The monstrosity pictured above (click on each picture for a much larger view) greets visitors to Erith - a giant mosaic covered sculpture depicting a number of intertwined fish that dominates the central roundabout joining the roads from Dartford, Northumberland Heath and Upper Belvedere. It was installed in August by the local council at a cost to the local tax payers of somewhere in the region of £60,000! We were not consulted, and general opinion is that the thing is a grotesque and embarrasing waste of public money. To my mind it is reminiscent of a gargantuan psychedelic steaming "Mister Whippy" style turd, crapped from the heavens onto the unsuspecting town of Erith - as if we did not have enough trouble to deal with as it is!
Readers of the local News Shopper newspaper have left comments here and here - please feel free to leave your own thoughts and comments on the sculpture; I'd be interested in other people's views.
Well, a change from the usual grumpy rants. Shirley came round for the afternoon; I took a day off work (only my second so far this year!) We sat and watched American sitcoms on Paramount and Hallmark - a real veg out on the sofa. Shirley brought a large luxury chocolate cake from Morrisons and ate quite a bit of it whilst we both drank tea. Quite a civilised afternoon all told. We then went shopping and she managed to leave her shoulder bag in Peacocks in Erith shopping centre, though we soon retrieved it unharmed.
There are some newly uploaded photos in my Flickr photo album for you to check out.
As we walked around Erith, we ended up by the main roundabout - home of the infamous Erith fish mosaic sculpture, recently installed at a cost to the local council tax payer of £60,000. More on this in a rather ticked off posting in the very near future.
Well, after a fairly quiet period, I can finally get back to my forte. A RANT! Oh, and it feels SO good.....
After seeing Dad in the nursing home today (he was completely sparko - deeply asleep - I could not shave him or do any of the usual things I try to do to make his remaining time any more comfortable. That's how it sometimes goes). Mum and I got a lift from her next door neighbour from the nursing home; this very charitable service normally occurs on most Wednesdays. I get dropped of by the service road directly adjacent to the River Thames walkway / promenade and jetty next to Morrison's in Erith town centre. It is just around the corner from my house, and enables me to go and do a little shopping on my way home, before logging on to the company network and doing a couple of hours' work each evening to make up for my afternoon's absence.
I had no sooner waved them off when a scruffily dressed and shifty looking woman who initially looked to be in her mid fifties, but upon closer inspection was probably no more than thirty, approached, and asked me in a wheedling voice if I could spare her change for a bus ticket. Immediately I checked her out; a hatchet faced harridan with no front teeth and corroded pegs for those still remaining, lank and greasy unwashed hair and a real vibe of underclass. Horrible. Having sussed exactly what her pitch was, I turned back towards her vile countenance. "And what exactly do you want the money for again? Let me guess... Smack? No. From the state of what's left of your teeth I reckon you want cash for more Crystal Meth. Either that your retarded and myopic pimp whacked you one in the gob."
She then screetched a vile torrent of incoherent abuse, stopping suddenly in a contrite voice to ask "So you won't help me then?" I replied as I made to move off. "I would not piss on you if you were laying in the gutter burning". Quality. I would have stayed longer to exchange further banter with this misguided social inadequate, but a small child only a few yards away was stroking a friendly local cat, and I was concerned that if I did not cut the exchange short, it might have over run in her direction with potentially unfortunate results. I thought it prudent to walk off at that point, stopping off at Morrison's to inform the Security Manager of the situation. Hopefully she would later be captured, thoroughly beaten and taught the error of her ways; somehow I doubt it. Scum. Erith in a nutshell.
Pewty Acres, as seen from the other side of Manor Road (the real "road to hell" - as any local will attest). The cage and metal structure in the front garden is the Air Quality Monitoring Unit that I host on behalf of the Environmental Services Department of Bexley Council. They owe me some money at present for the running costs of the unit, as it is plugged into my own electricity supply; the unit itself is worth something in the region of £22,000. My road has the very worst air pollution in the whole of Greater London. I am just trying to do my own little bit to help.
The reason that there has been a little tardy break between posts over the last week is that I have had a minor touch of writer's block; I simply could not think of anything pithy or original to post. I have had no run - ins with the local low lives or incidents of note worth recording, and many seem to think I am at my best when bemoaning Chavs or having a wry whinge at some aspect of the human condition.
Sunday. A very busy day indeed; Colin and Xav came up to do some more work on their old Land Rover - as I have covered in a previous posting. On top of that, my South African friend and fellow radio amateur Henry caused me to temporarily suspend my personal "No, I will not fix your computer" rule. His Windoze PC was infected with 160 viruses, 70 trojans, 110 pieces of spyware and 11 key loggers. I spent all Friday night, and most of Saturday afternoon and evening cleaning it all out, updating his 'Doze XP installation with SP2 and 80 odd patches and updates, installing updated anti virus and firewall solutions; installing Firefox, Opera, Picassa and Open Office (amongst a host of other free and open source applications) and generally cleaning up a very sad PC indeed. Henry - buy a Mac, or let me blitz Windoze and install Linux on your PC; neither of us need the heartache or hassle. Your "get out of jail free" card has now been used. On top of this, Ian and small people Izzy and Ella came around to say hello; naturally I was running around like a headless chicken, trying to ensure that everyone was OK and fed / watered / had kid's TV to watch (delete as applicable).
Long time friend and fellow Inner Sanctum member (if you don't know I am not about to tell you) Roy L has been back in touch - it turns out he has been in contact with a number of old Radio Lumberjack staff - hopefully I will be able to get back into contact with them soon! A big part of my previous life and worthy of a whole post on its' own.
I found the following very impressive video posted online of a quarter scale radio controlled model of an F-14 Tomcat jet fighter (the one featured in "Top Gun"). See what you think below:
The monstrosity pictured above (click on each picture for a much larger view) greets visitors to Erith - a giant mosaic covered sculpture depicting a number of intertwined fish that dominates the central roundabout joining the roads from Dartford, Northumberland Heath and Upper Belvedere. It was installed in August by the local council at a cost to the local tax payers of somewhere in the region of £60,000! We were not consulted, and general opinion is that the thing is a grotesque and embarrasing waste of public money. To my mind it is reminiscent of a gargantuan psychedelic steaming "Mister Whippy" style turd, crapped from the heavens onto the unsuspecting town of Erith - as if we did not have enough trouble to deal with as it is!
