Anchor Bay.

I took the photos above last Sunday afternoon on Erith Pier, after last weeks' blog update had already gone to press. The event was the closure of The Erith Lighthouse Project and the end of The Erith Pier Commission. A lunch for some of the key people involved in the whole series of events was held, along with a prize presentation for some of the children who had created artworks at a series of workshops held over the duration of The Lighthouse Project. The culture, art and pop up restaurant events held over the last few weeks have attracted well over three thousand people, with ages ranging from two to ninety two. Hopefully The Erith Lighthouse Project will become an annual event; it certainly deserves to, after the very positive feedback that it has received from visitors to the various events. 

I must admit that when Cory Environmental announced the fifth birthday of the waste burner plant that they operate in Norman Road, Lower Belvedere, I was surprised - I thought that it had been open for far longer than that. I know that the original proposal for a waste combustion facility had been initially proposed in the early to mid 90's, and that there was a very strong level of local opposition to the construction of the waste burner, which ended up with two public enquiries taking place. In an interview with The Bexley Times, Nick Pollard, the CEO of Cory Riverside Energy was quoted as saying:- "I think we’ve proven ourselves to be good neighbours, we’re part of the Belvedere Forum, we work closely both with local schools and the Neighbourhood Watch, and we contributed £150,000 to the Belvedere Beach project via the Cory Environmental Trust. There’s no smell, and in terms of pollution, the air quality is better here than going for a run in Hyde Park and we produce a third of what a landfill site produces in carbon emissions. The recent widening of the M25 used our material, we’ve produced around 200,000 tonnes of construction aggregate since opening, that’s 200,000 tonnes that doesn’t need to be dug up from the English countryside. The process to produce electricity at the plant does leave left over heat, we’d like to see a neighbour move in next door to put that heat to good use.Whether it’s a commercial or residential property, we could help heat a building, we can even use the heat to help run a cool-storage unit. Because of the delay in building this facility, the UK was somewhat behind some European countries, I’d put this facility up there with any other in the world, and the UK is now starting to catch up, we hear about projects popping up all over the country, there’s one in Southwark and I believe one in Croydon is being developed, Some boroughs are still sending waste to landfill or shipping their waste abroad, it’s strange to think of local rubbish going out to power homes in the Netherlands and Germany when it could be used here. All of the power we generate goes into the national grid, we generate enough power for 160,000 homes a year, that’s roughly the population of Croydon". I must admit that I was somewhat sceptical regarding the Belvedere waste burner, but overall it seems to work quite well; the reduction in carbon emissions compared with sending waste to landfill, and the resultant material being used for construction are two points I had not been aware of. As many will be aware, I am a very keen recycler, and am keen to see less material being used only once. The waste burner is a step away from just jumping rubbish into holes in the ground, but we really need to be reusing / repurposing far more than we currently do. What do you think? Leave a message below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

I have not mentioned any technology stories for quite some time. I am going to make up for that now. I don't know what web browser you are using to read this, but I would hazard a guess that you are probably using the Google Chrome web browser, which is now the most commonly used web browser in the world. For many years in the past, Microsoft were the dominant player in the web browser market, with the much derided and extremely insecure Internet Explorer 6 being almost the sole browser available, and the one that many web sites were coded to work with. Now a whole range of web browsers are available, depending on your computer operating system and personal preferences. Back in 2015, Microsoft launched an new browser that it called Edge, but thus far it has had little uptake, with only something in the region of three and a half percent of Windows users reporting that they use it as their web browser of choice. Bearing in mind that Edge only works on Windows 10, and not on earlier versions of Windows, or indeed other computer operating systems like Mac OS, Linux, Solaris, or any of the BSD Unix variants such as FreeBSD or NetBSD, this is indeed a vanishingly small proportion. Edge was equally notable for what it omitted as for what it added. Features not supported include ActiveX components, Browser Helper Objects, ActiveX Documents, Visual Basic Script, Java and Silverlight. In fact, Edge launched without support for any kind of plug-in, putting it at an immediate disadvantage to competitors such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and even Internet Explorer 11, which is also included in Windows 10 for compatibility reasons. The one concession to legacy code in Edge was support for Adobe Flash, though this is in the process of being phased out and will be gone completely by the end of 2020, according to current plans. Microsoft had several goals with Edge. One was to achieve a clean break from IE. The company’s mantra used to be “don’t break the web”, as a result of which IE has a complex set of compatibility modes, such as IE9 Standards mode, EmulateIE7 mode, IE5 “quirks” mode and more. The problem is not so much rendering websites that nobody has bothered to update, but more to do with applications, many of them built with Microsoft’s own tools, which rely on features of IE. Such applications can continue performing useful business functions for years after the tools which created them have been abandoned. With the release of Edge, Microsoft no longer worries about IE compatibility; if you need it, just continue to use it. Why do only a minority of users persevere with Edge? One factor was that the first release of Edge was almost unusable. The rendering engine was good, but the surrounding application was poor. Frustrations included no extensions, limited tab management, no choice about where to download files, and crude "Favourites" management. More seriously, some websites did not work properly, despite the company’s efforts. Users who liked or needed IE tended to revert to using IE as much as they could, while those on Chrome or other browsers had little reason to switch. Another factor is that Google exploits its search dominance to promote its browser. Every time you visit Google with Edge, you see an advert for Google Chrome. Edge today is certainly a viable web browser, but Microsoft’s problem is coming up with reasons for contented users of other browsers to switch. The company’s retreat from mobile devices also works against it, since Chrome in particular can exploit mobile/desktop integration. I think that Microsoft face an increasingly uphill battle to get users to switch, when so many other great web browsers are now available.

Local concern is mounting regarding the illegal moped and motor bike riders that have been infesting the local area seem to be getting even more bold in their criminal activities. As I have previously mentioned, that  just on the other side of the River Thames, Dagenham and Redbridge Police are dropping the Met - wide non engagement rule, following a radio debate I took part in on Time 107.5 FM on the 3rd of July, where the Borough Commander of Dagenham and Redbridge Police stated that they were about to trial a new policy of engagement, that, if successful would very likely be expanded to cover all Metropolitan Police areas. Up until now, unless there are very exceptional circumstances, the police will not chase yobs on mopeds, especially if they are not wearing crash helmets. At a motorcycle-related crime forum earlier this month, Government ministers heard there is a perception among the public and some police officers that the police will not pursue suspected offenders riding vehicles at high speeds. In addition, there is anecdotal evidence that criminals are deliberately removing - or not wearing - helmets because it is wrongly believed that police will not continue a pursuit if that happens. The current official Police policy, called the Authorised Professional Practice (APP) states:- "It is in the public interest to protect life, prevent or detect crime, or to apprehend an offender. Staff must discontinue a pursuit as soon as the risk becomes disproportionate to the reasons for undertaking it. Motorcycle and quad bike pursuits clearly present higher risks for suspects than conventional vehicle pursuit. Where such vehicles are used to facilitate serious crime or used repeatedly as the mode of transport for organised crime groups then, to minimise risk to the public from criminality and to secure public confidence in policing, a pursuit may be justified." Feedback that I have received from a number of respected local residents is that if some robust action is not taken by the authorities in the very near future, there are fears that individuals may resort to vigilante action. The news that the Metropolitan Police are at the very least reviewing the current situation is welcomed, though I feel that they will not only need to do more, but that they will need to be seen to be doing more. Following on from this story, it has a happy ending - for one case this time. It is so nice to be able to report something really good in respect of local law and order issues for a change. After so much trouble from the local illegal moped and quad bike riders in the last few months, I am pleased to note that just for once one of the criminal scumbags had actually got his just deserts. Billy Amos, aged 20 from Frobisher Road in Erith (See his photo above - click on it for a larger image of the criminal scumbag) has been sent to prison for illegally riding a quad bike whilst he was already disqualified from driving, and when he had no tax or vehicle insurance. He was sentenced at Bexley Magistrates' Court on Monday, September 25th to one month behind bars, and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £115 and ordered to pay costs of £625. He was also given 6 penalty points on the licence he does not have. It is not the first time the career criminal has been in trouble with the law; in March 2016 he was charged with a total of 12 offences - four counts of theft of motorbikes, one count of burglary, one count of attempted burglary, two counts of driving without a licence, two counts of driving without insurance, and two counts of riding a bike without protective headgear. I am hopeful that this will be the first of many prosecutions and imprisonments to hit the large group of illegal bikers that infest and menace the local area. It has been noted that some of the criminal bikers have developed a kind of uniform, which has been seen over the last few weeks. The “uniform” seems to consist of a matt black full – face helmet, along with a matt black boiler suit. The ride orange and white painted moto cross bikes, mostly around Erith, Slade Green and Crayford. This apparent gang of riders have been reported to local Police. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

I took the photo above a couple of weeks ago - it shows the view looking East from Erith with Anchor Bay, the Slade Green Marshes and the Erith Yacht Club in clear view - click on the photo to see a larger version. It was taken from the same mystery location as the competition photograph from last week; I had one person get very close to the actual location that the shot was taken from, but the competition is now still running.

One of the problems that comes with only being in a position to publish once a week on a Sunday is that if a good story breaks earlier in the preceding week, it can mean that the Maggot Sandwich looks like it is "coming late to the table", when in fact in many cases I was aware of the story well before it broke in the local mainstream press. The following story is a case in point. I was forwarded a press release by one of my occasional confidential sources on Monday, and the story was published by the News Shopper on Tuesday, but I have only been in a position to publish it today. Never mind; I am sure that some people will not be aware of the really good news. National consumer organisation ‘Which?’ has praised Bexley’s food hygiene enforcement record, naming it the best performing London Borough and the most improved authority in the country, after it came at the bottom back in 2015, as I wrote extensively about at the time, with West Street in Erith coming out as the bottom road in the bottom borough in the "Scores on the Doors" food hygiene ratings. The announcement of the drastic and much welcomed improvement since then follows:- "In 2015 Bexley made major changes to the way food safety is investigated in the borough. This included increasing staffing levels coupled with significantly increased inspection, advice and enforcement action to raise standards by lower rated businesses. Bexley food businesses are now among the highest rated for food hygiene in London. Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Environment and Leisure, Cllr Peter Craske said; “Residents across Bexley can eat out with confidence because of the hard work of our food inspection team. This Which? report rightly recognises the importance of this issue. To be number one in London is testament both to our staff and the restaurants and cafes across Bexley who work to maintain very high standards.” Council officers visit around 1,000 food establishments every year to make sure people are safe eating their food. Those that don't meet the standard and have a score below three face formal enforcement action including statutory enforcement notices, closure and fines. Restaurants and takeaways should display their food hygiene score in their window. If they don't, remember to ask what it is before you book, visit www.food.gov.uk or download the Food Hygiene Rating App for Android or Apple". Personally I think that is should be a legal requirement that food outlets should have to display an accurate and up to date "Scores on the Door" hygiene rating sticker in their window - currently, whilst the inspections are compulsory, the display of the rating is only voluntary - this has to change.

This week’s safety and security reports from Bexley Neighbourhood Watch Association, which begins with some special advice concerning garden sheds:- “With winter fast approaching, be sure to secure your shed to avoid a nasty surprise come the Spring: 1) Check that your insurance covers the contents of your shed or outbuildings from theft. 2) Take a look at your shed and consider how you would break in. It’s worth having a good padlock on the door with no exposed screws. Pay attention to hinges, as these are sometimes easily removable. If you have windows then these could be vulnerable unless they’re secured with wire mesh or grills. And keep it locked at all times. 3) Alarm it - consider a battery-operated shed alarm. They look low key but they respond to movement or door contact with an extremely loud siren. It is also important to lock, hide and mark the contents. Visit https://www.met.police.uk/crime-prevention/non-residential-burglary/secure-shed-garage for details of how best to do this". Barnehurst ward:-“Good news for Barnehurst Ward!! Yet again there has been no reports of any burglaries. There has also been no reports of any vehicle crime within the last week. On 25th September at 06.00pm a member of the public reported criminal damage to a bench in Russell Park. Police attended and spoke to a group of youths present however there was no evidence to say who or how the damage was caused. Officers paid a visit to Barnehurst Methodist Church on Wednesday to engage with the local residents. On Monday 25th September a visit was made to the Barnehurst Rainbows at Parkside Cross. The rainbows were given a talk on Stranger Danger and were invited to try various parts of Police uniform, this included a chance to sit in a Police car followed by getting their finger prints taken. The visit was enjoyed by all. Midfield Avenue, Westfield Road, Bourne Mead and Mount Pleasant Walk have all been leafleted in the hope of launching a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme. It is hoped residents from these roads will come forward to act as a point of contact for the Barnehurst Policing Team. Please continue to be vigilant in keeping your home safe. Look out for your vulnerable neighbours and always report something or someone you feel is suspicious, best to be safe than sorry. We will be at Barnehurst Golf Club on Tuesday 03rd October at 11.00 so please feel free to join us over a coffee and a chat. If you’re a resident on Barnehurst wishing to know a little bit more about Neighbourhood Watch and what it entails, come along to the golf club and we will be more than happy to elaborate further. Please forward details to anyone you know that maybe interested”. Belvedere ward:-“The team have continued to patrol Nuxley Road and surrounding areas including the car park in relation to ongoing issues with ASB by youths. We are aware that there appears to be an issue stemming from the recycling refuse bins within the car park, in as much as the youths have taken to using items dumped here to throw into nearby streets, causing damage to vehicles. We are in the process of contacting Bexley Council to assist with this issue and will monitor the situation over the coming weeks. We have also been receiving information of drug dealing in and around Upper Belvedere and have been carrying out patrols of areas said to be affected by this issue. Lastly, a female has been charged by PC Holmes in relation to a shoplifting offence that took place at B and Q in Lower Road, Belvedere”. Brampton ward:-“Brampton ward have had a lively week with numerous crimes: Shoplifting at Pickford Lane £100 worth of goods stolen and Shoplifting in Brampton Road 4 cans of beer stolen. 3 Burglaries where suspects have broken into the rear upvc door on 2 occasions and completed an untidy search of the property , the other at present it is unknown how entry was gained. Theft from motor vehicle in Rydal drive and Belvedere Road, number plates were taken from the vehicles. Sending letters with intent to cause distress in Silecroft Road; Criminal damage in Preston Drive and Bowford Avenue; Possession of cannabis in Long Lane - officers stopped a person who was smoking it. Robbery to a person in Heversham Road, mobile phone stolen. We are currently investigating a female for breach of Criminal behaviour order and a pickpocketing that happened in Long Lane. On investigation, the CCTV in the shop has shown the offence - images of the suspects will be circulated . Please go to www.met.police.uk and choose your area , place in your road name or postcode and it will take you to Brampton ward , from there you can look up all crimes on the ward and advice on all crimes. Also look out for us on Twitter Brampton police”. Colyers ward:-“There were no reported burglaries between 20/09/17 and 25/09/17 and no reported motor vehicle crimes during the same period. On 14 September a scrape lorry helped himself to items in the front garden of Windermere Road Barnehurst. On 13 September a male was arrested for handling stolen goods following a stop of a vehicle near Hampton House on Erith Road and a quantity of cash and bank cards seized. There were also arrests for Possession with intent to supply in Colyers Lane on the 12 September and possession of Cannabis in Frinsted Road on the 15th September. Colyers next Surgery will be Friday 6th October in the Blackberry Patch Community Centre, Badlow Close at 7pm”. Crayford ward:-“Unfortunately there has been an increase in crime in Crayford this week. Of note there have been two residential burglaries. One on the 25/09/2017 during the day, jewellery and watches were stolen. Another on 26/09/2017 at approx 19.40, whereby the house alarm was set off, a neighbour entered the house and disturbed the burglar, in this instance a lady had her jewellery and watches stolen. On 23/09/2017 there was an attempted burglary but nothing was stolen. Crime prevention advice has been given. The darker nights are drawing in and we would suggest that our residents consider their home security. Please see the websites http://www.met.police.uk/crimeprevention, http://www.immobilise.com and http://www.securedbydesign.com for further information. Of course, we are available should you require a visit. There have also been non-residential burglaries to shops and business premises during closed hours. A moped has also been stolen. The Crayford Ward Panel meeting will be held on Thursday 05/10/2017 at 19.00, the venue is Sainsbury Café. We will always welcome new members”. Lesnes Abbey ward:-“Good news - No Burglaries (Dwelling). 1 Burglary Non Dwelling (Garage) Amberley Road; 1 Attempted Burglary non Dwelling ( shed ). There were person/s using metal detector/s in the Lesnes Abbey ruins. It is an offence to use a metal detector on a scheduled monument  or in an area of archaeological importance without a licence from Historic England. This is regardless of whether the user does any damage to the monument or area. It is also an offence to remove an object of archaeological or historic interest from a scheduled monument or area of archaeological importance that has been discovered using a metal detector”. North End ward:-“In the last week we have had 5 vehicle crimes reported. This includes 3 x criminal damage to vehicles and 2 x theft of number plates. One of the criminal damage was caused by a rider on a motorbike with no helmet kicking the wing mirror off of a vehicle as he rode down Manor Road making no attempt to stop. This sort of crime seems to be increasing. Any information you may have regarding any off road bikes or motorbikes and mopeds being ridden in a dangerous or ASB way, please pass on to us. In better news, a male was stopped and detained by PC Mark Brookes-Smith after we saw him riding down the cinder alley. He tried to get away but Mark was able to stop him. The bike checked out to all be legal but he still received a Section 59 warning for riding on the path and is being interviewed this week for the offences of Failing to stop for a police officer and riding where he shouldn’t be riding. We carried out a weapons sweep in Rainbow Road last Sunday and thankfully nothing was found. Surgery dates for October are set to be sent out in next week's update”. Northumberland Heath ward:-“This week we visited the Muller Dairy on Brook Street to give crime prevention advice. In the very early hours of the morning some delivery drivers have been randomly attacked by youths whilst out on the rounds delivering milk in surrounding areas to Bexley. This was very well received and a follow up visit is being planned. We have been low on crimes reported this week with only one residential burglary in Cranbrook Road. The suspect broke in via the rear kitchen window and made an untidy search of the house. The burglary happened between 1.30pm and 10.30pm on 25/09/2017. There was a fight reported between two school pupils that was quickly stopped in Byron Drive. Thankfully this appears to have been a one off incident and not linked to the previous ASB issues in the area. Officers from the team also patrolled in plain clothes on Saturday night checking The Pantiles, Parsonage Manor Way, North Heath Recreation Ground through to Bexley Road. The ward was thankfully free of any groups of youths gathering or causing ASB and no criminal incidents were seen. Groups of youths on bicycles have been spoken to throughout the week in relation to recent reports of ASB. It turned out that none of the youths spoken to had any involvement in any previously reported issues”. Some general personal safety advice from Bexley Police:- “Police were called to Natwest Bank at Bexleyheath on 21/09/2017 regarding concerns of an elderly male who was trying to withdraw a large amount of money in order to pay garden clearance workers. The elderly male stated that a man had knocked at his door offering to do maintenance work. He has attended the bank whilst the male was carrying out work at the address and tried to withdraw the cash. Officers attended the home address with Trading Standards and stopped the male conducting the work. No money was handed over. As Police we always advise don’t do business on your doorstep. If you are unsure if the company is genuine you can always check reputable traders under Bexley’s trading standards website https://www.traderregister.org.uk/bexley/index.php or you can give them a call during office hours via 020 8303 7777 asking for Trading Standards. If you feel you are being pressured into handing money over or the person becomes abusive, please do not hesitate to call 999. Bogus callers We also received a report of a young male knocking at an address in St Marys Road at 9pm on 21/9/17. It is not known what he was doing. We are looking to hear from any other residents nearby to see if anyone else came across him".

It has not been given much publicity, but the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is celebrating its 30th birthday. The railway continues to deliver a vital transport link for millions of Londoners and to mark the anniversary a '30 things to do by DLR' travel guide and an easier to read line map have been released - the the image above - click on it to see a larger version. Officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen in summer 1987, the DLR initially began with just 11 single-carriage trains that served 15 stations. It has continued to grow, being extended six times to help meet east London's growing population, and now serves Bank DLR station in The City, Beckton, Lewisham, London City Airport, Woolwich Arsenal and Stratford International. Today, the entirely step-free railway carries 122 million passengers, up from 6.7 million in its first year, and encompasses 45 stations with 56 mainly three carriage trains on 38 kilometres of track. DLR customers will benefit from new trains in 2022, helping boost capacity on the DLR by 30 per cent. The new trains are part of the Mayor of London's draft Transport Strategy, which plans to create a fairer, greener, healthier and more prosperous city by improving public transport and encouraging active travel. The trains will help improve reliability and will feature onboard real time information, air-conditioning and mobile device charging points for the first time. They will also bring increased capacity and will help the DLR continue to support growth in South East London. See a short film on the 30th birthday of the DLR below.

A surfeit of Dizzyade.

Residents in Manor Road, Erith got a letter from Bexley Council Highways Department through their letter boxes this week. Residents have been complaining about the crumbling state of the road surface, which was only relaid back in May 2009; you can see photos of the work back then by clicking here. The road surface was designed to have noise deadening properties due to its' special composition. The noise was indeed substantially reduced, but the surface proved not to be robust; within a year of it being laid, it began to crumble, as can be seen in the photo above. The Council letter was to let local people know that Manor Road is being closed to all traffic between 7pm and 2am on Tuesday night, so that the  damaged sections of roadway can be cut out and replaced. 

The Pound Town shop unit in the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre has been vacated and empty for a surprisingly short amount of time; you may recall a scant few weeks ago that I was bemoaning the moving out of Pound Town – not because they could not pay the rent, but because the shop had been so stunningly successful that they needed to relocate to larger premises in Crayford, in what used to the old Peacock's store. I felt that it was going to be extremely difficult to get another tenant for the former Wise Furnishings furniture warehouse building. I am extremely glad to find that I was wrong. Whilst walking past the shop unit last week, I noticed light and activity through the whitewashed windows. Workers were refurbishing the shop. A day or so later when I passed the place, a large red and white sign above the store announced “The 99p Shop”. Well, it is a penny down on the last incumbent. I had vainly hoped that the place might have been converted into a sit down curry house or little Italian bistro, but these dreams were never going to be realistic. The cost of fitting kitchen equipment and cooker flues / filters would have been prohibitive, which is a pity. A 99p store is way better than leaving the place empty, and it the previous Pound Town obviously filled a local demand. I just hope that the new owners do something about the ventilation in the shop, as even in the depths of winter the old place was stiflingly hot and stuffy. Time will tell; I hope to be on hand to cover the grand opening of the shop.

Buying online is so easy and convenient nowadays – even my mother is a fan of Amazon; she feels safer shopping with them than she does when she goes in person to Bexleyheath Broadway. Sending credit card information over an encrypted HTTPS connection is a very secure thing to do. Many websites, wary of keyboard logging malware get you to “type” on a screen based virtual keyboard using mouse movements and clicks. This clever technique is also secure – but not if you are using Internet Explorer. There is a fundamental fault in Internet Explorer versions 6 to the current version 10 which means that by injecting just twelve lines of programming code into a web page, your cursor and key presses can be monitored and recorded by a third party anywhere in the world. You can read details of the fault (which at the time of writing, Microsoft say that they have no plans to patch) I have been critical of Internet Explorer on many occasions – it is slow, clunky, does not render web standard compliant pages correctly, it is a memory hog and even now does not handle tabs in the most intuitive of manners. This serious vulnerability really takes the biscuit – especially as Microsoft seem indifferent about fixing it. Personally I use Google’s Chrome browser, and Firefox is also excellent. The Opera browser has its’ fans, though personally I find it too quirky for me. The bottom line is that there are a number of alternatives to Internet Explorer out there – if you have not already done so, I would recommend you try them and find out which one works best for you.

The crackdown on local metal theft has stepped up a gear; a 34 year old man was arrested last week by Bexley Police for handling stolen goods. The man was found to have over two hundred assorted gas bottles stored in a shipping container in his yard. Just what would have happened had there been a fire is worrying; I recall some years ago, Erith Construction had a large yard and offices on the Slade Green Industrial Estate on Wallhouse Road. They had a fire in the yard back in 2006, and a number of propane and acetylene gas cylinders exploded, utterly destroying their offices and their IT infrastructure. Erith Construction were one of the very early adopters of Google Docs for Enterprise (now named Google Drive), which uses a web based office software suite, and cloud based document and data storage. Because of this (at the time) far sighted approach, the office workers were able to use anywhere where they could access a WiFi signal (such as McDonald’s in James Watt Way) to log into their documents and carry on working as if nothing had happened. The chap with the stolen gas cylinders would not have been so lucky; he would have probably ended up being the first human in orbit without the need for a rocket! The bill marking into law changes in the way scrap dealers operate was passed by Parliament, and has now come into effect. Scrap dealers are now forbidden in paying cash for scrap brought in to their yards. Now they must pay by cheque or direct credit – a step in the right direction, but I feel the measures may need to be stiffened still further, as the dodgy dealers will no doubt find a way around the restrictions. Thefts of copper power cables from the railways have got even worse over the recent months; this has given South Eastern Trains some legitimate excuse for delays and cancellations – not that they need much to disrupt their services – only last week when we had the merest sprinkle of snow, the Dartford via Greenwich rail line was thrown into disarray. On Tuesday morning the reason was cited as a broken down train between Lee and Hither Green, which affected all London bound trains from around 8am. It would appear that South Eastern have been taking it seriously in the neck; they have a twitter feed, which had collected over three hundred tweets in the space of no more than an hour. At least commuters have a way of contacting the rail company in real time to make their displeasure known, and to their credit, South Eastern have undertaken to answer each tweet individually. The trouble is, the weather has been chilly, but the level of snow really has been no more than a sprinkle. What will happen if (when?) we have a heavy fall is anyone’s guess. I am fortunate that I can very easily work from home; I have a very fast fibre optic internet connection, an office phone that I can remotely divert to my home phone, and a job which for much of the time does not require me to be physically present in the office. If heavy snow threatens, I can batten down the hatches in Pewty Acres and wait out the disruption; many are not so lucky.

Continuing with the travel theme this week, I undertook the last parts of my journey home from visiting Watford on Tuesday afternoon; for a change I decided to get off the Jubilee Line tube train from Euston at Bank, rather than carrying on to London Bridge to pick up the overland train to Erith. The reason for this was 1) the trains in and around London Bridge were still playing up from an earlier broken down train, and B) I wanted to explore the Docklands Light Railway link from Bank through to Woolwich Arsenal, where if the overland trains were still not running, I then had the option of picking up the 99 bus from Woolwich to sunny Erith. I must admit that the journey from Bank through the East End, Canary Wharf and past London City Airport is an instructive one. You travel through areas of both extreme wealth and extreme need in the space of only a few hundred metres on some occasions. The view of Canary Wharf from Poplar station is stunning at night – the office buildings are lit up like gigantic architectural Christmas trees. The approach to London City Airport is unusual – the first sense you are near jet aeroplanes is the smell of aviation fuel – Kerosene, which has a smell very similar to its’ hydrocarbon cousin, Paraffin. Only after this aroma permeates the DLR carriage do the airport and planes come into view. I would like to visit the airport in daylight with my camera and a couple of lenses, as it looks like it might be a very photogenic location. Going onwards, the DLR goes right underneath the Arabfly Dangleway. At the time of my trip I could see at least half a dozen cable car carriages in the air over the River Thames – and every single one of them was empty.  The whole sorry shebang smacks strongly of being one of Boris’s vanity projects. Not long after this you descend into a tunnel under the Thames which ends up in Woolwich, and journey’s end. An interesting trip I would recommend if you are unfamiliar as I was with that less visited part of the capital.

The picture above may look familiar - and that is because I have used it before - I am recycling some second hand photons; it pretty much sums up Christmas in parts of Erith to a tee; the bus shelter even looks passingly similar to one almost opposite Pewty Acres. As many readers may already know, I don't send Christmas cards, for a number of reasons, mainly as I think them redundant now that the Western world is now online, and via social networking, Email, Twitter and a host of other services, people keep in contact all year round, not just via a once a year bit of printed card. Cards use a huge amount of natural resources, both in their production and transportation, and generally get shredded or dumped after the annual festivities. I think we really need to move on from them. Think of this as my virtual season's greetings.

I know many regard me as a grumpy old curmudgeon when it comes to the Christmas festivities; and I suppose I am to an extent. I suppose having no children does mean that I don’t see the holiday from their perspective. For the most part it is a period for me to endure, rather than enjoy. I am not saying that the festival is a complete anathema, but it sometimes feels that way. One thing I really detest is the journey home from work on the couple of weeks’ before the Christmas break. One invariably encounters “amateur drinkers” who have been on a boozy Christmas lunch; not able to hold their drink (or to know when to stop before the effects impaired their actions) they generally make the lives of their fellow commuters insufferable, even if it is just by sitting close by and breathing alcohol fumes over their fellows; I have to say that when in the office, either in Canary Wharf or Watford, my habit is to start early and finish early. In doing this I avoid the worst excesses of those suffering from a Yuletide surfeit of Dizzyade. I feel sorry for fellow commuters that have to travel later in the evening – I have been there in years past, and it is not pretty!

I periodically have a spring clean of my work laptop bag; I have an annoying habit of accruing all sorts of junk in the bag, which is my mobile office. Because my work role is peripatetic (and yes, I know you can get ointment for it nowadays) I don’t have a desk or cabinet to store all my bits and pieces. Back in the day when I was based in an office in Southwark, I used to enjoy a whole walk in store room to myself – I had entire desktop computers, spare hard drives, all sorts of cabling, tools, a couple of digital multi testers, and even a bath towel* squirreled away. Now I just have my bag. Whilst I was clearing out the bag, I thought that it was a good opportunity to do the same with my wallet, as that also is somewhat guilty of attracting all sorts of detritus – people’s business cards are a case in point. What I came across were a number of shop gift vouchers and cards, almost all of which were well past their redemption date. I reckon I had at least £50 in unusable credit sitting in my wallet. Bearing this in mind, I wonder exactly how much cash is tied up around the country with unused gift vouchers and the like? I reckon there must be millions, if not billions of pounds sitting in drawers and wallets around the UK. The winner of course are the companies that sell the vouchers in the first place. I have done some research with the UK Gift Card and Voucher Association (of whose existence I previously was unaware) and they estimate that there is at any one time approximately £250 million unspent and expired gift voucher credit on total sales of £2.1 billion a year. This would be enough to build and equip a major regional teaching hospital – it is in no way small change. I think the problem is compounded by the fact that the vouchers expire after two years – something most people are unaware of.

*Bath towel – read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for the reasons why a bath towel is the single most important item a person can ever own. Douglas Adams wrote: "A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mind boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a brush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough. More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with." The ending video this week is the full length 2005 movie version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Many fans feel the movie was weaker than the 1981 television series, but for a newbie to the whole Guide phenomenon, it is a pretty good place to start. So here is all one hour and fifty minutes of the film, in high definition - click the icon for full screen presentation, should you so wish. Comments below, as always.