do not stop here
you are not allowed to stop under the runway at Gatwick airport which seems fair enough. trains are ok though
seeing the light
i’m on the edge of another mad week. i’ve a day trip to gatwick today for a meeting but i’ll be back later to update the blog !
update: journey time to gatwick 2.30 hours. journey time back 3.20 hours. British trains are a bit rubbish.
when i got to reading people were very annoyed as we had been sitting outside the station for 30 minutes waiting for a platform to be free.
to cheer us up, all the computer screens showing the train times were broken, but had been replaced with pretty rainbows.
and to finish it off, i’ve just sat down at my computer and a ceramic table lamp has fallen on my head. all in all an average day (but i finally see the light)
a meal out
we were invited out for a meal today after church and the kids band practice. we had a really good time and the food was fantastic ! a nice sunday lunch (chicken variety) followed by a fantastic chocolate pudding. yummerama.
If you are around 2 years old, there is nothing better than scoffing loads of chocolate, smearing the remains over your face and then running around the room as quickly as you can (accompanied by Casiotone cheese)
shoe
here is a very exciting thing. it’s a posh shoe on a stone pillar. it was on a main road near a crossroads and a train station. we have friends who live nearby but they’ve temporarily moved because their house is falling down.
i spotted this find as we whizzed by in the car (i was driving). 5 minutes later we had to drive back down the same road so i got jane to drive and she let me run out and take the photo (much like she did for the army barracks dog a week or so back)
the shoe looked very new. perhaps someone threw it out because they realised it was beige ?
weather pixie
the poor old weather pixie has been feeling under the weather. So i’ve moved her to her own entry and people can go searching for her if they want.
If you can’t see anything exciting above then she’s simply too busy to appear.
oh well. it’s always raining in england anyway.
the flumps
jane made £4 at the toy sale today by selling our things. unfortunately I simultaneously and independtly blew it on a video of The Flumps. There’s something about repacked TV from childhood years which taps in to people’s brains. The fact it was for sale in a charity shop made it even more appealing.
i was esther’s age when this program appeared on British TV and I remember watching the World Premier of it. I think they did a feature on it on the live magazine program before it (Pebble Mill i think).
The amazing thing was that when i watched it through with esther later in the day it was as good as i remembered it !
sign of a dog
here is a sign of a dog which looks more like a cow. notice the skinny tail and ear. esther spotted another sign next to this one. she said “why is there a picture of a camera with a line through it ?”. ooops
kezia and her baby
kezia used to have something she called her ‘baby’. It was in fact a little police car. since then she’s found a proper dolly to love which is her new baby.
i sold my soul and took the easy option of a lunch in McDonalds in Maidenhead today. kezia had her baby with her and made sure it got some chips:
she also gave it a drink:
esther finds stuff
esther and a one penny piece
esther with one glove, then a few moments later with the other glove
a morning with dad
i looked after the kids this morning as jane was doing commerce at the preschool toy sale. esther decided she wanted to go to Maidenhead and Kezia was happy to go along with the plan.
here are a couple of photos of the day. kezia with her finnish hat on (left) and both the girls spontaneously saluting the camera for no reason (right)
we saw a steam train whizzing through maidenhead station when we were there. it came and went too fast to a photo unfortunately. but it was good (imagine it)
6music
i love 6music. i listen to it lots. i am on their announcement mailing list. so are hundreds or thousands of others.
they must have changed their email address settings because this afternoon i’ve received about 20 out of office replies from other people on the list and they are still coming in fast and furious.
i’m very tempted to send an email to the mailing list (which is now an exploding mailing list) and spam them all about the blog ! Or maybe I could sell the list name to a notorious spammer for a pile of modern money.
(After announcing the URL at my presentation yesterday I did spot a jump in viewing figures to the site – and 6 people downloaded the presentation [but one of those could have been me]).
it’s fascinating the different types of out of office messages people have
here are a few extracts:
the 2nd presentation
the 2nd presentation at the OIF went fine again this morning. yesterday’s topic was quite exciting and was in some ways a 30 minutes blog-type thought thing.
Today’s was about how Internet providers business models work in the UK for both dial up and broadband access. Highly boring.
Interestingly, the projector blew up once i’d finished presenting which lead to an impromptu 20 minutes coffee break ! This is becoming a habit … perhaps i need insurance.
bank dog
a dog sign on a bank. not sure what the eye one means. no winking at the bank staff ?
wino provision
when they replace this seat they should include bottles of wine for the winos like they have on this bench:
hair hat
here is jane wearing a hair piece.
i wore a wig last night too. kezia woke up in the night and i went to see her. she looked at my head and said “hat”. then she felt it and said “hair”. then she thought for a moment and said “hair hat”.
we should get out more (if you are reading this and would like to invite us out, please do)