funkypancake: April 2004 Archives

supermarket sweep

so, what did we buy at the auction ? not much. but what i did get was this fantastic piece of TV memorabilia.

it's a T-shirt, jumper and board game which you can only get from being a contestant on Supermarket Sweep. I got it for �3. no one else bid.

but that means that someone at esther's school has a parent who was on supermarket sweep, won the prize and gave it away to be auctioned for school funds.

Dale Winton himself has apparently touched the merchandise you see below.

click to see it in all its glory

: | 30 Apr 04 | Comments (4) | celebrity interest

tony

here's tony. he often comments on the blog so you'll know him by his cutting wit. if he looks confused it's because he's lost in music. there's no turning back apparently. yes. he's caught in a trap.

he babysat as we went out auctioning which was very kind of him. and doesn't he looked pleased about it ?

: | 30 Apr 04 | Comments (1) | family

gelatine blows stuff up doesn't it ? not a good plan to put that on your nahds or face surely ? might be good for a face lift if you don't mind your face being a lifted very quickly a few inches above your head.

and why did i say inches. i'm metric boy. through and through.

: | 30 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | odd

parents auction

you suddenly feel a bit old when you become a parent. you suddenly realise you ARE old when you start going to school parents events. where did our lives go ? good job the blog has an archive so i can keep track and answer that question at least for the last year.

meanwhile jane and i went to an auction at esther's school this evening. there were many delights and many expensive items were bought (but not by us).

and how strange to look around and see other parents who we don't know, yet our children may know each other really well.

it's all just too bizarre. luckily there was beer, chocolate and a flappy number to help the auction go smoothly:

: | 30 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | life

window

the weather is like my head at the moment. full of a thousand different bits of a thousand different things all dropping down at the same time. oh well.

: | 30 Apr 04 | Comments (1) | life

cold and wet

: | 30 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | family

morning

a 6am start working from today quietly downstairs. About 7.45 i heard a thundering noise, the door opened and esther and kezia arrived !

Here they are giving you a good morning wave.

: | 30 Apr 04 | Comments (1) | family

cd of the day

today i have been mostly listening to this. it brings a tear to the eye.

: | 30 Apr 04 | Comments (2) | music

meeja training

i had a media training thing at work today which was very funny.

here is me (I?) doing an appalling pretend TV interview.

i've got my eyes closed in this picture. i'm probably trying to block the whole thing from my mind.

you'll be relieved to know that i've decided to stick to blogging rather than becoming a TV presenter.

: | 29 Apr 04 | Comments (3) | work

chickens

: | 29 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | nature

furniture

which is why there weren't any bikes attached to this:

: | 29 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | signs (general)

school sale

someone's obviously bought a school and is selling off the contents. teachers are �20 and children are �15. doesn't say how much dinner ladies are.

: | 29 Apr 04 | Comments (2) | signs (general)

end of the road

this was a car bridge until a few weeks ago. now it's a danger to those below

: | 29 Apr 04 | Comments (1) | transport

page 27

: | 29 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | signs (numbered)

date from a mate

richard sent me this photo from his car dashboard. it's fantastic. you could wait thousands of years to see a date like this !

: | 28 Apr 04 | Comments (1) | clocks

bella the dog in a fairy hat

here is our friends' dog in a lovely fairy hat.

: | 28 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | nature

Q11: my favourite material possession

i've found this question really difficult to answer as i have so much stuff which i really enjoy but there's nothing i would be absolutely gutted if i lost.

so, in the end i decided to give you a picture of my bass guitar for no other reason than i've had it for ages and it's a nice red colour.

20 questions

: | 28 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | music

my kind of sign

everything garuanteed

: | 28 Apr 04 | Comments (3) | signs (general)

customised street sweeper

look ! they've painted flowers on it. lovely.

: | 28 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | transport

cuppas for coppers

it's tricky being a police man. all that running about and arresting people. luckily they have a catering corp who arrive at crime scenes and offer people a nice relaxing british cuppa.

"now you just sit down love, there's a cup of tea on the way. there you go. now can you explain why you are carrying that blood stained axe ?"

: | 28 Apr 04 | Comments (3) | transport

tooth brush head in the rain

: | 28 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | found stuff

street squiggles

remember this squiggle ?

well another one has turned up next to it:

to me this represents a massive rain cloud dropping rain on the earth. but i could be wrong.

: | 28 Apr 04 | Comments (2) | graffiti

rain

some days i think my morning walk from paddington to tottenham court road is a little excessive. particularly when it's raining.

rain is brilliant though. massive drops of water simply falling from the sky. excellent.

: | 28 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | london

picture of the day

here is a street cleaner and a bus in the rain. i think it looks nice so i've given you a big version you can use as your desktop picture if you like.

(click for big)

: | 28 Apr 04 | Comments (3) | cleaning

ideal for spares

life is an education. especially if you are teacher. i have to make do with learning from looking. today i learnt that tellies won't work if you leave them in the rain.

: | 28 Apr 04 | Comments (2) | found stuff

page 16

: | 28 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | signs (numbered)

not even stamp mail only

postboxes are like open woulds and letters are like the salt we rub in to the wounds. the postmen are the skilled doctors who tend the wounds and make them well.

sometimes the wounds get infected as you can see here.

this mail box is for stamp mail only, which means letters regarding philately.

People aren't as interested in stamps now we've got the magical Internet. for example, i've got a lovely collection of email headers nicely mounted in an album which i regularly analyse with a magnifying glass

: | 27 Apr 04 | Comments (3) | signs (general)

chair in a cupboard

: | 27 Apr 04 | Comments (1) | odd

mini 318

another numbered mini

: | 27 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | transport

black flower

here's a flower i saw near paddington station this morning. it's nearly black which is an unusual colour for a flower (because bees are scared of the dark and won't go near black flowers for fear of being sucking in to eternal torment).

of course in the light of my office it now looks dark purple and is therefore a pointless slightly battered flower picture.

: | 27 Apr 04 | Comments (3) | nature

mattrii

: | 27 Apr 04 | Comments (1) | found stuff

tree sack race

here's two trees having a sack race up a street. it'll be egg and spoon tomorrow and a three trunked race on wednesday.

the highlight will be the parent trees race on friday when a number of extremely competitive giant pine trees will come barging down the street (much to the embarrasement of the junior trees).

: | 26 Apr 04 | Comments (1) | odd

another lost cat

lost. a tortoise shell cat. or was that a cat skinned tortoise ?

: | 26 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | signs (general)

martha lane-fox

marylebone high street is the place to spot fast moving celebrities / millionaire dot-com business people. here is martha lane-fox.

i could have got a photo of her from the front but she was carrying loads of bags and talking on her mobile and i was a bit embarrased so i waited until she'd passed.

will you just LOOK at the size of those turnups !

: | 26 Apr 04 | Comments (1) | celebrity interest

spare door

bill bailey once said "hardest job in the world - selling doors door-to-door"

: | 26 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | found stuff

mad people

there are lots of crazy people in london. it makes you wonder where all the lost marbles went. i found one. near a hospital (but not a mental hospital)

: | 26 Apr 04 | Comments (2) | london

under the wobbles

wobbly bridge with the globe and tate modern on the other bank

: | 26 Apr 04 | Comments (3) | london

use birth control

: | 26 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | instructions for the week

knightrider

i heard this morning on the radio that they are going to make a knightrider movie. at that moment i was standing by this sign.

how spooky is that ...

: | 26 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | celebrity interest

bad sculpture

looks like he couldn't do hair either:

: | 26 Apr 04 | Comments (0) |

street cleaner

just when i thought i'd seen them all, here's another type of street cleaner:

: | 26 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | cleaning

more red tape

: | 26 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | life

spamerama

i'm starting to really love spam after a period of finding it very annoying.

it's thanks to the random combinations of words they put together to get through the spam traps. here are two i received today.

how would you charade them ?

: | 26 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | tech stuff

biking

we went out cycling this afternoon in the blistering heat with esther (still painted like a dog) on jane's tag-a-long and kezia on the back of my bike.

there are bluebells everywhere this year and they look fantastic.

: | 25 Apr 04 | Comments (2) | family

the holy spirit

There's god right.

And he sent jesus his son ok.

and he died so we don't get what we deserve when we die essentially.

and jesus has gone back up to heaven, but will come back basically.

and meanwhile we have the holy spirit who is like god being with us in the interim marvellously.

and the holy spirit is a bit like the wind (in that he blows all your sermon notes off the lecturn if you aren't careful).

he is the fan outside the church on the way home.

: | 25 Apr 04 | Comments (4) | god

esther looking a bit ruff

we had our annual church meeting today which is always good fun. there was a nice competitive edge as there were 10 nominees for 9 places on the PCC (the church council).

i didn't let you down, dear readers, and got voted back in. hoorah.

meanwhile the children went to the church hall and were painted (and treated?) like animals by some nice volunteering ladies.

: | 25 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | family

mr big (eye)

it's becoming traditional to have someone at church looking like they are smoking but not. last time it was kezia and today it was Big Eye Tony. He's using a cheesy bread stick thing as a cigar to comical effect.

Interestingly he's holding a pad of paper which has the words Big written. It may have said Big Eye. i'm not sure.

: | 25 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | big eye , god

breakfast

here are lots of people eating nuts and other breakfast options

: | 25 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | family

making guests feel welcome

jane has the gift of hospitality as can be seen in this photo,

Richard, along with his wife julia and daughter bethany, stayed the night at our house. Richard and Julia slept on the inflatable bed which takes about an hour of manual labour to inflate. By the time i had finished i was ready for bed.

Depending on what you think the photo looks like then it's not what you think it looks like. it's actually jane and richard checking whether there is enough air in the bed.

you'll be pleased to know there was.

: | 25 Apr 04 | Comments (4) | family

esther and kezia

: | 24 Apr 04 | Comments (6) | family

sense non

: | 24 Apr 04 | Comments (0) |

plants of current interest

: | 24 Apr 04 | Comments (1) | signs (general)

hillier gardens

we decided against sewage and went to hillier gadens instead. it was most excellent and the weather was excellent.

here is the entrance:

and here are jane and kezia amongst the folliage:

: | 24 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | family

an idyllic location

i've just been researching what to do as a family activity today and this caught my eye. it's the Reading Trail. Looking at the map, it looks like you get some good nature to observe:

sewage works, gravel pit, other works, a weir, a main road, a television trasmitter and some electricity pillons. what more could you want for in a family day out ?

: | 24 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | odd

a few of my favourite things

cheese and potato pie (mashed potato with cheese on), ketchup, top of the pops and subtitles. lovely.

: | 23 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | life

boy 48

i found this yesterday, and can you believe it, i forgot about it until just now !

this is boy 48 and is now posted on davescollections

: | 23 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | found stuff

unpacked

just a few hours later, it's like this. nature's quite amazing really.

: | 23 Apr 04 | Comments (1) | nature

joy riders

i went with jane and kezia to take esther to school this morning so i know what to do. on the way back we saw this abandoned scooter.

i suspect it was abandoned by some 4 year old joyrider. it's lucky it wasn't set on fire. or perhaps it was an insurance write-off and is waiting for the local scooter garage to come and take it away.

: | 23 Apr 04 | Comments (1) | transport

nicely packed away

: | 23 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | nature

jewels

so as to avoid making too much noise i popped outside whilst the kettle was boiling and was amazed by all the little water droplets on the lawn. they looked fantastic and the lawn was covered in them. these pictures don't really do them justice.

: | 23 Apr 04 | Comments (8) | nature

morning silence

i'm working from home today which usually involves getting up early and trying to put some hours behind me before the family wakes up.

that's my best working time and it also means i can finish my working day earlier.

sitting wirelessly in our dining room, listing to Air's Moon Safari very quietly in the background i spot the door stop.

i know that if i pull it back and let it go it will make the most amazing boinging noise and wake the whole family up.

i know that's a very bad idea, but now i've got the idea in my head it's difficult not to do it ...

: | 23 Apr 04 | Comments (5) | family

green hedge, blue sky, black bird

as i walked back to my house this evening there were loads of fresh baby birds making their first excited airborne voyage. they sang nice tunes to celebrate the gift of flight

: | 22 Apr 04 | Comments (0) | nature

an eye for the mundane

April 2004 Archives