people

here is a strange chap/lady in a window i saw last night. i didn’t go closer because i was slightly too scared.

a friend is someone you can lean on.

here is steve. we had lunch today and it was very good. so there.

remember trolley man ? i haven’t seen him for a while, but did this morning thanks to my decision to walk a different way this morning. i saw the man himself with a few trolleys, but here are a few other trolleys he had lined up around adjacent streets.
i love the fact there’s a massive table on the one on the left:

and this one is good enough to be a desktop picture. so click on it and help yourself !

these people pointed at me as i walked by so i took a photo of them enjoying looking at me. so we were all happy (though i was a little paranoid afterwards)

the US and UK have a special relationship. so our politicians tell us.
here it is in practice. takes up a lot of space on the bench don’t they ?
as a result of their ‘special relationship’ members of the public can’t relax.
these chaps are made of chocolate. just like the real ones. churchill was renown for melting in front of a hot fire on winter’s evening.

it was the hurst horse show and contry fair this afternoon. bit wet but lots of fun. one of my favourite bits was this lady who did a turn dancing with her dog to lo-fi music over the tannoy system. it was quite remarkable.
but you would have guessed that to look at her.

this lady was selling knives in a reputable department store so i don’t think she was diddling people. But she was really funny to listen to. Partly her accent but mostly her patter.
she opened her pitch by saying “these are the world’s most advertised knives” and along the way cut a chunk out of her bread board and the end off a hammer.
“these knives stay sharp forever, so you’ll never have to buy another one” and then a few minutes later, “Buy one today and i’ll give you two more for free, and i’ll even throw in 2 other knives”.
So, like i only need one of these for the rest of my life, but you are going to give me 5 ? Needless to say we didn’t buy any, but i did enjoy the show !

i spotted a lovely little old lady with a massive white hat on walking on the opposite side of the road. she looked so sweet i thought i should take her photo.
unfortunately on my first attempt my camera wasn’t in focus and on my second attempt a bus turned up and a taxi drove by. a second later she was on the bus and long gone.
but you get the idea.

after the car boot sale we went to the Southern Counties Game Fair. there were some fantastic characters there.
this bloke was watching his steam engines:

and this bloke was poking a pack of beagles with a stick:

here is elvis. he’s a famous local character in the town of reading. he’s also a really nice chap (despite being convinced he’s elvis). when i used to live in reading town i used to take him to nighclubs with my friend paul and we all had a fantastic time !
here he is doing an elvis pose for the website

what was i saying about the pixie people the other day (see comments) ? As soon as you believe they are there you start seeing them.
today was no exception. here is a pixie girl doing some shopping with a tin man in dungarees and a man in a skirt.

this man is selling peacock feathers in tottenham court road. he doesn’t speak much but did allow me to take his photo for the website for 50p.
moments before i’d seen a business man wearing a black cloak and an eye patch looking very bizarre. the two people passed within a few centimetres of each other and i half expected them to explode and/or suddenly disappear.
but they didn’t. which is lucky. otherwise i wouldn’t have got this picture for you.

following the classic who is brother edd ? entry of a few days back, here is a Who Is Tony ? entry.
Tony often leaves comments. He’s not Big Eye Tony. That’s a different one.
This Tony comes round to our house with his family and looks a bit like Bill Gates. tony is a man and is married to his wife and has two girls aged the same as our two. so that’s four things we have in common (note – i am married to my wife not his).
Here he is playing jane’s guitar whilst listening to The Strokes’ debut album. he hadn’t heard their music (or album) before and so what he played did not resemble the music he heard. it was in the right key however.

this tony also plays jenga (actually our poor copy version from a high street store, but some concept)

this tony is also a very good friend. to celebrate this friendship we give each other (the same) ballerina pen holder each birthday/christmas.
so there we have it. a very quick summary of tony.