I've got next week off! Nights, then off for 5 days (two from this week, three from next, jammed together.)
Slight crossover between Danger's shift on Friday 4-10, and mine, 7-7...but we'll work it out :)
Sherlock's ideas for camping are getting ever more elaborate. Desolate islands and things...
Then I've got a conference thing. Three days, Mon-Weds. I've got to run a seminar on cross-border policing with Europe...so got to write that between now and then! I've worked quite a lot of cases with Interpol and Europol, so I don't mind - some forces barely ever have to do anything like that.
I thought about working for Europol after a split with Bryan. Seemed like...seemed like it would make a good change, get me away from everything. Bit of a new start. I got a few job descriptions and things for posts they had open at the time. Serious organised crime, trafficking of people or weapons, that sort of thing. But...I don't know. It obviously wasn't right because I never quite got round to applying.
John has a new phone. He's accidentally called me twice, and sent me two text messages 'Oooio opinion popping' and 'Gggghgyhf gadget hugging jug'. And his swear words cunning disguised into other words has increased 'Fuuu..oooh, why won't this work?' and 'Wan....ted to get on the internet, not ask you a question, stupid phone!'
Mycroft, as always, is a saviour. Whereas Sherlock just wants apps and to find out new things to do on it.
Anyway, for a while now I've had this photo of John which was...just taken at the wrong moment. You know the sort, where you're blinking? But...he's got his tongue out, in a cute way. so i didn't delete it.
However, today I saw another picture, which bore an uncanny resemblance...
I offer them to you lot, for your opinion.
You cannot say those two weren't separated at birth.
119 comments:
Running a seminar!! That's not something you can sleep through is it? ;-)
Camping on a desolate island sounds amazing! I can really see the appeal of that but I guess it would be hard to organise and it would be a nightmare if you forgot something you needed!
Thank you very much for sharing the photos, I'm not quite sure which one is John though ;-)
Oooh, I love the photo pairing! (But they're not absolutely identical--one is slightly cuter. ;))
Ask Siri some oddball questions, John! She has some good answers. :)
Camping on a desolate island does sound pretty good actually…
And alright those are pretty good. Although I look like I've taken some very serious drugs. And so does the panda.
I'm sure you'll be great at the seminar. :-)
AnonyBob - they're both John. One before he's got up and had a shave and combed his hair, one after...
Does my phone have a Siri? It's an old one.
Danger - hope you hadn't taken any drugs! I was trying to snap you with your tongue out...and you blinked. As is the way with pics.
I hope I'm half-decent at the seminar, anyway... hope people are interested, and not just forced to come along by their...force. Hmm.
Can we buy a tube station please please and please can I stay up a little bit longer?
I think iPhones 4S and 5 have SIri, so you might have it...do you have a 4 or 4S?
I can't imagine you being anything but good leading a seminar--you know your stuff, and you explain well.
err..probably not? And...five minutes longer.
But they're selling one and it's from wartime and it's got old stuff in it and I could use it as my lab for my things and buy more things and maybe we could get my equipment in on a train!
...I have to ask. Where does one buy a tube station, and how do one get it home after purchase? (And where do you keep it? Its not the sort of thing that fits in a spare bedroom!)
I'm sure it'll be very expensive, too. So...no. Besides, you lab would be better suited far away from other people!
I can't tell you how happy I was one day when I accidentally discovered that you can buy nuclear missile silos here in the states (minus the nuclear missiles, of course).
Though a tube station also sounds cool.
Ella
They found a dead body in the Thames and yesterday we were there and I WISH we had found it
It wasn't quite where we were, and I'm very glad we didn't find it - it was my day off!
RR - they've just put it on the market. I'm not sure what planning permission you'd get with it. It'll go for a lot of money though.
I'm sure it will--I mean, if it wouldn't bring a lot, they wouldn't sell them, they'd just seal them up, I imagine.
The logistics of the idea just baffle me!
There's not really any logistics... you buy it, it's yours to do with...whatever they let you. I'm sure there will be fairly hefty restrictions. It's MOD at the moment, but hasn't been used since WWII
Apparently they reckon it'll go for upwards of 20 million.
عید مُبارک
That's lovely, Sherlock, although you might want to provide translation for everyone reading? And then bed!
nicely done Sherlock :-)
Sleep well.
Is Google Translate right and that says Happy Easter in Persian, Sherlock? (Arabic script is very lovely.)
It's Eid mubarak because tomorrow is the end of Ramadan maybe but it depends on the moon and I don't really know but it means you should have a blessed Eid I think but I found it in Urdu and Urdu is the language where Cummerbund comes from and it's what my friends at school speak when they're at home too and I hope that was right because it was on the internet so it might not be.
I hope your school friends see and appreciate it--it's a lovely thought, Sherlock. Night night!
(And when I tell Google Translate it's Urdu, that is indeed what it says that says. :))
That's nice, Sherlock. N'night :-)
...getting him to bed recently is like juggling eels.
Can I vaguely hope he'll go to sleep more easily in a tent? Out in nature? Maybe?
you can hope Greg ;-)
Can I vaguely hope he'll go to sleep more easily in a tent? Out in nature?
So they say. :) Of course, he'll have been very active all day, too, which should help!
According to Wikipedia, the infallible source of all knowledge, "Mubarak" means blessed--and that has the same root as the Hebrew word for blessed. I like that!
Camping is nearly the only thing that's ever worn him out. We can hope.
Sadly it wears us out too!
Although I am entirely 100% happy with the early mornings if it means you get a moment of peace to do things like propose.
Wouldn't do to try and whisper a proposal in the dark of a tent in the middle of the night - I'd've tried to kiss you and probably stuck my finger up your nose and my tongue in your ear ;)
I would've done it in a tent if I had to, but I grant you, the sunrise was more romantic. :)
John, I thought you might like to see this, after your cake success this year.
Hahahahahahahaha! Thanks for sharing that, Mycroft. :)
imagine if you'd whispered it to me, whilst in a sleeping bag! I could have misheard..
"What's that, Johnny? 'Do you like Harry better than me?' Of course not, no!"...the path of history could have been horribly re-written!
Mycroft - ha! If I'd tried to make any of those, that's exactly what it would've looked like.
L - what a thing to whisper to someone in a tent in the middle of the night...
I've had worse things whispered to me in the middle of the night. Though not in a tent, granted.
I think we should try to steer Sherlock somewhere slightly inhabited. Not Lundy, where he announced he wanted to go earlier. Although it would be nice to go there at some point.
Did he say why Lundy?
Nope. I think it just satisfied his needs for an island which we could actually get to (he wanted one with no one else on it, but I said I wasn't sure his Mum would spare us a helicopter for that.)
Fair enough. I'll talk to him about it tomorrow, maybe see if he and Mycroft can find somewhere together.
Lundy was a step up from those tents that hang off sheer rockfaces, which was his other suggestion. I said the dogs wouldn't manage that.
(And even that is better than my original typing there, which was 'rockfaeces'...yuck.)
Bed, PandaBoy? I'll rub your ears...
Yeah, bed would be great.
The photos are great. I commend you for recognizing the resemblance! (I can never do that -- I always have to have someone point it out to me.)
Good luck finding a not-too deserted place for your camping. It sounds like great fun. And it gives you an excuse to break out all the gear!
Mycroft, thank you for the baking link! I'm going to have to get my camera working now, since my nephew wants me to help him attempt to make an earth cake when I visit next month. I have a feeling the results will look right at home alongside those!
"Bed, PandaBoy?"
Well, I just misread that as "Pandabob", and got quite a shock!!
John, you have a cute nose! (and probably a wet one, in that second pic).
I want my own tube station! How cool!
well you never know with those two!
That is a seriously scary misread ro and as I flicked through my emails your comment gave me quite a shock as well ;-)
How goes the day gents?
My reading/comprehension skills should be a good warning to Sherlock of what happens to the brain if you don't get enough sleep! Tired brains don't work very well! And on that note - good night from the future!
Anon - I don't whether to laugh or be worried.
AnonyBob - I'm sure you're lovely, but...perhaps not quite my type.
Danger - you have nothing to worry about, I promise.
You about John?
Yeah, sort of. Why? everything okay?
My tenant called. Been some sort of water leak in my flat. Got an emergency plumber going there, but wondered if you could go and see what the damage is?
Yeah, of course. Did they say how bad it is?
The word paddling was used. Maybe from the flat above? Or a pipe? They didn't know.
Oh dear. Fear of floods is one reason I'm grateful to live in an arid climate. I hope your tenants (apparently I can't not type Tennant, curse you, dr who!) don't lose too much stuff. And that you don't have to pay too much for repairs.
Ella
It's plumbing related, not weather! The flats not ground floor. The people below will doubtless also be soggy.
You're a good landlord, L. When I came home one day to find a small waterfall in my flat, my landlady just told me to put some towels down. :( I hope it's easily fixed!
Well, it's not great, but I think paddling is an exaggeration.
Good. I assumed it was. If anyone's paddling it would be downstairs.
Why does America have ground floor as 1 I wonder, when we have it as Ground...
John - does it look like my pipes leaking or upstairs? Need to get insurance on the case...
The plumber's making noises...
Conclusion seems to be that it's coming from upstairs.
Good. The bloke downstairs used to be a bit of a nightmare...don't know if he's still there though. Everyone being okay?
Sorry to dump this on you, I just couldn't get away from work.
It's all right. Sherlock's finding it fascinating, and I'm sure Mycroft's grateful to be on his own for a bit.
Everyone's being pretty decent about it. The man downstairs was grumpy, but not horrible, so maybe it's a different person. Or he's having a good day.
Eep! Plumbing problems are never good. I hope this is easily fixed, with a minimum of wall-and-ceiling breaking into needed.
I don't know why we have the floor-numbering system we have, L. In the US we do use ground floor and first floor pretty much interchangeably, although 1st floor is more common; pretty much everyone would understand either as the floor you walk into from the street. And what we call the second floor is the floor you get to by walking up 1 flight of stairs.. (There are exceptions, but that's the norm.)
I'm still uncertain as to whether Anonybob should be grateful or disappointed that you didn't want to rub her ears ;)
Cheers Danger. Hope Sherlock isn't interrogating the plumber too fiercely.
I've had terrible landlords before, would try not to be a bad one myself!
And it's not ear rubbing I'd object to. Although possibly not in bed!
I wonder if our current 'first' rather than 'ground' floor has to do with such features as basement walkouts and garden level apartments? Not that it makes it any easier to figure out which is the 'first' floor in such places.
I was thinking about this--the first v. ground floor thing--and maybe it's because when we standardized the usage in the US, most apartment houses, which need floors numbered, had entrances at ground level, rather than having to mount stairs to get to the front door? You do have to go up to the front door in brownstones, but most of those were originally one-family homes. So it might seem more obvious to call that ground level floor the first floor, since anything below it is definitely basement, not living quarters. Just a guess, though!
Lestrade - chiming in a bit late to say very happy birthday to you! It sounds like you had a wonderful day :) And hope the plumbing issues in your flat are resolved with the minimum of fuss and expense.
John - just to say that I loved the gay bar picture you posted. And that it made me think of this Armstrong and Miller sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6CBC2NW__g
Which kept me smiling all day.
(Um, and which I suppose might perhaps be considered a bit NSFW for those of you at work, depending on your organisation's policy on watching slightly rude comedy sketches at your desk)
So, Sherlock, did you learn lots about plumbing today?
But you have basement flats - apartments - don't you, RR?
Or, as they're optimistically called by estate agents 'lower ground floor' 'garden floor' etc.
Lived in a few of those..some quite nice. Some horrific.
Kate L - Thanks! I do quite like Armstrong and Miller. Sadly John didn't buy me a gay bar for my birthday :(
I was going to buy that tube station and start one in it for you, but sadly it was out of my price range.
It would have had to at least be a gay lab, or Sherlock would never have forgiven you.
Mind you, I've been to gay bars with more chemicals being passed around than Sherlock has in his entire kit...
Glad you liked it! And a gay bar in a disused Tube station sounds like the most amazing thing ever... if you could scrape the money together to buy it & get it going then I'm fairly sure you'd make your investment back before too long.
But you have basement flats - apartments - don't you, RR?
Not in regular apartment buildings--I think maybe you call them apartment blocks? (Not sure there.) We do have basement apartments in multi-dwelling brownstones and the like, but they are much smaller buildings, with only a few apartments in each building, usually two or three, and like I said, those are only partially below ground, because the entrance is raised and reached by a flight of stairs. Mostly they also have an areaway in front--a trench or alley below ground level, which most large apartment buildings here don't have. The larger sort of building is very much more common, certainly in Manhattan, and I think in New York overall and other large cities as well. Occasionally a building on a hill will have an apartment below the first floor, in the part that's not actually below ground, but mostly supers and perhaps other staff live in them--I don't think they'd be legal to rent out here without windows and a separate exit, and without a raised ground floor, there's no way to have those.
(Dear me, that came out rather incoherent, I'm sorry. Put it down to not really being able to eat much if anything for the past week!)
PS - you've now got me thinking about which Tube station or line would be the most appropriate for an underground gay club. Am staunchly resisting the urge to make a terrible joke about St John's Wood.
Cockfosters?
Hah! Or Shepherd's Bush...
...is Mudchute just too terrible to consider?
(And now you've totally lost me. I don't suppose that's a bad thing...I'm a bit afraid to google it!)
And, of course, just before my shift is over, I've got a call. I'm off. Be good, everyone...
PLEASE can I come and help?
No, Sherlock. I'm sorry. You've got to go to bed soon...among many other problems with that plan.
John - good luck! Hope it all goes well.
RR - I suspect that this is a classic example of the 'If Lestrade says it, don't Google it' rule!
L - that's sort of terrible-hilarious :D You could also site it halfway betweeen Prince Regent and Royal Albert and then combine both names.
Hope it's nothing too difficult. I shall restrain the boy! :)
Kate L - before someone else says it, I have to say Arsenal?
Oh wow. Would you believe me if I said that that one hadn't even occurred to me?? That's my last faint claim to being even remotely sweet and innocent, right there.
a bar would be boring drunk people are boring it should be a lab and that would be good and if your flat stays wet I still wouldn't mind and I could have that as a lab I could fix it well enough probably.
Well, you've said a true thing there, Sherlock--drunk people can be pretty boring, except to other drunk people. :)
Did you learn about fixing wet flats from watching the plumber today?
mmm, no, drunk people can be boring to other drunk people too. If you're boring anyway, alcohol certainly doesn't make you more interesting.
You're not getting my flat as a lab, kiddo.
Well, I've only observed! I bow to your superior knowledge. :)
Well, you're not wrong there, Sherlock - drunk people can often be boring. And sometimes giggly and happy.
If you're curious to learn about Tube stations and hear about various ways they've been used over the years then there's a London Underground walking tour that you could go on, if the others think it also sounds like something they would be interested in. I can't remember the name of the company, but a quick Google should tell you.
I'm about to go offline & go to bed, so goodnight and I hope John's call-out is quickly dealt with.
I wasn't allowed into the person's flat who was leaking so I just stayed in the corridor and in Lestrade's flat and he should sell it anyway it isn't very nice he could buy a new one that could be for me.
I'm sure it's much nicer without a leak! But a flat with a leak going isn't a very nice place to be--and it is someone else's home now, so it's quite understandable that they had you stay in the corridor.
I've been in it before and it wasn't very nice then either it's small and everything is small and I would choose somewhere much nicer with a roof garden or a balcony or something. I was allowed in Lestrade's flat but his wasn't where the water was coming from it was coming through the ceiling from the person above so the plumber went up there and I wasn't allowed in to see what he did.
You're not having your own flat! Christ, I didn't even have my own bedroom as a kid!
Which, coincidentally, is where you're going right now. Bed. If you really really can't sleep you can read until you're tired.
It was nice of the person living in Lestrade's flat to let you come in, anyway. You know, if you're one person living alone, a small flat is easier to take care of and might be just what someone wants.
(Me, either, L. I only lived alone while I was in grad school, and that was only three years!)
Is the tube station they're selling on one of the lines that vanishes off of this map?
I think if I could own an underground station I'd probably turn it into some kind of shop. A bookstore, probably. Or maybe I'd just live there.
I think Americans call it a first floor because it has a floor. Given how often log cabins (and even much larger structures) didn't always... This is known as folk etymology, and has nothing to do with eating folk.
RSF - I can't read that map well enough! It's Brompton Road they're selling. Inbetween South Ken and Knightsbridge.
According to the Internet, that's on the Picadilly Line, right? So that line's still there.
There's a zoomable version of the map too, which you can take to different years. The last year Brompton Road appears is 1933.
Now I'm wondering how the trains get past the sold station without the people who buy the station having to deal with, you know, trains going through all day.
Maybe I wouldn't want to live there after all.
Sorry, yes, I didn't answer the question you'd actually asked! I was looking for the station, not the line - the line is, indeed, still there. Piccadilly Line, very busy line. It shut in '34, Brompton Road, but it was never busy, apparently.
I'll bet someone complained anyway. I just found a youtube video of someone going down there with all the dust and stuff still in place. It looks neat, actually. And a lot of the Edwardian tiling still seems to be there.
All dust etc. still there! Free with the sale :)
And lots of gear from when they used it as an ammo store and anti-aircraft HQ during the war.
There are more vids/pics from the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23596703
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23600454
John, I am unsure if Lestrade is simply lying on the sofa, playing his guitar, or if in fact he is asleep, sleep-playing his guitar.
When you return from your call-out I imagine he will be in a similar, if not identical, position.
Sherlock has also drawn him a 'tattoo' upon his forearm. I presume it will wash off. It seems to be a spider wearing a hat.
Thanks, Mycroft.
What sort of hat?
It is difficult to ascertain, given the rather crude rendering. My best guess would be a bowler hat.
I hope your work is going well?
Not bad. Bit crazy. How's your night going?
If you put up a picture of the tattoo, we could all help figure it out. (I suppose Lestrade might object, but surely in the name of art appreciation... ;))
My night is fine, thank you.
I brushed the dogs, Lestrade and I chatted about The Great Train Robbery, then he wished to play his guitar, so I am reading.
Do you think you might be home soon? I think Sherlock attempted to stay awake, but has thankfully failed.
Sherlock, did you wake up, or never go to sleep? I assume that lestrade at least thought you were asleep, or he would've tried harder to stay awake. Unless my conception of the timeline is misinformed.
Ella
Mycroft - Yeah, I think it's winding up now. Should be able to leave soon. Thanks for looking after everyone.
Apropos of nothing, L, and I'm sorry about the plumbing woes, but I read above about camping at Lundy and the first thought I had was, "Whoa, can you camp at Fastnet?"
The answer, I think, is "No, it's a small rock in the ocean with a lighthouse taking up most of it!"
Clearly the Shipping Forecast has eaten my brain.
AftSO
AftSO, you've reminded me that it isn't just train stations that get sold. There's a lighthouse in Boston Harbor that's up for sale too.
Thanks for the links, L. Something to appease the insomnia is always good.
I hope John got home before too late and everyone got some sleep, too. Did Sherlock make it back to his bed before he tipped over?
I'm confused. I put Sherlock to bed. He stayed there. He was never up again.
I think people were assuming that Sherlock drew the spider on your arm after you fell asleep on the couch.
No... I was playing guitar on the sofa, not even asleep. And would have woken up if anyone drew on me anyway!
It wasn't crude it's hard to do on an arm as hairy and Lestrade and he wouldn't let me shave him.
Having a drawing on me is one thing. Shaving body parts quite another!
Danger, Mrs H said she's do some baking with Sherlock in a bit, if you want some quiet time to talk about last night?
Yeah, might be good. Thanks.
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