Superheroes not allowed?

October 10, 2007 by thomas · Comment
Filed under: en, sign 

Don’t try to climb vertical surfaces!
Originally uploaded by tommyajohansson

I’m really puzzled by this sign.

My spontaneous interpretation is don’t run up this wall, but given that only superheroes such as Spiderman can do that, I guess it must be outlawing them instead.

I guess in theory the photographer might also have rotated the picture 90 degrees before uploading it, but then it just gets even more bizarre – something like don’t dance wildly?

Has anybody here got an idea what it might mean?

The country without phones

October 10, 2007 by thomas · 1 Comment
Filed under: en, gadgets 

Old Fashioned Phone
Originally uploaded by Rev Dan Catt

When I bought the flat in Rose Street (which is still for sale, in case anybody is interested), I was shocked to find out it didn’t have a phone connection. Now, you might expect something like that in a new flat, but my flat is about a century old, so apparently nobody ever in all those years thought a phone would be a convenient thing to have. I know the engineer had to drill a hole through the thick sandstone wall, so I don’t think there’s any way there can ever have been one before.

I obviously thought this was an exceptional case. So imagine the shock I got when I called BT today to get a phone line for our new house, and they told me there isn’t a connection, and I need to pay another £125 for an engineer to come round! I know the house is only between 30 and 40 years old, but I still think it sounds bizarre they never had a phone.

Who knows, perhaps BT will realize they’ve made an error an refund the money afterwards. In my dreams, I fear! :-(

Will I personally have to pay for wiring up the entire country?