Men at work

This unhappy chappy was keeping watch over us as we worked in a big data centre. He never smiled once!

Bad timing

The local council have no idea about planning it would seem. The school holidays when the roads are clear and the weather not too bad, is the ideal time to carry out road repairs. So they chose the beginning of October and the rush hour on a wet monday to start tearing up the tarmac and redirecting traffic. The result was a an hour long journey home. 10 minutes to do the first few miles, 50 minutes to do the last mile!

Clothing blast from the past

Ten or fifteen years ago I used to frequent a shop in the Broad St Mall called Cavaliers. It sold printed t-shirts, dog tags and various other gothy goodies (I was a semi Goth, I wore an Iron Maiden t-shirt and didn't wash!) Fast forward and its now a clothing print shop and has moved from its dark and dingy location to a warehouse unit. I was shocked to learn it had moved about five years ago and I hadn't noticed. Even more shocked to learn it first opened in Reading in 1976!

Looking down

All week on our job somebody has been watching us from above. Not the boss, but  St Mary. Theres so many interesting little corners of this building that have parts of the church, that the school is built in, sticking out.

Scribbling on the slabs

In honour of the Camper coming back from our mechanic and the fact the sun is beaming down I did a little art work in the garden before Lily got home.

FIRE!

You can tell when a building site is nearly finished when they clear all the important building site stuff out. Anyone needing a fire extinguisher had a long walk to the front of the site to collect one of these!

The big clearup

August bank holiday is Reading Festival time, the great unwashed descend on the town for several days and create havoc! Each year I manage to avoid the place and the only signs of it are the AA signs. This lucky chap was removing several miles of them from the routes in from the M4 today.

Warning

I do like a dramatic warning sign. An theres nothing more dramatic than four of them squashed together on a door!

Chalking it up

After a morning at the local green fair we came home for a well earned rest, laying on the sofa watching yet more Olympics before heading into the garden for a play. Lily was let loose with some chalk on the patio and I created a patriotic slab as well as an air-cooled masterpiece.

Olympic lights

A bit of a cheat here. On the spur of the moment late on Thursday, we made are way up to Windsor. With Eton Dorney and the rowing not far away they were celebrating the achievements both past and present with a massive slide show. Projected onto the three towers of the Lower Ward of the castle it didn't start until almost 10pm. We bundled a sleepy Lily into the car and drove up to the rowing lakes for a look round before parking in the town and joining the hundreds of revellers as the show began. The images filled the tower walls and changed every few seconds for about 10 minutes before repeating. Having watched it for a while we slowly headed home, rolling into bed not long before midnight.

 

Is there some sporting event on?

After yesterdays barge full of rings I thought I better give BP a nod for this monster hoarding, spread over half a dozen billboards at Earls Court Corner and normally reserved for massive films, its truly epic with a massive torch making the centrepiece.

Olympics are getting everywhere!

With only a few days to go till things kick off at London 2012 the trip through London to our site is getting more and more Olympified. Floating in the middle of the Thames near Battersea we spotted these massive rings.

Give peas a chance

Back in the mists of time a clever artist called PEAS tagged the viaduct over the M25 near the M40 junction. A few years later some witty chaps added the extra wording to create a motorway legend. I've driven under it hundreds if not thousands of times but for once the sun was shining, the sky was blue and I was in the passenger seat.

Putting your best foot forward

What better thing to do on a sunny and warm Sunday than a walk to the shop for an ice cream and a a go on the swings. Lily is now happy to walk most of the way there and back again which eases the strain on the back and knees!

Olympic lanes

Just recently new signs have been sprouting up all over London and finally today the first of the special lanes reserved for Olympic cars was opened on the M4. Will there be traffic chaos? If today is anything to go by then no. It was even quieter than a normal school holiday monday morning. I was in to Central London in a little over an hour!

Patriotic shopping

With the Jubilee and Olympics this year a lot of the shops in town have the bunting up and the flags out. John Lewis (or Heelas to everyone over the age of  25!) went all out this weekend with a massive Union Flag slung under their impressive frontage.

Mirror, mirror....

....hanging off the car! Kim had an altercation with a tree on her way to work. There was no way to avoid it and its only the glass and backplate that need replacing. I say "only" VW main dealer wanted just shy of £50 for a replacement! I have found a place online that want £20 delivered. Fingers crossed it fits when it arrives.

Better than a weathervane

On route to site this morning I noticed this random roof accessory on a barn next to the road. Bonkers

Comedy signs

I had one of those desk top calendars in 2011, you know the sort, 365 different pages with something amusing for each day. This one had signs from around the world with hilarious writing. Well today I found my very own comedy sign in Hereford. On route to a site there for work the Sat-Nav was a little slow and we turned off too early and ended up at a dead end facing this sign. All the fields on the way in were submerged so it was no surprise to find the carparks by the river were as well.