow work and a nice bit of rust too. good.
the funniest bird statue ever ?
just look at this chap. brilliant stuff
