Displaying posts filed as 'Random'
Snow drops 13Mar06
Taken in South Devon, last weekend. At last, the signs of Spring are starting to show. Whoop!
OAP party pics 06Feb06
Filed under: Random
Thank you to all of you who made it on Saturday evening. It was great to see our new flat so full of people and it now feels well and truly warmed. All went rather smoothly - with no broken hips or slipped discs reported from the oldies. So that’s nice. There’s even some photos.
I feel like I spent the whole night having half finished conversations with everyone, being pulled this way and that, waving my stick at all the youngsters, supping on my beer… I quite enjoyed being an old man. A dangerous sign of things to come perhaps?
sinner or winner? 27Jan06
Filed under: Photos, London, Random
For those of you who wondered where our evangelist friend with the loud speaker at Oxford Circus station had got to recently during these cold winter weeks - this photo was taken in Sydney last week. He certainly gets about. It looks like he flies south for winter to find warmer preaching grounds.
Homechoice sale 25Jan06
Filed under: Random
I’ve just heard that Homechoice is considering putting itself up for sale. After last November’s rumours, I’m not sure whether it is true but there’s certainly plenty of vultures circling. I’m sure it won’t be long before we have to sit back and watch them fight over the spoils.
Mindpixel man’s last thoughts… 25Jan06
Filed under: Random
Chris McKinstry’s sad and rather public suicide note reveals “the mind is a maximum hypersurface and thought a trajectory on it and the amygdala and hippocampus are Hopf maps of it” - inspired genius, hoax or simply too much LSD? You decide.
soho furniture sale 19Jan06
Filed under: Random
Just what I was looking for. Spotted in an office window round the corner on Poland Street. They aren’t kidding.
today’s links 18Jan06
Filed under: Random
web2.0 is so last year - let’s welcome web3.0
milliondollarhomepageransom.com
albert’s still searching for answers as he reaches 100 years old
and an interesting radio 4 broadcast from monday evening - in confessions of a crap artist, we learn how Philip K. Dick was still searching too…
Green leaves in mid-December 15Dec05
Filed under: Random
Under the big oak at the end of my road - one of my favourite trees in London.
There’s been plenty of things I’ve been meaning to blog about lately - Alabama 3 at Jamm in Brixton playing an amazing acoustic set (with our West country buddies J.E.V.E. rocking to a full house), Christmas madness on Oxford and Regent Street, how Apple makes geekery cool, the del.icio.us buyout by Yahoo! and our lovely new flat (got the keys last night, whoop!) - to name a few.
But the overriding concern on my mind at the moment is why are there still green leaves on the trees in mid-December?
I wasn’t here last year to see this change in seasons to remember when exactly things happen but I’m sure the leaves should have fallen by now. I haven’t even kicked through any large piles of unsuspecting leaves this year (not easy in London but there’s normally the odd heap, trapped by the wind in a street corner, just waiting to be kicked about).
What’s going on?
winter beckons 21Nov05
Filed under: Photos, London, Random
Going under the railway into Tooting Bec Common - a nice park for Winter walks in London.
Fireworks, fat scarves, tasty warm soup, seeing your breath in the air, crackling log fires - all these things make the approaching winter fun. Rain, colds and the complete lack of light after 4pm do not.
Although at the moment, I am enjoying the crisp, clean air - with its frosty mornings and blue skies. It’s quite a change from last year and all rather exciting really. Who knows - it might even snow in London this year…
84 book crossing road 07Oct05
Filed under: Random
Like Shirley Bassey sang, it’s all just little bits of history repeating. Ideas evolve and change. Memes develop and propagate. And books cross and travel… I just heard this programme on the radio. The producers had taken the concept of book crossing one step further and it made fascinating listening. They’d set 84 copies of a book free into the world, with an insert in the book asking people to call in and leave a recorded message describing how they’d found the book, where it was going and so on. The seemingly disparate stories, from all over the world, connected random events and circumstances in people’s everyday lives. It was fascinating hearing how all these people were connected - by a simple book being passed on and on. A bit similar to when, at school, I was asked to write a story I’m sure plenty of school kids are asked to write about - “A Day in the Life of a Penny”. The point being, of course, there is a story to every detail in life - if only we stop to ask.
And, you know, that reminds me about another pastime I need to make sure I pursue soon. Like book crossing, it involves a smidge of randomness, a bit of travel and a dash of hope - geo-caching. Now I just need that GPS…
trainspotting 02Sep05
Filed under: Random
I took the sleeper train to the Edinburgh fringe festival last weekend. It really is the best way to travel to Scotland. A few beers in central London before the train leaves at quarter to midnight certainly help settle you in to the cosy cabin. The train then rolls into Edinburgh first thing the next morning. Couldn’t be easier. Trains are the way forward, you know. If only they were cheaper! This photo was actually taken on the way back from a weekend in the Lake District a couple of weeks ago. On one of those fancy new Virgin trains, no less. I think I might be turning into something of a train fan. There’s no better way to escape London than by train (when they run on time, that is).
preaching to the converted 25Aug05
Filed under: Photos, London, Random
Walking round the corner during my lunch break today I stumbled into a kind of flash mob going on inside the Starbucks on Oxford Street, led by the infamous Reverend Billy . Bizarre - one moment the coffee shop was packed full of “worshippers” and then they instantly diluted into the crowd of shoppers and passers by. This was followed by a theatrical rant against consumerism/iraq/bad coffee by the reverend himself. It’s good to see some humour injected into protests. I can’t help but think the messages are a bit confused though - it’s a very tongue in cheek approach to some potentially serious issues. I mean - good coffee is important.
whistle while you work 26Jul05
Filed under: Random
These last few days, as I squeeze onto the tube, I reckon I’ve been even less aware of those around me - with my head buried deep into a good book in a vague attempt to block out anxious glances and the blatant headlines. Not exactly vigilant, I know, but there’s so much anxiety beneath our streets at the moment. It’s understandable but we must be careful not to over react. A slight tan invites more attention than usual but carry a rucksack and you are asking for it. Apparently. So I was pleased to see a friend at work growing a beard in an act of defiance. Particularly considering he has dark skin and carries a rucksack to work. Maybe a nice weekend in the country would make him see sense. According to the press, John Prescott has been rafting in Wales recently too. I just hope he isn’t late for work one morning and has to run to catch his train. Especially at Notting Hill Gate.
Killer app 20Jun05
Filed under: Random
That someone is willing to pay for something that doesn’t exist in “meat space” is bizarre yet eventually understandable, as we inevitably move towards an increasingly Neuromancer style world. But when people start to value bits and bytes enough to want to kill another person, things start to get really rather intriguing.
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