poo-ometer ?
here is a device on the wall in the men’s toilets near the business lounge at Tegel Airport. it’s obviously measuring something, but what ?
(click for big version)
Travelling is an education. whilst waiting for the plane i learnt how to grow very long parsnips (use a drain pipe) and whilst flying I learnt how to transport pets to australia (use a specialist company – allow for around £1000 per pet including flights (via Bangkok) and quaranteen).
sign of an airport hound
remember this dog from Tegel airport ? The picture i took last time was quite simply rubbish as i’d taken it from the reverse side of the door and the lighting was all wrong. my bastest photoshopping still wasn’t good enough.
this evening i refound the cafe where the sign was last time and it was still there. i climbed across a customer and caputered this photo in all it’s glory.
i was very pleased to get this photo and can only apologise for the poor quality of my previous attempt
berlin transport
berlin is famous (on this blog) for having fantastic transportation items chained up in the street. you may remember the flourescent bike from my last trip.
i wasn’t extremely happy to see this tricycle chained up to a lamp post. this would certainly be exempt from the London Congestion Charge
berlin again
the hotel i stayed in (and where the conference was) was called the Hotel Espanade. it was very nice indeed. here is a picture of a hallway and my room.
rumour has it that this is the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby out the window ! i’ve not been able to confirm this (jacko’s lawyers aren’t answering their phones at the moment for some reason)
there was some celebrity thing going on as there was a camera crew out the front of the hotel. I suspect it was some German celeb and i wouldn’t have recognised them anway. so i took a photo of the camera man instead.
i was invited along by two colleagues for a meal and some drinks in the evening which was very good. it was weird going back to Berlin after only being there is September and i was quite impressed with myself for remembering how the different bits fitted together.
here are some sites (including a little bit of Christmas)
(this is the outside of the inside). i did pop in to the church and there was an organist doing his thing which was very nice.
oftel leaving party
so, what have i been doing for the last day and a half ?
well, i went to a leaving do at oftel as some of my old colleagues from when i worked there are leaving Oftel.
here are my good friends/colleagues Phil and Keith. They mentored me when i first joined Oftel and i owe them tons for all the info and background on technical stuff they provided.
not pictured are roy and roberto who were also leaving.
i caught up with a few other people i hadn’t seen for ages including this chap called Ally who i used to work with. it’s brilliant when you bump in to people you haven’t seen for ages.
unfortunately i only stayed there for an hour as i had to rush off to get my flight to berlin. i had a real bad case of Beer Bladder on the way to the airport as there weren’t any toilets on the Heathrow Express. i managed, but only just !
more bush stuff
last night whilst walking back to the train station i was listening to an FM radio. However, i experienced electro-magnetic fluctuations which caused the channel to become unlistenable. what else could this have been other than Bush’s secret agents secretly communicating ?
i’ve had enough of all this excitement, so i’ve decided to go to Berlin for 25 hours. It’s a business trip of the worst kind – fly to berlin, taxi to hotel, sleep, get up early for conference, taxi to airport, fly home. no site-seeing for me this time.
i’m not even taking my computer so there may be no blog updates until tomorrow (thursday) pm !
belisha beacon
this man cleans belisha beacons
where’s bush’s minions ?
it’s quite easy to spot which hotel Bush’s people are staying in. It’s the dozens of police in flourescent jackets at the front of the hotels, the multitude of black cars with black windows, the odd stretched limo (!) and piles of very big blokes in very big suits standing around trying to look natural ! Usually there is nothing but a doorman and the odd taxi.
here is some rubbish i found in the street. i’m sure there’s a story behind it. maybe there’s an urban legend that if you mix beer and toothpaste you get high or something ? i’m sure 14 years olds would believe that !
train crash
i went to buy a train ticket this morning but the machine had crashed. IP address conflict apparently. ho hum.
broken joke
here’s another broken joke for you
a broken joke is a joke so well know from childhood that you can ‘break it’ and it still makes some sort of sense – but only if you know the original, so apologies if this is a culturally non inclusive
so eyes down, here we go:
——————————–
a man goes in a chip shop and says “can i have two portions of fish and chips please”
the shop owner replies “i heard you the first time”.
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toasted sandwich
left at a bus stop
George W Bush memorial walk
here is a walk around London which might take a couple of hours (or longer if you want). Let’s assume George Bush arrives at Heathrow airport. He’ll wheel his bags through customs and head straight for the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station. It’s famous for being the most expensive train journey you can make for the distance in the UK.
experiment in safety
Pedestrian Casualty Reduction Signal Timings Experiment
levitation
a floating street cleaning device
random person
i’ve decided to take pictures of people in london who look interesting (with their permission).
here is my first person who has eyes like flies.
George W
George Bush and myself have at least one thing in common – today we have meetings in and around Westminster. He’s even staying over at the Queen’s place. I live in commuting distance so don’t need to worry about that myself.
My meeting was attended by people with fancy names like ‘Lord so and so’ and Baroness this and that’. and me. and was in a very fancy building.
My walk to the meeting from Paddington Station took 40 minutes and my walk back to the office took about 30 minutes. Comparible times to travelling by tube and much less stressful.
On the train this morning it occured to me that George W might be doing exactly the same journey, so i photoed lots of tourist things to do on the way.
I shall call this the George W commemorative walk and i’ll do a seperate entry on it.
here are two of the ITV news team. The bloke on the right is John Stapleton and does the breakfast news when i wake up. i had seen him 2 hours earlier on the telly and happened to walk past where he was standing 2 hours later (and he was still there). he was wearing glasses which he removed when i asked if i could take his photo.
the photo on the left is of a newsreader bloke and a random lady hiding behind a van. i don’t know who he is, but i’m sure Andrew, a regular reader of the blog will tell us.
I also saw Michael ‘parky’ Parkinson outside the Iv:
as is my way with celebrity spotting, he moved to quickly and went behind a taxi. i want a camera with a quicker start up time !
money making scheme
esther is now officially sponsored by BT Wholesale. she seems very pleased about it.
