paper hats are a stupid idea. especially these sort which is kind of like a spiral on your head.

they were very popular in the 70s. i hope they aren't making a revival.

there were loads of school kids wearing them outside Shakespeare's Globe Theatre today. not all the hats survived.

i spotted this thing on the floor this morning in a rather posh street. I suspect it might be quite valuable as it has some stamp on the metal and the jewel looks fancy.

but i know nothing about that kind of thing so it's probably not worth anything. i left it on some railings in case the owner comes back to look for it.

there's a tube strike today which means the streets are full of people with maps trying to find their way to work above ground for a change.

i kept wanting to shout "i do this everyday you know". but didn't. instead i enjoyed the chaos at every road crossing as people tried to work out the traffic light phasing and deal with the random london drivers.

i was heartened to see that if things got really bad people could turn to violence. this razor blade and carpet gripper thing (bit of wood with nails sticking up) would provide ideal weapons if someone wanted a duel.

not sure who would win though.

it looks like all the old custom minis have been replaced with new custom minis. After yesterday's 265, here is number 460.

here's my new venture. let me know what you think and/or if you have any vague facts you'd like to add.

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.

this is possibly john hegley. certainly looked like him and sounded like him. but i'm not an expert on his appearance.

i may also have walked past john cleese but it could just have been any old chap with a moustache so was probably a false positive.

glove on the bank of the thames. lucky for us it was low tide, otherwise we may have missed it !

this chap was painting this wall in the middle of the street. i grabbed this photo in about 3 seconds and zoomed on my way. i wish i'd stayed a bit longer to frame it better, but there you go.

click for generous biggernisation

another glastonbury homage ? it's a nice little set up of van, tent and big bits of telecoms equipment.

london. san francisco. same thing really. cheryl saw a compactor and then so did I. who would have thought it ?

it's not clear if this tree is going up or down. such is life for the city tree.

it's been raining so much lately that the UK government has decided to build small water channels in a mini-venice type way.

should be ideal for boat races come winter

so, another poll is archived away to be forgotten. The other category contained:

* white, one sugar
* one cyanide, pldease :-)
* hot water, honey and lemon please
* soy chai, yum !

thanks for voting - i feel we are all getting to know each other a little bit better with each poll

look. one of the numbered minis has been replaced by a different numbered car. i like this one better i think. It's number 265.

the aftermath of plumbers is always exciting. we've had a few surprised following last weeks heating replacement.

this is my favourite. it's bare wires sticking out of a hole on top of our kitchen work top. just next to where the girls sometimes sit when jane is in the kitchen.

i suspect we won't let them sit there for a while.

it's another day of manic working from home trying to meet my last current horrible deadline (before the next horrible deadlines come along tomorrow) ...

having dragged myself out of bed at 4.30 i was keen to get straight to work. but the world of computers is never that helpful and i ended up having to reinstall Acrobat reader to read a document.

somewhere in this process, this little message popped up which i read as 'recomposting data' which is a much nicer concept. perhaps it's a form of 'organic digitalisation'.

you'll be pleased to know that everything is working well again.

we spent a very happy afternoon in the dragoon household. they've got a little kitten which kezia loved. it's called tickles

and here's grahame and the cat:

esther made this hat in sunday school. people were keen to try it on. i was keen to take their photo.

We're doigna series on Judges at church. We've reached Samson and i felt sadness at my lost hair. But in the scale of things it's not an issue.

all together now "one of these kids is not like the other one ..."

the highlight of the country fair is the tug 'o' war. local kids get to take on the local cadets and prove once and for all who is the bestest. i suspect it's where the local gangs setlle their scores. it's a very passionate occasion.

of course the civilians won and against the military which was a nice post-iraq statement (in its own way):

this man is a complete star. he comperes the show all day by basically speaking for 7 hours solid and saying whatever comes in to his head. it's completely mad and really funny. probably drives his wife mad.

it wouldn't surprise me if he organises the entire show so he can do his compering turn. whatever, he's the highlight for me each year.

he was in charge of setting up the rope for the tug'o'war as well as judging the winners:

after the matches this man came and took the rope away (i suspect he was going to sell the old thing for cash):

but what of the local kids who'd been whooped up and wished to celebrate their winnings ? well, they had a massive playfight in the middle of the ring, watching by dozens of bemused spectators:

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.

just in case we hadn't had enough balloons today, kezia and esther got another one.

here is a bollard homage to the glastonbury festival, but a couple of hours drive away from here.

reading was full of people giving away balloons today. We were offered 9 balloons in the 2 hours we were there. we took just three (one each for the girls and then this butterfly).

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 took esther and kezia to mcdonald's today. i was amazed at how much mess they made. kezia insists on turning her cup upside down when drinking with a straw and esther managed to drop her ice-cream tub on her lap.

an old miserable couple sat on the table next to us and muttered to each other every time they made another little mess.

"GET A LIFE, THIS IS McDONALD'S" (i nearly said)

here is a no dogs sign from the Oracle centre in Reading. It's on the glass so is a bit tricky to see.

i like this sign. it's appeared at my local train station in the ticket office.

it's nice that it's a 'special notice' but i think it's probably not following the tain house-style.

another day, another church, another (very loud) band practice.

i did another early start this morning and by the time the kids woke up i'd already done a good half day's work. i've been reviewing a stupidly document and didn't notice esther come in and set herself up ready to play her guitar.

what followed was a pleasant pre-breakfast serenade.

we had a band practice at church last night (the second of three nights running for band practices this week).

it had finally stopped raining and the sun came out. it looked very pretty so i took a couple of photos.

hoorah for june and late night opening (but the nights are drawing in now)

here is the church:

and here is the field behind the church:

it's lynda's birthday on monday so we celebrated at a music practice last night witha cake.

i've pixelated the candles so you can't see how old she is. that's not right and proper apparently. see how she points at the tea cups.

impromptu new reporting on the street corner. it was a glamourous news lady earnestly speaking about iraq. no one i recognised and if i'm honest i thought she was trying a little too hard.

here is poorly pete. he popped in to work to say hello on the way back from a hospital visit yesterday. he says hello. (well he did to us in the office anyway, so i suspect he'd say hello to you call too).

it's much easier to spot mistakes on other people's stuff than your own. there's a missing full stop on vdu which probably doesn't even need any full stops in this day and age.

i went on a plan english course last week and it was fantastic. highly recommended.

it's a work pass. handily dangled on some railings in case the lady in the picture comes back looking for herself.

so how is that vegetable garden getting on ? not well, i tell you. i show you too. you enjoy yes ?

all is not well in the world of bollards. a bollard has been crushed by a falling pile of dirt. other bollards have arrived and cordoned off the area.

brad came up with the idea of putting all the manhole covers from Queen Anne Street on one image which could be used as a desktop background. so here it is. thanks to brad for sending me a version.

i've sized it to 1024 x 768 as visitor stats show me that this is what over half of visitors have their screen set to.

Click on the picture below then right click on the big picture and choose 'set as background' (or something similar).

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.

more strange bollard behaviour. see the far bollard. very strange. white base and no reflecty top bit (compare to the one in the foreground).

and what's the yellow one doing hiding underneath ? this is all very mysterious.

my third slippery sign of the day. this time in waitrose on marylebone high street. i took it at an angle through the window, hence the weirdness.

a piece of photo. it's a person but of unknown agenda.

wet weather is great for slippery signs. i wonder if this chap is related to this one.

this is a GREAT picture of a person slipping over.

a ham and cucumber sandwich with a single bite out of it on a staircase.

it's often the case that a reflection can be nicer than the building itself. here is a good example of a hideous concrete monstrocity which is reflecting the ornate building on the other side of the street.

if all goes wrong, climb on the ceiling:

did you know you can change your drink just by pressing one of these circles on the outside of the cup in trendy coffee shop 'eat' ?

try it. let me know what happens.

the rain has emptied some trees of blossom. in some places this works well.

it's been a bit rainy for the last 24 hours. even the drains have given up and have decided that 'if you can't beat them join them' and are now spewing water out in to the streets.

this means you can wet up and down at the same time.

we had a gas leak at home yesterday apparently. this is a very eery thing as last time i bought a bass guitar (10 years ago) that was also related to a gas leak (my housemate couldn't afford the gas bill so i paid and he gave me his guitar). yesterday i bought my new bass and the gas starts leaking.

we're or what ?

street urinals have arrived in london. i'm sure this must be as a direct result of our involvement in europe.

... is very very big.

we might be saving the global environment with our low pollution boilet, but we have spoilt the local kitchen environment. oh well.

... broken guitars.

hoorah for tin pan alley

here's one for those who like football a little.

it's a little football.

elton was right. the coat hangers are uprising.

ah. the big tap was there all along. here is a much better picture.

i see these horses regularly (about every 12 months). The first picture shows them walking carefully through red lights near Paddington Station.

The second picture shows them on Gloucester Place where they were really cutting lose and sort of half galloping randomly down the street. this one was a bit more taxing for the one rider/3 horses ratio

it turns out they do have to throw that green thing away. they've replaced it with a blue one which is a much nicer colour.

so the poor old green one stands outside. but what's this ? he has found a friend. it's the water butt !

it's like a salt water fish meeting a fresh water fish. it's domestic hot water heater meeting the cold rain water storer.

they are chalk and cheese. but they get on SO well.

the plumbers have gone home. but not before a chap telling me he was going to sort out the 22s (because they go in to two 15s at the moment and that's the reason he had to take the floor up). he's also going to do the TSPs and the ladd rad tomorrow.

pity i'm going to work and will miss all the fun !

anyway, it's starting to look good. our outside now has a sheet shoved in it(left) and we have lots of debris in our back garden (right):

it's traditional to give the domestic workmen drinks and biscuits and stuff. i'm in my office writing and reviewing documents so i can't do that.

so instead i'm playing radiohead at them. so far so good.

we're working our way through in reverse chronological order.

but get this. i spotted it was raining and went out and got the washing in. how did i spot it was raining ? by smell. how fantastic is that ?

i'm like a fox or some other slightly domesticated wild animal (who happens to have a website).

i went downstairs for a sandwich and decided not to bother. i've got plenty of chocolate to keep me going.

the boiler men are absolutely everywhere and so are all their things.

here is the inside of our old boiler.

i'm locked away in my office so i didn't realise what has become of the house until i popped down to the kitchen for a cup of hot water.

here is a tidy bit. it seems you need to take the floor up if you want to mend the heating. i REALLY don't understand these things.

which is why i've whizzed back to the office to get back on with my work and pretend it's all not happening !

i'm working from home today as i've still got my millions of deadlines and times running out. so i did another 4am start.

but to make things more exciting today we're also having our heating replaced and new radiator installed and stuff.

i've got 4 hours of work behind me already and i'm going to lock myself way so things should be fine. but it's just what you need isn't it.

here's our current hot water tank. no idea if it's going to be replaced or not. i don't know how this stuff works !

my bass guitar has been very poorly for the last few years. i've had it mended a couple of times, but there's some very bad things wrong with the electrics/pickup.

today was (hopefully) it's last outing as i'm going to get a new bass this week (hopefully) as i'm are playing lots at the moment (hopelessly).

i made the mistake of telling my guitar it was it's last performance and to make it a good one. i even had a rare bass solo in a most lively tune. Just as I approached the solo chorus it decided to stop working. Suddenly there was no me. luckily jane spotted it and carried on playing so i don't think anyone noticed (unless they spotted me hitting my volume control trying to get it working again).

oh well.

by the way, there is a difference between an Epiphone Viola and an Epiphone Violin Bass. I wasted nearly 3 hours today only to discover this fact (unfortunately)

esther and kezia like to hide behind the pulpit at church when we are clearing up the music stuff afterwards. here they are playing with their small teddy bears and singing songs.

i found this 'this' behind the church organ this morning.

i've just finished reading vernon god little. it's most excellent and i highly recommend you read it (if you haven't already)

yeah. official british travel signs. it's the highway code online

british 'A' roads often have signs pointing to laybys with the letter 'P' by them. I always thought that meant Parking. until we had children.

now i know it means 'potty'.

jane asked me to get out the car and help so i did. when we finally got back in the car and drove off she said to me very sweetly "you know when i said help, i didn't mean 'take a photo', i actually meant 'please help me' "

i am SO rubbish at understanding things like that.

here we are having fun in a restaurant. andy noticed that the chef must have been confused about animals as they were serving buffalo wings.

buffalos can't fly. but then neither do ostriches. or big buildings. but buffalos also have beaks (know as a Buffalo Bill). so perhaps buffalos are actually ducks ?

i dunno.

genuine fun on an artifical beach

pedalos are weird things. they aren't a proper means of transport. i suspect they are what is commonly called "a pleasure craft". a lot of effort goes in to making them go not very far not very fast.

here are our center parcs host family for the day. note how andy tries a backward pedalling technique to make things more exciting. it certainly was interesting to watch.

he soon gave up and let young adam have a pedal.

this crazy golf course has been upgraded and made more exciting. it now contains concrete mixers, giant deep holes and a tractor. and there's a big metal fence round it which says 'keep out'

a real challenging course if ever i've seen one.

we went to center parcs at longleat for the day today thanks to our friends andy and gill. i saw the dogs signs (here and here) again which was great.

their chalet was in a pine forest. i don't know if i like pine. it smells like toilets to me.

cars look after cycles who look after pedestrians. it's the natural order of things. unfortunately the word 'take' in this sign looks like 'fake'.

cyclists fake care of pedestrians is an all together different concept

esther and her friend adam were hiding from the grown ups in a cupboard. they had a shelf each which made hiding more organised

kezia was looking particularly cool this morning.

today was a nice day to pass stonehenge. i know people like to see them so here's some pictures through the car window as we zoomed by.

the one on the right shows esther hiding under kezia's blanket with stonehenge in the distance.

we've had this sign before, but it is a favourite, so we can have it again.

i always think that 'uneven' is odd

more bad bollard behaviour. look. they are breaking and entering this park.

there's a very triangular theme to this little incident

it works well for swimming pool attendents, so why shouldn't it work for police men with binoculars in oxford street. he evenhas his own community policemand for company

but why would anyone do this ???

i've walked within a few metres of this little alley hundreds of times, but only spotted it for the first time today.

what a great name.

why is this bollard climbing out of this window ?

have you ever seen such a battered sign ?

everything about this picture says no. the two no-entry signs. the no entry barrier and the yellow and black no entry tape attached to the barrier.

'no no no' they say. but i still walked on by.

look at this. it's a massive tap on a stick with a giant on off turny handle thing.

it's nowhere near the giant tap i saw earlier this week (which has now gone).

so what IS going on ?

it's deadline galore at work at the moment. but things might calm down after next week (i hope)

meanwhle i've just finished a 13 hour working day. i started at 4.15am and have just decided to stop. unfortunately i'm working from home so no-one realy knows that.

so i thought i'd tell you instead.

thanks for listening

a hyper-realistic threatening dog sign. the most realistic yet.

look at this pink car. note the learner sign on the back. i think some parent is particularly worried about their child learning to drive and decided to spray the car pink to give it more visibility.

you can hear the teenager son/daughter's reaction when they first saw it "ugh. MUM ! what HAVE you done. I'm NEVER driving that car".

or some such.

there's something about british hotels. especially in london. this one looks particularly run down.

it might be fine inside but outside it look very unappealing. what a strange country this is !

i thnk there are a varierty of different falling down signs so i'm starting a seperate category

i've just walked down to our local postbox and back with no shoes or socks on as an experiment. it took about 15 minutes.

it went quite well. I've walked 1200 kilometres since i got my pedometer. 99.999% of that has been wearing my Doc Martens. (just a small amount was wearing my 'christmas shoes'). It was time for my feet to find out what my boots have been experiencing

here are my learnings:

* teeny stones and bits of grit hurt more than big stones and may join you on your journey like limpits by attaching themselves to your feet.

* different bits of the pavement feel very different. the scars from cable TV network layings are nice and smooth compared to the normal pavement.

* the road is very rough. don't go there. stick to the pavements.

* i had a real fear of scraping my toes on the floor so i walked in a very strange way.

* carpet is an ABSOLUTE luxury to return to.

marking is finally finished. jane is back in circulation again. hoorah indeed.

remember that Pete was meant to be flying round scotland this week ? well, he had a bike accident and in stead is at home perfecting a very strange tan. he also seems to be attached to a sun dial.

so no flying for pete (and no work for 5 weeks either)

poor old pete. get well soon !

some minstrels in a big concrete circle. it's just like ezekiel

yesterday i spotted at least 6 dangly window cleaners on big buildings. it was obviously dangly window cleaner day.

here is the ground indicator for the skyward activity

it's always disturbing to find hair in the street. this was no exception.

here is the church we go to (just in case you wondered what it looked like).

update: here's a history of Arborfield Church from our friend lynda. she thinks there might be some inaccuracies in there but isn't sure where.

my favourite is the vague names of the early vicars !

a family milestone. i came home this evening to witness esther had learnt to skip. she did 10 in a row and was very pleased.

travelling by public transport is always good for catching bits of people's conversations.

the other day i overheard someone say "i've just had a conceptual epiphany. there are too many intervening variables".

i thought i'd never remember that so i wrote it down.

here is a snippet of someone's conversation in letter form. there's enough here to spark interest.

this tap might be gone by the time i walk down this particular street again. so here it is for your enjoyment. it was enormous. but you can't really tell. and it's out of focus.

but it's the thought that counts.

... soft stuff

here are a pile of mattriii and a pile of cushions

as a pedestrian, i find bikes a little annoying. they get up to all sorts of shenanigans with skant regard for passing walkers.

the worst of the worst has to be mobile phone using bike riders. here is one such girl, not quite managing to ride successfully the wrong way up a one way street.

another celebrity comedian on Tottenham Court Road. The street is full of them.

this time it was Ross Noble. He was chatting with someone whilst walking purposefully so i didn't stop him to ask for a photo.

but here's his website.

our home cable modem internet access and digital tv died last night at about 7.15pm. ntl aren't particularly well know for mending stuff so i expect it will be out for a while which is a shame. i'm all over the place work-wise this week too.

so apologies in advance for any spasmodicism this week.

oh dear

update: it's mended again. hoorah

any pads you want locking ?

how do you manage in a town when you haven't got a front (or back) garden ?

one answer is to build a shed outside your window.

another is to get a load of soil and plant some seeds on your front step as seen here.

see how this little carton has climbed these stairs. he's the king of the milk castle and no mistake.

water was pouring from the hanging baskets on to this bike. it was like a little rain show for the bike. a kind of airconditioning cooler thing for bike riders.

esther and kezia's grandparents have a giant cardboard box which esther and kezia love to lock themselves inside of. here they are having a nice game.

my christmas shoes fell apart over the weekend. someone kindly gave me an elastic band, but they are sadly beyond repair.

they had a good life and i don't want people to shed any tears. these things happen.

it's better for them to end like this, whilst they were still in active service, rather than for them to fester in a cupboard and finally be thrown in the bin.

i throw this shoe away, and i'll donate the still good left shoe to a charity shop.

here are adam, kezia and big eye eating puddings

one of the great things about church is that it's a community of people who love and care for each other. what better way to show that than to have a barbeque together ?

there were four barbeques on the go so there was some competitiveness between the various chefs. here are two lots of chefs (chieves ?). note their different approaches. i was especially suspicious of the two on the left who were scoffing all their own food.

check out matt's blog, geek gardener. he's 'learning by doing' in the garden. it's the snails i feel sorry for.

matt is also the funkypancake webserver landlord

so that's two reasons to check out his site.

all being well this is my last weekend as a solo parent as jane will finish her marking this week. then we'll be back to full family fun.

i took esther and kezia to another carnival today. the girls had their face painted as usual. here are two rabbits:

and here is a chap dressed as a butterfly. he started off as a caterpillar earlier in the day, but the carnival parade took so long that by the time he arrived he'd changed. apparently he was really boring to watch about half way round:

the first descent and the second descent:

the third descent:

i'm not going to talk about politics. but this was an interesting coincidence in the street.

the middle of the paper had blown away leaving a mixture of headlines from the front and back of the paper.

Look - it's a segway !

i found one. what do i win ?

it was parked outside a pub near Marylebone High Street.

balance is key with driving a segway. let's hope they were sticking to orange juice ...

someone was disillusioned with the Sherlock Holmes museum and smashed their mug on Queen Anne street. i hope they found solace (shoelace ?) in the man hole covers on this street.

pete's gone flying round scotland. as you do.

we've been taking it in turns wearing his shoes round the office.

of course we haven't as anotherman's shoes are his castle. but i did take a photo of them:

now this is very strange. after spotting the 4 fire extinguishers on the way to work this morning, i just saw this one on the floor near my office (about 15 minutes walk from the others).

this one has obviously failed to make it up this ramp. making it even more stupid than a darlek.

i'm still searching for all those numbered minis. here is my latest spot. number 286

for a while our national flags were hijacked by upleasant nationalists and had a general association with thuggery.

this year things have changed. the english flag is flying from many buildings and cars. maybe we have turned in to a nation of thugs and racists ? the election results will be out soon and we'll know for sure.

it's nice to see a bit of colour though. and it's only right that the BBC building is flying the flag (the english not british one). they have a small flag in the middle of the tarpaulins.

one was bad enough, but here's a whole army. i walked past slowly so i wouldn't cause a repeat of last week's attack.

i suspect this isn't the official 'vacancy' sign in this hotel. or maybe it is.

it makes you wonder what it's like inside !

here's a nice idea. sick of paying expensive car parking fees at one of Londons 9 million (approximately) parking meters ? well, why not do as this person has. take your car apart and put it in a variety of plastic bags.

it's the local and euro elections today. i'm working from home so took an hour out to pick up esther from school and wander down to vote. writing documents is boring, but at least you can be flexible with how you arrange your day.

anyway, here is this year's voting story:

esther and my registration card:

last year there was no golf allowed. this year, thanks to a venue change, there were all sorts of additional entertainments (as if putting an 'x' in a box on a piece of paper wasn't entertaining enough):

here is the mobile voting booth. they wouldn't let me take a photo of my voting slip, so i didn't:

after all that hard work, esther and i went in to the pub for cokes and crisps before heading home:

a red dog on a yellow background. note the angle of its behind.

i find great amusement in man hole covers which have been put back at the wrong angle so that any street writing (eg double yellow lines) suddenly go at a differnet angle.

you probably don't have a clue what i'm on about. that's my fault, not yours, so don't worry.

anyway, here is a man hole cover in the middle of the pavement nowhere near any double yellows. maybe it means no parking very small cars (or helicopters) on this manhole.

chalk counting

i got an email earlier today containing these negatives which mase found in the street in Cardiff. he says:

"I found a negative strip of 4 frames whilst walking to work today I work in Cardiff and found the strip discarded on a side street. The details are 8:55a.m. on Windsor Lane, Cardiff. I've scanned the print and have attached it."

after a bit of manipulation in photoshop it looks like this when un-negatived:

soon and very soon i shall update davescollections with my latest finds and add it. thanks Mase !

i have a degree in control engineering. one of the fundamentals (if i remember anything about it) is that systems converge or diverge. mostly you want things to converge so they are stable.

for example, you want air conditioning systems to converge on the target temperate.

unfortunately most British trains have divergent systems. you tell it what temperature would be nice for travellers to sit in. and it adjust to make it much colder on a cold day and much hotter on a hot day. it's more of a question of extremes.

"pah" says the aircon, "you think this is hot ? do ya ? well, do ya ? i'll show ya what hot is". and so it goes.

UPDATE: my train on the way home was so hot the air conditioning broke and dripped water from the ceiling. it may have been condensation. it was in effect raining commuter sweat. escence of commuter. i should have bottled it.

i love a good 'don't chain your bike here' sign. this has got to be one of the best. it's a few metres up the road from this no bike parking sign

click to view the details

i saw two more dead birds this morning. and now this lost cat sign (don't worry, it's about 30 miles away from where i saw the dead cat on monday).

what is the world coming to ?

this poster is quite interesting (if we can get past the sadness). For a start it's wrapped round a lamp post making it really tricky to read without falling off the kerb and swinging your head round.

but more significant are the pictures which look like they were taken with a security camera. you don't really get the effect here, but the three pictures show:

1) cat lying down keeping a lookout
2) cat attacking man in red jumper
3) cat on the prowl

there's more to this cat than meets the eye.

a shop front mirrored wall by covent garden tube station

here is some milk about a mile away from the previous milk. is it the same one ?

as you may know venus got in the way of the sun today for a bit.

i tried taking a photo of the sun directly (by sort of hiding behind this polling sign), but it obviously didn't work (not that expected it would). don't worry. i took all the usual precautions such as closing my eyes as i took the photo.

luckily across the road were some bearded old men who were constructing a 'thing' which displayed it on a piece of paper. they were very pleased with the results and asked me to stay for a few seconds whilst they adjusted it.

i gave them 10 seconds, took my photo then zoomed off to my meeting round the corner.

why did the milk bottle cross the road ?

one for davescollections in due course

a broken fan. no wonder it's so hot out there today

it's great when people can join in on a sign. here someone has changed some words to make it more grammatically correct or something (i assume. i have no clue).

it says "staircase is closed due to for health and safety reasons"

there's an empty room in the tate modern at the moment which is art. that's my kind of art.

but in the window space was this dead bird (taxidermied i assume). interesting that it should turn up the same day as the dead cat .

and, as always, i passed the Slough dead dog in a box today too ...

chairs with wheels work well as transport on land. less well in water though it seems.

if you had zoomed on the above photo with your bionic vision you would see this:

see, i've saved you some bionic vision exercisions which should help you in the long run.

here is another page 5. this one also refers to the new LED displays, but rather than sending you to Burger King, it refers to you to platforms 6/7.

as i walked down Oxford Street this morning listening to XFM they announced that they were opening the Virgin Megastore early this morning to launch the Twisted X - Born In England football song.

so i popped in and did a teeny weeny interview and bought the single.

i'm not really a football fan or a single buyer, but i do like the song (and love the B-side).

here is a bus and a david beckham lookalike.

DJ Christian O'Connell:

the single:

this morning i saw a cat lying in the morning sun at the side of the road with its tongue dangling out. sadly it had become an ex-cat and i was a little sadened (after being happy-ed by the budding flower).

a few steps along the pavement was a tiny square of carpet (about 10cm square)

and a little further a long the street was this VISA card. i phoned up the stolen helpline and they said it had already been reported stolen. they said if i took it in to a bank they may give me a reward but the lady on the phone said she doubted it !

i suspect all three things are related but i don't know how/why.

i thought this was poignant (pungent) for the beginning of a new week. a flower about to spring in to life.

daisies in my turnups.

instructions for viewing are in the comments here thanks to Jimmy.

let me know how you get on ! i wasn't particularly successful.

disclaimer: i can't be held responsible for any blindness or insanity which may result from this experiment.

it was our local village donkey derby today. esther's old pre-school has a stall doing face painting (and tattoos and hook-a-duck).

jane took time out of her marking to do some face painting:

here is the end result:

highly unseasonal

this is a very slight varient on a classic dog sign. the front legs are more eager than usual so are tucked behind the red line.

it's this attention to detail which is so important for dog sign spotting.

moments before there was a fox standing here. i decided not to wade in to the stingy nettles to find him. sorry about that.

jane continues to mark exam papers diligently. she's been locking herself in a room at her parents house so as not to be distubed by her disturbing husband and children.

here she is having a rare moment of fun when we went to collect her this evening:

and here is her father in his role as "the big bad bear" chasing Esther:

this afternoon's outing was to a local swing park. here is kezia as seen through the climbing chains.

esther and kezia play with the games on my mobile phone. esther kept running up to me and explaining how it works. i hadn't (and still haven't) got a clue what the game is all about.

this week's "dad and daughters" shop was in waitrose. look at the higher quality of fun we had compared to asda last week.

kezia is doing the barcode scanning whilst esther is fethching the produce.

more of the frontless building (from the side)

are these people checking for localness ?

a floating bin lorry

the west end of london is great. you can walk down the street and a door opens and you see in to the back of a theatre stage !

here is one such event. note the back of the moose heads and a load of carbon dioxide.

it's nice to see people stepping outside of the 2D picture world. i have big plans to make this blog 3D.

watch this space.

(actually i have no such plans, but it would be nice)

i used to know a guy who would always ask me if i had any cigarettes i could give him. i don't smoke so i always said no. he would then inform me that it didn't matter as he would pick up some tab ends off the street.

that was over 10 years ago but i hear he's still going through the same routine with passing strangers.

maybe he's got a franchise going on or a brother in london with the same make-do attitude.

"these trousers have still got a hole in the knee. are you sure you mended them"

"yes sir".

pubs in the UK are having to be more careful. the latest fire regulations state that if you have any wooden furniture you need to keep a fire extinguisher nearby.

here we see this pubs fire extinguisher next to two wooden benches.

it was sitting quietly by the wall until i approached it. At which point it jumped up and ran at me as i took this photo waving its pipe at me.

luckily i escaped in time.

this is a street cabinet which houses telecoms equipment. every day for the last 3 years its doors have been open to reveal its technical contents. every morning i walk by and swing its doors closed.

but first i climb in and have a little rest before continuing my journey.

so, imagine my dissapointment this morning to see my old friendly cabinet with it's secret world of hidden tunnels and compartments blocked off from the public with red tape.

"no entry" it says. "pah" i say.

half a poppy by the train station

spring is in the air and the bulbs are bursting forth. these bulbs are gathering in a tangled mess.

are glasses the new gloves ?

i've been on a voice call all morning. whilst chatting i noticed some disquiet outside my office window. it was harry and the drinks machine man.

apparently there had been a mix up with plastic cups. can you BELIEVE this kind of thing can happen in the modern world.

luckily our man Harry spotted the problem and everything is alright again now.

here is 'harry two cups' with the vexatiously varient vessels:

i walk down this street every day:

today i walked down the opposite side and i took a photo of all the different bits of metalwork inserted in to the pavement.:

The street is only a few 100 metres long but has a quite a variety of man hole covers

i took one photo of each type. if you can't see them below then go here

(a desktop size picture is here)

the streets are erupting.

hoorah. it's sunny again today. here is an abandoned brolly on a pub bench taking a well needed rest.

this building looks more precarious each time i pass it. it's now suspended in mid air.

The giders in the foreground are not connected to the main building. The main building is apparently made of a number of floating floors.

here is a man working on the corner of a floater (again that stick below him is in the foreground and nothing to do with the building):

i can't believe it. i missed jesus. i went out of my way to see him this morning.

luckily other people saw it for me.

esther painted this today. i asked her what it was and she said she just wanted to paint something that looked nice, so it's just shapes and colours connected.

i'm biased of course, but i think it looks great !

here is another piece from the same session:

in contrast to before, it's now all alone.

the others were obviously fair weather friends (or fell down the hole)

these bags were all lined up outside a very posh hotel in the rain this morning. i think this sums up british holidays quite nicely.

i also saw a group of American tourists who were stuck crossing a road as their giant suitcases on wheels were preventing them from crossing a huge puddle which seperated them from the pavement.

i'll see if they are still there this evening on the way back to the station.

when we went scarecrow hunting the first time it was very wet and we saw a puddle with some big oil drops in. i didn't take a photo as it we were crossing a busy road and it was chucking it down with rain.

esther saw the puddle and said "look at all those colours daddy".

i asked her if she knew what it was and she said "is it the end of a rainbow ?"

it's bin (sorry) a while since the last bin update. look at its new position (and the bin in the distance by the lights on the other side).

they are up to something i'm sure, but i haven't worked out what yet.