Scenes from a mobile phone...

It is amazing.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you NEVER deleted a single photograph from your mobile phone? Over the past one and a half years or so, I have been clicking away at the random anything-and-everything-to-anywhere-and-everywhere on my very outdated Sony Ericsson, and yesterday was the day of reckoning for my refusal to delete or archive. As I tried to save a new number, to my horror, my phone screamed out a long *Beep*, sputtered a few muffled expletives and sighed into silence in my hand. You can imagine how I reacted Reader.

After an hour or so of hissing and cussing, I went down to the shops and gingerly deposited the carcass across the counter. I was more afraid of having lost all my contact numbers, but I was quickly assured that all was well. My contact numbers were safe, and so were my four hundred and three pictures.

FOUR HUNDRED AND THREE PICTURES?!? Bl**dy hell!!

Half-an-hour later I left the shop with a thumb-drive of pictures and my thoroughly disemboweled but miraculously resuscitated phone safe in my pocket. I am now sitting at home staring at the following treasures which have tumbled out onto my computer screen, and they are truly... Amazing! Somehow and very unconsciously little Sony-boy and me have created something really special. A haphazard record of very special moments - from funny to sad to contemplative to reckless to choreographed to liquor-laced to hung-over-dazed. I think that my camera did a better job of recording these last two years than this blog ever did... Naturally I am not at liberty to post every picture I have on this post - personal privacy and space being the primary limitation here. However, I will post a very selective selection. Every picture here comes with a remarkable story, and some of these stories I know some of YOU would remember just as vividly.

So let's rewind...

Much of my days at work at Canary Wharf were spent staring out of the window... and this is the superb view from my room on a rare sunny day in London. Yes... you do get sunny days in London!

One morning as I walked to work, I chanced upon this fellow walking out of the Canary Wharf tube station wearing a massive fluffy dog's head. I have no idea why. Probably a new way of "walking the dog".

Yes... working in Canary Wharf does make one go a touch crazy...

Glorious evenings in my garden in the middle of June last year... when Matt was around and Binny made her world class Pimms. Miss you all guys!

I still remember this day in April this year, when I woke up freezing and ran into the kitchen to switch on the heater, and this winter wonderland scene met me from my garden doors...

I actually forgot how cold I was.

On the day my new dining table arrived, I received a furry visitor from next door, who refused to leave until he conducted his own personal inspection of every rivet and joint...


Now that was a momentous occasion of sorts, but definitely nothing to the one below...

Thanks for being such a good sport Greggy!


(PS: The sequel to Greggy's latest movie will hopefully follow in the next post. I am so proud of you my little "Megastar"!)

I personally think that THIS is the best reason for having garden furniture!

And THIS is the best reason for champagne...

...and the best reason to wear summer dresses from Matalan!

(GBP10.00 per dress, Matalan (Lewisham) - Just in case you want to know.)

Wine (especially in the amounts I imbibe) invariably leads me to fancy myself an artist, and that in turn usually leads to me taking very random shots...

.... of wine being poured into a glass...

... or random dead leaves on an even more random pavement...

...or new fangled-angled shots of champagne glasses while lying on the floor when invited to a dinner party with a number of good friends...

... all of whom are pretty remarkable people with even more remarkable ideas at around three in the morning...

... before they all start to drift off at sometime around four.

Two things that go together in London after a day at work... (1)Footy and (2) a Pub...

Actually Rina, could you remind me... WHO EXACTLY were we supporting that evening - Liverpool or Man U?

I don't care for Footy really, and I won't pretend to! For me the reason for a night out in London is the live music - especially the Jazz scene. Thanks Kalam for expanding my horizons beyond institutionalised Ronnie Scotts!

I thought it was remarkable the way these two were able to sit attentively at their chess game throughout all the kerfuffle about them on a Friday evening in a local Weatherspoons. Remember this Ling?

And this is the way a Friday night usually ends for most of London... either outside a club snogging someone you don't know or alternatively kissing a curb...

Another Friday-night institution in London: The very expensive taxi ride home through a winding maze of screaming green-yellow-white-and-red lights...

Londoners love Karaoke.

So does Ling. She belts it out in my living room on a regular basis...

Just sign the woman on for the X Factor!!

Many people say that pure British food sucks. I disagree... and refer you all to the great Loch Fyne restaurant at Portsmouth... Seafood done the way Neptune would order it - simply pure bliss!

This was part of the World Naked Bike Ride that came to London for a weekend as part of a protest against world fuel usage and consequential global warming - SHEESH - whatever!!

Those Naturists will try ANYTHING!

So will Ling. Here she is - contemplating Ascot... (nice hat Dhharr-r-llinn-nggg!)

(I know she will KILL me for putting this up!)

Here is Tania meticulously cutting the weeds in my garden... specifically a dandelion flower. Observe the concentration.

(Shhh.hhhh... she just may miss...)

In order to make herself feel better for abusing my hospitality for a month... Tania decided to weed my garden. Leslie decided to assist as well, in order to protect my garden from Tania...

And they did work very very very hard for a whole of one afternoon!


And here you are guys! The result of Leslie's and Tania's hard labour in my garden after two weeks... What do you know: The bulbs were viable after all! WELL DONE!!!


The new tenants of Undercliff send you both their love!

And here are a few of my pictures of the informal goodbye-do on Friday night!

Angelique's glamourous pose gets outdone by The Corporation Of London Garbage Van in the window! Whadd-deh-hell!!!

*muak -muak* to you too! (Michael's really getting into it!)

Given the fact that I have exposed all of you on my blog this week somewhat against your will and largely without your permission, I thought I would do away with a riverman~~~ tradition and put my mug on this post as well in a show of solidarity!

More importantly, to the guys in London: I miss you all, and please do remember to phone and e-mail and finally visit me when I send you all my new address. The riverman~~~ will be on Facebook and amenable to all manner of "pokes" and "trout-slaps" you dispense my way!

After all, this is hardly goodbye... and no matter what, you know this river will meander.

~~~