Utterly Random

The age of the digital camera when one no longer needs to consider the cost of film when taking photos must surely mean more people take more photos, though they might look at them less often.

Occasionally, when looking for something, I end up trawling through ten years' worth, reminding myself of things I had forgotten I had taken. During a recent trawl, I decided to pull out a few, not entirely at random, which I thought I might as well share, having a website I could use for the purpose.



I may change all this about at some point. Some photos I found funny, others appealed, and a few annoyed. The selection is purely in order I fished them out.

More anon.

Sheep Worrying They have a particularly aggressive type of sheep in Tewkesbury...
Urban Fox Well, if you leave the gate open you will invite visitors.
Tuba This is the kind of eccentricity which in which the British do so well.
Bus This was most entertaining. At the point of my arrival this incident was already in full play. The bus turning right could not complete the turn because the van turning left was obstructing the arc the bus body would sweep. The bus had passengers on it and could not reverse, so it was stuck. The van could easily reverse, but driver refused to and got out hurling abuse at bus driver. I watched for 10 minutes while traffic backed up most of way between Archway and Highgate village. I reckon it all lasted 15 mins (no Police seen). Not very impressed by highly aggressive attitude of van driver and wonder if he is good advert for the company (management textbooks have something to say about driving quality when van is covered in company branding because people will make a reputational link, like it or not). Anyway, who'd be a bus driver?
Height This is technically a 'low bridge' and requires a sign. Now, I reckon if I asked a dozen people where they would put that sign no-one would put it where it has actually gone. Who, driving a vehicle, would be looking up there?
Bus Stop Spot the bus stop! A great piece of signing co-ordination.
Flood This kind of thing I find annoying, and it is purely down to appalling engineering by local council (Camden in this instance). In its wisdom, Camden has raised road and there is now no gutter. The pavement falls towards old kerb line but new part is higher. There is no drain, or other means of water getting away so it ponds each time it rains. Middle is about an inch deep and pavement effectively blocked. This is far from unusual and entirely foreseeable. Nearby is similar problem caused by cycle lane 'kerb' preventing water falling into existing drains so the road floods as far as its crown. The public pays for a professional service!
Sign This is a nice old sign, quite happy in its individuality and not doing any harm. It was only later I realized the top two fingers relate to the same places but point in different directions, and one (but not both) distances are different.
Street Name Board Street Name Close Up


On the whole, this is a very peculiar place to put a street name board.
Safe This I found very puzzling. This is a hotel safe. Open door is at left, safe itself at right. Height of opening about five or six inches. The warning at back of door is not about risk of getting hand caught, or forgetting number. It says 'Warning, suffocation danger exists'. You just can't get your head inside, let alone put head in and shut door. I'm baffled about what sort of incident is envisaged! I suppose there might be guests that would lock up their miniature dog in one of these...
Roof I hadn't expected to find these on the roof...
Metal Men These chaps were a disconcerting find in Woolwich: glad it wasn't at night.
Pumps I remember pumps like this. Surprised the label was needed though...
Letterbox To leave one door open might be regarded as careless: to leave both open (and not notice) seems to suggest something a bit more than careless.
Letterbox2 And another one. Different day, different place.
Deristricted British traffic sign law being what it is, this is the kind of outcome that you get! Does the sign apply to boats as well?
BadSignage Another annoyance. Clearly there must be a degree of incompetence somewhere in any underlying process that allows one sign to be installed in front of (and obstructing another); Islington is culpable in this case. The annoying thing from a pedestrian's point of view is that between them they unduly obstruct the pavement. The sign on the right is designed to be supported by just one pole (hooray), bit the second sign has its own pole so that pedestrians have to pick their way around them. I would expect this arrangement would give residents a good case for not paying any parking fines as plate is obscured. Does any council officer ever go out and check this stuff?
Signage2 Here we have four signs in a cluster, two of them with independent power supplies. None of the four separate poles are in line with each other, maximizing pedestrian hazard. There is no way we need four poles, at presumably four times the cost of a single pole. This is all just tick box clutter that defaces our streets and does nothing to maximize visibility of sign to motorists.
Post Box This is a real Post Office wall box adapted for private use by painting it black and adding subtle signs, but I wonder how much real mail gets posted here, especially at night..
Merton Noticeboard All very well using this thing as a community noticeboard, but underneath all this clutter is a map of the common and I wanted to use it. Someone paid for the map so it seems perverse to hide it. Perhaps they need another notice case..
Welcome to Harlesden 'Welcome to Harlesden', announces the sign at the top. The photo sums it all up. Positioning of bin is a nice touch. Dead frame door on ground at back. Notices 9 months out of date. Failure on all fronts - cost of erection spent but is now an eyesore.
Advertising Car You have no idea how much I hope this does not catch on. A car with a luminescent surface that can display all over advertising. The whole of the dark surfaces are covered with an array of illuminating devices that turn the entire vehicle (except windows of course) into an advertising medium. Hard to photograph as the devices pulse, so only slow shutter speeds work.