BT Tower
it's light at 7.30am when i get to my office now - hoorah !
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January 2005 Archives
trolley
here's a trolley trapped upsway down behind a gate. i suspect he failed to jump over it properly.
looks like he had a lucky escape. if he'd jumped any further he'd have fallen down the stairs:
a family trip to london
we had a rare sunday with no church commitments yesterday so we decided to have a family day and go to london. we did lots of nice touristy things and spent hours in the tate modern.
here are the girls on the tube
chocs in a box
i went round to mend a friend's computer last night and to pay me she gave me a bottle of wine (for jane) and a box of galaxy chocolate bars for me ! so much for the no choc rule (back on hold at the moment).
i set the 'point of sale' box up and now it feels a little like i'm running a confectionary stall.
i could never be a proper computer repair man. my teeth would drop out.
but i was quite pleased with this (slightly photoshopped) photo of the chocs in their box !
landmark gloves
two gloves with views:
vinopolis:
and southward cathedral:
walky talky
tonight is a celebration. it's been exactly one year since i started studiously measuring my weekly walking distances.
so, i can tell you that in the last 52 weeks i've walked 3,296 km (about 2000 miles i think). It might actually have been a bit further than that i suffered from a malfunction just after christmas !
2000 miles from london would take you to quite far away. you could have literally moments of fun trying to work out where i could have got to from london (or your favourite local grid reference) by using this fancy thing.
My weekly average is 65km, although since i started my marathon training it's jumped to 75km/week.
which brings me back to my begging question - will you please sponsor me for the marathon ? (thanks to those who've already sponsored!)
** please sponsor me **
stereo
the world of digital cameras with little displays has resulted in a significant reduction in the amount of photos of people with their heads missing.
i think it's time we take deliberate action and start chopping heads off again. here's my first attempt. i was quite pleased.
one really easy way of taking more heads-chopped off photos is to always use this technique when tourists ask you to take their photos outside a famous london landmark.
of course i wouldn't be able to bring myself to do that in practice but i like the idea. in fact, someone asked me to take a picture of them in St James' park last week. he handed me his antique plastic camera and asked me to take his photo.
what i should have said is "sorry mate, i only do digital" - but of course i didn't.
perhaps a better way would be to carry little signs with the funkypancake URL on and get tourists to hold it if they ask me to take a photo. now there's a marketing idea ...
perhaps i could use that to get people to sponsor me (hint hint)
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big eye's hospitality
jane and i went to big eye's for tea last night. "we had a most excellent time. if ever he invites you round i'd recommend you go."
Mr Big Eye should print this quote out and put it in big letters on a bill board on the front of his house like they do on West End theatres.
he should also display the 'approved by funkypancake' crest on his home made products. such as these potatoes:
get your skates on
we went ice-skating again yesterday. this time it was a family disco session which meant loud towny music and flashing lights.
ice skating is very much like speed walking down Oxford Street on a busy shopping day. you have to watch for people doing random things (especially suddenly stopping without warning and appearing at speed in unexpected directions).
in fact if people carried massive shopping bags and even occasionally giant suitcases then it would be exactly the same thing.
kezia seemed to get the oldest ever ice skating boots:
even though she skating for a maximum of 2 minutes over the 2 hours we were there she seemed to enjoy herself:
the queen's sky
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floor 6 and a half
being john malkovitch anyone ?
windy photography
it was wet and windy as i speed walked backed to the station last night. i spotted these people trying to take a photo whilst their umbrella was being blown inside out so i lunged for my own photo as i whizzed past.
tourists are such good value.
phonecard machine
remember the humble pay phone card ? here's a vending machine next to a stamp machine on an old post office in london.
it's like a mini telecoms history lesson here isn't it.
breakfast
i'm usually quite hungry by the time i get to work.
it being a friday i decided to buy a selection pack of teeny weeny croissants and pain au chocolats. what a treat.
unfortunately the noise of drilling and general construction coming from another part of my office took the edge of this morning luxury.
i've got a stinking cold and have a massive headache anyway, so the noise didn't help. here's a video of me dealing with the noise.
i don't think i normally look this depressed and miserable. but maybe i do.
not snow
i'm really missing the fact that it's not snowing (despite snow in these parts being a rare thing).
i was a little heartened to see all these polystyrene bits over the street this morning. they even made a nice crunchy noise as i walked over them.
i tried sledging on them but just looked silly.
boxes
this is part of the government's 'houses for mouses' program.
mouses love these little insulated boxes. inside they have hot and cold running water, electricity and even Internet connectivity.
they've never had it so good.
london eye and the moon
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london sky
i walked across hyde park on the way to a conference yesterday morning and there were some mad clouds in the sky.
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the three glove railings
there were three gloves on my favourite glove-railings this morning.
compare to what i saw last time and you'll notice there's been a slight change. someone's taken the pair and replaced it with a faux-leather singular glove.
what we have here is an actual, modern, working glove exchange
sign of a horse
do you sing when you see a sign ? i do.
view from high up
i was lucky enough to go to a meeting on the 11th floor of a building on the south side of the thames yesterday. i took a couple of photos.
here's one:
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no ice cycling
i imagine if you took the tyres off a bike it would work quite well on ice ?
national crime squad extinguishers
in a rare work-meets-blog moment i can tell you i went to the launch event for the Virtual Global Taskforce last night (go check out the site).
whilst listening to the presentation i spotted these two extinguishers hiding behind the National Crime Squad emblem !
extinguishers
it's a display board for extinguishers
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a pile of printers
tottenham court road is techno-street.
a different foreground cleaning trolley, but the same 2 background cleaners
taken just along the street from this one
no change - or is there ?
we've been watching these bollards for a couple of weeks now, but there's been no change.
initially it looked like a bollard relationship breakup, and the bollard in the distance was crying. a bollard relationship counsellor is on his way, but is still a few streets away.
it could be that bollard time moves very slowly compared to human time. a year for us might be an hour for them. perhaps they don't even see humans as we move to so fast compared to their sedate movement ?
so it could be some time before we see anything dramatic from this pair.
but i took some closer photos this morning, and now i believe that rather than showing the darker side, this scene is actually an act of chivalry.
poor on bollard on the left is guarding a puddle and doing her bollardy duty with pride. but she's alone and slightly scared. so the other bollard is keeping her company and standing by. perhaps even taking his own turn to guard the puddle.
preparing for the worst
we're notoriously rubbish at dealing with snow and icey weather in the UK. i think it's because it takes us surprise. regularly. at the same time each year.
i suspect things aren't going to be much better this year. at least someone's ordered plenty of salt. unfortunately these bags are water softener salt and come in giant tablet form, which will probably cause more of an obstacle than the ice they'll be skating on.
oh well.
non flamable flower beds
that's the good thing about slightly damp cold winter mornings - flower beds are unlikely to burst in to flames.
no worrying the wildlife
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friends for lunch
we had a few friends (Ruth & Stephen and their children) round for lunch yesterday. they've reached the age of potty training for their eldest (thankfully we are through this stage ).
it's funny how potty training brings the best/worst out of people (quite literally).
Ruth said to Kezia "do you use the lavatory when you need a wee" ?
Kezia said "no i don't..." comedy pause, clearly thinking about the question "...i use the toilet".
civil disobedience
the sign said "please don't put your feet on the seats".
perhaps this girl couldn't read (and the novel in her hand was just a ploy).
apologies for the wobbly photo. but this at least proves it was a genuine tube journey !
cards
this one was the wrong way up so i flipped it over:
yikes
esther lost another tooth yesterday. if she carries on at this rate she'll be toothless by the end of February. And that would suck.
luckily the tooth fairy delayed her appearance until last night when she picked up the two of them, so that saved her a trip.
this is pointless
i'm still carrying around my little signs which say "this is pointless".
i had a terrific opportunity to use one at the train station in front of this sign which asks 'what's the point ?'
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