photos – Page 3

The Starling

I have a hard time believing that this story is true: it’s just too crazy – but the photos are good and hard to forge without more resources than your average internet prankster. So, here’s the tale as it was told to me…

There’s a company in the States that sells automatic car washers as a complete solution, including the washing system, cash box, installation of the building, etc. These are completely automated: you drive up, put your money into the machine, then drive through.

In any case; after the installation of a particular one of these machines, the owner noticed that the return from the machine was not so much as should be expected. Diagnostics were run and the cash processor seemed to be okay, so everybody was at a loss. The owner even went so far as to accuse the supplier’s staff of having keys to his cashbox, and returning to the scene to steal the money.

Eventually, at his wits end, the owner set up security cameras to try to catch the thief in the act. Here are some stills from the footage:

The first image. Yes, that’s a starling that’s just landed on the coin return slot.

And there’s the starling, wriggling in to the coin return slot, where, presumably, it’s pushing it’s way up into the cash box through the return chute.

The starling with some coins!

The starling’s dropped a couple of coins, but is still wriggling to get free of the slot with it’s remaining prize.

Apparently, they later determined that it was not one, but several, birds who were robbing the car wash. Following them discovered a cache of loose change on the roof of the car wash and beneath an exposed root of a nearby tree.

So; what do you think – real or fake?

TGFPC Script Read-Through

A quick drink break before we get started

Troma Night VI pictures

Photos from Troma Night VI, at which we watched Surf Nazis Must Die, Real Time, and 28 Days Later, presented without further context:

Also a video of Paul performing our traditional starting activity – throwing a sponge from the window:

Troma Night V pictures

Photos from Troma Night V, at which we watched Les Mémés Cannibales (Rabid Grannies), Citizen Toxie : The Toxic Avenger Part 4, and Monty Python and The Quest For The Holy Grail, presented without further context:

Also a video of Paul telling Mark about Enter the Matrix:

Troma Night IV pictures

Photos from Troma Night IV, at which we watched Class of Nuke’Em High, Beware: Children at Play, and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, presented without further context:

May Ball 2003

These images were shared here in hindsight, on 25 May 2019.

Hot Chocolate

Twenty Today

This image was shared here in hindsight, on 25 May 2019.

New Year Photos

These images were shared here in hindsight, on 25 May 2019.

Dan and his droogs in his mother's kitchen

Christmas 2000

These images were shared here in hindsight, on 25 May 2019.

Dan's sisters with their Uncle David; Becky has Dan's new battle-axe

Postcards to Grandma

The postcards pictured below, among others, were given to me by my grandmother, pre-stamped, when I started university in September 1999, to encourage me to let me know how I was getting along. Originally privately posted to my gran, I posted pictures on them online elsewhere in 2006, having recovered them from her house after her death. The place they were posted is long-gone, so on 25 May 2019 I retroactively posted them here, back-dated to their original authorship.

Transcription:

Gran,

Hi! I didn’t know that you didn’t have my address down here in Wales until my mum sent me an e-mail and told me, so I thought I’d send you a card and tell you what it is, so that when the money runs out and I end up in the eating-cold-baked-beans-straight-from-the-tin stage, I can phone you and you can send a food parcel… Only kidding. Course is great; freedom is better; ladies are gorgeous. Lovely place here.

All my love, Dan

Transcription:

Gran,

No money. No time. Suicidally depressed. Knife-wound isn’t healing…

Only joking! Having a great time, really! All the fun of the fair! Aberystwyth remains typically rainy, but spirits are high and beer prices are low, so that doesn’t matter!

Having a Christmas Dinner with the Computer Society on Wednesday, and coming back to Preston on Saturday (18th Dec). Been a busy week, between Final Deadlines, Getting Stood Up, Living A Party Life and Sleeping. Think I’ll have a long lie-in, tomorrow, and Honey Loops for breakfast! Yeh!

Fond regards; Dan

Aberystwyth Admission

This photo was originally published to a closed group and republished to this blog on 25 May 2019.

Swimathon 1999

This image was shared here in hindsight, on 25 May 2019.

Avatar Diary – Birthday Aftermath

These photos, originally published in the Avatar Diary during January 1999, were recovered and republished here on 25 May 2019 on a post dated the day they were taken, 9 January 1999 – the day after my 18th birthday party. They were originally accompanied by a blog post mocking everybody who’d participated in (drunken) silliness the night before. In particular, I laid-into Gary and Faye, who ended up sharing a bed on the night, but in actuality I was hiding the fact that I was heartbroken: at the time, I had an intense infatuation with Faye which wouldn’t completely abate until a year or so later.

Mother’s Day

This image was shared here in hindsight, on 25 May 2019. I didn’t actually start blogging until around August 1998. I’m the guy in the top right, in the Independence Day t-shirt. Anticlockwise from me are my cousins Stephen and Thomas, my Uncle Tom (my mother’s brother), my sister Becky, my Auntie Anne, my sister Sarah, my maternal grandmother, and a woman – whose name I forget – that one of my cousins was dating at the time.