do not use the tram exhibit as a tug of war. thank you
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September 2009 Archives
a day out with my dad
i went to the national space centre with my dad yesterday for a last day out. that's him in the picture above fiddling with some controls in a mock up version of the actual space station (i think).
i do know he's not wearing the regulation space suite, but they seemed pretty relaxed about that at the museum
we then went and stood in front of a magical heat detecting camera and turned in to spooky sci-fi bods
here's my dad by a rocket. he made me take a vertical picture as he was worried by my wonkly ones.
eventually he did put his space suite on.which pleased me no end.
then we went in to this psychedlic area which i wasn't entirely sure about.
after that we left the paid for museum and went to the free sewage museum next door which was even more fun. pictures of that to follow.
and on the way back home i popped in to see my grandma to say goodbyes too.
it was a day of strange mixed up emotions and memories, all taking place a very short distance from the hospital where i was born. once again, i was surprised by how much it affected me. I've now said my last goodbyes to my mum, dad, brother and grandma. gulp.
not long now until 11th October ...
british aerospace
doesn't it make you proud
bed and breakfast (singular)
'beds and breakfasts' would perhaps have been too ambiguous, which is probably why the name bed and breakfast stuck.
this sign clarifies it further with its 'single only' statement. you can stay there, but only one breakfast for you sir.
ease shut the gate
self ageing sign. the rust eats away the pl of please as the gate itself ages and needs more love and attention when opened and closed. lovely.
my hardest goodbye
here's my mum in a pub last friday kindly posing for a picture. I like the peacefulness and calm of the picture.
and now i've said my final farewells to my mum in person it's also quite poignant.
We'll see her in NZ in not too long, and the power of the email / skype means we'll still be in touch. but still a rather renching thing.
sorry the blog is a little down beat today !
places and people we love
we had such a lovely send off at church this morning. but also quite emotional after our full day of goodbyes yesterday. we might see many of them again on the morning of our departure at church, but this was our proper 'goodbye'
this saying goodbye to people is really hard you know. we've realised how many fantastic friends we have here in the UK who we're leaving behind. And saying goodbye is really painful. there have been much tears inside and outside this weekend.
here's one of our closest friends. it's old fish-face ian He said some lovely words about us after church. And so did Heather in a talk about our children. And then they presented us with an incredibly generous present which we shall use wisely
Church feels so much like home. it's where we got married, where our children came to faith and got baptised, and where we were privileged enough to be part of the music group. we'll miss the place and miss the people even more.
At the same time, we're incredibly excited about getting stuck in to a new church over in NZ. but these last few days are all about goodbyes.
our leaving party
here is my mum with jane's parents and kezia.
we got photos of everyone before they left (well all except one family who did a runner before I had a chance to photo them). not sure if i'll post them on here, but it was great to see so many friends. although the nature of a 10am to midnight party with friends throughout the day is that you don't get a huge amount of time to talk to people.
the house was busy during the core party hours of 11am to 11pm. everyone is now tired and speechless. and a litle sad.
unlucky dip
as a family we came up with the fab idea of having an unlucky dip at our goodbye party yesterday (apologies if you weren't invited, it wasn't anything personal - we're just being rather dippy at the moment).
anyway, the unlucky dip was a bit of a tombola, and you got to win something we were just going to throw in the bin. so that was nice.
grey's court
yesterday afternoon my mum and i went out for lunch then on to grey's court for a mum and son afterrnoon
i really like grey's court, and it's lovely how they have this little labels around the place written by people who work there explaining why that particular area is their favourite corner. the one above was particularly nice - click on it to read it (i won't spoil it by paraphrasing)
despite visiting 10s of time, i don't think i've ever been at this time of year before when all the veggies in the garden are ready
there was an honesty box if you wanted to buy some of the produce
this sunflower line up must have looked dramatic a few weeks ago
and here's a bit more info about red kites (if my post earlier in the week whetted your appetite). the whisteria canopy is much more hayfever friendly at this time of year too
and even the request to return your tray was lovely.
t&t for tea
we went out for a last supper with our lovely friends tony and tanya last night. it was a bit of a last supper, although we're expecting to see them again before we go. everything we do at the moment seems to end with 'oh i wish we'd done more of this'.
T&T are among our closest friends and we will miss them.
the picture below is the picture above shown on the back of my camera then photoed by tony's camera then photoed again on the back of his camera by me. interesting how his camera has turned in to a big eye.
my mum
here's my mum !
a hard disk to break
i found some more hard drives to destroy sat on our front door step and took them apart before clonking them with a hammer. it really is a joy smashing these things up. you should try it.
and then, when you've finished your clonking, you can use them as spooky owl or fish eyes as demonstrated by our good friend ian
old phone
i think i must have bought this from a jumble sale some time ago. what a horrendous thing. now in the pile marked 'bin'
travel anywhere
this cupboard has appeared in our local train station ticket office area. it claims you can travel anywhere. just step inside i guess.
it's good the british train system is finally embracing technology advances
peter mandleson in our garage
for some reason this front page picture of peter mandleson has unearthed itself and is now in pride of place as you walk in to our garage. i'm not sure i like it.
blue velvet trousers
way too tight, but way too cool to chuck away. not sure if i ever actually wore them. definitely gone in the pile marked 'take'
lady bird
insects are brilliant. little armoured chaps going about their business.
lower bristol road
as low roads go, the lower bristol road looks pretty low. and a rather wet drive.
the world
i went to the lovely town of bath yesterday to see whether it's worth me applying for associate membership of the royal photographical society. (i think it is by the way!)
all over bath is an exhibit of photos of different parts of the world showing the impact of global warming etc. I think the exhibition is touring round different towns as i think i may have seen some of the pictures in london.
anyway, it really brought home to me how far away New Zealand is. But at the same time how the world really is so small (before anyone mentions it, i know this is a scale map, and not actual size)
on the way back i popped by stonehenge (more photos to come on that) and there was a lady wearing the world as a hat. again, not actual size. but a reminder of our impending departure on the 11th October.
my old coat
here's my old fake fur coat which i used to wear for everyday activities back in the days when i threw away all my sensible clothes to force myself to wear comedy clothing in an attempt to bring more joy to the world.
instead i probably looked like a cross between a tramp and huggy bear from starsky and hutch. i think i smelt more like a tramp though.
sadly, even though it's fake fur, i think the coat won't pass New Zealand's biological and fashion quality controls and may become an item in the 'unlucky dip' at our house cooling party.
my lovely wife jane ...
... is amazing. and totally in charge of our emigration. which is handy.
strange things found and saved
moving house is a funny old business. here are a few things we've found
a lovely long candle which was up in the loft, melted, went wonky and fused to another lovely candle.
my old celebrity folder i used at university. i kept some of my backstage passes on it, like nigel kenedy, frank & walters and some other bands. And my favourite stickers, like jason donavan from when he grew a rather fancy beard
inside that folder in blue biro on a blue background was 'Ed Steward waz here'. And you know what, it might have been written by your actual Ed 'stewpot' Stewart, because i did meet him once.
And finally, here's a near tragedy as jane doesn't like this tremendous barometer depicting Calais in bloom. So she threw it in the dumpster bag and it went in the back of the car. She didn't figure for my cunning though and I carefully extracted it at the dump and saved it from the most horrible end.
strangely this beautif commemorative barometer caused someone else some anger about 20 years ago when a house mate put it in the freezer to see how low he could get the thermometer to go. I found it in the freezer all frosted up and the thermometer feature has been busted ever since.
a lovely long candle which was up in the loft, melted, went wonky and fused to another lovely candle.
my old celebrity folder i used at university. i kept some of my backstage passes on it, like nigel kenedy, frank & walters and some other bands. And my favourite stickers, like jason donavan from when he grew a rather fancy beard
inside that folder in blue biro on a blue background was 'Ed Steward waz here'. And you know what, it might have been written by your actual Ed 'stewpot' Stewart, because i did meet him once.
And finally, here's a near tragedy as jane doesn't like this tremendous barometer depicting Calais in bloom. So she threw it in the dumpster bag and it went in the back of the car. She didn't figure for my cunning though and I carefully extracted it at the dump and saved it from the most horrible end.
strangely this beautif commemorative barometer caused someone else some anger about 20 years ago when a house mate put it in the freezer to see how low he could get the thermometer to go. I found it in the freezer all frosted up and the thermometer feature has been busted ever since.
red kites
you know what, i'm going to really miss the red kites when we leave
sometimes there are literally over a dozen swooping by around our house
and if i'm working from home they often swoop lower than our upstairs window meaning we can look down on them
just the other day one sat on the roof across the road. i just had time to grab my camera before it whizzed off again. i hadn't realised their faces were so blue. i guess that's why they call them red kites.
bee in a rose
i knew someone who had a bee in her bonnet we all laughed as everyone knows bees should travel in your boot (or 'trunk' to any american readers).
the funniest bird statue ever ?
just look at this chap. brilliant stuff
redacted mannequin
how do you redact a mannequin ? easy. put a bag on it.
no one loves an ugly mannequin
try our shirt service
nearly posted this with a typo in the title which would have been rather less family friendly than your usual funkypancake fayre.
i love this sign. not entirely sure what it means. but it's a great.
do not dare open
i didn't
fanastic place sign
straight forward sign telling you how far stuff is. great arrow work and a nice bit of rust too. good.
rainbow's end
This was a real missed opportunity shot. A few moments before the rainbow was on the other side of the boat and it looked like the boat was sailing in to it.
unfortunately i was driving, so i stopped the car and grabbed my compact camera which isn't as easy to control and burnt out the highlights of the white boat. I also note i cropped off the second rainbow just to the right of the frame.
oh well. say lavey. go on. say it. thank you.
poolewe glass bottom boat
we had an excellent trip on a glass bottom boat when we were in poolewe
it's basically a boat with a window in the bottom and a number of portholes to look down through as you go along.
fish sighting envy
the world of fish sighting is obviously quite competitive.
attractive village dog sign
loveliness with a bin and a dog sign
what they teach you at school
the girls' weekly spellings reveal what they are currently learning at school.
for example, kezia is learning about the Romans at the moment so we get words like soldier etc.
but i'm not sure what Esther is learning. here are her spells for this week.
the first 4 are harmless enough, but the rest suggest something more along the lines of what i get (or got) up to at work when discussing internet safety. are they teaching criminal investigation techniques ?
Rothesay victorian toilets
I don't think I even got half way through our scottish holiday before being distracted by real life. So i'll have a few days of scottish things, and slot in real life around it.
I am usually very careful about taking pictures in toilets, but everyone was doing it here. In a very tasteful way of course.
I was even allowed to show the girls round the men's room.
we then went and stared at a parked up war ship
lady bird
lady birds are quite cool. i liked this one.
here's the flower san ladybird as they say in france. probably.
spooky dolls
As I've mentioned numerously (yawn) as part of the 'big move' to New Zealand, we've been doing some great works on clearing the loft. Here are some dolls which i've just unearthed
they are very bizarre.
royal mail post box ... err .... box
what should you do with a postbox ? put it in a box. where will this all end ? box in a box in a box ? talking about thinking inside the box
i'm pretty certain if you wait long enough you can get a sign for almost every object on the planet with an arrow pointing at it with its name on. I hadn't expected this one to be quite so big though.
dinner date
our lovely friends andy and gill invited us round for dinner last night. not quite a last supper, but was great to spend time with them before we go. gill cooked us some top nosh. sorry you missed it.
interesting 2009
despite arriving at 2 minutes to 10am, and being completely aware of it's impendingness, i was proud to compared the first hour of yesterday's interesting 2009. the whole day was totally fab.
fantastic bucket lifting machine.
what a beauty. too big for one picture
hassock of the week
quite a funky kneeler this week hey ?
goodbye orville
so, my previous post explained why i got the gang back together. Orville nominated himself the leader of the gang and sat at the top of the bag on the way to the dump. at the dump he waved to me through the window.
i needed all my reserve and chucked him over the ledge with all the other unwanted goods. here's an action shot.
he then lay there all jolly whilst i chucked other stuff down on top of him and his friends (the rest of whom are in the paper bag in the foreground).
we were a great team in our day, but life goes on. they were too chewed and gnarled to be of use to anyone else, so it was best it ended this way.
the old gang back together
emptying our loft has proved to be emotionally exhausting. there's so much of our lives hidden up there.
here's a good example. it's all my favourite 'soft toys' from when i was a wee chappie.
i seem to have had a thing about glove puppets
as ever, clowns are there to frighten us. this one has crucifixes for eyes. who thought that was a good idea
this cat had lovely dur, although a bit stratchy for cuddling
poor old panda has let herself go in the years in the loft
and who ever really knew what this strange thing was.
the only non glove puppet i had was this womble.
note this far away eyes and chewed nose. he also had a bald patch on the back of his head where i must have rubbed him with my fingers whilst chewing his konk.
sooty was as tight lipped as ever
and the puppets had no hangups (but perhaps should have)
anyway, it was great to have the old gang back together. we chatted about old times and hung out for a while. but it quickly became clear they were just shadows of their former selves, and they were better as memories than real objects, so for one last time they went back in the bag and off to the dump ...
my favourite photo location in london
this is one of my favourite places for taking pictures of big ben in london. on a clear evening the setting sun makes the palace of westminster glow orange. And the reflection in this window is always spot on !
i was glad to walk past this location again last night when the conditions were aligned.
apologies for the posting of this photo again, but it is a new fresh one and i love it so !
my old guitar
the experience of sorting through things preparing for moving is quite literally a moving experience. yesterday i was reunited with my old bass guitar who has been living directly above my computer in the loft for the last few years after his position was usurped (nice word) by my new bass guitar.
i took pity on him and i've sent him off to Brother Edd's Magical Mending place to be looked at. We'll see what happens next.
victoria station
i stood very still in victoria station for 15 minutes yesterday waiting for my chum toby. i loved listening to the hubub. it was actually quite quiet and the only thing i could hear were whispers and shuffly shoes. just snippets of conversations caught as people floated through to other places.
at one point a trolley went by loaded with things to sell. it went behind me and i grabbed this shot with my camera just as this girl walked by. i thought you might want to see it, so here it is.
and in my new non-working ability to provide you with extras beyond just photos, here's some audio i recorded of the station. sounds a bit louder than when i was there. victoria station.wav
it's more like an audible scribble rather than any useful int it ? oh well.
to whom it may concern - please flush the loo
ah. an english man and his toilet signage. or perhaps woman. it was a unisex loo.
anglesy abbey
we went to the excellent anglesey abbey at the weekend as part of a weekend away with my mum.
there was some wedding reception going on, although they seemed to be over an hour late arriving. that made for a nice photo of an off a master of ceromonies who had lost his ceromonies, a chilly harpist who had no audience, and a statue flautist.
the house itself looks lovely, but we spent our time wandering round the fantastic gardens
and posing for photos which will become part of our family archives
and here's my mum and a statue relaxing. my mum's the one sitting down
the conker nut tree
do you know why conker trees are called horse chestnuts ?
wel, it's apparently to do with the little horse shoe patterns that appear on the branches
i never knew that. click on the pictures above for a closer look
and did you also know that loads of british conker trees are croaking it due to some miserable moths ? that's not a myth.
that's all very learny isn't it ?
wee really does mean wee
you can choose where to go
lluq push
lluq ? that could confuse a forward reader. but obviously not too much otherwise they'd be blood on the glass frame.
it reminded me of that terrifying kids TV programme we were forced to watch at primary school. It's been on my mind for years and here are some clips from youtube The second video on that page freaks me out even now.
there's a whole group of late 30 year olds up and down this country who were traumatised as a result of that program.
a drink with paul
i went out for a drink, a catchup and a bag of monster munch with my bestest mate paul last evening.
driving back home after, it struck me that although we probably only meet up once or twice a year, it's the fact that we could do it more often which means we don't need to. but i'll miss it when we're on the other side of the planet.
on the way back we saw this snail.
through the roof
jane was asking for help. she got it, but not before i'd taken this picture.
i'm particularly pleased with this picture. note the different colour temperatures between the warm over head light and the cooler outside light in the background. interesting hey ?
pishill church
jane explained to me why we had this sign in our house, but then i forgot. then linda explained it then i forgot again. we are not, nor will we ever be pishill church. but it's very nice apparently, so we should all go visit. get your coat, we're off.
jim crow
a fantastical rock in the outskirts of dunoon called jim crow
the worst looking manequin on the planet ?
this mannequin was spectacularly dreadful. i've no idea what had happened to his face, but he certainly didn't have the romantic desire described above his head.
i may ask you to leave large bags at the front of the shop !!
well worth the two exclamation marks
wild cat and a two headed horse
whilst on the isle of bute i thought i saw a wild cat. but i was just a domestic moggy. But in the same field was a two headed horse. but that wasn't either. oh well.
pucks glen (the second time)
we loved pucks glen so much we climbed up it a second time with jane's aunt and uncle who live (vaguely) near by.
we had a great time admiring the gushing waters and catching up on life stories
like all good climbs in scotland, we were rewarded with a fantastic view for our efforts.
and then we had a gradual descent to the tea shop in the local botanical gardens
big tree walk
plants on the move ?
hooray it's henry
abandoned henry the vacuum cleaner in a london street. good to see these things haven't been totally destroyed by the insatiable demand for vortexes in a cleaner
puck's glen
in our first week in Scotland we stayed at the bottom of Puck's Glen in a lodge. it's owned by a friend of ours who does holiday lettings.
if you are looking for somewhere easily accessible but feels completely remote from the rest of the world with stunning scenery, and beautiful walks, then this is the place for you !
here is a strange rock which looked like a frog. who said the countryside was boring !
the mannequins of inverary jail
there's no privacy in a prison. especially if it's a tourist attraction
the chap below is quite fab with only half a moustache. i think the chap next to him nicked it to use as a side burn. do people still have sideburns ? outrageous
Scotland day 2 Inveraray
more from Inveraray tomorrow - mainly our trip to the jail. oooooh.
the hitman
i walked past peter waterman of top tv program the hit man and her yesterday. he's the chap with the blue trousers in the photo above.
i thought i spotted john cleese later in the day too, but unless he's grown a big beard and has changed what he looks like it probably wasn't him
protester canoeing in trafalgar square
i went on a 25km walk around london yesterday which involved two food related meetings and collecting our passports (nicely incorporating our NZ residency visas).
on the way through trafalgar square i spotted this lady canoeing round a fountain. she was easy to spot as she was shouting environmental messages at the top of her voice
and the poor plinth person wasn't particularly bothered and just got on with her weaving
factory land versus ferry land
as theme parks go, these were both pretty specialised. but you've got to find your niche in these modern days. factory land and ferryland were divided by this rusty drain
scotland day 1 - loch eck
so, let's start on the holiday snaps shall we ? probably got a few weeks of these, so sorry about that. it's not all tedious mountains.
but the mountains were rather nice
these are of loch eck which was near our holiday lodge
initially the water was lovely and still with gentle mist, but it quickly descended in to a rain fest which stuck around for the next, er, 14 days of so
but rain is good as it makes giant puddles which those scotish folk called lochs
and it also made for some moody photos
which is always good fun
throwing the baby out with the bathwater
it was no good. he made too much mess. he had to go.
a change in direction
we call this invisible mending, people
do not sit on it
kind of defeats the point of a bike.
we did a car boot sale yesterday to start the final push to start clearing the house ready for moving to New Zealand in less than 6 weeks (i did mention that right ?). this wasn't a photo from the car boot sale as i didn't take any when we were there because it was all too stressful. but successful.
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