Canary Wars.

The photo above shows the tug, the GPS Avenger moored recently on Erith Pier. As you may already know, Erith Pier is the longest pier on the entire length of the River Thames (Southend Pier does not count, as it is judged to be on the Estuary, rather than on the Thames itself). The pier is of a rather unusual design, being of a “Dog – Leg” arrangement, with the longest part of the pier running parallel with the shore. The reason for this was that historically the pier was used for industrial purposes when the area now occupied by the large Morrison’s supermarket was a large deep water shipping wharf.  One of the main products handled by the pier and the wharf was the unloading and trans-shipment of giant rolls of newsprint paper from the paper mills in Sweden to a warehouse on the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road, before finally being taken by lorry up to what was then the giant newspaper print presses in Holborn and Fleet Street. I recall, back in the early 1980’s, not very long before the deep water wharf finally closed down that the warehouse that stored the giant rolls of newsprint in Fraser Road caught fire. Once the paper was alight, it proved impossible for the fire brigade to put out. Fraser Road was blocked for nearly two weeks, as the emergency services contained the blaze, but left it to burn itself out. I can recall standing in the back garden of my parents’ house in  Upper Belvedere on a bright and sunny day, and being amazed by what appeared to be snowflakes falling from a cloudless sky. The flakes were actually specks of ash from the raging paper warehouse blaze a couple of miles away. The smell of burning pervaded the area for nearly a month, well after the fire burned itself out naturally – and left the warehouse building a burned out shell. From my recollections of the fire, nobody was seriously hurt, and there was a substantial insurance settlement to the owners of the Europa Industrial Estate. If you can recall the warehouse fire, and have any more information / memories regarding it, then please get in contact with me by either leaving a comment below, or by dropping me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The Apple Watch was released on April the 24th, 2015. Nearly a year later, it has become apparent that there really is not much of a need to get one. The smartwatch was the first entirely new product that Apple had released in five years, the first launched under CEO Tim Cook’s oversight—as well the first product in decades launched by Apple without the direction of Steve Jobs behind it. Some argued that it was the product that would give us insight into the future of Apple. A year later, that direction appears to be very boring. The short-term roadmap seems to be focused on iterations of existing products, and selling accessories, like new watchbands, for those products. But the Apple Watch is in itself an accessory, entirely tied to a person’s iPhone, and hasn’t shown that it can perform enough useful functions to make the average person think, yes, this is something that’s worth a few hundred pounds as it’s exciting and will help me in my life. Every Apple product in the last fifteen years or so has been two things: desirable and useful. They’ve made it easier for people to be creative, listen to a lot of music on the go, communicate with anyone in the world or find out any piece of information wherever they are. The Apple Watch looks good, but from a desirability perspective, some argue that the most interesting thing about it has been the collaborations it has had with Hermès, rather than the watch itself. Even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, in a recent Reddit question-and-answer session, was inclined to agree:- “I worry a little bit about – I mean I love my Apple Watch, but – it’s taken us into a jewellery market where you’re going to buy a watch between $500 or $1100 based on how important you think you are as a person. The only difference is the band in all those watches. Twenty watches from $500 to $1100. The band’s the only difference? Well this isn’t the company that Apple was originally, or the company that really changed the world a lot”. In terms of usability, the watch has proven a tough sell. US presidential hopeful and die-hard Apple fan Jeb Bush didn’t even know his Apple Watch could make and receive calls. The tiny screen doesn’t lend itself to complicated interactions, and third-party and native apps have struggled to show that they’re more useful than, say, just looking at the full-fledged apps on your phone. Apple has always prided itself on ‘thinking different’, and has stood out by creating differentiating products. But different in the case of the Apple Watch right now just means “weird.” Apple probably doesn’t want a product where using one gets you referred to as “that guy.” In an article for the New York Times this week, technology journalist Kit Eaton showed off some of his favourite apps for the Watch. There was a decent grocery-list-making app, a nice text-based game, and a sleep-tracking app. This was, presumably, the best he could find for a device that you have to charge every 18 hours or so, and costs about ten times more than a functional watch that does a better, quicker job of telling you the time. The best iPad costs about £900 (including the keyboard and stylus), and the best iPhone starts at £650. But iPhone and iPad sales are either stagnating or declining. This may well change with the new iPad Pro, a potential laptop-killer for the average person, and whatever new iPhone Apple launches later this year. Apple really needs a new, cheaper device to grow beyond the cycle of iPhone replacements. That was supposed to be the Apple Watch. I predicted as much when I wrote about the Apple Watch last year, hoping to be proved wrong. It looks like I was correct. My conclusion that it was a solution in need of a problem seems to have proved to be true. 

The Bexley Times is reporting that the Broken Drum, the Micropub in Blackfen is celebrating its first birthday. We now have three Micropubs in the London Borough of Bexley; the first was the Door Hinge in Welling, and the second the Penny Farthing in Crayford - thoughtfully located next to an Indian restaurant. The landlord of the Broken Drum is a chap called Andy Wheeler. When interviewed by the paper he said "We’ve offered 200 different ales, I don’t have one constant beer, I’m always changing, looking for local and national beers. Each cask holds 70 pints so it's just a case of simple maths - that’s not including the real ciders that we sell. It’s a breakaway from the noise of pubs or the restaurant-type pubs that just have a bar to drink at. We don’t sell lager, we don’t sell spirits and we don’t play loud music. People come in, enjoy a chat with each other and talk to people they don’t know. People can come in, chat and make friends, we have run three quiz nights and raised around £1,000 for the British Heart Foundation. We also donate to Alzheimer's UK, as the pub is named after a pub in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld book series". Micro - pubs seem to have been a modern success story; they are cheaper to open than full pubs, and the licensing terms are less onerous. I am really pleased to see that they are all doing so well - and long may they continue.

We are now getting emergency service call – outs to people threatening to throw themselves into the River Thames either from Erith Riverside Gardens or the Pier on an almost weekly basis. I am not sure if it is a number of troubled people, or one or two disturbed individuals who are making repeated attempts to jump into the river. Another incident occurred this week, as has been reported in the News Shopper. The emergency services – Police, Ambulance and RNLI have responded to each call – out with admirable speed, but as previously highlighted, the RNLI especially have a distance to travel, as their two bases on the River Thames are at London Bridge and Gravesend; Erith is roughly equidistant from either base. Whilst the RNLI do operate river patrols, the chances of them being in the vicinity of Erith when an emergency call is raised are slim, to say the least. Even at top speed, their vessels may take twenty minutes or more to reach the site of the emergency. A few prominent local residents have expressed their support for an RNLI substation at Erith. I am a supporter of the RNLI, and am a member of their “Shoreline” supporters organisation. I will be asking them if there are any plans to open a substation at Erith. As previously noted, there is what appears to be an ideal location for a small substation in the former Port of London Authority building adjacent to the Riverside Gardens and very close to the wooden jetty. I understand that the currently empty hut has water and drainage, along with mains electricity. It is large enough to house a crew of up to four people overnight if required. I have asked the RNLI if they have any plans in this respect, and I will report back accordingly when I get a response.

As a (relatively) well known Blogger, I have managed to get onto the radar of a number of public relations companies. As such I get almost daily Emails inviting me to all sorts of events, product launches and offers of freebies. I almost never take up these offers, as there are usually strings attached. The clients of these PR companies want bloggers to write favourable reviews of their products or services. I am not an advertising agency, despite Google (the owners and operators of the Blogger platform that the Maggot Sandwich uses) repeatedly trying to get me to take advertising, which I refuse to do. Despite this, having experience with the kind of approach that PR companies use when composing press releases. Local papers are currently reporting that Demand for Bexley property is higher than anywhere else in the country, according to figures released on the 6th April. Nearly three quarters, or 72 per cent, of flats and houses on the market in the borough are already listed as sold, research by online estate agents eMoov reveals. This story has almost certainly been seeded to the papers by a PR company; the story is really a hook to raise the profile of the online estate agent, rather than to highlight the situation in respect of property availability in the borough. What seems to have escaped much in the way of publicity is the sell – off of public open spaces in Bexley; the council are rubber – stamping the disposal of four sites, three of which are in the North of the borough. It has been well documented that Bexley Council wanted to rid themselves of the park in West Street, Erith – and I have to admit that of any of the parks in the area, it probably would be the hardest to defend, as the only people I ever see using the small grassed area are the local winos who occupy one or more of the park benches, and generally make the place look unwelcoming for any other potential users. The park should stay, but realistically I don’t see the level of opposition to it being sold off when compared to one of the other threatened sites – the Eastern half of Old Farm Park in Sidcup. The other local site is the two part park on opposite sides of Wilde Road in Northumberland Heath – a park unknown to all but very local residents - you can see it on Google Street View above. It is so tiny and cut in half by the road; by the looks of it the site would probably make way for four houses, two on each side of Wilde Road. Small as the park is, it is absolutely ideal for families with small children, some of whom will not have a garden of their own. Bexley Council seem content to sell off the family silver - especially in the North of the borough, in order to keep their supporters (who are mainly located in the wealthier South of Bexley) placated. 

Recently released figures show that London road users received more than £4 million in compensation last year following accidents and damage caused by deteriorating roads. It comes as the capital’s local authorities say they now face an £86.7 million shortfall in their annual carriageway maintenance budget received from Government, double the £39.9 million shortfall reported the year before. The Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance Survey 2016, which excludes the main Red Route roads run by Transport for London, estimates it would need £706 million to bring the capital’s roads up to scratch in a one-time “catch up” cost, with an average bill of £22.1 million per borough. It estimates clearing the maintenance backlog in London would take 16 years, at current rates of repair. Local authorities in London filled in 131,151 potholes last year, costing an average £80 per pothole as part of a planned programme, compared with £47 in the rest of England, says the survey. “Emergency” potholes cost an average of £94 to repair in London. Overall, London authorities (excluding TfL) spent £11.4 million filling in potholes last year. Paying out the £4.1 million in compensation cost an additional £2.4 million in staff time, bringing total claim costs to £6.5 million.

A research team led by scientists at the UNC School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health has unearthed more evidence that casts doubt on the traditional "heart healthy" practice of replacing butter and other saturated fats with corn oil and other vegetable oils high in linoleic acid. The findings, reported last week in the British Medical Journal, suggest that using vegetable oils high in linoleic acid might be worse than using butter when it comes to preventing heart disease, though more research needs to be done on that front. This latest evidence comes from an analysis of previously unpublished data of a large controlled trial conducted in Minnesota, USA nearly fifty years ago, as well as a broader analysis of published data from all similar trials of this dietary intervention. The analyses show that interventions using linoleic acid-rich oils failed to reduce heart disease and overall mortality even though the intervention reduced cholesterol levels. In the Minnesota study, participants who had greater reduction in serum cholesterol had higher rather than lower risk of death. Once again received wisdom seems to be counter to scientific findings. It will be interesting to see if other studies find the same result. It seems that whatever you eat or don't eat, some research project will find fault with it. I must admit to finding all of this contradictory advice very confusing. 

I have had a couple of emails from long – time readers this week; they both express concern about the recently started trial of Erith Market. The feeling I get from the messages is that the writers are very keen for the newly relaunched market to succeed, but they feel that it is being “set up to fail”. The fact that the market is only being held on a Wednesday, and not also on Saturdays is being raised as a major restriction on how successful it can be. One concerned reader wrote:-“ I hear are giving Erith Market a trial go. When they know it will fail before they start. They only seem to be catering for the unemployed and the elderly. Because they are the only one that can go to the market. The market should have been bigger and on Wednesdays and Saturdays like it used to be. Saturdays for the people that go to work all week”.  I think the sentiment is to be applauded – the market needs to be accessible to as many people as possible – not just those who are able to attend on what for many people is a working day. Personally I have missed the market on the last three weeks – the traders are in the process of packing up their stalls and loading stock into their vans when I get there just after 5pm on my way home from the office. Opening on Saturdays would be a bonus for all parties in my opinion, and would also benefit the Riverside Shopping Centre, as shoppers attracted to the market from Morrison’s would quite likely also visit the shopping centre. What do you think? Have you visited the market? Was it any good? Would it be better in your opinion to also have it running on Saturdays as well as Wednesdays? Do let me know, either by commenting below, or by Emailing me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

As you may know, in my "day job" I work for a very large multinational company with offices in Canary Wharf. I recall that last August Canary Wharf tube station was closed for a couple of days, with no real explanation as to why. A number of very large lorries were seen parked up near the back entrance to the station, and some people speculated that the security services may have been carrying out some kind of anti terrorist drill. It has only now become clear exactly what was going on. You may have seen the trailer for the forthcoming "Rogue One - A Star Wars story" online, and very impressive it looks too. If you are not aware, Disney are releasing a Star Wars film every year in December; they are alternating the new Episodes 7,8 and 9 trilogy "main story" with "side story" films, and Rogue One is the first side story film. It is a prequel to the original Star Wars - A New Hope (Plain "Star Wars" to those old enough to remember when it originally came out), and will cover the story of how the Rebel Alliance stole the construction plans of the Death Star, which later enabled Luke Skywalker to destroy it in The Battle of Yavin. Last August principal photography of several key scenes in the new movie were actually shot in Canary Wharf tube station. The screen capture from the trailer I have shown above makes it abundantly clear as to where it was filmed - anyone who has visited the very architecturally impressive station will be struck at what a great location the place makes for what I take to be part of the interior of the Death Star.

I see that the News Shopper has picked up on a story I originally featured back in May 2013. It concerns the “Scores on the Doors” health ratings of restaurants, takeaways and food outlets in the London Borough of Bexley. When I originally featured the issue, it was to show that at the time Bexley came at the bottom of the league when it came to restaurant hygiene ratings, and that West Street in Erith was the worst of the worst, with a total of seven food outlets getting zero out of five possible stars for food hygiene. Things have now changed very much for the better, with much improved ratings – none of the previously zero rated outlets still have a zero, and nearly all are 3, 4 or 5  star rated now. What has happened in the most recent hygiene surveys is that shops that serve very limited food items are now being rated, unlike before. One shop that has suffered because of this is Sam’s 99p shop in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre. I cannot understand why the store has had to be inspected, as a vast majority of its business is in retailing small domestic items. It does sell cans of soft drink and other pre - packed food items on a limited basis, but it does not prepare hot food or even sell sandwiches. Why it needs to be hygeine tested is beyond me. If you have any insight into this, then please let me know. 

As I predicted a couple of years ago, the vinyl album comeback shows no signs of slowing down. According to UK industry body BPI, vinyl sales for the first three months of 2016 were up 62 percent over the same period last year, with 637,056 LP albums sold. Vinyl now holds a 3.9 percent share of the UK album market, up from 2.1 percent in Q1 2015—not bad for a format that many thought was long dead and buried thanks to CDs and downloads. This is the highest vinyl sales have been for the last 20 years (the Official Charts Company began monitoring sales in 1994) and, if the last eight years of uninterrupted growth continue, could see vinyl sales climb as high as they did back in the early 1980s. The BPI estimates annual sales in 2016 could be as much as 3.5 million. Indeed, while music subscription services like Spotify and Tidal are extremely convenient, according to a recent report by the BBC, they're not hindering physical vinyl sales, but are in fact boosting them. Half of consumers said they listened to an album online before buying a vinyl copy, according to an ICM poll shared with the BBC, with those using advert - funded services being even more likely to head down to a record shop. Amusingly, despite audiophiles and vinyl fans arguing that the format sounds better, a full 48 percent of those who bought vinyl records admitted they had yet to actually play them. Seven percent said they didn't even own a turntable, instead picking up vinyl for its collectability, to support bands, or to use as decoration around the home.

Finally a new video showing some of the less well - known aspects of Amateur Radio. Do give the short film a watch, and feel free to leave a comment below. 

The Angerstein Wharf branch line.

I took the photo above a couple of months ago; it shows the ongoing work to construct an affordable rented apartment block in James Watt Way, between Morrison's supermarket, and the KFC Drive Through in Manor Road. I regularly pass the site, but it is unusual to see any building work going on , as when I pass it is either before the start of the construction day, or after the builders would have packed up and gone home. Word reaches me from a couple of sources that there has been no activity on site for several weeks. At this point I don't have any idea why no further work is being undertaken. Local Councillor Abena Oppong - Asare is on the case and investigating. Hopefully by next week the situation will have become clear. More news as it happens.

The Erith Riverside Shopping Centre still has empty and un-let retail units available. Bearing in mind how long it has now been open, this is something of concern. I understand that the original aim was to have small local shops in the centre, alongside the larger national chains. With the exception of the wildly successful Mambocino (which is technically part of a small chain, but seems to operate to a very different business model to other branches, it being far more concerned with serving “sit down meals” than just serving coffee). Pretty much all of the other shops in the centre are branches of large chains. I predict that this may well change as the profile and demographic of Erith changes with the influx of new residents over the next few years; not only will phase two of Erith Park come on stream, but the Erith Quarry development, the housing being built on the old Bexley College site in Tower Road, and the affordable housing apartments in James Watt Way as previously mentioned, and the proposed development on the old Erith Riverside Swimming Baths site will all attract new local residents. More people will by default mean more shops of a greater diversity to supply their needs. If what I have been told is true, and Erith’s demographic does begin to become more prosperous, then the kind of shops will reflect that increase in disposable income. The arrival of Crossrail to Abbey Wood in 2018, and the opening of the Paramount theme park in Swanscombe at Easter 2020 will also do much to raise the popularity of the whole region – things are now looking cautiously optimistic.

Longer term readers may recall that back in last February I wrote a piece about Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) – a process that used to be known as Cold Fusion. Back in 1989 Martin Fleischmann (then one of the world's leading electrochemists) and Stanley Pons reported that their experimental cold fusion apparatus had produced anomalous heat ("excess heat"), of a magnitude they asserted would defy explanation except in terms of nuclear processes. They further reported measuring small amounts of nuclear reaction by products, including neutrons and tritium. The small table top experiment involved electrolysis of heavy water on the surface of a metallic palladium electrode. The reported results received world - wide media attention, and raised hopes of a cheap and abundant source of energy. Many scientists tried to replicate the experiment with the few details available. Hopes fell with the large number of negative replications, the withdrawal of many positive replications, the discovery of flaws and sources of experimental error in the original experiment, and finally the discovery that Fleischmann and Pons had not actually detected nuclear reaction by products.  By late 1989, most scientists considered cold fusion claims dead, and the popular press rained derision on the two scientists. At this point pretty much all third party experimentation and external funding ceased, and the whole thing was deemed to be little more than a hopeless quest for a perpetual motion machine.  A few independent scientists and engineers did continue with research and for many years this was considered to be a “garden shed” business, with little hope of anything concrete resulting from it. The tinkerers continued their experiments, away from press attention, and the general public forgot all about the subject. Nowadays there is renewed interest in what has been re – branded as Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (the proponents are aware that the term “cold fusion” may not only be technically inaccurate, but that the term is now poisoned). LENR is a phenomenon where unexplained amounts of heat are created in specific conditions when certain metals (for example, nickel and palladium) interact with hydrogen or deuterium, and an external stimulus such as heat or an electric current is applied. During these reactions it has also been observed that the atomic mass is altered as energy is released. These reactions can take place at relatively low temperatures, and in many cases far more energy is produced in LENR reactions than is input into reactors. At the moment the most promising forms of LENR are those that are able to operate using nickel and hydrogen — both plentiful and inexpensive natural resources. In LENR reactions no pollutants or emissions are produced, neither are harmful radiation or radioactive waste. This makes LENR a clean and sustainable form of energy. We are in the very early days of research and development in this field, and much about this phenomenon is poorly understood. There are competing theories proposed that try to describe the exact mechanism by which this anomalous heat is generated, but none has as yet been accepted as authoritative. There are many researchers and companies studying LENR at the moment, many of whom are competing to patent a viable commercial power plant based on this little understood phenomenon. Understandably many in the established scientific community are intensely sceptical about LENR, and view it as being a gigantic scam. Personally I think it is certainly not a con – too many respectable scientists and engineers have been able to successfully replicate the reaction under controlled laboratory conditions. Indeed, only last month Professor Alexander Parkhomov of Lomonosov Moscow State University has published a paper describing his successful replication of the experiments, and was able to generate an output of 2.78 times the energy input. In a recent visit to Italy, billionaire Bill Gates said that for several years he has been a believer in the idea of LENR, and is a sponsor of companies developing the technology. Gates is not only the Chairman of TerraPower, a company developing a “new class of nuclear reactors using innovative core physics.” He is also a member of the American Energy Innovation Council and supporter of new technologies through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which he founded in 2000. Other mega corporations such as Mitsubishi, Sony and Hitachi are investing heavily in LENR research, but they are keeping very quiet indeed about it. This is not surprising, if the technology does indeed work as described, and can be up – scaled to commercially viable levels, it could be a breakthrough in clean, cheap and renewable energy production. Potentially there are fortunes to be made and lost. It will be interesting to watch this story develop. You heard it here first.

The future of Britain’s small, independent cider makers is under threat;  Last week the European Commission demanded that the British government do away with a duty exemption worth £2,500 to small-scale producers of Cider and Perry. Under the exemption, introduced in 1976, cider-makers who produce fewer than 70 hectolitres a year – about 12,000 pints – do not have to pay duty. The National Association of Cider Makers calculates that this accounts for about 80% of the UK’s 480 cider-makers. Some small cider producers believe the intervention by the EU came about because of sour grapes from their counterparts in the wine trade who are not exempt from the duty. Others have blamed “big cider”, the industrial-scale makers who account for the bulk of the 130 million gallons of cider produced in the UK each year. Either way, the UK Government needs to make a stand soon, or risk many of the small, craft producers closing their businesses. There is a far greater variety of ciders produced by smaller makers than by the industrial giants. With the loss of smaller producers, the range of choice and diversity of cider would be sadly diminished, with the market even more dominated by corporate brands; this cannot be good for consumer choice. Talking of consumer choice, earlier this week I was sent the following press release:- "There's gold in Eltham!  Gold from two of Eltham's gardens.  To be precise Eltham Gold, strong cider!  Now, you may have thought that cider making was the province of Somerset and Cornwall, and that the last place you would expect it to be made is in Eltham in S. E. London, but it is and it has been recognised by aficionados. The person behind Eltham Gold is Eltham resident Mike Allen, who lives very near to where the old farmhouse was when it was a farm. It is made primarily from apples from two Eltham gardens. It is thought that some of the apple trees used for the cider were part of the original orchard and so Eltham Gold truly is a produce with a firm local connection. Eltham Gold has had recognition, including being cider of the festival at both South East London and Bromley Beer festivals last year.  But unfortunately it is only made in small quantities and so truly is cider gold.  On the other hand it is 7.8% strong and so a little goes a long way. Should you wish to sample this delight, the good news is that it will feature at this year's Bexley Beer Festival along with a staggering range of real ales. This year's Bexley Beer Fest, 23rd – 25th April, is itself a milestone celebration being the 10th such Festival, and which in turn marks the 40th anniversary of the formation of the Bexley Branch of CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) which was founded in 1975. The Bexley Beer Festival regularly sees visitors from outside Bexley, and even from beyond London.  Eltham folk will be most welcome, and if they come to sample some of their community's cider then so much the better: what better way to celebrate local heritage than imbibing it. The beer fest will be held at the Old Dartfordians Sports Club, War Memorial Club House, Bourne Road, Bexley, DA5 1LW.  This is not far from Bexley rail station and is on the 132, 229, 492 and B12 bus routes. See http://www.camrabexleybranch.org.uk. All welcome. Cheers".

There has been so much media hype over the new range of Apple smart watches this week; anyone would think that the whole smartwatch concept was brand new, when in fact they have been available for Android devices for over a year – albeit in a slightly different form factor. I have a theory as to why the launch of any new product by Apple gets the press in a feeding frenzy. Journalists have always used Apple Macs since the brand was first launched – mainly because back in the day, desktop publishing and page layout software tended to be written primarily for the Mac, rather than the PC in the pre – Windows 3.1 era. The Mac habit stuck, and even today you will be hard pressed to see a PC in the offices of any media organisation. I can cite an example – a few weeks ago I visited the large advertising agency Grey London in Hatton Garden as part of my “day job”. The place was pretty much as you would expect – a converted warehouse with bare brick walls and a floor covered by zinc plates (it looked very stylish and trendy, but was very noisy and echoey). The place was staffed by bearded hipsters, and pretty much every advertising cliché was present – including every member of staff was equipped with a Mac. This is par for the course, and thus when journalists see a new device by Apple, they go mad over it, assuming that everyone is like them. The fact remains that the Apple Watch is going to sell well, especially after the free publicity so many magazines and online commentators have given the range of devices. There has also been a lot of online comment and opinion about the wide price range the Apple Watch covers. In the UK the entry level models will undoubtedly prove popular with many; the £299 to £349 models will be the main sellers. I don’t think that the stainless steel “mid-range” models at £479 to £949 will fare as well, and the ones that have really grabbed the headlines – the top end 18 carat gold models which start at £13,500 will be something that Premiership footballers and others with more money than taste will opt for. Bearing in mind that all models will incorporate the same internal hardware, and all models are being built on the same automated production line, there seems  to me to be very little to differentiate the model ranges, except the materials being employed. In the world of premium mechanical watches, the value added is not so much of the exotic and expensive materials of which they are made, but of the hours of hand – built craftsmanship which goes into their production. On top of this, whereas a premium mechanical watch will, with regular servicing and maintenance last for several generations, a smart watch will be out of date almost as soon as it is purchased. Additional to their famously short period between charges, the battery will have a finite life (usually around five hundred charge and discharge cycles). No information has yet been forthcoming concerning battery replacement on the Apple Watch, but I advise against buying one for now. You can be utterly sure that a new, thinner and more powerful model will be out within a year – a fact borne out by the history of the iPad and the MacBook Air. I am still of the opinion that the whole smart watch thing is a solution looking for a problem, but obviously as I always say – “if it works for you”. Personally I will stick with my vintage 1969 Longines and 1976 Omega mechanical dress watches – no charging required every eighteen hours – just a quick wind up every couple of days. They keep good time, look great, and will never be replaced with a better model. The choice as ever is yours.

Earlier this week I had an Email from regular Maggot Sandwich reader and local resident Tony Fairbairn. He's not keen on the concept of a road crossing that has been proposed to connect Rainham in Essex with Lower Belvedere. I am always keen to reflect all sides of local arguments, and so I asked Tony if he would like to be the guest contributor this week. Tony has written the following piece, which certainly makes food for thought:- "As Blog readers you will know that TFL supported by Bexley Council are proposing to construct two road bridges across the river at Thamesmead and Belvedere. These are not going to be Tower Bridge lookalikes, but built on a massive scale as per the Dartford Bridge, each with a potential carrying capacity of up to 3000 vehicles per hour i.e. c60k vehicle movements per day. A few other facts: 90 percent of the Dartford and Blackwell Tunnel traffic continues south on reaching Kent. The A13 in Essex has five times the volume of traffic than the A2016. Bexley Council are proposing to build 15,000 new homes within one mile of the bridges; this is equivalent to 22,500 additional cars each needing two parking spaces one at home and one somewhere else, probably in North Bexley. Surprisingly the AA recommended route south from the Belvedere Bridge and the majority of new houses towards the A2 (Black Prince and Blackfen) is via Erith and the Bexley Road. History tells us from the construction of Tower Bridge in 1880, through to Rotherhithe, Blackwell, and the crossings at Dartford that the traffic congestion problem has not been solved, and there is no real evidence to prove that two new road bridges will do the same. The log jam will simply move elsewhere, and now it is our turn. From 8000 survey responses with a population base of 1.5m (0.05 percent) TFL claim that the crossings are necessary to enhance jobs growth, attract new businesses to the area and to construct new houses. Extracts from the TFL and other reports; 83 percent of businesses say they have no recruiting problems, the remaining 17 percent cite poor quality of applicants. around 75 percent of employees either lives locally or commutes by public transport. Jobs growth in the Thames Gateway Boroughs is almost twice the national average, and 54 percent higher than West London which has 15 River crossings. ASDA, Lidl, Tesco, Iron Mountain among other major distributors operate successfully and now Ocado are bringing 1200 new jobs to Erith despite the lack of river crossings. Large scale housing is moving ahead at Abbey Wood, Belvedere Park, Tower Road, Erith Quarry and the Larner Estate etc. There is continuing demand for these new properties without the promise of river crossings. Reading from a Quote by a leading estate agent in the Bexley Times 25 Jan 2015. “Bexley enjoys high levels of demand for houses. It offers good transport links into the city centre.” Road crossings may be wanted by some, but there is no proven need. It is true that the journey time between Belvedere and Dagenham can be improved, but that implies one needs to make such a journey between those two particular points in the first place. A further argument is that the crossings will be for local users only, this is nonsense because once a bridge is installed traffic ceases to be local in nature. It is noted that from the Bexley and TFL questionnaires options were not offered for cycle or train crossings and TFL have dismissed the ferry options including Woolwich. Now new pressure groups are promoting viable alternatives in train and cycle crossings:  TFL are looking at an extension of The Overground to Barkingside; from there it is only a short distance to Thamesmead and a link to Crossrail and the North Kent Line at Abbey Wood. The Fenchurch Street to Southend Line comes closest to the North Kent Line between Belvedere and Erith; there is no reason why the two could not be linked. This opens up the possibility of connections to Southend Airport, Lakeside and the Channel Tunnel line as well as supplementary routes towards East and Central London. Either or both of the above offer links to the Outer Orbital Railway proposed by Boris Johnson with extensions via the Loop lines to Bexleyheath and Sidcup, therefore embracing much of Bexley’s Strategy For Growth. This effective and environmentally friendly alternative is surely more attractive than the road crossings offered by TFL. Wake up Erith, Belvedere, Bexley Road and Northumberland Heath; under the present plans massive traffic jams and environmental problems are coming your way. If you need further detail please contact me by Email at: tonyfairbairn@btinternet.com" - Thanks Tony; if you agree with him, or have an alternative viewpoint, you can either leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. I am keen to reflect and expand on topics of local importance.

Some rather surprising news this week; almost exactly twenty years to the day when it was discontinued, Burger King are bringing back the Mushroom Swiss burger. This beef burger, topped with mushrooms and melted cheese is the sandwich that is most often requested by customers though not available. Many other Burger King franchises outside of the UK returned the burger to their menu some years ago - once again the UK lags behind countries in Europe. I am not a fast food eater; the last time I had a burger must have been at least a couple of years ago - maybe even longer. I live around five minutes walk from the Erith McDonald's drive through, but I have been there precisely three times in eighteen or so years. Even so, I do have a soft spot for the Mushroom Swiss burger, though I don't think it will be very likely I will be availing myself of one nowadays. I know that there are many out there who will be delighted by the news the long gone specialist sandwich is due back.

The council seem to have attracted the ire of News Shopper readers this week; at a recent council meeting the Conservative councillors voted to reject a bid to reduce their remuneration package by thirty percent, and also voted to impose a £33 per year charge for the collection and disposal of garden waste. I will leave the arguments about the excessive pay of certain senior council members to Malcolm Knight of Bexley is Bonkers (he does a far better job than I on such subjects) and will concentrate instead on the issue of the charge for garden waste. Anyone who lives or works in the London Borough of Bexley, or who has spent any length of time reading this blog will be fully aware of the endemic problem the area has with fly – tipping. Any money saved by charging for garden waste collection will be more than offset by the increase in fly tipping, and the need to clear up afterwards. I have been told by someone directly involved with monitoring and controlling environmental crime, that it costs Bexley Council something like £300 to clear up a van load of dumped waste for proper disposal. One thing also strikes me – garden waste is a valuable commodity. It can be sold on to companies that produce compost for further garden use. If the council were more business – savvy they would be able to engineer a cost – neutral solution to waste disposal, but once again the councillors involved choose the easy option that not only penalises people who need to get rid of garden waste. No doubt much will end up dumped by residents who don’t want to pay the charge, or by rogue waste disposal companies that offer to dispose of the waste on the sly for a consideration. Once more I suspect that the cheap option will actually end up being the most expensive in the long run. What do you think? Leave a message below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The end video this week is a bit of a curiosity; I was notified of it by fellow blogger Darryl of the 853 Blog, which covers the Charlton and Greenwich area. If you, like me, commute on the North Kent line on the trains that run from Dartford to Cannon Street via Greenwich line, you may have noticed that when heading in the London - bound direction, just after your train passes Charlton, the line divides just before it passes over the Blackwall Tunnel approach road bridge. One of the lines appears never to get used. This little known rail line is called the Angerstein Wharf branch line. It was built and opened by Russian born Charlton landowner John Angerstein in 1852 in order to get rail access to the to Angerstein Wharf on the River Thames; it also ran deep into the old East Greenwich gas works. Nowadays it is purely used for freight. Many of the ballast and gravel trains one sees passing along the North Kent line divert onto the Angerstein Wharf branch line. In a very special event on the 8th of November last year, a passenger train service ran on the line. It was a first class service in all carriages, with hot food being served, including a full English breakfast and a hearty dinner served with plenty of wine and beer. The passengers were pretty much all transport enthusiasts. You can see a video of part of the journey below. You certainly get a very different perspective on what you may well have thought you were familiar with. Fascinating stuff indeed.