no dogs in scotland
another varient on a classic dog.
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July 2004 Archives
the green pedalo
click for big
loch lomond shores
there's a place on the south end of loch lomond called 'loch lomond shores':
it's very nice and you get to see a nice IMAX video and a very poor animatonic thing.
but the best bit is the view from the top:
a pie in the tree
i spent about 20 minutes trying to convince esther and her friend catherine that pince cones are in fact eggs containing baby mice. when they didn't believe me i admitted i'd got it wrong (i'm man enough).
i explained instead that baby dogs came out of pine cones and if they came along very early on a sunny summer morning they would hear the pine cones popping and puppies flying out. they didn't believe this either, but i think they enjoyed being smarter than an old person for a while !
on the way out esther pointed up at this tree and said "look mummy, there's a pie in that tree". and so there wasn't. unless it's a giant mushroom pie.
people
here are tony, tanya, liz, jane and numberous kids as seen earlier today
the vyne
a trip to the vyne today. it's very nice and worth a visit if you are in the area (or even not as we aren't):
and again with tony's head in the way:
green bollards
national trust bollards are green. they are the special forces of the bollard world. experts in stealth and undercover operations.
they also have funny round bits on their heads making them look like chess prawns. i know it should be 'pawn' but 'prawn' always sounded better.
detailed sign
i love the detail in this sign:
the great british picnic
the great british picnic usually takes place in a car park. you'll also need to take an umbrella. the umbrella WILL be needed to protect you from either the wind, rain or sun.
today it was a sun repellent.
middle class equipment
our friend tony is trying really hard to be middle class. so much so that he bought himself a picnic hamper. here are the wine goblets with associated rosey red apples.
later tony slept on the floor next to the picnic and his car:
meanwhile the girls blew bubbles:
and then sat in the boot of the car:
sherfield on loddon post office
now, i had a bit of a rant about he british post office system yesterday.
i was therefore delighted to spot this in the front garden of the post office in sherfield on loddon - it's a crocodile, half a dog and a load of plastic ducks:
red bollards still attacking
it's no wonder red bollards are so prevalent. look how these ones have climbed on top of each other to overpower this little green chap.
the same happened with grey and red squirrels you know.
feeding bench
one minute there was just bread then there were giant baked potatoes. a mystery caught on camera.
modern day Bible salespeople
here are Ed & Nicci selling Bibles. not your typical door to door Bible salesmen. you know, the ones that come round at 1am waking you up with their washboards and flugelhorns throwing flour and demanding you buy a Bible.
no, not such tactics for them. they chose to stand in a field with a wonky sign and a box of Bibles. very popular they were too (ed, nicci and the Bibles)
but if you think about it. if i told you i had a book which was actually written by your actual God, then chances are you'd be interested in reading it too. and so you should be.
Q here
it was the end of holiday club BBQ this evening. alfresco music was fun.
i liked these BBQ signs which people ignored by standing a long way away from. it was a proper barby queue. sorry,
chimley
the word is chimney, but some people say 'chimley' which sounds much nicer. perhaps we should start a campaign to get it changed ?
trampoline
(photo by jane)
more post office woe
i was lucky enough to be able to spend half an hour in a post office today. i've written about my love of post offices before but each experience makes me want to write more.
i came prepared for this visit with some chocolate and an ice cool drink and happily chatted with my queue-neighbour for the 20 minutes it took to reach the cashier desks. i suspect the hot and airlessness is a ploy to kill a few customers off before they get served so the queues are shorter.
i was amazed to see this display for BT Broadband Internet. BT and the Post Office used to be the same nationalised company a few decades ago so it was nice they are working together in this way. Unfortunately their advert says "hurry, offer ends 2th June 2004" so it was over a month out of date which was most appropriate for the post office.
when i eventually got to a cashier the man told me off for arriving at his window too soon. "i didn't press my button" he said. "well press it now" I said.
he looked me in the eyes, paused, then pressed his button. we were off !
there's more to this story, but this isn't a text blog so i'll end it there.
is this door broken ?
mu guess is that a 'semi-automatic' door is probably half as automatic as an 'automatic' door. but i could be wrong.
it looks like this wasn't always the case though. what actually happens is you grab the door and need to give it a good push to open it. as soon as it starts to open it suddenly becomes automatic and drags you in to the building society.
go to abbey national in wokingham to experience this for yourself.
a busy sign
this is one of my most favouritist street signs. it's in wokingham in the south of england and is next to the train station by a level crossing.
it's got everything. motorways in blue and brackets. a double bracket round the end of (A329 (M)), A roads in and not in brackets, fat roads, small roads, maximum heights, maximum weights, local amenities, a station, local information and 6 place names all on one sign.
you are meant to read this whilst not getting hit by a train coming in to the station.
click to inspect
crooner turns face painter
when jane wasn't singing she painted faces. this was the end of her session and her market had been saturated (thanks to everyone being painted).
here she reflects on her success (in the fluffy pink mirror)
balloons
apologies once again to the balloon haters. i touched a balloon earlier today and still have creepy skin as a result. yuck.
tiny little me
we've been singing a song called 'tiny little me' this week. as i walked around the marquee where we are playing after the kids had left i saw this piece of newspaper on the floor.
the message yesterday was about saying no to 'me' and yes to Jesus. perhaps someone took this literally and left their 'me' behind ?
the band today
jane, mark, richard and craig:
fiona wasn't there today so she became the cardboard member:
even mr sound wore a wig today:
surrounded
these red bollards are bullying the yellow road bollard for no other reason than he is different from them. that is SO not right.
blocked by a wheely
one day on our holiday we found this wheely bin blocking our exit. jane's dad tried to move it but it was filled with concrete and mud.
how like life.
melting clock
i loved this reflection of a wall clock in the Oak Tree Inn. as the window moved in the door it seemed to shimmer and melt.
a lovely effect enhanced by nice warm colours.
oh deer
viewed from an angle in the Oak Tree Inn
asserole of the day
the Oak Tree Inn had soup of the day, cheesecake of the day and a rather worrying asserole of the day.
i hope the 'asserole' is missing a 'c' and not another word mispelt
3000th post
oooh, this is the 3000th funkypancake post. that's an average of 'quite a few' a day since 16 April 2003 so that's 6 and a bit posts per day. fancy that fact fans.
old phones
here is an ancient telephone and a modern wall plug in the Oak Tree Inn:
the oak tree Inn
our holidayhouse was right opposite the oak tree inn, which is a lovely traditional pub/inn/restaurant/cafe/hotel thing.
here are esther and kezia enjoying a coke:
a hill in balmaha
there's a little hill in balmaha (near the massive hill) which you can climb up quite easily. on this occasion jane carried kezia.
here is jane getting her breath back:
we were not alone in enjoying the view:
jane's dad looks and ponders:
everyone looks and ponders:
view from the backyard
here is the view from the scrubland in the back of our scottish holiday house:
click to expand your horizons
supermarket games
i like going supermarket shopping with esther and kezia. i think this is because i do it so rarely it's still a novelty.
here is a game you can play to bring even more fun to a shopping trip. get a massive multi-pack of crisps and try to get your youngster to balance it on their head whilst you whizz them about on the trolley.
kezia did quite well, although she found the bag of oven chips we tried later a little cold.
keyhole trunks
i went to the supermarket with kezia this afternoon as a father/daughter bonding thing. we walked past the men's pants department and i saw these keyhole trunks.
trunks seems a modern word for pants (and i use this term in the most british of senses - non of your trousers here pls).
and what's the keyhole bit all about ? is it for those physiologically challenged ? or a modern day chastity belt ? it's all too much for me to comprehend.
next they'll be saying men need to wear single piece swimming costumes at public pools.
the hiding bollard
esther took this photo but was very concerned because she said she could only see three of the bollards in the photo. i said we should call it 'the hiding bollard' because you can see it if you look justbehind the third one.
christian boxing match
more random field activities. this time involving lots of cardboard boxes. one of the organisers said it took around 7 hours to prepare this game, which lasted approximately 7 minutes !
d(r)ummer and d(r)ummer
it's that drummer again ...
Milarrochy Bay
we had a very nice trip to Milarrochy Bay with cousin catherine, cousin mike and his parents.
here is a view of the loch:
inspired by the children cousins jane and catherine regressed and built a sand speed boat for esther and kezia (mike's dad provided valuable engineering input):
jane's parents spot something funny in a tree:
then kezia came down and walked through a very photogenic hollow tree:
confused
the sound and visionaries looked even more confused today:
drummers
i discovered there is just enough time in one of his solos to take a photo of the drummer. here is the evidence:
and here is the man without sticks. click for a big version (but take a deep breath first):
the lead guitarist was away ...
our lead guitarist was away today. he's a local doctor and chose to help save people's lives rather than play in the band. tsch.
we realised we couldn't do without him so jane spent all last night building a cardboard replica. we got his wife to lend us his t-shirt and i think she may have preferred our version (even better than the real thing).
