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there are lots of mysterious door and buildings in london (as any city). here is one with a door which is extremely well secured shut.
a few minutes before seeing this building, in another part of London, i saw a street paving stone has been lifted up and there was a very long and deep staircase down under the road. i was going to take a photo only there were two security chaps inspecting me inspecting their hole.
i find that kind of thing fascinating.
amber. the colour or the person ?
i swapped a photo of some leaves or a photo of some snow drops. i think this picture is superb so was more than happy to let my leaves go !
it's a lucky bonus leap year day today. i find the whole thing a little puzzling.
one thing that dissappoints me (other than spelling words correctly) is that they chose February as the month to have the extra day.
why didn't they put it in june/july/august ? that would make the summer last longer and may even coincide with prebooked holidays thus giving an extra day.
at the very least it should be a public 'bonus day' holiday.
all it does stuck on the end of february is postpone the summer for an extra day (and lengthens the winter).
who makes up these rules anyway ?
there's an excellent page on leap days and wonky calendars here
i took the girls to a garden centre this afternoon. we walked past this shed a kezia pointed at it and said "that's a sad one". so we decided to go in and cheer it up.
it's been a family day. here are kezia and esther playing piano (sort of):
then esther ran round with my coat on pretending to be a bat:
my god-daughter made me a lovely card (with integral envelope):
look ! the first found international american found photo of animals.
thanks to cheryl of batanoir for this.
see it on davescollections !
thanks to my pedometer i can now reveal that i am over halfway to Paris from London. here is the graph to prove it. Total so far is 240km and average weekly distance is 60km.
click for detail
can you guess what i've given up for lent ? i've even surprised myself with the randomness of this plan
UPDATE (also redated to reposition it)
here is the item i have snubbed:
jane (my wife) said "it's just a stupid idea. there's no point. why are you doing it".
i said "it's good to have a challenge".
and she said "well, i think it's just stupid".
i've found a nice pub near St Paul's cathedral (and therefore near where my next meeting is in half an hour) which has free wifi ! And it's a really nice pub which was used in some Gwynth Paltrow movie (changing doors or something i think) and the food's really nice.
lovely.
here are some tourists standing outside a taxi. they had made the taxi driver get out and take a photo of them. anyone who's ever come in to contact with a london taxi driver will understand the negotiation that probably went in to arranging this.
the funny thing is that behind where i was standing is St Paul's catherdral. If they had taken the photo from the other side of the taxi it would have made a nice photo. oh well.
so what about the giant cat that is stalking london ? i'm definately on to something here. it's a load of spreaded shredded paper. Exactly the kind of thing that a giant cat would sleep in.
and where is it most apparent ? round man hole covers. the cat is obviously sleeping underground and comes up through these holes to stalk its pray.
when it lurches and lunges it causes a vortex which spirals the paper pieces in a circle.
i'm glad this is my last day in london for a week ...
we had a music practice at church last night. the pathway lights made some great grave shadows. here's one.
i walked along the street briefly with barbara windsor this evening on the way back to paddington station. she got out of a car next to where i was walking and wiggled along to a nail beautification shop.
i asked if i could take her photo as she went in to the shop and she said she'd prefer not so i didn't. the same happened with hugh grant you may remember.
i also didn't mention i saw a two of the guys from a League of Gentlemen outside my office last week but was too slow to get their photo (i was heading off to a meeting in the opposite direction).
i'd never make a proper pap
here is a picture i found on t'internet of barbara windsor. it's from a while back i think.
i like how these cups blend in with london below:
they look good out of context too:
can you see my esteemed colleagues ? they are at the bottom left of my orange and cream office building. click for a big version. this was taken at maximum resolution and zoom. This photo was taken from 158 metres above ground.
here is the shadow of the tower viewed from the tower:
and here is the inside:
i may post a couple of ambient view shots later this evening
today, hopefully, i shall be dining up here at lunch time. i'm really hoping the sky will stay as clear and blue as it is right now. unlikely though i think.
here is something wrapped in tin foil. or is it aluminium foil. if only i had had a magnet. i don't know what is inside.
it's probably a potato but i could be transplant organs as it was just off London's explusive private clinic area - Harley Street. [i accidentally made the word explusive up - i think it's a good one. you can use it if you like]
i pass a food shop in the morning which sells a wide variety of goods. I noticed last week that they had put up a poster advertising their shop a little further down the street. it's a little strange so i thought i'd share it with you.
a boy with two heads:
apples apparently smothered in cooking oil:
esther likes to wear a leotard to do a jigsaw. jane was relegated to the floor.
here is a teething ring in a tree. ideal for trees to teeth on. trees do have teeth but they aren't very good. usually their bark is worse than their bite.
so no updates til this evening again. how did you get on with your pancakes by the way ?
it's pancake day today.
esther mixed whilst kezzie watched
jane enjoyed tossing them (note the psychedelic camera work):
and everyone enjoyed eating them (with chocolate sauce, lemon and sugar)
three seperate bulbs have blown in our house in the last 24 hours. very mysterious. one even blew a fuse and i had to do some mending in the fuse box. what does it all mean ?
i'm reminded of The Fall song which repeats "there's no bulbs in the house, the lights have gone out". that was a fantastic song.
it was raining this afternoon so people were carrying umberellas and wearing hats. this bloke on the tube was obviously worried about getting his hat wet so he had covered it in plastic wrapping. now that is a very good idea.
it's quite popular when you die to have a bench named after you. i like this idea. it's people can rest on you when you're enjoying your own eternal rest.
this bench in Hyde Park was one of a few which seemed to be dedicated to living people and said things like "to my wife in celebration of our 50th wedding aniversary". i thought this was a great idea.
when you go to some churches it seems that every piece of brass work is 'in memory of' someone or other. it's a kind of eclesiastical individual sponsorship scheme.
here is a tree which changes colour halfway up its trunk. i thought this was a little strange at the time so i took this photo. perhaps it was grafted.
it reminded me of my old friend who had a false leg and real feet.
it's pancake day today. my trains are broke and i'm in a conference all day so next update tonight.
send me your pancake throwing pictures
a comedy moment of misery outside the Astoria just now. lots of goths in a row.
sing together now, "100 moody goths sitting in a row ...."
here is claudia schiffer. i couldn't get any closer because of the paps.
surprisingly i was able to get a better shot of Alan Yentob once she had glided off !
(it was some promotional thing to do with painting by numbers and Totally London - no i didn't understand either !)
meercats with cameras
i found this photo under a lorry by St Paul's Cathedral. i thought it looked like it could be a photo but it was face down. so i knelt down and put my hand under the lorry (hoping it wouldn't drive away). and to my delight it was a passport photo (the purest type of found photo).
best of all was that i was leaving a message on our home answer machine at the time and you can hear my exclamation of delight !
UPDATE: now added to davescollections
i saw this man walking the streets spraying randomly as he went (he had a little nozzle thing which is hidden by the bus stop). i took his photo in case it turns out he was spraying some deadly poison.
here is the top of a building at the junction of tottenham court road and oxford street. it's most peculiar and seems to have some kind of ancient chinese gazebo vibe going on.
here are two polysteyrene packaging things which have holes just wide enough to put your feet in (as demonstrated by my leg here).
i was going to put them on and walk the rest of the way to work, but decided not to when i'd got the first one on. there was a real danger of street fallage.
And jane would skin-me-alive if i went through the knees of my work trousers.
two phrases from my youth have just sprung to mine.
my dad, a lovely gentle chap would occasionally threaten to "skin us alive" or "have our guts for garters".
before the child protection people move in and have me sent to a children's home he never said these things in anger, just as comedy phrases in play arguments (he's not the arguing type).
As far as i know, he never went through with either of these threats.
here is my dad with kezia:
i picked up quite a lot of different pieces of paper off the floor this morning, including this, which is a milkman's delivery schedule.
i was pleased to have found this until i realised there were loads of them all blowing down the street:
these catkins amuse me. they look like they are scurrying off somewhere. but where ? i think they are acting like paisley with their swirly wirlyness.
yes sir, yes sir, here are two bags full of bread cakes. or buns. or baps. or cobs. there are so many names for this basic food item.
today we went to Hampton Court Palace. It's riddled with history. esther and kezia really enjoyed it.
pity it was absolutely freezing and esther forgot her coat ...
esther guided us to the centre of the famous maze and back out again.
here is kez and esther next to an oversized cut out of Henry VIII.
here is liz. she had her birthday party today and we were invited. liz goes to the church we went to before we moved house. so it was great to see her and a number of other families with little children who we hadn't seen for ages.
i know i've said this before, but i'm really looking forward to heaven. it's going to be so cool to meet up with christian friends we've known throughout our lives (and billions others !).
once again i've managed to change the topic from happy stuff to death. but you see where i'm coming from i think.
leave people alone with kids toys and they create fantastic things.
here is some fuzzy felt art. i was very impressed. whenever i try and create anything it's usually rubbish (often quite literally)
the artist:
kezia has teeth coming through. this causes random misery (for all involved). it also makes her cheeks quite rosey and red
esther took this photo. i was very impressed. esther (age 4) is better at taking photos than kezia (aged 2) is at driving a car with a steering wheel in Midtown Madness 2. both activities are good fun to watch.
it's even funnier when we play a network game with esther and kezia both trying to drive. esther can just reach the foot pedals on my computer and kezia sits on my knee at jane's computer.
my mum got esther a game for christmas called Ghostly Galleons and it's most excellent. normal kids games are a bit boring or noisey and run out of batteries.
This game is a bit like snakes and ladders but there's an element of skill as well as luck. and it's quite exciting when you move the pirate and the boat spins round and various player's pieces going flying off in to the 'sea.
esther and her friends love it. and kezia likes spinning the little spinner and putting her person on the top of the mast.
when you've got the game you then need to learn to speak like a pirate
our telly broke. we bought it from ASDA (Walmart) so it's got a three year guarantee on it and a man is coming to look at it tomorrow morning. i'm feeling quite positive about the whole situation.
as a stop gap measure i enjoyed resurrecting an old PC and installing a TV card in it. Once i'd got it up and running and all tuned in we realised there was nothing decent on anyway. oh well.
i like having a PC in our front room. it somehow speaks of a future world of interactive enjoyment. even if the machine is 5 years old, massively noisey and only boots one in three times.
i suspect it may be sent back to its rightful corner as soon as our telly gets mended.
UPDATE: the telly man came and took it away to be mended and left a loan one for us to watch whilst they are doing the work. So far this has been great post-sale support from Asda !
If you see the autoblogging sign it means i've set the site up to keep you amused automatically. it usually means i'm not able to access my computer for some reason - perhaps travelling with work or going some place where i don't know if they have internet connectivity.
or maybe i just want some time off.
anyroad, you will be funished with your usually daily funky goodness.
but approving comments might take slightly longer than usual.
enjoy the machine ...
it was a big awards night for the industry i work in last night. my company won two awards, but the real highlight for me was the triangular arctic-roll chocolate cake. i wasn't the only one who was impressed
i discovered that if you stuck your face against the transparent plastic award you could achieve a highly upleasant effect. It also make an attractive dagger.
how's this for a celebrity spot - Johnny Vegas on Tottenham Court Road. he was walking towards me and for once i had the presence of mind to react before he'd walked on down the street.
I asked if i could take his photo and he said 'yes of course' and i said "i'm really looking forward to your new film" and he was really chuffed and said "oh, thanks". then my camera was ready and i took my photo and that was that
click for big version
a few minutes later i walked past a bus which was advertising his new film which comes out tomorrow (see bus side for details!)
click for big version
i tried to produce a boring photo. this isn't bad.
this is one of my favouritist street signs in london. to me it sums up modern Britain. Britain used to be Great with its mighty empire.
but now it's just Little Britain. and that's fine with me.
