Mysterious Chalk Drawing - Balfe Street

Spotted this the other day, on the pavement outside one of the houses in Balfe Street...any ideas? The writing says "Artificial"...

Definitely a technical drawing of some kind, but what of, I wonder? It reminds me of the "idiot's guide" animations they do on Scrap Heap Challenge (to explain the mechanical principles to the layman)...

Balfe Street Blooms

Well, the blossom in Balfe Street is out rather early this year, another sign of global warming? It was April 10th last time before it was worth taking a picture...Same as last time though, the street below is *still* in a right state, it's been constant building works for the last two months, seems like every household in the road have decided to get a new bathroom (all at the same time), so there are about 40 builders, countless toilets, baths and sinks in cardboard shielding, a scattering of dangerous power tools littering the road and pavement (of which random bits are opened and closed daily) to have to worry about dodging during my commute...

Anyway, Balfe street aside, happily (if the weather persons can be trusted) we can expect a return to the lovely temperatures we were experiencing at the beginning of March (for a day or two at least), 15 degrees today and 18 tomorrow...excellent... ;)

Back to work...

So, another year over and done with, we took down the Christmas decorations yesterday night (well, Flyingpops did while I was cooking dinner)...a little early, I know, but the next few weeks are going to be rather busy what with one thing and another...so our tree (this isn't it, just a random one I spotted in Balfe Street) is outside in the road waiting for the bin men to come and pick it up for recycling...we did get a voucher to take it back to Priory Farm for them to turn it into compost to help grow future Christmas trees, but frankly I haven't a clue when we would have found time to take it up there...

Back on the trains too this morning, my brain still isn't functioning 100%, I think it's the shock of having to think about being awake before 0930hrs (zzz), still, one bit of silver lining, it's only two days to go until the weekend, hehe... ;)

Parking suspension, Balfe Street

Spotted this morning (so that worked really well then! The road is still absolutely packed with parked cars... ;)

As well as all the parked cars there were also lots of "Bill Stickers" down there being angry with gesticulating members of the public clutching their valid parking tickets...quite funny to watch, they really should have turned off the ticket machine, or covered it up (or something...! ;)

Balfe Street signs - Grand Theft Bike

What is it with Balfe Street and funny signs? Spotted this one this morning on my way in, it reads "Thinking about or attempting to steal a bike from here? THEN GIVE A GREAT BIG SMILE There are three CCTV cameras watching & recording you" (it's on the fire escape style exit from the "Central Station")...

It's a real problem in this area...more than once I have seen scuffy young chavs (sometimes in small groups) cycling around like predators carefully circling and checking out any bike that is left on display, and that is in broad daylight! Torquay slag had his extremely expensive and carefully locked bike robbed from outside "The Driver" during Friday lunch a while ago...I would suggest tying a dog to your bike to guard it (if you have to bring it to Kings Cross), but they are probably more likely to get stolen than the bike!

Any more of these signs though and I'll have to generate a flickr set for them! ;)

Prostitution in Balfe Street?

Spotted this in Balfe Street this morning, but my instincts tell me that if the police were really to conduct a covert surveillence operation they probably wouldn't put up a sign announcing it...and where is the MET logo? I think it's a pissed off resident...

I have to say though, it must be late at night, I've never noticed anything remotely dodgy happening when I've been walking down there...(at least twice a day)...

FIFA World Cup - England vs Sweden

ARGH! It's all going wrong! 1-1! Looks like we might have to face Germany in the next round and now 2 players off injured! :(

Update - well, not as bad as all that in the end, looks like we came off lightly, a few days off and not facing Germany in the next match after all... ;)

Red Balloon in Balfe Street...

I assume in celebration of last night's result, it's helium filled and tied by a long bit of string to the top of the lamp post...not a climb I would have fancied!

London - Hot and smelly...

What a day, official observations only seemed to come in at about 26 degrees (nearest MET office point to my place of work was Heathrow) but what with the urban-heat-island-thingy it felt about a thousand degrees...this really hit home walking down to the Thameslink (past this rather interesting animal-bedecked tandem I spotted in Balfe Street) after work...it was (or was extremely close to, I speculate...) bin men day...the sickly-sweet stench of super heated rotting flesh/vegetable matter from the terrible heaps of (foolishly) black bags was almost unbearable...the woman walking in front of me even had a (super-cliched) English cotton hanky held in front of her upturned nose as I overtook, in my unashamed hurry to get out of this fearful Rue...

Bah...as if we haven't had enough of smelly smells in the office lately... :(

Balfe Street - Blossom out

As promised... ;) I brought the Mavica into work today to shoot the blossom, which started to appear properly last week -

- after I shot this closeup I pulled my head back slightly from the camera to see if I needed to re-frame, and out of the corner of my eye I noticed a sleepy looking woman staring down at me from her open upstairs window (just out of shot to the left) I gave her a grin, said a cheeky "Mornin'" and walked on... ;)

- (just a shame that under all that blossom the scene at street level isn't quite up to scratch) -

I like carrying the Mavica in London, holding my tiny, battered point and shoot no-one gives a shit what you are trying to take a picture of, but I've had London commuters politely waiting for me to finish a shot, following my gaze curiously wondering what is so interesting, and once I even had a taxi driver give me the thumbs up and and wait when I was shooting Kings Cross station from the road...I think it's because's it's just sufficiently large enough to look like a *proper* camera... ;)

Balfe Street, Kings Cross...

Won't be long now, I'll post a proper pic when the blossom comes out (March time?)...took a dodgy picture last year with the phone but I'll shoot it properly this time... ;) I think it's the one time of the year the other residents of Islington feel guilty about dumping their old washing machines and soiled matresses there... ;)

Got to go to the docs *again* today, didn't get so lucky with an appointment though...got *something* nasty going on in my wrist, looks like a big shard of bone poking out under the skin or something (gross) so no picture! I know it can't be because I can move it but going to get it checked out anyway...never seem to be away from the place at the moment! :(