Strange delivery in Wapping...

...spotted this morning on the way into the office...

How does this work...

...as a reliable delivery method to kitchens in central London?  *Surely* - someone or something is going to want to take advantage, even if it's just a cheeky urban fox or a gang of unruly pigeons?  I'm only talking about Southwark here (it may, or may not, happen elsewhere)...but it's a rather tempting proposition that everyone blindly parades past every single morning...is it just some sort of a moral test of one's self? Certainly, there would be a fairly easy answer if one were down on one's luck...then it would just be the tiny matter of finding some way of cooking up 3 pounds of bacon, asparagus and mushrooms on the South Bank in the rain...

Odd Escalators at London Bridge...

Speaking of odd TFL things...these new spray painted feet (every other step) on the escalators at London Bridge are a bit strange too...at face value they would seem to indicate that the right hand side is for going down the escalator and the left hand side is for going up it (a bit of a tough ask as, obviously, the escalators only go in one direction at a time)...!  Were they a misguided official addition or are they a bit of street "art"? One thing is for certain, it's not going to help the tourists navigate the station any quicker...I'm thinking prank...

"The Lady" is coming!

Gosh, this is a hard one, both to get the head around *and* decide how to deal with...the situation is thus - with the development of imaginative and abstract thought, an (utterly immaterial) "enemy" has arrived in our lives - Thomas is (slightly) obsessed at the moment with theoretical situations whereby "The Lady" can deny him things, hide things or scold him - nope - not anyone we know, not even a real person, but after some time considering the situation (after being assured by Thomas that, if we weren't diligent, "The Lady" was about to take our TV away) I think I have worked out where she came from (and perhaps how we can banish her)...

Picture Thomas (for example) in the Supermarket, bouncing around watching the trolley piling up with yummy food, even being able to hold bits (to yells of) "Hewp Daddy holdin' PEEZE!!", but when he goes to take a hearty bite of (e.g.) jalapeño pepper, is told "No Thomas, we have to pay the lady first! Don't eat it!"...or when yanking litre-sized glass bottles of olive oil from the shelf (that we don't need) being told "Thomas, *don't* drop that, the lady will be upset!", or getting on a bus "Come back here Thomas, the lady won't let you on the bus without getting a ticket!"...it seems fair to say that this horrible old lady has a lot to answer for, frankly, when it comes to toddler rights and merits some discussion about quite where the line is to be drawn...

So, if even only to narrow down *which* particular "lady" we are supposed to be worrying about, it's time to start referring to people as their occupation, rather than just their gender, in the supermarket we will have to pay the "shop keeper", on the bus we will pay the "bus driver" (and so on)...and hopefully (as we subdivide the barrier) that will be the end (or at least dilution) of that!

Whatever will be next? ;)

A very strange dream...

...last night, dreamed that we (Flyingpops, Thomas and I) were on our way to Oslo (destination obviously the result of predictable influence from the recent terror atrocity) to go and visit a museum/zoo (bit far to travel, but okay) but when we got there I remembered that I was responsible for setting up and overseeing a modern day-twist on a Shakespearean play before we could do our visit (of course I would be! Thanks unconscious mind!), so I set about recruiting Norwegian actors, allocating roles, rehearsing and then finally to the actual performance, which went...perfectly okay...getting a nice round of applause, and then we went to this museum/zoo and Thomas kept on tearing off around the place and climbing up things or running down steep slopes too fast, only to fall off or tumble over...but each time he was...perfectly fine...

So we had the *perfect* setup for (at the very least) a decent anxiety dream, but what happened in the end was a worry-about-it-if-you-like-but-everything-works-out-okay-in-the-end dream...

Never known anything quite like it! *shrug*

Grand Theft Light Bulb?

Very odd...not noticed before thanks to the twin factors of increased foliage and it being light when I'm setting off in the mornings, but it appears that all the street lights that line this path here (which is the route I commonly take to get to Earlswood station) appear to have been vandalised...

It doesn't make the slightest bit of difference to me at the moment of course, but come the winter months this path (if they aren't repaired) is going to be absolutely pitch black instead of punctuated by the incredibly useful occasional pool of light to aim towards as you crash through the woods...Now, the lights are fairly numerous, and also extremely tall which basically means actually going about breaking them would have taken a *considerable* amount of effort, making me wonder what the motivation was...thrill seeking is basically out, climbing up all those slippery poles (dodging attacking crows, squirrels and sharp branches) and bashing away could hardly be considered a form of recreation (unless you are incredibly daft), which only leaves two other possibilities (that spring to mind) - One - the light bulbs are sufficiently valuable to merit going to all the effort of stealing them (but then why aren't we seeing more of this sort of thing?) or -Two- (much more sinister) that someone wants it very, very dark down there at night...

Hrm... :S

Update - They aren't terribly valuable apart from the flashy LED ones (£200-odd quid), which these weren't, they were £20 sodium ones...

Random Mobile phone pics...

...just been tidying up my telephone memory, found an old folder full of a few *rather* random pictures, thought I would share... ;)

(wow, look how small Thomas was!)



I dunno, I was obviously half way to a blog idea and then forgot about it (several times!)...more over here... ;)

Honestly, you leave the internet...

...alone for two days and what happens? 57 (no exaggeration) Swedish Hip Hop fans start following you on Twitter (with absolutely no explanation whatsoever - well, none I can understand anyway)...what on earth I can have done (apart from keeping completely quiet) to tempt them is quite beyond me...

Still...Välkommen (I guess)! ;)

In other news, as you can probably guess, I'm back up in town feeling a little better (although Thomas is still quite poorly - especially at bed time - and Flyingpops needs to catch up on her sleep) but hopefully things are on their way back to normality... ;)

MS Paint Adventures...

...okay, no idea how I'm even going to explain this...

It is with slightly baffled amusement/wonderment that I read/interacted with this highly original bit of web comic/insane geekasm...it actually very nearly defies description, but if you imagine watching someone playing an old text adventure game (where you can slightly nudge what they are doing) which features a kid (who is programmable - by himself) who gets an online game that when he installs it (as a client on his PC in his bedroom) allows his mates to control his physical environment...

I've read/played/watched all of Act 1, and trust me, if you are anything like me (which is, admittedly, slightly unlikely) you will *love* it...if not, just utter "WTF?" and shuffle on....

Ready? (oh no you aren't) - Click here...

New Escalator Cabot Place

Far be it from me to be one to judge the cost/benefit of urban shopping centre design, but in this tiny space we already *have* six escalators, four of which connect this floor alone (you really can't move for escalators - actually, that doesn't make a lot of sense)...but do we *really* need a fifth? And if we *really* were to need a fifth escalator, wouldn't it make sense to put a bit nearer the DLR entrance (where it stands a chance of getting crowded) rather than at the opposite end of the dome? *Holds hands up in surrender*...

Update - they have now started building a sixth one!!

Strange behaviour in the Office Toilet

(Should get some exciting referrals from the search engines for that subject line)...!

Anyway - Okay, fair enough...I can (just about) understand the habit (to quote "Carry on Abroad") of "And don't forget, if you have to use any strange whatsits" (etc)...But surely, once you have "done your business", wouldn't the natural thing to do be to collect your carefully crafted little paper shield, and flush it, with whatever else you have deposited in there, around the u-bend?

One day last week, Friday I think, these little paper constructions were blocking off two of the cubicles (I was pretty far from desperate enough to think of a way to get rid of them without using my hands), and a major blockage ruled out the only other one (so apparently not even the person doing it is prepared to move their own mess, leaving it to the cleaning guys - quite what they do at home is a mystery)...it's created quite the stir on my floor, people even starting to watch who comes and goes from the smallest room, it must be someone fairly new, as it's only been happening for just a very few short weeks but the culprit, unfortunately, avoids detection... :S

Very strange, and very inconvenient, especially when you don't see any of that sort of thing taking place in the most unsanitary part of the office environment, not the (extremely) regularly disinfected toilets, but the *never* cleaned keyboard/mouse and telephone on every desk...

Update on the "V2" at London Bridge

Update on this post...

From Elwyn at the London Dungeon -

"Hi Fink,

It’s nothing to do with us I’m afraid. I think it’s a V2 rocket from the Second World War put there by the Britain at War Museum.

Hope this helps!

Kind regards,

Elwyn"

- thank you Elwyn (and thanks to Matt from London who provided the same suggestion on the Flickr page), but I think we already know it isn't actually a V2 rocket...on to the Britain at War Experience "contact us" page next then! ;)

V2 Rocket or Atlas Booster - Platform 1 London Bridge

Most odd...spotted this the other day on Platform One at London Bridge...at first glance, one would have thought one would be quite safe assuming that it is a memorial to those who lost their lives to Nazi V2 Rocket attacks during World War 2, however something isn't quite right in this picture...

It was googling around for some sort of explanation, discovering in the process that Tooley Street - above which it is suspended - suffered a few V1 attacks and Borough High Street (which is just around the corner) had a very nasty V2 incident (killing 35 people) which should have satisfied my curiosity, that I spotted this (very similar picture) on a contact of mine's Flickr stream, where (I discovered) that it, of course, looks absolutely nothing like a real V2 rocket (and thanks to Tommo for pointing out exactly the same thing)... ;)

It is actually a scale model of a NASA Atlas Booster, which (of course) dates it from somewhere during the cold war, likely after 1968...so what was someone doing between the late 60's (or early 70's) and now sticking a painted scale model of an Atlas Booster on the wall opposite Platform 1 at London Bridge station? It's not tatty either (and this is central London we are talking about here), the thing looks freshly painted (and shiny) and the union flag you can see fluttering to it's left is in equally good condition, which means someone has definitely been maintaining it in (however long) the meantime (was)...

Anyone have the faintest idea? Is it anything to do with the London Dungeon perhaps, or does some of my train fare or tax go towards it's (historically inaccurate) upkeep? I've emailed Elwyn Owen at the London Dungeon to see if it's anything to do with them, I'll let you know if they are kind enough to reply... ;)

Strange Flickr traffic spikes

I usually check my Flickr stats 2 or 3 times a week, just to see what pictures are being popular with visitors...I like doing that because it's a good excuse to look back through my shots (which I am otherwise a little guilty of neglecting)...It helps to remind me of good times I've had and good memories too (which is always nice), for example a couple of weeks back there were quite a few hits on shots of food from the honeymoon -

- which took me back to those amazing breakfasts we had, and at this time of year, with people planning their summer holidays, pictures from other resorts get a bit of a spike as organic visitors arrive from the search engines looking for reviews...

All this "organic" traffic is quite normal, I get between 500 and 700 hits on my photos per day (from various sources), and have done for a few years now (just ticking over gently and comfortably)...that is, until the 8th of March this year (check out the graph from Flickr stats) -

- when I guessed I had been properly cyber stalked, over a thousand individual views, sequentially, covering absolutely everything I had flickr'd for about the last 2 years...fair enough, bit unusual, I even think I mentioned it to Flyingpops (and promptly forgot about it)...but then it happened again on the 16th of March, except this time it was over 2000 extra views...and now I check my stats this morning and yesterday I got over 10,000 (sorry, that's a meme thing) extra views! That's one view on every single picture, and then a third of them over again for good measure!

Most odd... :S

Giant Subbuteo - Canary Wharf

Not quite sure what this was all about, although it certainly wouldn't be a trivial matter to flick one of these chaps towards a ball...spotted just by the entrance to the Thames clipper at Canary Wharf this morning... ;)

Random Pink Cadillac

Bit odd, this was parked up in the pedestrian area between the tube station and Carluccio's this morning and was accompanied by absolutely no form of explanation or promotion whatsoever...Still, nice to see one in the "flesh" I suppose and someone must have paid some cash for the pleasure of arranging it to be there for me to photograph, so thanks whoever you are, I promise I *would* have picked up your leaflet if anyone had been giving them out... ;)

Lunch today, I didn't have a packed one (have been really good at doing that the last few days, so a bit of a slip-up), mostly because I had to get the bus to the railway station this morning and thus didn't have time to put it all together, but also partially through having lacked motivation last night after having to wait for the beef joint to cook (it had got a little late by that stage)...

Anyway, as a result I had a bit of a treat today, found an absolutely amazing restaurant (and it may be one that Tommo might *just* be interested in)...more later... ;)