funkypancake

there's a lot of action in this sign, but i think the dog has jumped in to the bushes and disturbed the birds.

that can happen.

so don't let it.

we went on a family 12km walk today. esther didn't even complain (neither did kezia, but she was in the backpack).

at one point we walked past this graveyard which contained a cat which sat and looked at us accusingly. click for a bigger look:

there was also a section for dead bollards:

not living anywhere near the sea i was surprised to find this sign in walking distance from my house. who'd 'av thought it.

especially since we'd spent the whole of last week on the Isle of Wight which WAS very wet, windy and sandy.

look what i found in our local supermarket - it's a glove on a slippery-sign bollard

before and after (look very carefully):

luckily there's a new one here

this is my ideal game - only available in Stockholm. warning, contains mooses.

by now we will be heading back from our week's holiday (did you miss me ?), so a topical post

how do you keep kids amused during long car journeys ? well, we find listening to CDs and tapes works well. Esther's favourite are joseph and the amazing technicolour dreamcoat, The Young Person's Guide to the orchestra, various rockin' kids church songs cds and story tapes.

on a recent trip to the north of england i agreed to sit in the back of the car with kezia whilst esther sat up the front. i borrowed jane's CD player so i could listen to my own music. i also took two sets of headphones in case kezia didn't want to be left out.

the first problem was kezia's head was too small and speakers hung at her neck level. so i raise them up with her mouse toy. then she went all space age and wore them sideways.

then esther wanted to wear the other pair and they ended up jiggling away to BRMC whilst jane and i listened to winnie the pooh.

but if you really want to be amazed, watch this and see what realy happens when the funkypancake family go on long car journeys. (it's 392KB but is worth the short download - believe me!)

biggernisation requires a click of the above

this isn't so much a sign of a hound as a sign for hounds.

jame bond had a licence to kill. i'd rather have a licence which allowed me to push trollies down chairs. it would allow me to over-ride any local rules.

i probably wouldn't need it in belgium as it apprears you can take your trolley down the stairs anyway.

more belgian gents facilities. it's great how they've all been painted to liven them up and make them standout.

this one had elvis on it:

this one had some strange animals going mad:

and how's this for a modern one in brussels ? i think it's only for blokes, but i guess ladies could use it too. just not quite as privately:

a famous gap. but where ?

answer here

it apes me to say this, but beware of monkeys.

camouflage on ships is a bit bizarre. they should just paint the top bit blue to match the sky and the bottom bit blue to match the water.

but this one does blends in with the buildings in the town centre.

"hey son, just have a look out the window and see if granny's still alright sat up on the roof in her favourite chair. i'm a bit concerned i didn't tie that safety rope properly"

the light from a stained glass window produced an anti-window on the brick wall (and the angle in the foreground).

two people walking by the extreme sports thundercats race on the Isle of Wight last saturday. And a bird.

Isle of Wight is home to an Extreme Sports festival. Ideal for an island which is currently experiencing 80mph winds. You can read reviews here

so we only saw a very brief bit as it's not great entertainment for very small kids thanks to all the waiting involved.

it's just about impossible to get decent shots of people doing their thing out to sea unless you've got a fancy 1 metre long zoom thing for your camera (which i haven't).

so you'll have to make do with these surfers.

a teeny weeny coathanger with teeny weeny kezia.

pointless windows

belgium seems to be the world capital for scraggy old mannequins.

here's a couple. the poor chap on the right was in a chemist shop who seemed to be in a very bad way:

there also seemed to be an unhealthy interest in incontinence pants.

what is a person without a soul ? what is a soul without a person ?

in the reception at the stockholm museum of modern art (clickable)

and a close up

still no chocolate (over 2 weeks now).

i saw this sign in a museum yesterday. i'm at phase 1 - desperation.

click for details

i believe the subway above was not closed

this is a sign from a teeny weeny model of an underground railway construction site (using the cut and cover method).

this stained glass window in a church in ghent produced a psychedelic overlay on this painting. it was like someone had gone mad with highlighter pens.

joy division stencil graffiti. i like the extra question at the bottom. graffiti is missing the interactive dialogue.

from matt and nancy's wedding.

here's a collection of things mounted together in a display in a church. it contained a number of ceramic dolls legs.

and i found that quite disturbing:

here they are in situ:

and here are the central characters through a fence:

heathrow baggage collection is one of the grimmest places in the world. but there is one lovely wooden chair.

what do you get if you cross this with the bottom dog of this ?

this:

in the asylum they also had an exhibit of what the called 'outside art'. i felt strangely connected to these artists who were just doing their own thing and looking at the world in a completely different way.

it got me thinking about what is art, whether what we (you and I) do on this blog is art, and even if it is then who cares anyway ?

and now i've just realised that although i know the word 'nomenclature' i've no idea how you pronounce it !

more from the asylum. i just love the colours on these photo which i took furtively.

view from the front:

straight jacket

and here's a cot for growned ups who can't be left alone at night:

on my recent trip to Beligium i had one afternoon free to do the tourist thing. so i went to a mental asylum. for most of the time i was the only one there, except for some very strange man who was looking very suspicious (and acting even more so, but not in a way i can retell on this blog!).

anyroadupdown, it was a museum, but i think partially a working one. it's an amazing place and definately worth a visit. visit their website for more info

this was one of my favouritist exhibits. click for a big version. it's just so extreme !

the day i went to brussels was liberation day. the grande place was full of pretend GIs smoking cigars pretending to be Colonel Mustard from the A-team (might have got my reference wrong here).

there were marching bands and a strange mix of old and new law enforcement:

this was a british band who seemed a bit worn out from all the blowing and marching they'd had to do in the name of liberation.

in these modern days putting numbers of psalms and hymns on church boards seems a bit retro. churches are often 10 years behind in terms of technology. we've only just moved to using an over head projector at our church, but it does its job so why buy a whizzy projector ?

this is another belgian photo which i took when my feet were too tired to walk. so i sat for half an hour watching people get ready for mass. then i left.

it's a restaurant where the food hangs above your head.

this telly built in to a black and white picture was showing a black and white film. until the telly broke. now it's a crazy coloured thing.

hoorah. it's like the black and white went super-nova (or something)

here's another one of thoese bizarre catholic statues where the baby seems to have a grown up's face. unfortunately you can't really tell in this picture as i was too far away ! but you know what i mean.

click to inspect

this lady was carrying a wedding dress angrily down the street on her head. there was a story here somewhere.

i had to laugh when she went in to the wrong door, quickly came out as if nothing had happened and then went in to the next door which actually belonged to the wedding dress shop.