While looking through some of my photo library recently, it occurred to me that I have rather a lot of photographs of signage from around the world. Although there is no particular pattern to it, I decided to put together a blog post with a few of these and some explanation as to what and where they are.

This was taken in the entrance to Canada Water station. It could almost be one of these spoof alternatives signs on the London Underground blog. Perhaps there had been repeated instances of people begging there but it does appear to be a bit of a contradiction in terms to fine someone for begging. The very nature of someone begging in a tube station suggests that wouldn't be able to pay a £200 fine so I'm not sure that this strategy would be much of a deterrent.

From a roadside layby in the country in France, this particular poubelle is an excellent example of cheap translation services. The French section being perfectly ok whilst the English section is pas parfait.

This was taken in a lovely village called Fresnay-sur-Sartre in France. A fantastic contrast to a very traditional French village was this sign directing people to the nearby Cyber Base. I didn't go to investigate what was to be found there (perhaps it was the only Internet access in the surrounding 100 miles - or maybe something far more exciting) but it was certainly a little out of place to say the least.

In Tsavo East National Park in Kenya, there are indeed many dangerous wild animals. The thing I particularly like about this is the way that the last phrase avoids being too explicit about what might happen if someone were to encounter a rampaging beast of some sort - leaving it to the imagination by saying simply any eventuality.

Finally, a sign from the side of Alcatraz island near San Francisco warning off any boats that might consider landing on it. The graffiti refers to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz that occurred between the end of 1969 and 1971 - after Alcatraz was closed as a working prison.