Builders, take note

This caught my eye when I was walking down John Bright Street (in Birmingham city centre) one day a couple of years ago. The space was being used as a canteen by a building firm while they were involved in a big construction project in the street.

Photo parade - in the wild

 Birmingham city centre:

 

BP garage, West Bromwich:

 

 A marque I hadn’t heard of before:

 

Lichfield shop:

For a better start in life

First time I saw Emily and Joshua’s alphabet blocks I was a bit sceptical. They’re so surreal, and the photos looked like they might’ve been photoshopped. But real they are. And to prove that they’re no fluke, I just found my own version while out shopping here in Birmingham. I was browsing in a cheap-shop (one of those where everything costs £1) when I saw this item among the children’s toys:

I’m sure that 90% of the toys for sale in Britain are made in China, but the quality is generally better than this piece of junk. I had to buy it though, for the Chinglish. Look closer:

That’s some dictionary they must be using. The words “refection” and “carbonado” had completely passed me by, until today. And that’s bad luck, picking the most obscure spelling of “cookie” (as a translation of “bread”). Not such bad luck though, to pick “malt” when the word you need is in the picture. I wish I could say that from now on I’m going to call Big Macs “Greatness Folds”, but it’s too much of a mouthful.

Notice that the blocks are numbered 13-24, so I’m sure there must be a 1-12 set out there somewhere… Happy hunting!

From the archive

Birmingham News, 24 June 2004: 

(Brummies don’t talk foreign.)

Katie’s grammar

There’s loads of magazines for little girls, and when I’m in the Co-op with Catherine it’s hard to persuade her that she only needs one! Her latest choice was “Katie”, produced by the somewhat mysterious LCD Publishing. Mysterious also is their grammar:

There are five girls (and no boys) pictured in the full spread, so what’s with the “they”, “their” and “them”?