Bog Standard ?

Public toilets are, at best, plain and functional.

Imagine my surprise, when visiting a garden centre in North West England to find these novel, creative, floral urinals. Designed by American artist Clark Sorensen, they cost upwards of £3,000 each. The garden centre, Barton Grange, just outside Garstang in Lancashire was officially opened by the Princess Royal in March 2008 and Mr Sorensen travelled from his San Francisco home to be at the opening. In the weeks following the opening of the garden centre, the daffodil, poppy, lilly and tulip urinals became so popular with female visitors to the centre that men were struggling to use them for their intended purpose.

There is now even a postcard for sale, stating "I've watered the flowers at Barton Grange garden centre".

Apologies for the poor quality of the photographs.

http://www.clarkmade.com/urinals.html

A little colour on a cold day.

Whilst out walking on Sunday, I came across this splash of colour in an otherwise monochrome landscape.

Happy new year everyone…

My first post in almost a month, (I promise to post more regularly in future).

Anyway, I just wanted to write a few words to wish everyone who reads this blog a very happy 2010.

Best wishes to everyone, happy new year.

On 26th November 2009, Borders (UK) Ltd. went into administrative receivership. Although trading under the Borders name in the UK, they have not been a part of the US bookseller, Borders Inc. for several years.

They do however, have 45 stores in the UK, 36 trading as Borders, the remainder as Books Etc.

It's always sad to see another business close it's doors, but if I'm typical of a Borders customer, their road to failure doesn't surprise me.

Visiting the store pictured above, I first browse through the magazines, close to the main entrance. As I wander through the store, picking up, flicking through and putting back titles that interest me, sometimes I might read a couple of paragraphs, or even a chapter. I see other customers picking up books and magazines and heading to the far corner of the store where there is a Starbucks franchise. There they sit, for as long as they wish, ploughing through their reading, and all for the price of a cup of coffee.

Recent advances in technology have put these bricks and mortar retailers under further pressure, with the massive increase in the use of "smart-phones". Now it's possible to use the camera and inexpensive software in a mobile device to scan the barcode on a product (in this case a book), automatically search out the cheapest price online and purchase it, more quickly than actually walking with the real book to the store checkout.

How can businesses like this possibly survive?

I'll miss my coffee in Borders.

"If you think you're too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito".

Another advertising classic.

I remember the first time I saw this ad for the Honda Accord air on television in 2003. It was one of those moments where the quality, technicality and sheer creativity of the advertisement totally eclipsed the programme surrounding it. I recall watching, open mouthed, as each of the car's components worked their way across the screen, culminating in the final product shot and the words...

"Isn't it nice, when things just, work".

An unbelievable, one take ad for Johnnie Walker, Scotch Whisky, featuring a brilliant performance by Robert Carlyle. The timing is perfect. You can almost feel the tension of the production crew and director rising, as it progresses through it's six minute duration.

Here's a link to an interview with the director, Jamie Rafn.

Liverpool Waterfront.

A photograph of the Liverpool city skyline, (a designated World Heritage Site) taken from the opposite side of the river Mersey, in Birkenhead.

http://www.liverpoolworldheritage.com

Finally, I've managed to get my old, first generation iPhone officially unlocked...

Unsurprisingly, this service, provided by O2 in the UK since 11th November, is not widely advertised. Only by a chance search on the O2 website did I find that this could be done. So now I have my spare iPhone on Vodafone Smartstep, Pay as you go. This will give me ample opportunity to assess the quality of the Vodafone service in my area, prior to upgrading my current 3GS when the O2 contract expires, late in 2010.

Now that the iPhone is becoming non-exclusive to O2, (Orange became the first new provider on 10th November, and Vodafone will be stocking and supporting the iPhone early next year) I suspect that there will be a flood of people migrating to other carriers once their contracts have expired. Some may even be prepared to buy out the remaining term and switch sooner.

My signal strength and coverage has been poor with O2. Even though I live less than half a mile from a cellphone mast, I've had little or no signal at home, and patchy, and in some cases no reception in a number of the places where I work. This has meant that for last two years, I've been carrying two mobile phones - one for phone calls and the iPhone for everything else.

To visit the O2 iPhone unlocking webpage, follow this link.

It's quite common in the UK to have a personalised number plate on your car - no doubt this is prevalent in other countries too.

The lengths to which people go, to create meaningful plates amazes me. Most stay within the law; some, creatively use the fixing bolts for the plate to modify letters to create other letters (for example, 11 becomes H with a carefully placed black bolt head).

Although I have absolutely no interest in having a personalised plate myself, I can see the appeal in having something unique and, well, personal.

There are however, a certain class of people who possess more money that creativity, choosing to adorn their expensive cars with nothing more than a badge, saying what the car is. The main culprits are BMW M3, X3 and X5 owners, who have numbers like X5 ABC. Why do they do this? We all know it's an X5, it already says so on the back! Do they not realize that people are rolling their eyes and muttering something derogatory under their breath? Even worse are the ones who used to have the BMW X5 and now have an Audi Q7, sadly sporting the X5 ABC plate. I detest the phrase, but "Get a life" comes to mind.

(Please note: The number plate PR44 TTT, pronounced Prat! will be available in 2043, should anyone wish to reserve it).

(For those outside of the UK. Prat! is a mild form of that derogatory muttering). Apologies to my friends S and J Pratt :-)