funkypancake: August 2009 Archives

london ignores champions
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i love london. and i love how you can walk down the street and see something fantastic that everyone else is ignoring. like these athletes we saw being photographed after we'd dropped our passports off at New Zealand House (that's the base of eros just behind them)

A bit of googling revealed the chap is Laurent Vidal There was also a swedish athlete and another lady with her back to us (who perhaps could have done with longer shorts).

exciting new development coming
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don't panic. funkypncake isn't closing. but is likely to change a bit because ... we're emigrating to new zealand.

yes, as of 11th October, the funkypancake family are flying away to live in new zealand. how exciting !

i'm now free of work until november, which is quite handy given the huge amounts to do between then and now (and we've got a holiday in scotland to fit in).

the blog is going to run on 'auto' through the rest of August - i've lined up some nice british beach shots, then we've got a week of new zealand photos from our scouting trip last easter to give you a taster of what we're off to

then it'll be back to normal blogging in september and we'll have to see how things evolve once we're over there. i've got enough british photos to keep funkypancake going for another year even if i don't take any more photos once we get there ! but i suspect i will continue to take some photos. let's play it by ear, ok ?

and once again, i apologise for the blog comments not working very well. i did attempt to move the blog over to a better platform earlier in the week, but it didn't work out very well, so i'll try again in a few weeks time !

take care

dave

microwave
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he's been spurned by the lovely old monitor there. poor thing

not his real arm ?
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i think there's a problem there.

i suspect he's not been having enough calcium (see here for an excellent video on calcium)

nothing wasted
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only click on the pictures below if you aren't eating. changes your perspective on the top picture doesn't it !

zoo warnings
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auckland zoo
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walking the pigs, but not the lions

one of those long nosed things

a proud lion (and friend)

running ostriches are always funny

and a kiwi

the friendly giraffes of auckland zoo
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the birds at auckland zoo
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the birds at auckland zoo wre very good at sitting next to their sign posts so you could see what they were.

although sometimes you did need to look closely to see where they were

and if you stood still long enough they would fly at you

and sit on your head

but elsewhere they just looked and stared

pronking
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never let it be said that funkypancake don't learn you nuffing

windy wellington
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i got the opportunity to go up one of the hills behind Wellington on my flying visit to see the view from the wind turbine up there.

that bit of water separates the north and south islands.

wind is in plentiful supply in wellington

sky tower
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we went up the sky tower when we were in auckland back in april.

it gives you a great view of the bay and the city itself. look how empty those motorways are !

i walked slowly over the glass floor

whilst esther showed she was made of sterner stuff and initially danced on it

then sat and watched the world go by

skinny tractor
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spooky car park entrance
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beach speed limits
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muriwai beach
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things on a beach
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walking school bus
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auckland harbour boat trip
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all this week's NZ pictures are from our trip last easter. finally getting round to posting them !

auckland
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wargrave
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the lovely (but posh) village of wargrave

where posh cars come by quite regularly

new zealish beach
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new zealish beach

wellington beach huts
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can you spot the feedy man who popped out of one of these beach huts whilst i was photoing ?

more minehead
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right, i think that's enough minehead don't you ?

beer on the beach #3
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i know people get annoyed by me posting two very similar pictures together, but i honestly couldn't decide which i liked best ! if you can brave the commenting system, let me know !

pebble
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biggest jackpot slots
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look, they are new and here now. then they aren't. life is like that sometimes.

beer on the beach #2
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i'd like a large ice cream
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mineheads
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we went to minehead at easter when the sun was out. here are the actual mineheads.

beer on the beach #1
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minehead
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lines at the beach
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baywatch
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rusty sea things
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to the beach
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purple door and crazy curtains
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just look at these crazy curtains !

london eye
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bollard rip
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exotic crisps
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mmm. not sure what i think about someone labelling their product 'exotic'. surely they aren't exotic for someone, so they are making assumptions about british culture. or something.

drinks on steps
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footprints in the sand
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by now we should be up in scotland somewhere. hope you are having a good summer !

hassock of the week
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hassock of the week
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holiday special

bus 'n' bollards
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bendy bollard bus (with casualties)

do not push or pull this door
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do not push or pull this door. or indeed hold it.

cycling prohibited
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bath abbey and roof
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not quite a vertical panarama

danger do not lean on glass
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doors
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full english breakfast
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decaying faces
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our bodies decay as we get older. i've noticed mine is falling apart. these chaps have been around much longer than me, so perhaps they can excuse their bedraggled appearance and headlessness

BT Tower
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BT Tower used to be a really exciting landmark in london

but now it's just mostly ignored

which is shame as you can see it from all over the place

it'll always have a place in my heart though (you'll be pleased to hear!)

watch out for tailgating
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good use of colours, unlining and the word tailgating (probably need to click it to see the big version)

kiwi hippo
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it's an aucklandish hippo. which makes it a kiwi i guess.

blood on the streets
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the end of the red route. it's not a dramatic stop. more of a grissly fade out.

old world pay phones
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decaying technology is interesting. this phone says "still 20p per call"

decaying technology is interesting. this phone says "still 20p per call"

bloggy troubles and comment feedback
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just a quick post to say i attempted to move the blog to wordpress last night, but it hasn't worked properly and doesn't make a slick uploading/editing process so i've gone back to ropey old (un)movable type. apologies for the continued inconveniences.

and thanks for all your feedbacks last week. you've given me some good suggestions which i'll attempt to put in to action if i ever manage to do the upgrade.

more to follow ... hopefully.

and pigs might fly
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a london landmark with a london thing (black cab)

and here again with a dust cart

guinea pig with a monetary eye patch
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don't worry, no actual guinea pigs were worried in the making of this picture. it's just off a guinea pig food bag,

extra free. that's better than just free parking
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there's free, then of course there's extra-free

i took the photo then realised i'd nearly missed the point. so i too a photo of the point. so the whole thing wasn't point less. (although i suspect some of you may pick me up on the small point in the first picture)

pizza with big eye tony
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i went out for a marvellous pizza with mr big eye tony last night. jolly good it was too.

old pump
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they don't make them like they used to etc

old and new
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two jaunty angled post boxes. the pink one is actually one of the post people's drop off box things for when they are doing their rounds. but hey ho.

two bollards and an arrow
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see how they guard the saddened arrow

wargrave station
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a rural british train station

mobile stoppage
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look at this. it's some bollards on a field trip, towing a trailer full of traffic lights. brilliant stuff.

rear guard
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ideal for those facing the cane at school

end of the line
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hat hassock of the week
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brother edd
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it was great to see brother edd and jacqui yesterday. we saw him a couple of weeks ago too, but we had a proper chance to have a sit down and a chat about his american adventures.

spot the difference
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it was lovely to have a family together day with my dad, brother, pam and vi. we got some photos for the album then tried some comedy shots. there was definitely a generational divide in participation in the 'look silly' photo

british commute 2 - work to home (via the shortcut)
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and here's the trip back home (taking the short cut to the motorway through some side streets)

by the way, i've had to cut the beginnings and ends off my commutes so they last around 10 minutes when speeded up. i don't actually stop my car in the middle of the street and walk away from it.

it ended how it began
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here's a funny thing. on the way to my lunch yesterday i got a message from grahame who employed me when i first started at easynet (he's now moved on to greater things)

he was out shopping round the corner so we met up for a refreshing fruit juice. he was there with his lovely wife.

grahame was one of the early encouragers of funkypancake and is a purveyor of good quality comedy banter.

oh what fun we had
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so, yesterday was my last day at Sky / Easynet after 8 and a half years. i'm leaving on good terms, so that's good.

most of last week was about saying goodbye and handing things over to Sky colleagues, but yesterday was about my old easynet chums. it was great to have lunch and chat about fun times. and we even recreated some of the classic slidey man game ?

so, a nice way to finish things off.

tank top
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i used to wear a lot of tank tops. i nearly wore this one yesterday. but i decided it was a little too bright, and rather figure hugging. i've got my "up and at 'em" face on here.

bananas
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to wave me off, tesco installed these chaps - bananas in pyjamas. what a nice thought. i might go along next week with a pile of 20pence pieces and ride them all day long. or i might not.

reflections at tescos
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i used to really enjoy my morning walk to the chaos of tesco. and my short conversations with the checkout staff. approximately 2 minutes to put the world to right whilst doing our transactions.

even the car park looked calm as i walked through it yesterday.

british commute 1 - home to work in the rain
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it was my last day in the office before i get made redundant yesterday so i video'd my trip there so i wouldn't forget it. here it is speeded up 4 times

sorry the quality is a bit rubbs. youtube has done the bad thing.

mind the gap
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redacted leaving lunch
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i went out for a leaving lunch with my department chums yesterday. very nice it was too. although it was interesting to note the menus had been redacted.

luckily the dinners themselves weren't.

roller blading business man climbs some stairs
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i wouldn't attempt this in roller blades, even if i was wearing a safety hat and a safety tie. i was a bit worried following him up the stairs. luckily nothing untowards happened.

strange bird in hyde park
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what sort of bird is this that was wobbling round hyde park yesterday ? let me know i you can brave the commenting system. or comment on the flickr picture here

update: turns out it's a Northern Lapwing or peewit. as you were everybody

dog collar
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an excellent dog sign from new zealand here. but just look what the owner is wearing.

not content with cutting themselves in to quaters and having one arm longer than the other, they've also taken to wearing a rather natty shirt collar. a dog collar perhaps ?

legs in a van
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i was having a morning tea with the excellent alex from samknows earlier this week and spotted these legs in a van. using all my quick drawer training i grabbed the shot with only minimum interruption to the conversation.

a lot of cars now have legs fitted like this. it's a kind of do it yourself version of a hybrid car, and helps solve both the nation's obesity and unemployment problems.

i'm becoming an unemployment problem as of next week. i plan to eat nothing but cake for the first week to bulk myself up for this kind of work.

don't feed jigsaws to seagulls
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thanks to georgina for sending this excellent example of jigsaw etiquette from the sea side.

we learn that seagulls make a mess and can get aggressive. same can be said for many of the visiting tourists after 9pm i suspect.

page 39
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there's a definite feel to 'wrapping up' when i go in to london these days, so it's fantastic when i see some old familiar themes interpreted in new ways.

one such thing is the strange habit of the large posters in paddington station having Page numbers ! there really can be no reason for it. and that is why we love them so.