Let’s make Friday a fun day.

There’s the Monday morning blues - back to work after the weekend.

But why not make the weekend arrive a day early, by making Friday a fun day. Steps to be taken:

Tell your: husband, wife, partner, lover (whichever is appropriate), how much you love them. Give them a cuddle. The same with your children, yes even those obnoxious teenagers, also give them a hug and show how much you care.

If you haven’t seen a friend for sometime, give them a phone call or send an email.

Show some consideration to your work colleagues, even the “grumpy old fart” - it could be me. Fetch them a coffee, avoid for one day having disagreements. - you might be surprised by the reaction.

Share in the fun of posting a caption on YesBut’s Images blog. Also encourage others to participate, even if they do not want to post their own captions, they can have a good laugh at those posted by others.

Click here to go to YesBut’s Images

Yes But its so refreshing

For YesBut’s Image on 2nd July 2007

Doug suggested the caption -

"I like this city. Every park bench includes a free girl."

The photo suggested to me the story: -

It became so much easer to travel when Romania joined the European Union. While there wasn’t a significant increase in tourists to Transylvania, it enabled Transylvanians to visit and work in previously restricted countries. Not that he sought employment, he was happy to travel and indulge his requirements in new countries.

He so loved London, the populace was so diverse Africans, Asians, South Americans and Europeans. Like wine, each with its own flavour, which a connoisseur could detect and appreciate. The African was so strong and refreshingly pungent, something new to his taste buds.

In the summer evenings he wandered by the riverside on the South Bank. He would look for a young lady sitting alone on a bench, and join her. Often they were lonely secretaries on their way home to their dreary depressing bed-sitters. They were so grateful for someone to speak to them. With his accentuated accent he would turn on the charm. It worked every time it was so easy, they would almost fall into his arms.

“You must be tired, rest your head on my lap”.
As he leaned forward they expected to taste his sweet lips brush their lips. They were surprised then thrilled when they felt his lips on their neck, followed by an almost undetectable pinch as his teeth broke their skin. There was a swooning feeling as their life blood was drained out.

He was never greedy and overindulgent. He never drained all the blood, not that he was showing any compassion; but getting rid of empties was time consuming and such a tedious bore, not the pursuit for a Count!

Memorial day - 12

Every Wednesday for the last couple of months, I have posted blogs on memorials and public art works. These are normally prestigious works of art located in prominent locations. Today’s memorial is very different, and is probably the most moving.

A hundred metres south of Waterloo Bridge, London, there is a roundabout at the junction of four roads. To allow access from the South Bank to Waterloo Station there is a warren of underpasses radiating from the roundabout. In the 1970’s, 80s and 90s these underpasses were the site of a large cardboard city; the home for hundreds of homeless, drug addicts and mentally ill patients prematurely discharged from hospitals as part of Margaret Thatcher’s discredited “Care in the community program”. The existence of the homeless squat was an embarrassment for the “well-to-do”, passing men and women sleeping in cardboard boxes, as they made their way to a concert at the Royal Festival Hall, or to watch a play at the National Theatre.

The cardboard city was removed in 1997 to allow an IMAX cinema to be constructed in the centre of the roundabout. The homeless were dispersed, some to hostels, others to find new nooks and crannies to sleep in.

About two years ago, a few started to drift back to the underpasses, to beg for money.

Early this year a very simple memorial was painted on the walkway from the National Theatre.

The words are heart felt and poignant.

Boy's with new toys

On Saturday I wrote in the blog, the reasons for putting my hand in my pocket to buy a new camera.

Well I've finally worked my way through the 150 page instruction manual. Understood some of it, think with time I'll understand other parts, and know there are other sections that will continue to pass none stop over my head.

So I took the camera out for a test run.

For the summer (what summer?), a merry-go-round has been set up on London's South Bank. The shot on the left was taken with it going at full speed. I'm pleased with the crispness of the image.



Between the Royal Festival Hall and the London Eye, there are always buskers and "human status" entertaining the tourists.

The "Bubble-man" is a new addition. I like the way the camera captured the colours of the soap bubble; and the depth of field which allows the details of the building on the Thames north bank to be clearly seen.



On the way home I passed the National Theatre, where a Tea Dance was being held.

Elvis and partners dancing prowess matched their dress sense!


Finally there was only one more thing to test - the camera's video mode. And now that Mr Google has made it so easy to post videos on blogs I'll finish with the short clip of the merry-go-round.



I'm very pleased with my purchase.

Winner of the YesBut's Image - Caption of the Week Award

This week there were some difficult photos to think up captions for, but yet again witty and humorous captions were posted each day.

But which one should be awarded the accolade of caption of the week?

Saturday, Pope Terry suggested the caption - I left my training wheel back there can you get it for me, I don't think you can miss it.

Tuesday, there were four great captions posted:

B.T.Bear (esq.)'s - Unable to find one on the tacky souvenir stalls, Mabel decided to steal a hat off a small boy.
Pope Terry's - Still drunk from the night before Margery, decides to try her luck on that nice midget on the bench... Only to have him leg it a few seconds later yelling "I need and adult".
Chewy's - Leave me alone, you smell like old people.
Doug's - Lady, if I told ya once I told ya twice...Buy your own cigarettes and quite bumming mine.


Thursday: Pope Terry 's suggested caption - Funnily enough, 7 pints ago this was a bad idea! and
Siddharth Khandelwal' s - Hey, those guys have the cool next generation bikes with two tyres.

Friday, and the week finished on a high note with the following captions:

Pope Terry 's - Tex so wanted to buy the pink one, but the rest of the guys back at the ranch really would of picked on him for it.
Chewy 's - The girls wear the pink hats and the poofs wear the lavender. Doug 's - As Buffalo Mary adjusted his fab new pink cowboy hat he barked to the bartender:" A thick chocolate milkshake Mister and skip to it!"

Ten captions to choose from, narrowing the choice, I drew up a short list of:

Pope Terry 's - I left my training wheel back there can you get it for me, I don't think you can miss it.
B.T.Bear (esq.)'s - Unable to find one on the tacky souvenir stalls, Mabel decided to steal a hat off a small boy.
Doug's - Lady, if I told ya once I told ya twice...Buy your own cigarettes and quite bumming mine.
Doug 's - As Buffalo Mary adjusted his fab new pink cowboy hat he barked to the bartender:" A thick chocolate milkshake Mister and skip to it!"

Click here to see the joint winners of YesBut's Image Caption of the Week Award for the week 18th to 24th August.

YesBut they look familiar.

Who are the two subjects of the distorted pictures?

If you want a clue, click on comments to see.

YesBut that was the fourth week of August

One word sums up this week - blur.

The week started with Mr & Mrs YesBut visiting Holland. We returned by overnight coach on Tuesday. Ten hours in a coach is enough to scramble anybody’s mind.

I did learn, or rather one thing was confirmed while I was in Holland - my dear old camera which I love dearly, while being adequate for taking shots of mountains that haven’t moved for millions of years, or buildings that remain relatively stationary, is wilfully inadequate when trying to photograph a one year old granddaughter.

I always knew it was slow. When I say slow, I mean positively sluggish. When photographing a tortoise, if the shutter button is pressed just as the tortoises head appears in the viewfinder, the shutter opens just as the tortoises tail is disappearing out of view.

So at my granddaughters first birthday party, she’d give me a broad smile - press shutter button >>>>> click. Look at photo, she’s either turned her head or has disappeared out of view completely.

So when I got back to London, I invested in a new camera. According to the reviews its “ace”.

I cannot understand people who enjoy shopping, I hate doing it intensely. I can’t just wander around shops, I need to know what I want before leaving the house. So before buying a camera, I had to spend hours on the internet researching cameras. That’s where the trouble started. First, there are all those model numbers. Not only is there a Fujuo A600, there’s the Fujuo A600x and the Fujuo A600x - fd. All very confusing.

I’d read a glowing report on a camera; think, “this is the one for me”. Do a quick check, and find another review if not rubbishing it, doesn’t rate it highly. Finally, I selected the make and model I wanted. Went to London’s Tottenham Court Road, (the location of all the camera and computer shops), only to be told that the camera has been superseded by a new model. OK, you might think, newer hence better, no it doesn’t work like that. The new model doesn’t have the same features the older model had. Which should I buy the old model with all the glowing reviews, or the new model, which hasn’t been tested yet? YesBut’s brain couldn’t take the stress and strain - went for the old model.

Looking forward to trying it out, once I’ve finished reading the 150-page instruction manual. But at least it looks as if it’s written in English. I think the manual for the last camera was written in Japanese and translated into English by someone who knew neither Japanese nor English - total gibberish.

What’s EV and White Balance?

Did you know that “When the amount of light striking the CCD doubles, the EV increases by 1”? I think this is going to be a struggle.

YesBut she was beautiful once - Part 2

For the photograph posted on YesBut’s Image on 21 May 2007, Ozlady suggested the caption - “Hag drags bag while havin' a fag!”

Story continued from yesterday

All was well until Doug was recalled unexpectedly to the US - he had no opportunity to contact Sophia before leaving. Tragedy struck the first night he arrived back in the States, eating a hotdog he keeled over and died. The results of the post mortem were not made public - the CIA didn’t want it known that one of their operatives had been poisoned. But some in the Agency were suspicious that he had been called back to the States in the first place - was the Agency involved in his death? To cover-up his death the CIA sent messages to all the field operatives Doug was handling (in truth there were many Sophies‘), telling them to continue sending their messages, but for security reasons Doug had to maintain radio silence.

And so Sophie continued to be Aleksei’s lover, cooing in his ear encouraging him to talk about his work. Then one day he broke the news. He was to be transferred to the London Embassy. What was she to do? She sent a shortwave radio message asking for advice. But unfortunately for her there had been an administrative error made at the CIA section of the American Embassy and they had lost Sophia’s code book. So all the information she had passed on had disappeared unused into the ether. Receiving no reply she used her own initiative and told Aleksei that she would follow him to London.

In London they continued to be lovers, and Sophia continued to send her reports, up until the fall of the Soviet Union. As suddenly as Doug had disappeared, so did Aleksei, recalled to Moscow to assist in the destruction of KGB files.

Sophia hoped that one day he might return. As for the CIA, she still waited for them to contact her. Not wishing to risk missing the message she carried her old valved shortwave radio with her everywhere. It was inconvenient especially having to drag around in her bag a 12v car battery to power it.

Click here to submit your caption for todays photo on YesBut's Image

YesBut she was beautiful once - Part 1

For the photograph posted on YesBut’s Image on 21 May 2007, Ozlady suggested the caption - “Hag drags bag while havin' a fag!”

The photo graph suggested the following story to me:

Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Sophie Holstein-Gottorp, to be correct by the time she was born she wasn’t an Imperial Highness - the empire had ceased to exist with the Russian revolution. And being the youngest daughter of a Russian refugee family (albeit related to the Russian Royal family) living in 1950s Paris, she wasn’t much of a Grand Duchess. But there was something about her, not just her stunning beauty, but there was an air of sophistication, which drew men to her like bees to honey.

She was working in a bar when Doug met her. They exchanged a few words, he was intrigued by her accent - she might be the one he had been looking for. He sat sipping his bear till he had the opportunity to talk to her. Once he heard of her Russian ancestry he knew he was onto a winner. Over the next three weeks he took things very slowly, now that he had found her the last thing he wanted was to be scare her off. He took her to dinner, to the ballet - even though he was bored and nearly fell asleep.

It was only after he had slept with her, and was confident she was well and truly hooked, did he reveal he worked for the CIA. Up till then he had maintained his cover story of being a young footloose American writer in Paris. Slowly he nourished and coached her until he knew she was ready to do his bidding. She was to ingratiate herself with Aleksei Machitov, the 2nd Secretary at the USSR Embassy - and assumed by the CIA to be the KGB Head for Western Europe.

He orchestrated a meeting at a dance given by the British Embassy to celebrate a victory of their croquet team against the Argentinean Embassy. She was beautiful and he was charming and they soon became lovers. For months on her love bed Sophia extracted reams of top secret information. This she passed on to Doug using a shortwave radio he had given her.

(To be continued tomorrow - Bookmark this page).


Click here to submit your caption for todays photo on YesBut's Image

Memorial day - 11

The Buxton Memorial located in the Victoria Tower Gardens, west of the Houses of Parliament, looks more like a Victorian spaceship designed by Jules Verne than a monument erected in 1835 by Charles Buxton MP in commemoration of the Emancipation of Slaves in1834 and in the memory of his father Sir T. Fowell Buxton and those associated with him in the struggle for the abolition of slavery in the British colonies: Wilberforce, Clarkson, Macaulay, Brougham Dr. Lushington and others.

The memorial was originally erected in Parliament Square, but was removed to its present site in 1957 to mark the 150th anniversary of the 1807Act abolishing the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It received extensive restoration work in 2007, to mark the 200th anniversary of the Act.

The memorial was designed by S.S. Teulon in the then popular Gothic style. The spire is timber framed clad with enamelled sheet steel. Many techniques are used in its decoration including wrought iron work, mosaic, rosso marbled enamelled metalwork and terracotta. The memorial predates by 35 years the far larger and grandeur Gothic style Albert Memorial designed by Sir Gilbert Scott.

It now appears incongruous, and in no way exemplifies the abolition of the slave trade, but it is a perfect example of Victorian public art.

YesBut is it sculpture?

My Wednesday postings are devoted to looking at memorials and public sculptures. One of the attractions on London’s South Bank last year was Jeppe Hein’s Appearing Rooms. It was so popular that it has been brought back and will be on view on the Royal Festival Hall terrace until 16th September.


But can something that doesn’t exist be classed as sculpture? Does it exist? What is certain, it is always changing, never the same, influenced by wind and water surface tension. Now you see it now you don’t.

Danish artist Jeppe Hein’s interactive installation draws in the viewer to participate to laugh and have fun. Appearing Rooms is made up of walls of raising water, randomly raising and falling resulting in a continuously changing pattern of rooms. Step into a room and it no longer exists, or get your timing wrong and be caught as the jet of water rise.

Click here to see YesBut's Images blog and leave a caption for the competition.

Winner of the YesBut's Image - Caption of the Week Award

Yet another week of witty and humorous captions.

But which one should be awarded the accolade of caption of the week?

A tough call. However, as always when the going gets tough the tough get going - Mrs YesBut and Mrs Mop were last seen disappearing down the road on a tandem, arguing who should be sitting on the front seat. Leaving Big Bev (YesBut‘s Fashion Correspondent), Dai “Watch the Birdie” (YesBut’s ace photographer) and myself to decide on the winner.

Sorry this week’s review of the captions is short and sweet – I assure you this does not reflect the quality of the captions, rather the difficulties I’m incurring using an unfamiliar Apple Mac, with all the tool bars in Dutch!!!

So in brief, this week there are three joint winners. Cue trumpets and drums.

They are (in order of time posted), cue more trumpets -

Click here to see the winner of YesBut's Image Caption of the Week Award for the week 11th to 17th August.

Stop wait for me!

Just missed the bus. But no problem, I have plenty of time to get home to count the votes for YesBut’s Images, Caption of the Week Award.

There have been some great captions this week which will make the decision difficult. I hope plenty of people vote.

Have you voted? No, then click here to go to YesBut’s Images site and cast a vote for the best caption posted between 11th to 17th August inclusive.

I say dear, stop police!

For YesBut’s Image on 24th May, Ozlady’s suggested the caption -

“We all knew the police were a bunch of skirts, but don’t u think this is taking it a bit far?”

London had suffered a spate of audacious jewellery thefts. The robberies were all performed by a gang following the same modus operandi. Breaking into exclusive jewellers in the middle of the day, they made their getaway by running into Ladies Toilets; the police being gentlemen were unable to follow them into the establishments.

To counter the robber’s tactic the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair formed a specialist squad made up of transvestites. The limitation of the squid became apparent when members wearing high heal shoes twisted their ankles when chasing the gang. They refused to wear flat healed shoes, saying “they had their image to think of”.

Sir Ian was forced to form a quick response support unit consisting of one woman on a mountain bicycle. To date the strategy has been successful, with a reduction in the number of robberies. Although there have been complaints from the general public that the special force were using too much makeup, and refusing to perform any duties that might risk them laddering their tights..

Fact, (honest its true), in 2006 a special Police squid was set up to patrol London’s Royal Parks: Hyde Park, Green Park and St James’s Park. They were provided with rollerblades to chase after petty thieves operating in the parks. The trial didn’t last very long - thieves found it easy to escape, they merely ran across the grass, the rollerblading police were unable to follow.

YesBut can we trust it?

In the preparation of my Wednesday blogs “Memorial day”, I have to research the history both of the memorial’s subject and the sculpture. To do this I rely heavily on the internet. But how reliable is the information posted on web sites?

I have in previous blogs decried the accuracy of reporting in both newspapers and television.

In the main, non fictional books go through a review procedure to ensure the facts are correct - even if the subsequent interpretation is questionably.

But there is no peer review of information posted on the web. The result of this is the perpetuation of miss- and dis-information.

I enter into Google a name > a list of relevant web pages appears > click on what is judged the most pertinent and read the information. Unfortunately the author of the web site has made a typo, the date quoted is 1998 when in should have been 1989; I do not spot the error and quote 1989 in my blog. The next person comes along reads my blog sees 1989, thinks that’s not correct, checks the web site I had looked at sees 1989, shrugs thinks it must be correct, and quotes 1989. Now there are three sites which say 1989 so it must be correct!

Even Wikipedia isn’t 100% correct! This is due to genuine errors by the contributors; but unfortunately also due to the perverted actions of dingbats who think they are clever in corrupting published information.

So a word of caution, if you are relying on information obtained from the web:

1. Ensure the reliability of a site - you can be fairly (but not absolutely) confident of information provided by official sites but treat with extreme caution information stated in blogs, (especially this one!).
2. Try to verify any information, using independent resources - go back and check original source data.

Having said all that, take the opportunity to add further to the store of erroneous information. Click here and enter YesBut’s Images caption competition.

YesBut I’m all alone.

David MacMahon suggested the caption -

"Landlord to tardy tenant: `You're behind on your Wren cheques again’'

for YesBut’s Image on 23rd June 2007.

The photograph suggest the following story to me: -

By all recognised measures she was successful. Governments sought her advice. Multinational Companies invited her to become a non-executive member of their board of directors. She was the first woman to become the Chief Executive of a multinational oil company. Yet as she looked down on the City from her penthouse apartment inwardly she felt a failure.

She was too old now to become a mother, even if she had a partner, which she did not. She realised that while she commanded respect, there wasn’t a single person in the whole world who loved, even cared for her as herself. They merely respected the posts and positions she held. Her father had died when she was seventeen, she thought he might have loved her, but he was an aloof person who never showed his emotions. Her mother had died three years ago; she had been proud of her success, but when they met, it felt like meeting an acquaintance on a train. She truly regretted, she had been an only child, if only she had a young brother to love or an older sister to confide in. But she was alone, all alone.

She walked to the window clutching a cut glass tumbler half full of whisky in her hand. She had noticed over the last year, she was more and more seeking solace in a glass of whisky. The sound of the tinkling ice was reassuring. She looked down at the ants scurrying across the bridge on their way home. Home to what? Would there be a wife, husband or lover waiting for them? Would they quietly climb the stairs and peep through the half open door at their children sleeping? Or like her would they be returning to a lonely box, with the only comfort found going to the fridge getting the ingredients of a snack and a drink. Out there beyond the double glazed window was life, inside there was deathly ear shattering silence. She walked over to the TV and switched it on, not caring what channel it was tuned to, she just wanted the presence of another person in the room, even if it was only an electronic image on a plasma screen.

Returning to the window she saw the train leaving the station, on its way to suburbia and normality. She shuddered at the thought of normality: 2.4 children, a mortgage, sex on Sunday mornings, car in the drive, clean sparkling kitchen and bathroom. She knew she didn’t want, never had wanted normality. What did she want? She wanted people to see her as a person who wanted affection; who wanted people to talk to her as a person and not as a Chief Executive.

What was it all about? Not the money, she scoffed she didn’t even take a holiday - there was nobody to go with, she didn’t want to be pitied as a lonely spinster. Was it for the prestige? How many of those ants crossing the bridge would recognise her? Probably none. The power? Yes, it was nice to make decisions which would have long term consequences. But is that what life is all about? How you earned your livelihood! She was frightened. She realised there was only one way to step off the tread mill - to empty the Aspirin tablets into her whisky, sit in her favourite armchair drink the contents of the tumbler and wait for oblivion.

Memorial day - 10

The Robert Raikes memorial is located within the shadow of the Savoy Hotel in Victoria Embankment Gardens, London. The statue was erected in July 1880, under the direction of the Sunday School Union and paid for by contributions from teachers and scholars of Sunday Schools in Great Britain.

Robert Raikes was born in Gloucester, England, in 1736. His father was the founder of the “Gloucester Journal”. On his father’s death in 1757, Robert took over as the Journal’s Editor. He used the newspaper to campaign for prison reform. He realised that prisoner’s lives had been shaped by their deprived childhood.

In July 1780, Raikes and a local Anglican curate, Thomas Stock, started the first Sunday School at St Mary le Crypt Church, in Gloucester. The schools while a success were not universally accepted and were criticized by some for educating ragged dirty urchins and running schools on a Sunday, considered an inappropriate activity for the Sabbath.

Robert Raikes died on 5th April 1811.

By 1831, weekly 1.25 million children were attending Sunday Schools in Great Britain.

It is worth noting the monuments sculptor Sir Thomas Brock R.A. (1847 - 1922), most famous work is the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace.

YesBut what's the local news?

From the Chronicle Herald, published in Halifax, Nova Scotia:

Gone fishin’:

No girls allowed. 9-year-old wants to join boys-only outdoor day camp, but girls offered only day at the spa. -

Nine-year-old Lydia Houck was looking forward to a day of fishing, hiking and golfing when she browsed through a list of summer day camps offered near her Nova Scotia home, but the only option that fit her interests was just for boys.

In contrast, the only all-girl camp, dubbed Glamorous Girls, offers jewelry-making and a trip to the spa for manicures and pedicures for girls aged five to 12. Lydia says she’d rather be fishing.

"It was really frustrating that they were being discriminatory and they were saying that boys should look forward to doing this and that girls shouldn’t do this," Lydia, who will be entering Grade 4 in the fall, said in an interview from her home in Windsor. "My brother and I go fishing a lot and I enjoy going outside a lot, and this camp seemed to fit that description and it was pretty much the only day camp that did."

The Municipality of the District of West Hants offers three other day camps that are co-ed — a trip to an amusement park, a day at the waterslides and a pirate-themed excursion into Halifax — but Lydia said none of them sounded as fun as the camp for boys.

The municipality says the idea for next Monday’s spa day came from similar all-girl day camps elsewhere in Nova Scotia, with at least one Halifax-area community staging its own spa event for young girls this summer. West Hants recreation director Kathy Kehoe denied the camp lineup is discriminatory and said there are no plans to reverse the decision before the event for boys takes place on Tuesday.

From the Milton -Ulladulla Times, New South Wales, Australia.

Shed 'inappropriate'

A MEN'S Shed, planned for the grounds of the Milton-Ulladulla Baptist Church, is inappropriate according to neighbouring residents.


Opponents of the workshop support the need for such a facility in the district, but believe it would be better suited to an industrial or commercial area, rather than a residential estate in Narrawallee.


The Men's Shed is planned for a site on the corner of Matron Porter Drive and Leo Drive adjacent to the existing church building.


The project is part of the national Men's Shed network and will provide an opportunity for local men to work on timber and metal projects for local charities and community groups, while fostering men's health and providing a meeting place seven days a week.


I have only one question: What about the girls and women?

Winner of the YesBut's Image - Caption of the Week Award

The captions that caught the eye last week were:

From Saturday:
Pope Terry 's caption - "if all these people weren't around I could eat that pigeon"

Siddharth Khandelwal's caption - "The two guys telling the girl, 'Now you dye your hair Green so that we can pass off as the Lithuanian flag'"

Sunday:
ozlady 's caption - "How on earth am I going to play that?"

madkatmom 's - “The sign here says this sculpture was formed from the millions of bits of Pete Townsend's smashed guitars from 1968 to 1978.”

Monday:
Pope Terry 's suggested caption - 'oh look its one of those flea ridden mangy parasite birds..... and a pigeon' Take that backpackers!

ozlady 's caption - “Having slayed the dreaded Backpacker, the pigeon sauntered across the railway station, disappearing into the flock of docile pigeons like the trained assassin he was.”

Doug 's caption - “Well that's the last time I date a human. Interspecies erotica is way
overrated!”

judyduncan 's suggestion - “Wow I guess my breath IS that bad....anyone have a Tic Tac?”

Tuesday:
Pope Terry 's suggested caption - Guy in Orange: "So if she said meet me on the second floor, does that mean I've been stood up again!"

david mcmahon 's caption - “Bottom falls out of the building industry.”

Siddharth Khandelwal's caption - “This building could be a perfect office for the "Top Heavy" company I work for.”

Wednesday:
Doug 's caption - “My bag of Limburger cheese did the trick. The beach is all mine now!”

Pope Terry 's suggestion - “After a long time from home Odyseus finally gets some good news or so he thinks: "HA, Poseidon be damned I have the bag of winds.... oh no I don’t, this is just Billy’s lunch..."

Thursday:
dadvid mcmahon 's suggestions - Does my (gun) butt look big in this?

Friday:
Chewy 's suggested caption - "Old Mother YesBut went to the cupboard to get her poor dog a bone."

Doug's caption - "Y2k Supplies! 1/2 off on 1999 vintage Y2K Supplies. Still freshly sealed. Stock up now for the next phony Apocalypse while supplies last!"


The first task was to produce a shortlist:

ozlady 's caption - “Having slayed the dreaded Backpacker, the pigeon sauntered across the railway station, disappearing into the flock of docile pigeons like the trained assassin he was.”

judyduncan 's suggestion - “Wow I guess my breath IS that bad....anyone have a Tic Tac?”

Siddharth Khandelwal's caption - “This building could be a perfect office for the "Top Heavy" company I work for.”

Doug 's caption - “My bag of Limburger cheese did the trick. The beach is all mine now!”

dadvid mcmahon 's suggestions - Does my (gun) butt look big in this?

Chewy' s caption -"Old Mother YesBut went to the cupboard to get her poor dog a bone."


It doesn't get easier 16 to 6, then to 1!

Click here to see the winner of YesBut's Image Caption of the Week Award for the week4th to 10th August.

YesBut I know that place.

The image is taken from Google Earth, what is the building marked X?

If you want a clue, click here to see the photo of the start, it finishes close to X.

If you want another clue, click on comments to see.

YesBut that was the second week of August

Poor old Gordon Brown, two days after becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, suicide bombers tried to blow up a London nightclub. The next day they tried to blow up Glasgow Airport. Then there came the rains, resulting in flooding and billions of pounds damage. Now we have a Foot & Mouth outbreak. As the “Son of the Manse” I bet he’s wondering

“Is this a Divine revelation? Was the blessed Tony truly the Chosen One, and I shouldn’t have got rid of him”.

Gordon had one days holiday before having to return to London to manage the Foot & Mouth emergency. If Tony was still PM, by now he would have been sunning himself on some private beach owned by a geriatric pop star.

This week its been noticeable how the days are getting shorter. Two weeks ago it was still light at 10:30, now its dark by 10pm, with sunset at 8:30. Even now I hope we will get an Indian Summer to compensate for the dismal one we’ve had.

India has been very much the theme of the week. With festivals throughout the country and programs on BBC television and radio to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the creation of Pakistan and Indian independence.

I have visited both India and Pakistan; a challenge - not places to go to relax. But I would really like to re-visit Pakistan, to judge for myself the degree of radicalism that exists. General Perez Musharraf, intones one message to the outside world “you must support me, if I’m deposed the Muslim fanatics will take over”. Is that the true situation? Is the West being conned to support a dictator, who opposes democracy? The image I have perceived this week is of a very conservative but not fundamentalist country.

YesBut clean-up your act.

Mrs YesBut accumulates kitchen gadgets. You know the things I mean, advertised on TV as the chefs answer to grating cheese, or the ultimate lettuce dryer. In the kitchen cupboard we have food processors, fruit blenders, bread makers, rice cookers. Used once then stored as they take too long to clean, compared to conventional kitchen utensil’s.

I have to hold my hand up, I am equally delinquent, with computer program downloads. I see a write-up for a program or a Google widget and I download it. And there it sits collecting cyberspace dust and clogging up my computer.

Its worth taking some time to review the programs on your computer and asking are they necessary? When was the last time you used them? If you don’t use them get rid of them.

But before starting take the precaution of saving the programs installed, then if anything goes wrong you can undue your actions. Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore > Create a restore point. Simple!

To get rid of unwanted programs Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > Change or Remove Programs. And remove unwanted programs - but be cautious be sure you know what you are removing. But if anything goes wrong use System Restore to get back to the previous status.

Having said that, I am going to advocate downloading another, albeit small program. Its worth looking at the programs that start-up when you switch on your computer and continue to run in the background. If a program isn’t required, then why run it?

If you go to http://www.mlin.net/ you can download a program written by Mike Lin, which allows you to see which programs run when your computer starts, and allows you to select which programs you require. I wish it was that easy to persuade Mrs YesBut to get rid of all her unwanted kitchen utensils.

YesBut the camera never lies.

British Security Services have foiled a daring plot by a gang with a crane to steal Westminster Bridge. It is believed the gang had sold the bridge to a town in Arizona. Well Robert McCulloch founder of Lake Havasu City did buy London Bridge when he thought he was buying Tower Bridge.

If you are interested in buying the Tower of London, I can do you a good deal, tell you what I’ll throw in the London Eye for free.

Every photograph tells a story.



Before I forget, Why not join in the fun and post a caption for YesBut’s Image, just click here to participate.

Memorial day - 9

Each Wednesday this blog is dedicated to looking at memorials and public sculptures - objects we might pass in our daily lives, without considering either their artistic merit or the story lying behind the commissioning of the work.

Click the “view show” tab if the slideshow doesn’t open automatically

"Full Stop Slipstream" is a bronze sculpture by Fiona Banner. It is one in a series of site-specific giant full stops produced for the More London site near Tower Bridge, London. Each sculpture represents a full stop from different fonts: Courier, Chancery, Century, etc.

The sculptures are very much part of the More London complex. As can be seen from the photograph it interacts both with the architecture and the general public passing through the site. The leaning sculpture counter balancing the abstract shaped City Hall.

Fiona Banner was born in Merseyside in 1966 and studied at Goldsmiths College. In 2003 she was short listed for the Turner Prize; one of the most prestigious awards for visual arts in Europe.

All too often, public works of art are ignored by passers by, this can not be said of Banner’s Full Stop. Standing in the middle of the riverside walkway, the leaning sculpture screams out to passers-by “touch me, push me upright”. Since its installation in 2003 thousands of photographs have been taken each year of tourists leaning against, or pushing the sculpture. I doubt that they consider the artistic merits of the work. But is that really important? Surely it serves its purpose by bring joy into peoples lives.

You too can bring joy to peoples lives, click here and leave a suggested caption for today’s YesBut’s Image.

YesBut bottom up

There are a number of “star” buildings on the City of London skyline: St Paul’s Cathedral and representing modern architecture The Swiss Re Centre, 30 St Mary Axe, known affectionately as “The Gherkin”. But the building which is the current centre of attraction is the immediate neighbour of the Gherkin, but very soon will no longer exist.



It’s the very nature of its disappearance that’s making it such a show-stopper. How do you demolish a building without knocking it down or blowing it up?



You demolish it from the bottom up!!! But why? The Leadenhall Building, 122 Leadenhall Street was constructed by hanging all the floors from a load bearing beam located in its roof. If normal demolition methods were used - removing the top floor first - the building would have collapsed.



You can click on the photo on the right to read the details about the demolition, including the removal of a bank vault in the lower basement, with concrete walls 1.5 metres thick and steel plates cast inside.



The building is to be replaced by a 48 floor building designed by Richard Rogers. Even before its built its been nicknamed the “Cheesegrater”.



So in a couple of year’s time the Gherkin will be joined by a Cheesegrater, that sounds like a recipe for indigestion.

Winner of the YesBut's Image - Caption of the Week Award

Another week of great captions, those that particularly caught the eye were:

On Saturday:
Doug 's caption - "Next the killer trees appeared at a hootenany. It was a day the park visitors would never forget."
Chewy 's - "‘The Birch is Back’ by Elton Lawn”

Sunday:
Doug 's caption - "Installing their big screen tv in the backyard turned out to be a big mistake for the Smith family."

Monday:
David Mcmahon 's caption - "They'll do anything to dig up `rock' stars"

Tuesday was a bumper day with:
Siddharth Khandelwal 's caption - "At the moment this ought to get me a place in the English Cricket Team" (This caption was rather cruel but appropriate because England had just been thrashed by India).
David McMahon 's - "How to look cool while your balls are in the air"
Ozlady 's - "In his undercover disguise as a street juggler, Secret Agent Alfonzo was taking aim to knock the poisonous beer from the hands of the lady in the crowd to prevent a virus outbreak that would kill the world..."
Pope Terry 's - "Hehehehe.... five pints and I'll watch anything..."

Wednesday:
Siddharth Khandelwal' caption - "ha ha... beat you!!"
Ozlady 's - "Hi Harry! How were your holidays? Looking forward to another year at Hogwarth's?"
David McMahon 's - "Three finalists in the Paddington Pair lookalike contest"

Thursday:
Pope Terry 's caption - "Oh man, 5 miles and a stupid outfit and that marching band are still following me."
david mcmahon 's - "All right, soldier - show us ya military tattoos."
Siddharth Khandelwal' s - "If the wrong species keep following me, I just might lose my Piped Piper status."

With fourteen captions on the short-list, as per last week, I thought I would be smart and choose a “stinker” of an image for Friday, that would be difficult to think-up captions for. Again, I underestimated the Captionists, what gems they came up with on Friday.

This week the choice of Captionist to receive the Caption of the Week Award was unanimous, with members of the YesBut team deciding, for the first time to award joint winners, click here to see the names of the winners and the winning captions.

The green green grass

I’m feeling lethargic, all I want to do today is sit and watch the grass grow. Actually I’m resting, because at midnight tonight I have to count the votes in the YesBut’s Images Caption of the week Award.

That reminds me, I hope you’ve voted for the YesBut’s Image’s Caption of the Week?

Please show your appreciate of those who have submitted captions and vote for the best caption posted between 28th July to 3rd August inclusive. Click here now to go to YesBut‘s Images site.