No Number 13 in Earlswood

On the subject of numerology/superstition, spotted this at Earlswood station the other day...now, I know some cultures I could mention (USA and ASPAC mostly), do jolly silly things like completely ignoring the fact that that certain numbers exist (because they are deemed "unlucky"), but since when have we started to do that kind of thing in the UK? All the other car parking spaces have little white lines, and all the other car parking spaces have their neatly stencilled numbers...so what's happened here then, eh? ;) Official Network Rail policy?

"Nah, sorry mate, number 13's been cancelled"...or maybe the line painter is just delayed... ;)

070707 - Glorious sunshine

The view out of the front door this morning, as opposed to the view out the door during the week (you may want to view these ones large, as you can clearly pick out the hail stones hammering down if you do so) -


- the dampest June on record, country flooded, and come the day of Nic's wedding...absolutely glorious sunshine...I had sneered at the superstitious approach by some to this "lucky" day, but it really does turn out to have been extremely good fortune for one lucky couple...pics from that later on, no doubt... ;)

Dapper, Dorking, (suit hire) Review

This morning we drove over to Dorking, to meet up with Tommo and visit "Dapper" (that Flyingpops continually, but quite accidentally refers to as "Dappers" (which unfortunately means something quite different in schoolboy slang))...It turns out to be quite a nice, fairly well-to-do little gentleman's outfitter, stocking everything one would require for any kind of formal dress, including a large number of variously coloured accessories -

- enabling some degree of colour co-ordination with what the ladies will be wearing, after a little initial tension from the staff (obviously a bit confused as to why I was waving the camera around, and obviously no idea at *all* what a "blogger" is, as that reason, when offered as an explanation, just met a completely blank face), we were measured up (which, as the sales person was extremely short, involved me getting onto my knees on more than one occasion) -

We then had to endure slightly more confusion - apparently, thanks to the "lucky" date 7/7/7 coming up soon (and falling on a weekend) a record number of weddings are taking place, and that as a result, many of the suits that we *would* have been able to try on, were already out hanging in people's cupboards, ready to be worn...however, the suits we actually wanted to try on, *were* in stock, so I'm not sure what the protracted explanation was for (anyway)... ;)

We tried them on, loved them, paid the deposit and they had the perfect sizes to fit both Tommo and myself, so it was a bit of a no brainer (rather expensive, but we'd be lucky to walk into anywhere else and pick up perfectly fitting, matching suits for two more variously outsized individuals than ourselves)... ;)

So, in conclusion, the staff could have been a lot more welcoming and polite (there was no "the customer is always right" in evidence, in fact, quite the opposite), stock was exhaustive, covering all extremes of sizes, but some of it looked a little on the tatty side (my trousers weren't finished at the bottom) or dirty (two of the jackets I saw had hair stuck on them), so check what it looks like when you pick it up (sure it will be perfectly pressed and dry cleaned though, they wouldn't be in business otherwise), and it's on the expensive side, so if you *aren't* outsize, you could most likely find somewhere a lot cheaper (our bill will be around £100 per person)...