The battle of Fraser Road.

Well the battle of GC's Night Club has entered a new phase, as you can see above from the front page of the News Shopper local paper - click on either photo for a larger version. I have been contacted by one of the original organisers of the enterprise, who has now parted company with the organisation; it would appear that she was misled by Antony Stewart - the main man behind the club, and she has now severed all ties with him. You can read more on the continuing story, along with some comments from members of the public on the News Shopper website by clicking here. My sources also inform me that the club did not appear to open on Boxing Day evening, as they had been enthusiastically advertising, and it was also closed on Saturday night. We have also discovered that their Facebook site has been taken down, and all references deleted. I am not going to tempt fate by making a pronouncement at this point; let us wait and see what happens.

Many local councils around the country have brought in draconian measures relating to disposal of domestic waste and recycling. Bexley Council issued different coloured bins for food waste, recyclable products and the like. It has to be said that the reliability and regularity of the collections leaves quite a lot to be desired; the increase in workload has meant that the council has had to outsource much of the rubbish collecting to an external contractor, who to be honest are pretty crap. Many locals cannot be bothered to separate the materials by type, and dump everything into a bin bag and hope for the best that the contractors will take it. On top of this the council has hoped to recoup much of the additional expense by selling things like glass and metal on for recycling. Unfortunately for all concerned, the credit crunch has caused the bottom to fall out of scrap prices, and the whole thing has become unworkable. I have now started observing people bagging up their daily rubbish into shopping bags and then disposing of it in public waste bins. Their council run wheelie bins are too small to take all their rubbish, so they export it into public space into bins only designed for the occasional chip wrapper or empty soft drink can. I suppose this is really a form of fly tipping, but I have to admit I can completely understand. The ball has well and truly been dropped on this one, and I don't see what can be done to remedy the situation.

The Christmas / New Year break is always a good time for listening to the radio. Not only do the normal BBC and Independent stations usually have something new and interesting to listen to, but you get all sorts of radio stations like the elusive Enigma 846, Laser Hot Hits and the oft mentioned WNKR 1476 AM popping up. You can see details of what station is on and when by checking out the following blog. I received a very interesting book as a Christmas present, on the history of the development of domestic radio, written by the president of the British Vintage Wireless Society. At heart I will always be an anorak.

You could not make this up. Erith's own tattoo parlour "Point 2 Point" is selling tattoo vouchers for people to give as Christmas and birthday presents. You can see a photo of the place with the proud owner here. My personal views on tattooing and piercing are well known, so I won't bore you with repeating them again.

Another local Blog that is more than worthy of regular read is Plumsteadshire by the engagingly monickered Doctor Pangloss. Do check it out.

I think that next week I may do what so many media outlets do at the end of the year and do a "Year in review" type summary of the last twelve months. Any suggestions would be gratefully received - you can leave comments below as normal, which will appear online instantly. I have now switched comment moderation back off, as I think the anonymous knuckle dragging moron who posted an obscene comment on an older posting seems to have disappeared. No doubt his medication has now worn off.

This weeks video is one that has proved to be extremely popular online. It features a slightly podgy Japanese cat who has a fascination with cardboard boxes and other packaging. See what you think anyway.