Ghostly Twin Shard

Wow, amazing light this morning, the reflection of the sun off the shard is creating a sort of ethereal, ghost "twin tower"!


As the cloud moves so you are getting a constantly shifting picture... ;)

Stop Sign Squeeze...

Spotted in Southwark the other day... ;)

Happy Birthday Flyingpops!

A yummy pancake breakfast, followed by a family day out bowling, lunch in a restaurant (yet to be decided) and then a delicious evening meal to come!  No baby doughnut arrival today please, this is Mummy's special day! ;)

Surrey Floods!

Oh my goodness, what a morning...I actually heard the rain through the double glazing...I mean, for a start, that doesn't happen very often...!  It's got to be pretty bad....

Decided to brave it, headed out suited as best I could for the conditions, got as far as the first field (before the hill), stepped to the side to dodge (what I thought was) a big puddle (in the dark), and my feet completely vanished under about 6 inches of water into the *proper* puddle lurking right next to it (hidden in some deceptive grassy material)...the rest of the walk was dodging (making sloshing sounds with my trainers) floods and rivers or various sizes and trying to pull the soaked flapping jeans away from my freezing legs...

By the time I got to Earlswood (bear in mind this was just about 25 minutes after checking everything was okay (from the warmth of the sofa) and leaving the house just expecting (just a bit of) a drenching) - my telephone was steamed up (as you can tell from the picture), the station was flooded and pretty much every train (that has been showing "On Time" was now delayed or cancelled (by up to 120 minutes and there was talk of bus replacements)!

Honestly, if I hadn't set off precisely when I did I don't think I would have made it at all!  Still, second day in a row that I get free rail travel thanks to "Delay Repay"... ;)

Another little baby...!

First of all there was handsome baby Thomas (pictured here back when he arrived in the beautiful - if a little warm -  summer of '09) -

- then there was *gorgeous* baby Poppy when she arrived at the (very, very snowy) start of 2012 (giving us the boy+girl set)...and now...with a little bit of luck, tiny baby number 3 (no idea what gender it will be, looking forward to the surprise) will be turning up to join the party very, very soon!  I certainly can't wait - one thing is for sure though - it's likely to get a *little*bit* overcrowded in our bed if all three of them jump in at once when the house wakes up (a bit too early) in the morning - we will have to get a big fluffy extension (or maybe a barrier or some sort?) to accommodate all the extra family members! ;)

Looking forward to adding to these pictures soon!

Oh it's the most wonderful time...

...of the year!  All these poor Christmas trees!  You literally can't turn a corner in central London without bumping into another one (or three) dumped by the side of the road...the really odd thing is, I found myself waiting until I found a Christmas tree that looked satisfactory (in an aesthetic way) before I took a shot...

Thomas made his own lunchtime snack...

...on Saturday, a warm tortilla wrap face, composed of Cheddar hair, Camembert eyebrows, Chorizo eyes (with BBQ sauce pupils), cherry tomato ears, a pickled gherkin nose, crispy bacon mouth and a Halloumi tongue...!

Very artistic -and- tasty... ;)

Evidence of improvement at London Bridge!

Well, there we go, the trains haven't managed to run on time (those happy few that managed to start running at all without being cancelled), but at least at London Bridge there are some tiny signs of improvement (at least for those who have no idea where they are going - which may speed things up for the rest of us during rush hour - once we are *off* the delayed trains and back onto foot power) - here you can see the nice, new colour coded "Follow me" lines (like out of Ender's Game) to hand-hold folk to where they need to be without raising their eyes from the pavement (in order to notice all the existing signs on the walls)...

I can just feel the rail network coming together...with this and the confusing footprints they spray painted onto the escalators, things are sure to improve!

Earlswood Station Rain storm...

...it's just absolutely horrible at the moment (last couple of communting days exactly the same)...today the early train was completely cancelled thanks to flooding at Christ's hospital...this can't have been a surprise can it?  Could they not have started it from Horsham on this occasion?  What about tomorrow?

A couple of snaps from Christmas...!

Suffice it to say we had a *very* merry Christmas *and* a happy New Year! ;)

Horrible Weather this morning!

Thanking my lucky stars that I did the entire walk (listening to Larry Niven's RingWorld) in gentle drizzle, walked onto the platform at Earlswood (shaking the rain from my coat) and then -the above- happened...absolutely crazy, train was three minutes late into the station and then delayed by a further twenty at South Croydon due to a power failure...

I'm putting my assessment of the rail improvement works (that closed the entire line over Christmas) on hold for the time being...we'll see how things are after the weekend...fair is fair... ;)