Follow the Bear.

Erith is undergoing a bit of a revamp at present; what the design gurus refer to as a re-branding. Erith railway station is having a re-paint, to follow the building work that was undertaken a few months ago; the signalling and CCTV system has also undergone a much needed and overdue update. The photo above shows the new apartment building that also houses the new Erith Library. The shot was taken a couple of months ago, but the commercial units below the residential apartments still remain unlet - not a single one is yet occupied; they remain boarded up as shown in the photograph.

Local free radio station WNKR (West and North Kent Radio) may have to change their broadcast frequency again; regional medium wave vanity station Big L have apparently managed to secure further funding after they burned through their original start up capital, and were forced to lay off much of their work force last year. They have announced online that they intend restarting their AM service on the 1st of November on 1395KHz - exactly where WNKR sit every weekend. I suppose the lads will have to find another home somewhere else on the wave band. Dave Martin, WNKR's station manager visited the Bedford Beer Festival recently; you can read his account of the visit, and a very comprehensive list of the real ales on offer by clicking here.

Below is an aerial shot of Erith - the kind of view the Luftwaffe would have had in the 1940's, although Morrison's supermarket, the pier and Erith Riverside Centre would not have been there; maybe it's not such a good analogy after all. Click for a larger view.

Neighbour and professional session musician Earl reported yesterday that Morrison's had to carry out an emergency shutdown and customer evacuation as a large gang of the local Chav scumbags raided the place, causing chaos and consternation to the legitimate shoppers. The Police were called and a number of arrests were apparently made. When Captain Tweed gets to Number Ten, one of the first changes made to the criminal justice system will allow the courts to have such oxygen thieving,  benefits cheating, giant romper suit wearing pustules rendered down as soap on their second offence.  What we need around here is a real life Gene Hunt type old fashioned copper to really hammer the local low lives into place; that place either being as a law abiding and decent member of society, or if they decline to toe the line,  as the cell mate of a fat, bald guy called Bubba who wants someone to play Mummies and Daddies with. Ahem. Please post any objections below. I am not expecting much naysaying regarding this issue.

Local Erith photographer Crash Calloway, otherwise known as Justin Bailey has gained extra publicity for his forthcoming exhibition at Erith Library; local newspaper the News Shopper have run a story on him and his excellent works - you can read more about it here.

The extension to European Metal Recycling seems to be taking ages to finish; the former RMC Aggregates site adjacent to Morrison's car park at the junction of James Watt Way and Wheatley Terrace Road is only now getting a new fence - I caught the following photo earlier this afternoon; almost nothing seems to have happened to the site since I last wrote about it a couple of months ago.

YouTube is a great way of revelling in nostalgia; following my featuring the Chas & Dave Courage Best TV adverts a couple of weeks ago, Ian has thoughtfully dug up the seminal Hofmeister "Follow the Bear" commercial from around 1984; the lager was the usual cold, gassy and instantly forgettable 3.2% ABV rubbish that characterised the drinks of that era, but the commercial outlived the product, which was discontinued in 2003. See if you recall this advert - and feel free to leave a comment below.