Tuesday 17 June 2008

Horses, freezers and other random things

My day had a very peculiar start today.First of all, as I was walking along Piccadilly I noticed in one of the shopfronts (usually occupied by rough-sleepers) there was the end of a vacuum cleaner. The bit that actually cleans the carpet. Such a strange (and random) article to be left behind.

As I progressed along the road I heard the sound of horses neighing. Nothing unusual here as the Household Cavalry often exercise in the area. What was unusual was when I came to the corner of Dover Street where there is a statute of a naked man riding a horse he had been joined by a real live counterpart. Fortunately the counterpart wasn't naked, but dressed in what appeared to be a replica World War I (or similar) uniform. The horse didn't particularly seem to be enjoying the experience (hence the neighing and head tossing) but the tourists were quite happy snapping away taking photos.

The bad news of the day was the untimely (and unexpected) demise of our freezer, which defrosted its contents and leaked water all over the kitchen floor. There was breif hope that it might have been an open door or similar that caused the defrost, but come the evening even the ice-cream in the bottom had melted. RIP freezer... only about three or four years old. Nothing is built to last anymore. Growning up I remember my Gran had an old fridge which clearly hailed from the 1950's. One of those lever handles you had to pull down to open and a door that would crush you fingers were you foolish enough to leave them in the way. Thirty years versus three years. How things have changed.

The nice thing that happened today was that the stationery order arrived with a free gift. A small post-it note holder with "I 'heart' New York". Perfect for me big Yankees/Giants fan. The odd thing is that it has a spring inside to help dispense the post-its, and somehow a function of this is that the holder 'sticks' to the desk. Almost magnetically adheres. My assembled colleagues and I spent several happy mintues trying to fathom the mechanism that caused this phenomenon. You know what they say, little things and little minds.