A party and a pub closure.

It was party time yesterday - Ian and Julie's daughters had a joint party for their 3rd and 5th birthdays respectively. Around forty small children attended, and there was little in the way of tears, and no-one was sick, though I cannot speak for the adults. A great time was had by all. I was the official photographer for the event. If you have "Friends and Family" access rights to my Flickr photo account, you can see the photos here. If you click and get a message saying "Access Denied" it means you need to drop me a line so I can set you up with the requisite permissions. Unfortunately with the preponderance of weirdos and nutters inhabiting cyberspace, I am unwilling to make any image of a minor available online other than to those I know and trust.

Good news - the credit crunch has actually done a little bit of good amongst all of the chaos. The Crest Nicholson scheme to rebuild the old Erith Swimming Baths site with high density flats has gone bust. The company are in financial difficulties, and have now canned the whole project. The scheme was going to have built on part of one of the best parts of Erith - the Riverside Gardens; this provoked the ire of many local residents, myself included. It would appear to be back to the drawing board for the whole project now. You can read more about the story on the News Shopper website here.

With the imminent arrival of the new Richard Curtis movie "The Boat that Rocked" there has been some coverage of offshore radio in the popular press. One well written piece can be seen here. I have a mixed view of the forthcoming film; I am glad to see an important part of British history being heavily featured in the popular media, but I fear that Richard Curtis is not the right director to pull it off; his track record of creating tedious and formulaic romantic comedies really counts against him. I would have preferred to see someone more edgy like James Carey take the reins. Carey is a writer and director, who created the excellent BBC Radio 4 wartime comedy series Hut 33. You can see a link to his blog on the toolbar to the right of this text - click on the Hut 33 link to visit it. Anyway, below is the new and longer trailer for The Boat that Rocked; leave a comment below and let me know what you think.



Last night, I went out for a drink to the Royal Standard in Upper Belvedere - and whilst standing at the 99 bus stop in my road, I saw a sight to gladden the eyes; the local police (who were out in force) had collared a pirate DVD seller and were giving him a deservedly very hard time indeed. The guy was Chinese, as many of them locally are; he either spoke minimal English, or was making out that he did not understand, although it was quite evident that the police had his number. He got very shirty, and had to be restrained when the police tried to take his photograph for their records. I am not sure of the outcome of the encounter, as my bus turned up, but I do know these guys are often the foot soldiers for Triads and other organised crime. I think the crook had made the error of trying to go into the Royal Alfred pub, not realising that it has closed down; workmen are in the place, and it would appear that it is possibly being converted into some kind of hostel. I am not sure of the legality or planning status of this, but I am sure that Captain Tweed will get to the bottom of it in time.

The traditional closing video clip this week is a bit of a curiosity; It is taken from an American current affairs programme, and features a photograph that many thought to be a hoax. It turns out that it was all too true - watch below for a fascinating story...