Sunsets, new dawns, etc.

While I was away in Belgium my camera's screen decided to stop working. I took this as a sign. It's been really tough keeping this blog going with being ill recently, and the mechanical failure of my camera felt like a physical manifestation of my difficulty in keeping up with my usually high standards*.

So it's time to take a break. I'll get a new camera in due course, but I can't guarantee I'll start this blog up again. I have an idea for the future which I'll share here first, so check back every now and then for an announcement some time this summer.

Thanks to everyone who has visited since last June. I hope you've enjoyed some of the pictures and understood my (I've been told) rather dry wit. Thanks especially to those who have commented: proof that someone was actually looking in. And thanks of course to Robert, whose photo of the week was my original inspiration.

While you're here, check out some of the categories that I've just put up on the right hand side. I do find it rather telling that diversions is the post leader...


* actual standards may not be high.

May Bank Holiday

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Six - The New Vortex, Gillett Square, N16

Dave came down today and we met after work to go and see Tim Berne's Science Friction group (Tim Berne - alto sax, Marc "groovy trousers" Ducret - guitar, Craig Taborn - keyboards, Tom Rainey - drums) at The Vortex in Dalston. I hate the area and am still in mourning for the old Vortex (where you could get a good meal and didn't feel like you were in a community centre) but they keep on putting on the last few people in "jazz" that I'm interested in seeing. And some stuff I'd rather eat glass than see, but there you go.

Good gig, plenty of beer, and a nice prelude to my stag weekend in Belgium. Yes, Belgium.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Five - just outside Streatham Hill Station, SW2

The housing boom is over.

Out-takes 7: Day Eight (a) - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

And one from the Crystal Palace Station car park. Can you tell I had time to kill before my train on Day Eight (a)? If you're wondering what it is, it's a Nissan Figaro, a retro-look car that was actually made in 1991 and only sold in Japan. If you fancy what Quentin Willson called "a suburban Noddymobile", these people might be able to help you. Or your local mental health specialist.

Out-takes 6: Day Eight (a) - Crystal Palace Park, SE19

More nice signage, at ninety degrees from the picture I took for the Day Eight (a) master shot.

Out-takes 5: Day Six - St James's Park tube, SW1

Nice signage from Day Six.

Out-takes 4: Day Five - Petty France, SW1

Is there any finer sight? Pre-Wells/Youngs merger (well, after the announcement but before the brewery was closed) Special being delivered to The Buckingham Arms (currently closed for refurbishment) on Day Five of the blog.

Out-takes 3: Day Three - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

Back to the doctor's, more antibiotics, signed off work for a week. Time for more out-takes, then.

This was taken hanging over a walkway at Crystal Palace station on the way to work on Day Three of this blog. I like how nature takes over man-made structures, slowly but surely.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Four - Victoria Station, SW1

Gentlemen, start your engines (it's thirty points for a couple).

Out-takes 2: Day One - Anerley Road, SE19

Still ill, so another out-take, this time from 5 June 2007, Day One of this blog.

A close-up of Unwins, which is still empty. Someone's cleared out the posters and other assorted debris and whitewashed the windows, but that's it. When I'm up and running again I might document it's current state.

Out-takes 1: Day Zero - Maberley Road, SE19

Went to the doctor's this morning and she told me I have a chest infection, sort of an "additional extra" from my 'flu. Antibiotics were prescribed and not going to work was "strongly advised".

With holidays and illness I feel I've been producing fewer pictures recently than I should, so I thought now was the time to share some of those pictures that didn't make the cut the first time. So here's one from 4 June, 2007 - Day Zero of this blog. This is the other side of the Christmas Tree/Bed urban sculpture and is a lovely example of the oft-spotted Maberley Road Mattress.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Three - Victoria Station, SW1

The view from outside HMV just after 4pm. Going home early as I feel pretty rough.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Two - Victoria Station, SW1

It's competition time! This is a detail of the front over of the book I was reading on the way home tonight. There's an exciting Commuted To Life prize on offer to the first person* who can tell me what book it was. As David Frost used to say, the clues are there.

*People who live with me are not permitted to enter as they can just look in my bag and find out.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-One - Anerley Road, SE19

Hooray! Make Me A Princess has been, erm, kissed by a frog and is to become 4 Paws'n'Claws!

Mind you, given that someone in the US has beaten them to the name and with their rather cavalier attitude to spelling (see closeup of their "coming soon" sign here) I give them about as long as the previous tenants.

Which is a pity, as a pet grooming salon is exactly what we need around here. Perhaps they can also pick up all the dog shit that is almost a daily hazard on this stretch of Anerley Road.

Day One Hundred and Sixty - Victoria Station, SW1

A question I've often asked myself when pondering the great directory inquiries sell off.

Back after five days (plus a weekend) of the real flu. I was sick as a dog, and not much use in work today either. At least this nagging feel of being slightly under the weather I have for a couple of weeks after a virus should be good for some bitingly sarcastic posts for a while.

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Nine - Spenser Street, SW1

Westminster doing their bit for the environment by putting in recharging points for electric cars behind the town hall. I didn't notice when I was taking the picture, but on closer inspection (click on the image) I see that the pole "contains electricity". Well, duh. I was going to try and get an OJ out of it...

Update: Both mattresses disappeared overnight! Maberley Road is now in a state of mattresslessness! (thanks Dave, I never forget)

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Eight - Brigstock Road, SE19

On visiting Thornton Heath to have my medical for my Australian visa, what should I see in someone's front garden?

The Maberley Road mattresses were still there this morning, if you were wondering.

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Seven - Maberley Road, SE19

I swear I didn't move them.

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Six - Maberley Road, SE19

New week, new mattress. The old one is still there, by the way, just a bit further along and frustratingly round a slight curve in the hedge which means I can't get one shot of both of them.

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Five - Maberley Road, SE19

Mattress by night.

(with echoes of this)

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Four - Maberley Road, SE19

More mattress madness by the allotments. A dog (I hope it was a dog) has made his feeling quite clear on this growing urban problem.

Not to be confused with Irving Nattrass, a footballer ("the Fishburn Flyer", apparently) I was mildly obsessed with in the mid-seventies as a combination of his odd name and me having a Topps football card (this one) with him on.

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Three - Gypsy Hill, SE19

A different route to work this morning so that I could pick up a parcel from the Royal Mail sorting office. Said parcel contained CD-rs from Phantomhead Recordings and I recommend the two 3" CD-rs (especially the Ian Watson/Mark Jolliffe one) very highly. Get them while you can.

That's the City of London you can see.

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Two - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

Day One Hundred and Fifty-One - Joiner Street, SE1

Another weird night at Shunt. More details (and pics) here.

Day One Hundred and Fifty - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

Basic Skills in literacy not required to work for Network Rail, obviously.

Day One Hundred and Forty-Nine - Victoria Station, SW1

This shop has been a few different things over the years I've been commuting through Victoria. For a year or two it was Cinnabon, an American chain which never quite took hold over here. I never bought any of their produce but the smell from the place used to make me feel as hungry as hell every morning as I passed by. The smell of pasties doesn't have the same effect. Which is probably a good thing. Not really a morning food, yer pasty.

Day One Hundred and Forty-Eight - just outside Balham Station, SW12

That train-cleaning apparatus in full. Acid? Blimey.

Day One Hundred and Forty-Seven - Maberley Road, SE19

Storm damage at the allotments.

Day One Hundred and Forty-Six - Anerley Road, SE19

Stormy weather.

Day One Hundred and Forty-Five - Buckingham Gate, SW1

Blimey. I'd pay to hear that sermon.

Day One Hundred and Forty-Four - Anerley Road, SE19

Towards the end of February/beginning of March every year the roads suddenly become a minefield of works. For years I assumed that it was just that companies waited until the better weather to dig, but then Feb/March is often worse than the month that precedes it, certainly for rain and wind, so that doesn't make much sense. Then it struck me: it's the end of the financial year! Cue all the water, electricity and other concerns using up their budget so they don't lose it for the next year. Meanwhile, traffic slows down and pedestrians have to dodge holes.

Day One Hundred and Forty-Three - Maberley Road, SE19

They've been putting it up since Monday, you'd think it'd be complete by now.

Day One Hundred and Forty-Two - Grosvenor Bridge, River Thames

Pig optional.

Day One Hundred and Forty-One - Belvedere Road, SE19

Amazing how much better a week drinking beer and catching trains from Munich to UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Franconia and Austria can make you feel. Let's shred!

Day One Hundred and Forty - Wilton Road, SW1

I need a holiday.

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Nine - Vandon Passage, SW1

Smoker's alley by the side of our office is now reduced to half its width while building works go on.

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Eight - Bennett's Hill, Birmingham B5

Another meeting in Birmingham, another chance to sample the beers in The Wellington. And this time I had pig snacks, too.

Temporary Fault - Do Not Adjust Your Set

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Seven - Wilton Road, SW1

Came out of the station via Boots and so passed the front of the Apollo Victoria Theatre before crossing the road towards work. In the ten years I've been working around here there haven't been many productions on at this place: Wicked, a short-lived Bollywood musical (Bombay Dreams, I just looked it up), some ghastly Saturday Night Fever thing, Starlight Express, and Movin' Out, the Billy Joel musical. Will took a Joel-loving friend to that as a birthday present. Apparently they were hoping for a We Will Rock You-style romp through Billy's biggest hits, but they didn't count on Mr Joel's huge sense of self importance leading to him getting Twyla Tharp in to make it a modern dance extravaganza. How I laughed when I was told about it.

I'm not a musicals fan (although I was dragged along to Les Miserables and thought it mah-vellous) but Sheila-who-must-be-obeyed certainly is, to the extent that she's seen Wicked three times. I would have liked to see the place in it's original incarnation, a huge art deco cinema.

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Six - just outside Crystal Palace Station, SE19

Self Portrait III.

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Five - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

It's Valentine's Day. I have more important things to do than craft a beautiful picture for a blog.

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Four - Leicester Square, WC2

"Up West" (as they say) to see Sweeney Todd (very slow getting going, nicely gory later on) I get caught up in the crowds waiting to gawp at the stars of The Accidental Husband, a film which I predict that no-one who has the misfortune to see will remember for more than half an hour afterwards.

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Three - Crystal Palace Station, SE19

Misty this morning.

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Two - Victoria Street, SW1

The five o'clock trudge to Victoria Station, with the nice (take my word for it) red-headed lady running against the stream.

Day One Hundred and Thirty-One - Anerley Road, SE19

I've gone in to "Simply Food and Wines" at least once a week for six years, supporting my local shopkeepers and not going to the Tesco Local up the road, and they've spoken to me twice:

• once to ask me if the plaster cast that'd been on my arm for two weeks was as a result of the tube bombings that had happened the day before; and
  
• once to compliment me on my beard.

Cheery bunch.

Day One Hundred and Thirty - Campden Hill Road, W8

In the "here be dragons" (as far as I'm concerned) environs of Notting Hill for a bit of a crawl with the legend that is Lorkin, we stumble upon Mr Jeff Lynne's wheels. Nice.

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Nine - Mowbray Road, SE19

A lavatory cistern joins the christmas tree and mattress as stuff people just chuck in the road round here.

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Eight - Maberley Road, SE19

Moody.

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Seven - Victoria Station, SW1

Where'd her leg go?