a fridge is a white good, but this one is brown. and it may not actually be a fridge. but not to worry.

our holiday bible club ended with a BBQ and outside concert which was good fun. many of the photos i took during the week were projected on to a screen at the side of the band and could only be viewed by standing behind us. which meant there were people standing next to myself and the drummer which was very strange.

anyway, we had a really good week, but what i won't miss most is the portaloos. kezia liked them, but i think that's because she found the flush good fun.

much to everyone's delight, elton came to visit last night.

he started by teaching esther and kezia how to balance cushions on their heads.

kezia was particularly good at it

kezia looks so pleased in this photo

later elton and i went to the pub

but not before taking pictures of elton in a skip looking through a window

here's a young lad on a police car arresting another young chap on a speeding dune buggy thing.

it seems the shoot to kill thing hasn't made it to preschool games yet (thankfully)

i saw big eye mending a tap today with a drill.

i told him they mend taps in america simply by pushing them hard. (no need to insert punchline here)

with the bit between his teeth he managed to pull this strange face

shoes at esther's birthday party a few weeks back, taken by tony

wonky

and wide

em plays the flute, acoustic guitar and sings with the band. here she is with chocolate on her forehead.

we had just finished practicing with the band yesterday morning when suddenly esther ran in to the marquee and said "quick daddy, you need to come now" in a really urgent voice. i was a bit concerned then she said "you need to bring your camera".

i followed as she ran out in to the field and she she said "look, it's a dummy daddy!". she was very pleased with herself. and so was i.

outside a house in london were a variety of different sized pizza boxes

as long time viewers will know, i've taken this picture before, but it always makes me gasp when i walk past it. It's on the corner of the Treasury building on Whitehall (on the corner of Parliament Square and Parliament Street [see here] as you walk away from the river)

this shop has had a sign saying 'back in 2 weeks' up for the last 3 weeks, but you wouldn't know as there's no date.

but there is a Soduku and crossword on the newspaper stuck on the window and i'm kinda tempted to use a washable pen and write the answers on the outside of the window !

here are some instructions on the back of some stickers that Esther got from a party. it makes no sense what so ever. which is a great idea.

click for a version big enough to read.

i should have thought about this before, but i'm likely to see a lot of church leaders with power drills this week. i saw a few yesterday but didn't take their photos. i hope they'll be more.

here's john to keep us going. he's a proper ordained minister. licenced to drill.

it was my lovely wife jane's birthday on friday and i had been so useless i didn't even get her a cake. in my defence, i am always totally rubbish, so it wasn't anything personal.

life has been completely hectic of late so it was great for just the two of us to go out for meal.

unfortunately we showed our age by feeling tipsy after one pint/one glass of wine and too tired to stay for a dessert or even coffee !

anyway, many belated returns jane !

this might be one of my favouritist pictures i've taken.

View desktop sized

here's kester mending cables

no more work next week for me as it's our Holiday Bible Club. We spent yesterday preparing and doing soundchecks (until we blew the electrics).

here's how we left our stuff last evening - we're in a tent so the bin liners are anti-rain coverings.

i sorted out my 'gig crate' yesterday morning and got rid of all the broken wires and old biros hiding underneath my regular guitar cables and effects box.

kezia helped me with the tidying and to reward her i let her sing through my delay pedal. then esther joined her. here are the sonic results.

chuffa chuffa choo choo (as written by esther): download video clip (1Meg)

random strangeness: download video clip (half Meg)

Movies are in mpg format so hope that's ok

i like the simplicity of this sign. '99' would have been even simpler, but probably more cryptic to those who don't know.

look at all this stuff. holes from paper punches, odd staples and bent paperclips. it's a street bound office clearout

i worked from home yesterday which is about a once a week thing for me (meetings permitting). here's a picture of my desktops in case you were wondering.

it's another shadow game. what is it this time ?

slightly unrelated note: bit annoying about the return of the booming-backpackers yesterday (Warren Street is less than 5 minutes walk from my office). still, london's london and we all just get on with life.

i know lots of you read from around the world. london itself hasn't changed. so if you were thinking of visiting, do !

here's a load of cameras

here is farringdon tube station which is a fancy shape and has nice old writing on it.

it's good to know someone's set up a shop selling quality drugs around it.

i had a meeting down near Buckingham Palace at 10am yesterday so i caught my normal train which got in to Paddington at 7am (meaning i could do an hour's work on the train and feel good about the day before it had even started)

i walked to St James' park where i sat and did another two hours work, but on the way i saw people swimming in the Serpentine. It's part of some swimming club apparently which is only open 6.30-9am

you might have heard about the diana memorial garden ? it's been a bit of a classic - originally a nice idea but went all a bit wrong when people slipped in the water channel. oh well

it's actually looking very nice now

and see how many categories i can put it in: no dogs, no cycles, people, royalty and slippery floor

spotting animals is so rare in London that it's always worth telling others about it.

but what if you haven't got a blog ? write it on a piece of paper and stick it in the street.

i don't usually post at this time of night, but i thought i'd share this photo of the moon i just took with my Sony compact camera out of the window. no editing, just a massive crop.

i'm quite pleased with it. now if only i had a telephoto lense for my Canon and knew how to drive it properly ...

click for a big to appreciate this one

update: hope all get home ok despite the latest inconveniences !

click photo to inspect the insects

Robin, a colleague, sent me this advert for top magazine Navy News. He pointed out how excited everyone was to be reading it (but not excited enough to buy their own copies i note).

but i ask you, how much news about the colour blue can you fit in to one magazine. not many by the looks of it. it's just one piece of paper folder in half.

Popular daytime TV program This Morning is filmed on the South Bank. I walked by as they were setting up for the weather forecast. it was obviously going to be quite elaborate involving an inflatable thing and a big map of britain

quite why you need an inflatable for the weather i don't know

last week they had a tent up. what a shame i have to go to work rather than sit at home watching people on the telly. (of course i could have skipped my meeting and sat and watched it in real life, but i didn't)

here's a row of grass on a bridge outside Ofcom spotted by a work colleague

no one seemed that bothered though.

click for a good sky !

we visited friends on sunday and our friend (and regular blog appearer) big-eye-tony said to jane "what are you thinking about jane" and she said "toe-knee".

no-one would have known jane was thinking this unless they'd asked. what else does she carry in her mind ?

anyway, so tony took a photo of toe-knee with his new camera

and i took a photo of his photo

devonshire poop slogan from andrew

i like to get my perspective all wonky, but i tried to show you just how large this pedestrian crossing sign is. it's quite high up and contains a life sized person !

it's on little britain so it's no wonder it's a bit strange

these people claim they are working hard to minimise disruption. they could cause less disruption by not working at all.

there's a graph in there somewhere.

esther played draughts for the first time this evening. we had to look up the instructions on the interweb as i couldn't remember how to play either.

esther actually turned out to be a pretty strategic player and i think i'm going to have to make the most of winning the next few games as she'll soon outwit me.

the emergency services and the (wo)man in the street were the real heroes of the recent tragedies in london, but we shouldn't forget the humble bollard. these chaps have appeared all over the place keeping the rest of us from places we should go.

for most people visiting or working in london the only thing they'd see now would be a few closed tube lines/stations. even the crime scene road blocks are gradually being lifted.

which might make walking from east to west across town a lot easier. i managed to get very last lost monday morning walking from paddington to brick lane when i had to detour round these road closures

i like the understated comments on this site safety sign.

there should be similar signs for websites.

here is andy. he's 40 on friday which makes him quite old.

here is providing us with forty winks.

his party featured twin record players (probably not fair to call them 'decks', though we did sit on deck chairs). various people dj'd which involved putting records on the record deck.

at one point White Lines (grandmaster flash) was playing at the same time as Jive Talkin' (BeeGees)because someone left both faders up and walked away, and surprisingly it worked nicely.

later andy decided to play us some old cine film from when he was a wee baby.

it took a bit of time to set up

but soon we were running

and projecting on to the house wall

and then even andy could sit down in the dark and enjoy the rythmic clicking of the projector whilst watching his life flash before his eyes

here is ray launching a paper airplane.

see his poise

and his excellent follow through. indicative of a mispent youth i suspect !

perspective is a funny old thing

brilliant idea. a shop that sells bicycles and magic tricks. or tricks you can do on bikes.

i hadn't spotted many gloves for ages until yesterday when i saw loads.

here is one on the road approaching the Savoy Hotel (note the cars driving on the wrong side of the road as is their tradition outside the savoy). i nearly got run over taking this photo (click it to see the glove and the Savoy hotel properly)

here's a close up of the glove

.

and here are a load of gloves on the bank of the thames

and finally, here's one which might be a glove but might not be:

last week i got an email from Mange Tout saying he too had a glove photo website which you can view here. i notice he's found some other glove websites too !

Queen were playing in Hyde Park last night on the Live8 stage (delayed a week due to last week's incidents). there were lots of Queen fans all over the park as i walked through.

it reminded me of being back at university - i was an engineering student and everyone on my course wore white trainers, blue jeans and white t-shirt (except me. i only wore black in those days)

remember craig from here and here ? well he's bought himself a washboard.

oh dear.

because of the incredible business of life i've been getting the 6am train which gets me in to london 7ish for my walk to work.

i've been absolutely loving the sunny mornings of the last week. look at the shadow on this teeny flower.

i could do with a bit more sleep though.

there's no need to go slow anymore. this slow sign has been 'erased' by painting it black.

the straw is pointing at BT tower you know ?

this is a colour photo of a black bollard on a grey street.

it was the 2 minute silence in rememberance of last week's terrorism yesterday lunchtime.

of course the world today is no more dangerous than last week. it's just we didn't realise how dangerous it was last week until things went boom.

life is fragile for each of us. it's just we don't think about it much until something dreadful happens to our family, friends, town etc ...

meanwhile here's a statue guarding Chancerly Lane Tube Station (as seen in the picture above)

i took a picture of it a few weeks ago overlooking a bus.

as part of my plan for us all to recognise each other as fellow (and fellasses) funkypancake commenters and readers i've been asking people to send photos of themselves.

here's jokey, regular surreal commenter from Germany. She's running with a potato on a spoon in this picture. and who can blame her ?

balloons are weird in real life

they look even weirder when they are a bit deflated

and even weirder in negative land

this isn't in focus but i like the shot all the same

here it is hiding as i originally found it

i worked from home yesterday which meant we could head off in to the countryside with the family for a stroll down the river and a meal in a restaurant without it being too late (and me being spent from the commuting).

warm sunny evenings with a cool beer in the Flower Pot near Henley on Thames. marvellous.

we're all still thinking about the fragility of life.

someone's lost lion hanging on a railing in london. he looks very concerned.

us brits like nothing more than a warm drink on a warm day. if it's not a warm cup of tea it's a nice warm beer.

but even i draw the line at deliberately heated beer.

(i actually like cold beer. in fact, brother-in-law kev often laughs at my putting of ales in the fridge, but i like it that way).

much continued media interest in the events of last week. today people were filming outside City Hall where a book of condolences has been set up.

i spotted this christmas tree in someone's bins yesterday morning

and then i saw this father christmas in someone's window:

and here he is closer up:

close up with shadow

two donkeys (this reminded me of a Jimbus picture, although it's one photo not two.

who moved the tails ?

esther turned 6 on saturday and had her party yesterday. fantastically the miserable weather of the last few weeks had turned in to beautiful sunshine so they could have the party tea outside.

quite lukcy if you've got 19 kids at the party !

more parachute games today.

i'm under there somewhere.

tony agreed to be the official archivist for esther's birthday. about half way through the party he disappeared. i found him asleep on the sofa.

i bet spielberg never has that trouble.

here are andy and andy. andy is the one on the right.

both andies are funkypancake readers. andy reads it because i set it as his default homepage on his browser last week and now gets a daily dose.

andy, meanwhile, has been a reader for a while.

here they are with a bin bag to clear up party tea rubbish.

i'm doing something very important at esther's birthday party, but what is it ? those who were there (including tony who took this photo) aren't allowed to answer.

it's a party weekend. preschool party saturday lunchtime, family birthday party for esther and my mum last night and sunday is esther's 6th birthday party.

it was our local preschool's 40th aniversary yesterday and they had a big party where there was much fun to be had.

kezia and a decorated biscuit:

Lynn knows her onions:

kezia hooking a duck:

cake:

bouncing:

here is a random photo.

i was trying to take a picture of esther's facial expression as she pulled on her party popper string in a restaurant. just as i took the photo she managed to pull the trigger string and it exploded upwards.

you can see the sparks from the explosion on the right hand side and the streamers and tube covering flying up in front of her.

we had a band practice at a church last night (not the one we go to). when we arrived i spotted this rose. i later found out it was probably from a funeral that had gone on earlier.

unfortunately during our practice our car got broken in to (but nothing got stolen). in the scale of the things it's no big deal, but it's still a pain phoning insurance companies/window repairers/police report rooms late at night.

what a week !

worth clicking to inspect his one, sent by Andrew. he remarks on the punctionation and spacing. it reads like a poem.

here's a mystery. lettuce leaves and an umbrella. but why ?

i asked jane and she said "obvious. it was raining lettuce leaves".

i honestly hadn't thought that might be the reason. what other explanations are there ?

i don't want to say much about yesterday's terrorist things in london so i won't, but thanks for those who sent emails and texts to check i was ok. i really appreciated that.

i took these poppy pictures last week and most of the pictures today are old ones. i didn't feel much like photo-ing yesterday (despite walking 17km).

it's weird when these things happen in places i go to all the time. i missed the edgware bomb by about 10 minutes i think and nearly went via Liverpool Street/Aldgate East. things like that do your head in.

people will ask 'If God exists, how can he let this happen'. but i wonder how you can make sense of the world if you don't believe in a God. If there isn't any ultimate justice for the people that do this kind of thing, then what's the point in anything ?

i had to walk from the Tower of London to Paddington yesterday evening and i wasn't sure how long it would take to get there and if there'd be any trains when i got there, and even if there was how many other people would be trying to get on them !

in the end it just reopened as i got there and i jumped straight on to a train and didn't need any of my emergency war rations.

protect our world. take your shoes off (from the giant map outside city hall).

something the G8 leaders would do well to heed. if they had met in winter in scotland they could all have warmed their tootsies over the fire whilst toasting toast with their toasting toast forks.

in my day people feared pirates. now they advertise them

here is a new slippery sign from Katherine's Dock in London.

and in a wheelbarrow

i'm not sure quite how the numbering will work out but this is around my 6,000th post on the blog and we've just passed the 4,000th comment mark too !

if the stats are to believed funkypancake got 32,000 unique visitors last month equating to 47K visits and 48GBytes of traffic.

walking wise i've also just gone over the 3,000 miles / 5,000 km mark.

how long have you been reading funkypancake ? long enough to remember lazy eye when i first published her ? why do you keep coming back ?

here's a sign stating the obvious (although you probably already noticed that didn't you).

advice to tourists

your caring sharing council.

high high up on a lamp post

it's a long way to tipperary, but if you do go you should look out for this dog sign. a standard north european dog picture, but with some nice local information around it.

i like the way it makes it clear it's addressed to the dog owners rather than the dogs themselves.

this photo was sent to me by Jenny (a great artist - check out her webpage).

She says "Here's one from a B&B in Ireland - the woman who ran the place was very stern, and one of the other patrons nicknamed her "The Warden" --- this is a sign out front of the property"

limited for, er, three years would that be ?

i saw this spectacle this morning which had no news interest. it was simply a fire scare or something.

i liked how this sign says "there is a good service on all lines" then also says "emergency. do not enter".

but there quite a lot of firemen about (you can see them on the road if you click the picture)

and a red fire-engine and some red buses

a good collection

we saw it before, now see it after

zoomy inny:

and here's another one from Hyde Park the next day:

i feel like such a grown up. just got a Canon EOS350D for non-everyday photography. delicious.

now i've got to learn about proper photography and looking down the little hole instead of the telly thing on the back.

here's a milk drink in the same place as the champagne a few days earlier.

the poppy strewn bollard battlefield. let us remember what they did for us.

this isn't a slippery floor sign as such, but if people did spit then it would be slippery so i think it counts.

whilst playing in the band on sunday morning i looked across at our sound man and noticed he had a line of kids lined up observing his every move.

i suspect it was some kind of masterclass for the next generation of PA operators. average age was about 6 i think so plenty of opportunity for them to get the hang of it !

i woke up this morning to the smell of chocolate cake being cooked. it was esther baking a cake for her school fete.

esther did all the cooking herself and it won first prize for the best cake. it tasted absolutely fantastic so no wonder it won.

the sea's a liquid so why does it need a saw ?

broken joke requring punchline: why did the sea saw ?

here is a jaunty bin sent by vin. it's vin's bin. vin's jaunty vin.

it is very good ! you might need to click it for the big version to get the full effect.

there's one particular street where i get lots of these street flower photos.

the other day i realised why. and as a result i got a lot of the photos in one go

i'm not going to Live8 today but plenty of other people are. the venue is the same place as the Wireless festival was held in earlier this week (so you'll know about the secret watching place).

if you stood by this crossing with really strong binoculars you'll probably get knocked out the way by thousands of people going to the concert, but if you managed to stand still and looked down your binos you'll see the screen at the side of the stage.

you might have to click on the picture to see what i mean on this (unless you've got a massive monitor)

have you been waiting for an appropriate junctor ? well. here's a pretty good one, observed from a tall building

long time readers of funkypancake will remember Laura the receptionist who once caused a medical emergency in the office when she cut her finger a tiny bit on a piece of paper.

i haven't seen her for ages as she now works in a different building, but she emailed today to say she's going to work for a different company and wanted to say goodbye to all the funkypancake viewers.

she's says she's still not completely famous, but is working on it. she sent me this photo to post of her. so, goodbye and goodluck Laura !

what kind of people do i work with you ask ?

people like telco john is the answer.

three hearty hoorahs for british summer time

hip hip - hoorah
hip hip - hoorah

quite what is this ?

no padlocks. tape and combination locks are fine