xmas

day five of the advent calendar picture challenge – it’s a leafy berry thing (or it might be a fir tree or fish bone)

here are my attempts. this was trickier than i imagined as there isn’t much folliage in london. instead i found these whilst walking back from a Christmas street fair in the village with esther, kezia and jane. kezia and i (well me mostly as kezia was strapped in to her buggy) went in search of the berries whilst jane and esther came back through a short cut.
so here we have holly and a mega close up of some berries (twice actual size)

not my best photos ever ! here is a much better one i spotted a few days later

last year i found a couple of christmas cards in the street and compiled my own lost christmas on a shelf in my office. i thought i was off to a terrifc start when i saw this envelope just off Harley Street. It’s addressed to a Doctor and says “by hand”. It wasn’t actually opened and was lying in the road.
i decided i shouldn’t just take it so left it on the nearest doorstep (not bread) and hoped that it would find its way to its intended recipient. i should have changed the ‘by hand’ to ‘by hands’

day four of the advent calendar picture challenge – it’s a bird:

here are the entries:
dali winged person (part of a statue of a floppy clock outside the london eye)

searching for a bird picture i also went to trafalgar square which was once famous for its pigeons. however there were no pigeons there when i got there for three reasons:
1) it’s now illegal to feed them
2) it was dark and pigeons go to bed early in winter
3) there was loads of activity because they were lighting the official christmas tree and they probably would have been scared away
so here is an arty shot of a don’t feed the pigeon sign and the bloke on the stick. interesting the sign looks like a tomb stone, which i suppose it was in a way for the pigeons. perhaps john shuttleworth would be interested, writer of the famous song “pigeons in flight”

as we get closer to christmas, life gets busier. it was band practice last night. the electric guitar, piano and me (bass) are out of shot (but not out of hearing range)

they’ve got a neat idea in london this year to project pictures on to buildings. even the queen’s allowed buckingham palace to be projected on.
here is the cover of Do They Know It’s Christmas on Wellington Arch (i think that’s what it’s called). It looked very nice.

day three of the advent calendar picture challenge – it’s a sleigh:
and here are the photos:

here is a slay(er) of dragons ie a sword

and here is my sledge which is a sort of sleigh i suppose in the garage loft:

day two of the advent calendar picture challenge – it’s a bell:

on the left is All Souls Church Spire (which may contain a bell) and some people dancing on Oxford Street (playing bells and drums)

I go to All Souls whevener i’m free on a Thursday lunchtime. if you’re in town, come along too ! it’s the Christmas Carol service on the 18th december.
All Souls is next to the BBC building where i think they still do radio and TV broadcasts. I went in there for a meeting this afternoon but didn’t see anyone famous

i had a chocolate choir boy in my advent calendar today and was a bit stuck for a photo as per my photographic idea.
luckily i’m not alone in my challenge and the blogging community has come to my rescue. so, many thanks to Feisty Girl for sending me this:

it’s an album sleeve of St Paul’s Cathedral choir from 1996 (a good vintage).
it reminded me that i used to be a choir boy so i went in search of old photos in my old family photo albums. unforunately my history seems to have dissapeared as only jane’s old albums are in the shelf in our dining room ! i’m sure my history hasn’t been destroyed, it’s just out of sight somewhere. a cold trip in to the loft proved unfruitful.
i’m sure my mother (another regular reader) will have a photo of me as a choir boy somewhere in her house. meanwhile i’ll keep on searching for my past …

i went off to get an advent calendar from the arty boutique called Paper Chase. I chose a nice one, but when i got back to the office and opened the door i found … nothing.

(click picture for big version)
i took it back and got a refund and went looking in other shops. they only seem to sell chocolate ones now, but i wanted one with a picture in it. i even found one which was a countdown to newyear and had 32 windows !
so i went to Marks and Spencers and asked the security guard. he said “the hulk one is the one for you mate. Look at it, it’s awesome”. i took his advice and purchased this very festive item:

and here’s what was behind door number 1:

it’s a little choir boy. where on earth am i going to get a photo of one of them from (without being arrested) ?

people are starting to put their decorations up. i’m keen to get them up early (i have a santa that stays up all year and our Christmas Tree angel has been sitting on our telly for the whole year), but Jane likes to leave it until Christmas Eve. i think we’ll compromise on the weekend before Christmas.
However, i did notice this amongst some bins this morning. Someone is obviously NOT doing Christmas this year.

stuck for a Christmas gift ? here’s my first suggestion …

royal family paper dolls