Just to let everyone know - I am moving house this weekend to live with my girlfriend Vicky. We’re going to be staying in New Malden in south-west London, a nice quiet and (slightly bizarrely) very Korean area 
If you would like to know my new address and phone number please send me a mail and I’ll send you the details.
If you’re in the area, please feel free to pop round for a cup of tea and (if you’re lucky) some biscuits…
These were taken in mid-September, back in the days when it was still Summer. We appeart to have skipped Autumn altogether and proceeded directly to Winter (do not pass Go, do not collect ?200).
So part of my lazing around day involved wandering around St James’s Park and generally sitting around in one of the deckchairs feeling hot in the sun (despite only wearing a t-shirt). As I was freezing my arse off today wearing a thick coat over my work shirt it seems like months ago… 
We have a nice selection of links today, starting with one for those people who are thinking that trainspotting just isn’t cutting the mustard any more.
CNPS stands for Consecutive Number Plate Spotting, which is possibly the most desperately nerdy thing I’ve seen on the web for some time. The brainchild of Richard Herring, the aim of the game is to spot each number from 1 - 999 in order on numberplates in the UK. So you can’t even get started until you see a car with a numberplate containing just the number 1 on its own. Full rules available on the site…
On the other end of the scale, budding interior designers who are lacking really bizarrely decorated furniture should go and have a look at Wak Furniture which allow you to have a wardrobe covered with an image of gigantic sweets, or flowers, or chains, or flames, or … have a look for yourself. Unfortunately the page is a bit non-standard so you might have to dick around with your browser to get it to work.
The most silly thing: Japanese Ping-Pong. Really funny and genuinely creative!
Cheers to Baz, Jas and Vicky for these…
This is the fairly magnificent Admiralty Arch, which is a gateway from the frequently gridlocked Trafalgar Square to the wide open spaces of the Mall, which leads up the the (frankly rather dull) Buckingham Palace. Rather unusually it contains office space, currently being used by the Centre for Management and Policy Studies.
The inscription above the arches reads:
ANNO:DECIMO:EDWARDI:SEPTIMI:REGIS
VICTORI?:REGIN?:CIVES:GRATISSIMI:MDCCCCX:
Which roughly means “In the tenth year of the reign of King Edward VII, to Queen Victoria from a grateful nation, 1910″.
There’s three major climbing walls in London. However, the Westway Sports Center is one of the most dramatic locations - underneath the huge flyover there are football pitches, basketball courts and the main tent-like structure that contains the climbing walls.
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are wtiretn, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteers are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed tehm wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by istlef but the wrod as a wlohe.
– as forwarded to me today - thanks Li!
The City of London is a very old area, and as such has many little windy streets (often with really bizarre/silly/funny names). Not the kind of environment that cars in general do very well in - so it’s impressive that the City of London Police have got some of their policepeople on mountain bikes!
The only problem really is realising that they are police, despite the fairly clear labels all over the place. I wonder how many black cabs cut them up before they realise?
It’s been an amazingly lovely weekend, considering we’re well into September. It was so warm yesterday that people were cheerfully paddling in the fountains in Trafalgar Square. The recently pedestrianised north side of the Square is a really positive step, I think - entering the square is much easier and you feel as if you have much more freedom, rather than being on a large roundabout.
While I was there I went and sat underneath Nelson’s Column, which has some pretty hefty bits of sculpture below the main base:
Today has been equally lovely; shame that most of it has been spent cleaning the kitchen
This is John Islip Street, near where I live. Lovely place, and filled with elegant stucco-fronted houses in neat orderly lines.
Well, not really. It’s actually just a water sprinkler. Sorry to disappoint any believers in fairies or any other dryad-based beliefs