the happiest coat hanger ever ?
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August 2004 Archives
very naughty
this reminded me of this, but obviously not quite as good !
click big biggernisation
an army of fire extinguishers
here are a load of fire extinguishers behind a dusty window on marylebone high street. they look like ghosts. but they are not.
hot hot hot (32C)
it's like a saunarium in my office today thanks to the lack of committment shown by our aircon machine. still. it's all good fun
interestingly there's no maximum temperature rules for UK offices. here's the official guidance. There's a man trying to mend it somewhere in the building so hopefully we'll be icey cool again by tomorrow.
a street tableau
phone box, bin (with leaves), hidden bollard, a white taxi, a drain and a london bus. a classic london street scene.
street eraser
this man has a giant street paint eraser on the end of a pipe. here is a picture which you can click for teeny weeny video.
yes sir. we've arrived in the 21st Century.
found photo
it's been a while since i've found a photo. i think this is punishment for not keeping davescollections up to date, but i will update it. soon ok.
so i was delighted to find this scrap of photo this morning on bentinck street where i once found this jewel.
olympics
the olympics have finished and the british atheletes have returned victorious (so i hear on the wireless news forecast). people have a new found interest in sport and have impromtu races whilst going about their daily business.
today, for example, someone has set up some parallel bars which can also be used as hurdles for races up and down edgware road. or 'The' edgware road as some people call it.
24 hours
so, here is the photo which won the best photo. i nearly didn't bother creating it but then had a moment of madness on saturday morning when everyone else was out of the house.
click to be dismayed amazed
signs and wonders
i was doing sound at church yesterday morning. inspired by the reading festival i added a little extra volume and reverb to the occasion.
the services incorporated a number of signs:
and here's pete hiding behind a sign. he's the only way you know. jesus not pete.
proud prize winners
here is esther with her rosette for being Highly Commended. She was so proud.
and here is a photo esther took of me with my trophy (and kezia who suddenly decided to remove her t-shirt and come up with me to collect the trophy- i think she needs to get out of this habit quick !):
and esther in the car-park:
tanoy
the sound systems they use in country fairs are amazing. they're built for voice rather than sound and must be decades old in design.
they make me think of cold war nuclear announcements. and tellytubby land.
ferris wheel
can't compare with Maxx's fantastic shots. oh for a digital SLR !
esther, katie and adam
we saw loads of our friends today which was great. here are a couple of them.
"real live"
"real live" rather than "pretend dead". i couldn't work what that animal was meant to be in the picture. it looked like a sawn off slug.
giant marrows
i've mentioned this numberous times before, but we all love things which are the wrong size. tiny dogs and giant vegetables are our absolute favourites.
here are katie and esther with a couple of giant marrows:
family victory
it's been a bank holiday today. esther and i did really well at the Swallowfield Show. we both entered stuff in the craft show. here are our award winning entries:
esther got Highly Commended for her butterfly and vegetable chariot:
i got a second place for 'transport' and 1st place for 'about the home':
i also got second place for the song title (as seen here)
but my best was my '24 hours' collection which not only won 1st prize in the category, but also won best photo in the show:
This year i only won £6. not quite a lucrative as last year.
many festival gloves
there were many gloves at Reading Festival and i couldn't hope to take pictures of them all because of the endless pushing crowds, so here are two blue ones that can represent the rest of the unphoto'd
festival signs
no crowd surfing signs were visible again this year, but this time with explanatory wording:
normally it's don't drink and drive, but at festivals it's don't smoke and drive:
afternoon fun
we were invited to our friends craig, isobel, amy and fay (no idea of any of the spellings). a vicar also turned up for a bit (as they do). it was jolly nice.
here is the jelly with teddy biscuits:
honesty
no body likes dishonest thieves.
thiefery in england is still legal of course, but the long arm of the law and the slightly stumpy arm of the underground have reached a compromise. thieves can still do their thiefery, but they have to put a sign up outside whilst they are working so the police have a sporting chance of catching them.
here is one such sign:
sunflowers
when jane and i were out festival-ing, esther and kezia went to stay with their friends katie and olivia. here is katie with a sunflower.
reading festival 2004
we didn't get a very good view this year as we were over the other side and further back. still, managed to get some shots with my camera (whilst avoiding flying cider).
you can read reviews on the nme.com site
the white stripes:
morrisey:
the libertines (viewed by a young kid with a libertine's jacket on his father's shoulders watching them on stage):
franz ferdinand:
the roots:
new york dolls:
har mar superstar (before i worked out my shutter settings - but it's best he's blurred):
painting
kezia finger painting:
esther's painting;
esther's vegetable vehicle (driven by her (my) little poney):
song titles
it's a day of music today. this morning i've been trying to take a photo of a 'song title' for a county show tomorrow and this afternoon Jane and I are going to the Reading Festival.
here's my attempt at the song title - i'm forever blowing bubbles:
washing machine
this is what your desktop has been missing:
click for big
country walk
hyde park
mushrooms
bizarre mushroom circle in Hyde Park. why do they grown like this ?
clock watching
thieves are everywhere. so it's good news there's a security camera in close proximity to old big ben
entertainment
another street entertainer playing on tourists love of all thing british.
human statues
it's very popular to stand in tourist areas painted silver and pretend to be a statue. as a way of making money it seems quite easy. though the actual money involved seems quite small and it might get a bit boring.
here are parts of two such people on the south bank yesterday evening
carter's steam fair
they were setting up Carter's Steam Fair as i walked home last night. here are a few pictures.
lorry:
ice-cream view with various landmarks behind:
click for big
strong man:
swings:
horse man:
No 1 For Fun:
concrete
whoever thought this was a good idea.
advertising bollards
no old people for the top 40 chart
wardrobe
it's a giant wardrobe for the london philharmonic orchestra
more bollard photos
i've been a bit tardy keeping up with my email correspondence of late, so belatedly here's a bollard photo from Annette of Boston. She's got a page full of bollards with some great pictures.
i particularly liked this one of bollard hero worship ("when i'm bigger i want to smoke"). She's also got some great ones of the Bollard Guantanamo Bay down the bottom.
i should also mention groc who sent this picture of bollards considering whether to take a dip in the sea at Brighton (i think groc was in the sea taking this photo):
and finally, another regularly reader has been inspired to start their own blog. This one is in halifax (in the north of England where the countryside is beautiful, but it rains even more than london) by Gary.
(as always, i'm not responsible for stuff on other people's sites so venture at your own peril !)
other people's lives
here's someone to do list. mostly shopping for water, salad, birthday card, rings for dave and janessa (jewellry always popular), toothpaste and the Internet. and exchange rates for America.
wedding gift
this looks like a gift from elaine and roger from their wedding. how generous to give your guests a piece of ribbon.
but what of that word 'ebration' on the label. is that 'inebriation' (spelt slightly wrong, but that never stops me ?
equality in stockholm
there seems to have been some rather clever editing done on a number of Stockholm's street crossing signs. here is one such example:
the bollard circus
the poor white bollard is pointing downwards to try and get the red bollard to jump down, but the little scamp aint having none of it.
blue flower
it's always nice to see some nature in the middle of london. here is a blue flower sticking through some railings.
this is a 'Morning Glory' according to my work colleague Harry. i hadn't realised they were so temporal. if i had i would have spent longer than 5 seconds taking the photo.
here is a nice little page with a movie about them
autumn ?
leaves are dropping off the trees. and so are socks.
biological hazard
the trains on my toilets (reverse that) are absolutely horrible. so it came as no surprise to see this tape stuck over the door. biological hazard - danger of infection.
i suspect this isn't an official sign ...
a friend
a friend is someone you can lean on.
a strange pipe
a yellow pipe in the middle of tottenham court road.
wet jumpers
a soggy street cabinet containing lots of important phone lines and broadband connections. not sure who you're meant to tell when you see things like this in the street. so i'll tell you.
virgin mega-noise
i went in to the virgin megastore at lunch to buy a guitar stand, but it was full of urchins listening to thrash metal or something. here are the band as viewed from upstairs.
i wasn't able to hold my camera very steady due to jiggling urchins. And the guitar section was closed so i couldn't get the stand.
expect lots of nice shots like this after we go to the Carling Festival on Saturday.
steve
here is steve. we had lunch today and it was very good. so there.
