Out of Wind.

The Erith Wind Turbine has rapidly become one of the major landmarks of the town, even though it is actually located far closer to Slade Green, than to central Erith. The Wind Turbine is situated on the banks of the River Thames on the Manford Industrial Estate, which is also home to the excellent, multi award - winning Bexley Brewery. The location of the wind turbine was somewhat controversial when it was first installed back in October 2012, with some Slade Green residents objecting to it. Since then it has formed an integral part of the local landscape. It was fairly widely anticipated that further wind turbines would be constructed locally, as the Government sought to create as much energy using renewable energy sources as possible. A recent report may well have put paid to this, however. It would seem that the UK has the wrong type of wind. The head of the wind industry’s trade body in the UK has admitted England isn’t windy enough for any more wind farms. “We are almost certainly not talking about the possibility of new plants in England. The project economics wouldn’t work; the wind speeds don’t allow for it,” essentially the wind in the UK is too sporadic and unreliable to make for an efficient renewable energy source. Hugh McNeal (no relation - I promise!) head of Renewable UK told the Daily Telegraph. McNeal joined the lobby group from the civil service, where he was “Director of Change” (a real job title) at the Department of Energy and Climate Change during its most wind-friendly phase. Government subsidies for new onshore wind turbines were quietly dropped on the 1st April this year; In his final interview before his untimely death from cancer, DECC’s chief scientific advisor Sir David Mackay called it an “appalling delusion” that the UK could meet its energy needs from renewables. Wind turbines were simply a "waste of money" in winter, for "when the wind blows you are going to have to either turn those wind turbines down or something else down that you have already paid for, like the nuclear or coal fired generators". Solar generation only works in really sunny countries. The international renewables agency IRENA recently admitted that renewable usage is actually falling in China, India and Mexico. The EU quietly dropped its mandate that 10 per cent of transport be powered by renewables 2020 earlier this year. Bill Gates has called for the huge renewables subsidies wasted on wind and solar to be diverted to more potentially useful low carbon innovation. I think that the Erith wind turbine probably pays its' way, as the wind off the River Thames is a lot more reliable than that in other areas, but that is the exception, rather than the rule. It is a pity that the so - called renewable energy from wind and the sun is not actually reliable enough to make a significant contribution to the UK energy reserve, but I suppose that we have to be realistic, rather than idealistic.

As I have previously written, I have concerns over the quality of local journalism, now that the staff of the News Shopper have moved out of their long - term home in Petts Wood and are now either working from home, or from their new base in West London, far from the area they are tasked with covering. A prime example of this happened this week. A reporter named James Parsons wrote a piece about a woman who is resident at the former Homeleigh Care Home in Avenue Road, Erith, which has been converted into a temporary respite shelter for homeless people. The problem with the piece was (and at the time of writing, currently is) that the reporter refers to the former care home being located in Sidcup rather than Erith. I Emailed James Parsons to point out his error, and got an out of office auto reply, and since then several readers have left comments on the article pointing out the error in the story, but thus far it has not been corrected; the story was originally posted on Wednesday, and it is now Sunday. Very poor journalism. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Long - term Maggot Sandwich readers will be aware of my strong antipathy towards gambling, and especially towards Fixed Odds Betting Terminals used in bookmakers shops. There is now a clinic in Fulham which specialises in supporting and helping people with gambling problems to overcome their addiction: The National Problem Gambling Clinic - around fifteen problem gamblers are referred to the clinic every week from across the country; every year between 750 and 900 people start treatment here. Most are male, and in their 30s and 40s; about 70 percent are working. “Yet, by the time we see them, they have lost jobs or lost opportunities professionally because of their gambling and they have often compromised important relationships,” Bowden-Jones says. “They are usually highly stressed and there is a lot of guilt, when they look at the negative consequences on their employers, spouse, children, employers.” Most patients are spending their money on the high street roulette machines – known as fixed odds betting terminals (often described as the crack cocaine of gambling, because of the speed with which large sums can be staked, and lost), and on sports betting, usually done online at home. The easy availability of online, in-game betting has made sports betting increasingly popular over the past decade. While fifteen years ago people might only have been able to bet on the result of a game, at the bookmakers, now they can bet online, on a variety of scenarios within the game, making watching the sport highly stressful for gamblers. Bowden-Jones, who previously specialised in alcohol and drug addiction, founded the NHS’s first and only specialist gambling clinic, funded by the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, in 2008. It had become obvious, amid rising concern about the growing presence of super-casinos and new easy access to betting shops, that there was a desperate need for it. She has been innovative and experimental, trialling the use of a cravings-suppressing drug, naltrexone, more commonly prescribed to alcoholics and heroin addicts. It is a last-resort treatment for gamblers whose addiction has persisted despite the clinic’s interventions. Personally I would have thought drastic cutbacks and legal restrictions on betting shops and online gambling, and especially on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals would be the best way forward. What do you think?

One of my anonymous sources has alerted me to the news that a licence application has been made to Bexley Council for a new Micro Pub to be called the Hackney Carriage, which (if permission is granted, and I have little doubt that it will), would be located at 165 Station Road, Sidcup. This is good news; Bexley is becoming a leader in encouraging and supporting Micro Pubs. I would like to see one in Erith or Northumberland Heath - there are plenty of suitable unused shop units available, and the demand is certainly there. Central Erith only has one pub - The Running Horses (see the photo above - click on it for a larger view), which is sadly a bare shadow of what it used to be. I would love to see it as a lively and busy family friendly place with an excellent upstairs restaurant, but instead it limps along with a small band of loyal regulars. A large investment really needs to be made in the place - perhaps if a large pub company or brewer such as Shepherd Neame or Fuller's were to buy it, they would be able to turn the place around once and for all. I fear that when things get particularly tight for the current owners, they may be tempted to sell of the building and plot of land on which it sits to a property developer to demolish the pub and replace it with yet more riverside apartments, and I know I am far from being alone in this concern. The Running Horses is an excellent building, and with some love and cash it could bring it back to its' glory days in the late 1980's when you needed to book a week in advance to get a table in the upstairs carvery on a Sunday lunchtime. Another beer related story was brought to my attention earlier in the week, and it has parallels with an experience of my own. A Belgian brewery has developed an impressive engineering solution to a problem they had with transporting their beers. Bruges brewery De Halve Maan (The Half Moon) is about to open the valves on a €4m beer pipeline designed to carry vital supplies the 3.2km from its city centre production facility to its bottling plant. The subterranean ale conduit was the brainchild of De Halve Maan's head brewer Xavier Vanneste, who wanted a solution to the problem of beer tanker lorries negotiating the city's narrow streets around the brewery in Walplein square. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Vanneste was inspired by workers "laying underground utility cables in front of his house". He admitted: "It all started as a joke. Nobody believed it was going to work." Four years later, though, and the epic project is just weeks away from completion. Vanneste raised an impressive €300,000 of the pipeline budget with a crowdfunding initiative, which offered investors with €7,500 to spare "one 33cl bottle of Brugse Zot Blond every day for the rest of your life". Less wealthy customers were tempted with one case of 24 bottles of Brugse Zot Blond a year for life (€800), or "one presentation bottle of 75cl of Brugse Zot Blond a year for life" for a modest €220. Restaurateur Philippe Le Loup was one of those who stumped up €7,500, and he reckons that at a bottle a day he'll have recouped his investment in 15 years. Le Loup's restaurant is a few hundred metres from the pipeline, and he said he'd have welcomed a direct connection, to save him "a lot of keg-dragging". Sadly for him, and indeed those Belgian citizens who are no doubt already planning just how to tap the polyethylene pipe, Vanneste said this would prove "impossible", rating the tube as "stronger than steel". The Belgian pipe development is the longest and by far the most ambitious beer pipeline in the world, but it is far from the only one. Shepherd Neame down at their historic brewery in Faversham have what they call "The Beer Bridge" - their main brewery is on one side of a busy road, and their bottling plant is on the other. The have constructed an overhead gantry which contains beer piped from the brewery to the bottling plant. Apparently there have been several attempts to drill into the pipes and siphon off the beer, though to date none appear to have been successful. The Belgian enterprise is far more ambitious - you can see a short video on the brewery behind it below. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The whole of the South East of England is under intense population pressure for a multitude of reasons I’m not about to explore here. Others with higher levels of insight have already done so far more eloquently than I. Nevertheless the population boom and lack of investment in new housing stock have caused property prices to boom, and the rental market to explode. Those with lots of money (many of whom are absentee foreign investors seeking to get their cash into the UK economy, which they judge to be a stable and reliable place to invest) have been doing very nicely indeed out of the situation, whilst the rest of us struggle. This week the News Shopper has highlighted a particular problem with the London Borough of Bexley. Unusually for a local council, Bexley does not have a Tenancy Relations Officer to supervise the private landlord market in the Borough. This has partly led to the current situation where some unscrupulous private landlords are dividing up houses into tiny flats, often contrary to the building and health and safety regulations. The News shopper has recently reported that a petition has been started which is designed to persuade Bexley Council to introduce legislation to force developers to apply for planning permission before converting two-bed family homes into six separate bedsits, known as an Article 4 direction. Bexley would appear to have a particular problem with what is known as Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMO). Many of these HMO houses are used as hostels for vulnerable people with drug and / or mental health problems, or ex – offenders, and many home owners feel intimidated by the HMO residents. Because Bexley Council have historically not engaged with HMO landlords, they lack any data on how many, and in what areas HMO houses are located. The petition that has been set up on the Change.org website can be seen here. Reading the comments from the local residents that have signed the petition, it would seem that feeling is running very high indeed on the matter. One fairly typical comment is from a lady called Donna Everist who writes:- “I think it's wrong that law abiding, hardworking people, who pay a mortgage, taxes, council taxes etc could have the house next door turned into bedsits filled with people who have done none of these, and probably never will. If the comments about the sort of people who will reside in these bedsits is true, then I'm lost for words!” Other comments are somewhat less measured, with often recurring references to “paedos, druggies, nutters and scum”. It will be instructive to see what happens when the petition is handed to Teresa Pearce MP and David Evennett MP – our two local politicians. I get the feeling this story will run for a long time to come.

The HMO story highlights the somewhat contradictory situation with property in The London Borough of Bexley; not only is the creation of multi occupancy residences unmonitored and apparently unregulated, but on top of this, towns in the borough also top the polls regarding both property affordability and speed of selling. A recent report by estate agent Rightmove stated that homes in Bexleyheath  — where average prices stand at £375,259 — sell in just three weeks, thanks a potent local mix of affordable property, grammar schools, and a 35-minute commute to central London. Abbey Wood is a close second, benefiting from the imminent arrival of the Elizabeth line (formerly Crossrail). Property there sells in an average of 22 days, and an average house costs £326,815. Dartford’s market is equally active, with homes that also take 22 days to sell, at an average price of £290,523. The most expensive town in the London Borough of Bexley, with an average price of £471,931, is Bexley village, while the cheapest is Erith, with an average price of £261,433. They are also the areas of London where prices are predicted to start rising fastest. My own property, Pewty Acres has risen in value so much that I would be unable to purchase it nowadays. A report released by property experts CBRE Residential back in January backed this finding up; it compared the average wage and average house price for each London borough, giving first-time buyers a good idea of how far their annual income will stretch. “While affordability for many first-time buyers in London may be stretched, there are still a number of locations that are continuing to attract these buyers with lower values and potential for growth," says Jennet Siebrits, head of residential research at CBRE. "By measuring the average earnings coupled with local house prices, we anticipate that Bexley is set to further appeal to those looking for increased value for money." The report was featured in the London Evening Standard at the time, though through lazy journalism and lack of proper research, the paper described Bexley as being in “East London” – something guaranteed to raise the hackles of many local people. Bexleyheath was the featured town in the weekly Homes and Property section of the London Evening Standard last Wednesday afternoon - click here to see their coverage.

I have been in communication with the team behind Erith Fun Day, which for the first time will be held in Erith Sports Centre, instead of the tradition venue in Erith Riverside Gardens, overlooking the River Thames. Several readers have been displeased regarding the change of venue, which some feel is less accessible. The Fun Day management team responded with this very open and honest reply:- “Firstly, I should say that this was a big decision for us which we really did discuss at length as we are so aware of making use of the gardens. Nobody wants developers to get their hands on this land and so our plan is to hopefully put on another event later this year.  At Rotary we have discussed a couple of ideas including a beer festival and an open air  movie night. Anyway, onto our reasons for making the move. The first thing is probably to make you aware of our funding issues. We are all volunteers and do not receive any funding apart from what we raise. The Erith Group are fabulous and give us £500 each year which is our starting point.  This just covers the cost of gardens/park hire and our licences. On top of this we have to provide toilet facilities, generator hire ,publicity and printing costs, first aid cover  and a myriad of smaller things. Dan our Dj and MC gives his time and equipment for free and counts towards our sponsors. The mobile bar company gives us a small percentage of takings as does Forrest Fairs.  The last two are paid after the event and we do not know how much we will get but this  then goes into the kitty for next year.! Based on the feedback we received from last year, the biggest issue was that there was not enough to do and the queues for children's activities were too long.  This was exasperated by the fact that in order to raise funds we needed more volunteers to operate things like the bouncy castle.  So we had to decide how we could put on more activities etc.  This of course meant raising more money from stallholders etc. We could not add more to the Riverside gardens as there were too many safety issues getting vehicles on and off site and also access is severely restricted.  We have raised this issue with the council but it is unlikely the bollards will be re-positioned. The only way we could find was to move to a larger venue, ie the Rec. This has enabled Forrest Fairs to provide a couple more children's rides and for us to offer a lot more stalls for sale allowing us to raise more funds. We try to keep our stall charges at the lowest possible level to encourage small business to join in. We currently charge £12 for charities and £20 for individuals who also get the use of Rotary club insurance cover for the day.   We reinvest every penny we receive and strive to make the day all about Erith and our community.  We really are hoping that the venue change will work but are as unsure as yourself. There are better parking facilities and it really is just across the road from Morrison’s, KFC, McDonalds etc. We are producing more banners this year to really get the word out and will handing out and door dropping leaflets. We are all fingers crossed for good weather and a healthy attendance!!"

I was also contacted midweek by a reader who wishes local people to be made aware that a valuable local resource is about to be closed down with little consultation and very little advanced publicity – until now. A campaign has been started to stop a local recording and practice studio being closed down. Here is the situation in their own words:- “For over 20 years Abbey Music Studios (AMS) in Abbey Wood (London SE2) has provided a music hub for local artists and bands for rehearsal and recording purposes, and for musicians and interested visitors from all over the world. It has also provided free recording and group sessions to local NHS patients and other individuals with mental health and learning difficulties. The Studio building is within the grounds of Goldie Leigh Hospital and now the Oxleas NHS Trust who run the Hospital have given the Studio notice that its lease will not be renewed and that it must close by 6 July. The Trust say they want to use the building for other purposes. This is despite there being several other large, un-used buildings within the Hospital grounds, some which have stood empty for over 20 years. The closure will be a devastating blow to the livelihood of those who work at the Studio, and will remove the vital role the Studio plays in providing services to mental health patients and to the local community. The Studio building was completely derelict, vandalised, flooded and unusable when AMS took it over in 1994. The gaping holes in the roof of the building were repaired at the expense of AMS who have invested thousands of pounds in renovating the building and fitting it out with state of the art, made-to-measure, recording equipment, and rehearsal rooms. The NHS Trust paid no funds whatsoever towards the renovation of the building, but they now want to take it back in its pristine condition, with no offers of compensation or alternative accommodation. The Trust seem to be happy to put an end to local mental health patients’ music sessions, despite the fact that for some of these patients it is the only time they have away from their Units. The Studio has provided these 2 hour music sessions two or three times a week for over 20 years and continues to do so. Patients are able to play/learn musical instruments, record their work, rehabilitate and socialise in a safe and friendly environment. This also helps them from becoming institutionalised. The patients’ local Carers have always been delighted with the service the Studio provides. They understand the benefits that music can bring to those with mental health issues, but that understanding does not seem to be shared by the Trust’s managers. This is a service which should be embraced and developed, not discontinued. Of course, the Studio also provides a very beneficial service to bands, singers, DJs etc, in the local community and beyond. Thousands of musicians have cut their teeth at AMS over the last 20 years, and developed their craft to a professional level. Recent users of the Studio include Jaz Ellington, a successful contestant on The Voice UK TV show, and members of bands such as Squeeze and Nine Below Zero. AMS does not want to close, so please help us fight the closure by signing the petition to Save Our Studios (SOS)". Following receipt of this message, I have done some research and spoken to a number of people to find out more behind the story. It would seem that there are some concerns regarding the long term financial viability of the recording studio under the current management. Nevertheless I feel that the studio performs an important community function, and support is merited. 

The end video this week is a bit of a curiosity; The Kirkaldy Testing Museum is a very little known and sadly overlooked location not far from Blackfriars Bridge in London. I used to work just around the corner from the Testing Museum, and it always fascinated me. The museum describes itself thus:- "David Kirkaldy's Testing and Experimenting Works at 99 Southwark Street set international standards in testing materials from which everyone’s everyday life benefits today. Today, this unique Victorian workshop keeps alive our direct link with Kirkaldy's innovation, at the heart of this bustling commercial district of London. The Kirkaldy Testing Museum preserves Kirkaldy's unique Universal Testing Machine - the huge hydraulic powered machine he designed and had built in Leeds - in full working order in the premises he built to house it. As well as presenting the story of the family who ran the business for almost 100 years and of the wider development of materials testing, the workshop and the Universal Testing Machine provide a unique crucible for new experimentation and collaboration - which can inspire future generations of scientists and artists alike to continue enquiring into the properties of the materials on which we build our lives". Feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Epilogue for Potion.

One of my confidential informants has come across some interesting background into the forced closure of the late, and very much unlamented Potion Bar. As I have previously written, the erstwhile owners of Potion were in deep trouble with both Bexley Council even before the place opened to the paying public. The building had previously been a pub called the White Hart, and not only was it fitted with a green, salt glazed tile exterior (the green tiles were made locally – the green colouring was a characteristic of Erith tiles) and ornate, acid etched windows, both dating from Victorian times, but it also had a pretty pub sign hanging from a bracket. When Potion took over, these features were all ripped out and destroyed, even though the Council specifically prohibited them from doing so. Not only was the White Hart a grade II listed building, but it is located in a designated conservation area. The new owners then installed a hideously inappropriate plate glass frontage which nowadays looks completely out of place. My informant has provided evidence that Bexley Council did go to great lengths to prosecute the owners of Potion. Initially they issued an enforcement order, which instructed Potion to install a replica of the original Victorian pub frontage - above you can see a photo taken last week of the glass frontage of Potion as it is today; beneath it is an architect's drawing of the proposed restored Victorian style frontage. Potion appealed against this, but the appeal was dismissed by Magistrates. Potion was then given a period of six months to comply with the order, which ended on the 8^th April 2010. They did not undertake any work to restore the appearance of the building, and in the first hearing at Bexley Magistrates Court on the 16^th July 2012, neither defendant appeared. Arrest warrants were then issued by the court for the owners. A new trial was set on the 18^th December 2012 at Bromley Magistrates Court. The owners of Potion pleaded guilty to all charges, to which they were fined a paltry £350, plus £500 in court costs, along with a £15 victim surcharge. Bexley Council Legal Services were then authorised to commence injunction proceedings against Potion, and the ownership of Potion was subsequently taken over by the freeholders of the building. It was then closed down some months later, which it remains to date. I suspect that the freeholders of the building will have a challenge in finding a new occupant; any business wanting to use the former pub will face a huge bill to both replace the hideous plate glass fascia with a replica of the original frontage, and to refurbish the interior, which was run pretty much into the ground - currently the interior resembles a building site. If hot food was to be served, a ventilation and fume extraction system would also need to be installed. I reckon that even if someone was to take this on, they would need to spend a minimum of £100,000 to get the building into an acceptable state to be able to open for the paying public. In the current economic climate, I think this is highly unlikely, although I would love to be proved wrong. Long time readers may recall that I predicted that Potion would be a disaster for Erith even before it originally opened. I was right on multiple levels, though I am certainly not gloating about it. The place was a haven for drug dealers and crooks of every persuasion; it flouted health and safety law, employed unqualified and unregistered staff in positions of responsibility, and wilfully disobeyed planning regulations. At least the criminals that both ran Potion and drank in the repulsive dive are no longer able to do so. On a brighter note, I hope to be able to feature a story I have been following closely for over a year which concerns relative newcomers to the town who are the polar opposites of the people behind Potion, and who are undertaking the largest sympathetic architectural renovation / conservation project that Erith has seen in the last couple of decades. More positive news on this subject soon, I hope.

A story has got a lot of local people annoyed this week. Fourteen traveller caravans recently moved onto a piece of land adjacent to the Tesco delivery warehouse in Church Manor Way, Erith. They left after a week or thereabouts; this sounds fair enough. The problem is that they left behind over half a tonne of rubbish, which they dumped on the site prior to departure. I think a certain demographic resent the traveller community because they see a group of people who seemingly live outside of the law, and the strictures that apply the majority, such as paying income and council tax. The fact remains many travellers do comply, but they all get tarred as scumbags that exploit the system, and scream “discrimination” as soon as something happens that they disagree with. In this case, the behaviour of the traveller families involved has not done their cause any favours. The irresponsible dumping of rubbish will have to be cleaned up at the expense of the land owner. I feel that if travellers want to be treated as equal members of society, (as indeed they should be), they need to address the resentment felt by many – and this occurs on their own caravan step. I have recently witnessed what could be classed as unconscious bias on the part of staff in Erith Morrison’s, when a mother, adult daughter and several children entered the store. They were ignored for a minute or so, but as soon as the adult daughter called out to her small children in the very distinctive traveller accent, the security guard started to follow them around the store. From my observations, the family only came in to buy some milk and nappies, but there seemed to be a presupposition of criminality which had no basis in reality. The actions of fellow travellers in illegally dumping large quantities of rubbish can only reinforce prejudice and give fuel to that minority who would discriminate against any group that they feel is different. Your thoughts and comments are welcome below, or Email me directly at hugh.neal@gmail.com. The Bexley Times are reporting that Bexley Council have formally dropped plans to move the Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre to Bromley, after a high level of protest from local residents. Councillor Don Massey, the cabinet member for community safety and leisure made the statement last Wednesday. Councillor Massey said “He said: “It is clear that many residents want to keep the Local Studies and Archives Service where it is. We have listened to them. Various options have been worked through and we can achieve this and make savings through staff changes.” Hmm; from investigations undertaken by Malcolm Knight of “Bexley is Bonkers” and others, it would appear that Bexley Council did not even approach Bromley Council about the possibility of relocating the service. As Malcolm surmised, it looks likely that the whole thing was engineered as an “Aunt Sally” – a scheme that actually was never going to happen, but which would make those council members involved look good to the electorate when they “dropped “ the project, that in reality had never actually existed. Either way, it would seem that the Archive and Study Centre is safe – at least for this financial year. A lot of local people put effort into making their feelings known in respect of the centre; there is clearly strong support for local studies and history. I suspect that any further attempts to relocate the unit will meet with a similar fate.

After local resident Pam recounted her memories of the Hedley Mitchell department store in Erith last week, historian Ken Chamberlain has once more been in contact with some additional information about what used to be Erith’s most upmarket shop. Ken writes:- As a matter of interest Hedley Mitchell (Senior) died in South Africa in 1942 as he married late in life, you may not be surprised to know that his son Hedley is still alive and well as are his two daughters. I have a catalogue of the store which contains a photos of the various departments. A Mrs. Hancock  was in charge of the travel and theatre ticket department. She is the mother of Sheila Hancock the actress. Some time ago I sent the photo to Sheila  reminding her of her mother. I received a very nice reply thanking me for the thought. I didn't ask her but "young " Hedley had told me  Sheila  was a for a while a "Saturday girl" in the store. Another gentleman I knew started work at Mitchell's  in the 1920's. He served his apprenticeship there.(If you served your apprenticeship at Mitchell you could get a job in any of the London Stores) He was told " The next person that walks through that door is the most important person in your life". In those days For 5 shillings a week  he worked until 10 pm for five days. He was supposed to have a half day Thursday, but he was always asked to" just sweep up before you go".  Closing time meant the sales manager going out into the street just to ensure there wasn't another customer that might come in. There are still several members of the Mitchell family around including in Erith”. Excellent stuff, Ken. It would seem that Hedley Mitchell’s had quite a strong history of fostering the arts, as I recall you telling me previously that another one time member of staff is highly respected poet Wendy Cope OBE, who was considered for the role of poet laureate on two occasions in the late nineties; it is thought she was not actually asked as she disagrees with the whole poet laureate role, which sounds pretty reasonable.

The News Shopper are currently reporting a story regarding waste disposal company Serco, and the alleged abuse some of their operatives (what used to be called bin men in less politically correct times) are receiving at the hands of certain members of the general public. The problems seem to stem from Bexley Council’s policy of only allowing collection of waste from one main bin per household per week. Local residents who have more waste than this are up in arms that Serco will not take the excess, even though Serco have been given explicit instructions by the Council not to take any additional waste. The issue has led to threats of violence against Serco operatives on a number of recent occasions, most notably in The Nursery, Erith. I think the policy is probably led by Bexley Council’s aims to further increase their level of waste that is recycled. Currently the volume of waste that the Council are able to recycle is quoted as 54%, which in my opinion is not too bad, though it could always be better. I think the strictures on only one bin of unrecyclable waste per household is somewhat inflexible. A large family with seven members is going to generate a lot more waste than a single person living alone. It seems to me that if the council, via their contractor refuse to take additional waste, it will end up getting fly tipped elsewhere – a problem that is very serious in and around the local area, as I have reported before.

Yet another technology 30^th anniversary is upon us.  This time it falls to the notoriously convoluted, not to say fiendishly clever Infocom text adventure game version of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, the game was probably the most difficult text only adventure ever produced. The words were produced by HHGTTG author Douglas Adams, and the programming code by legendary adventure game company Infocom. It was produced for a wide variety of eight bit home computers of the period – the Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit series, the Apple II and DOS PC’s. It only came on floppy disk, which limited it to wealthier computer owners of the time. I played it extensively, but to be honest, never got very far with it, much to my frustration. The BBC are releasing a new, web based version of the game for online play. The updated version, will, unlike the original have graphics and illustrations. The BBC have stated in a recent announcement "Players can take the game on the move as it will be compatible with tablets and other internet enabled devices." The game is part of the global multi-media success story that is The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Created by Douglas Adams, the sci-fi comedy started life as a BBC Radio 4 series in March 1978. The show told the story of average every-man Arthur Dent, who ends up travelling around space after Earth is demolished to make way for an intergalactic hyperspace bypass. The format went on to spawn a series of novels, a TV series, a (not very good) Hollywood feature film, multiple stage shows, a collection of comic books, and merchandise including towels. The new game will be published on the BBC website on Saturday 8th March 2014, 36 years to the day since The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy was first broadcast on the radio. BBC Radio 4 Extra will also repeat the first two series of the radio show (The Primary Phase and The Secondary Phase) from this date. The BBC says: "It has been over 10 years since these programmes were last heard on BBC Radio and they perfectly accompany the game. Actions within the game follow the plot of the radio series and some puzzles are only solvable by players with knowledge of the programmes and story." Radio 4 Extra's Caroline Raphael was quoted "Douglas was a true visionary and in his own glorious way foresaw all the technology we now take for granted. Radio 4 Extra is delighted to host this game alongside the first two series. Hitchhiker's fans will be rewarded for their loyalty over the years and newer fans have a real, but fiendish, treat in store. March 8 is a special day for the galaxy, so help us celebrate it in the unique way that only BBC Radio 4 Extra can." This all sounds very promising; all I can wonder about is obtaining the Babel Fish at the start of the game as mind numbingly convoluted as it used to be? Answers on a postcard please.

I have come across a new word – triboluminescence. It describes the tiny flashes of blue / white light that are given off when certain substances are snapped or crushed. I first came across this strange phenomenon many years ago whilst at school on a sixth form Geography field trip. A small group of my fellow pupils had heard of triboluminescence and we determined to put it to the test one evening. We switched off all the lights in the dormitory of the study centre where we were staying (think along the lines of the huts in “The Great Escape” and you won’t be too far wide of the mark). After a few minutes of allowing our eyes to adjust to the pitch black, a packet of Polo mints was handed round, and we each took one. If you held the mint in front of your eyes and snapped it into pieces, it did indeed give out little flashes of blue white light! What we discovered in our experiments was that the effect only worked on standard Polo mints – sugar free ones did not show the flash of light. It turns out that it is a little observed physical phenomenon that occurs when certain crystal structures such as sugar are put under stress, quite similar to the piezo electric effect. I must admit that I was a little disappointed by this news, as I was certain that I had just split the Polo atom...

A new scam has been detected by the Metropolitan Police; Bexley Neighbourhood Watch Association have made the following public announcement:- Without your knowledge, an account is opened in your name at the Jacamo website and an order placed for goods. The next day, a parcel is delivered to your home.  Your reaction is to call the company, deny all knowledge of the order and arrange for it to be returned. There are various ways of doing this but, later the same day, someone arrives at your home to collect the parcel but the caller is an imposter and will suggest he or she takes the erroneous delivery from you. This is the last you see of the package but you will still be billed for the purchase. All it takes to open an account at Jacamo is a date of birth, name and address. Goods are invoiced after dispatch. Please ensure that, if a courier calls to collect an unwanted parcel, he or she is a legitimate representative of the company. Sounds to me like Jacamo have a very lax credit control system that has been exploited by the crooks. Hopefully awareness of the scam, allied to tighter ID controls at Jacamo should see an end to this scam.

Here is a video that I stumbled across whilst searching through YouTube. You may recall that I wrote in some depth about the construction of the Erith wind turbine, back in September 2012. My views on the structure have not changed; I think it is entirely appropriate - it is located in Anchor Bay Wharf, at the Eastern End of Manor Road, well away from most residential property, and in the middle of an industrial estate. It captures free energy in the form of the relatively steady wind that blows along the Thames corridor, and basically makes use of a resource - wind - that Erith has a steady surfeit of. I also think it looks a hell of a lot better than the hideous fish sculpture on the roundabout by the town centre, and at least it performs a useful purpose. The video below shows a time lapse film of construction of the wind turbine. Even though the structure is 288 feet tall, the erection of the whole wind turbine only took two days, though it was a couple of weeks before all of the electrical connections were completed, and the structure was signed off, enabling it to go into use. See what you think, and please leave a comment below.

300,000!

On Tuesday last week there was a fairly serious bus crash at the junction with Nathan Way and Eastern Way in Thamesmead. The News Shopper reports that eleven people were taken to hospital with suspected neck and back injuries. More of this later. I too was involved in a bus crash almost two years ago; it happened only a couple of hundred metres from the crash last week, at the junction of Tom Cribb Road and Pettman Crescent, very close to the location of Plumstead Bus Garage. I was a passenger on a 380 single decker bus, making my way back from my then daily visits to my Dad, who was then resident in the Gallion’s View nursing home. The bus was packed; if I had not been in a hurry to get home, I would have waited for the next one to turn up (the 380 is a fairly regular service).  I was standing almost next to the drivers’ compartment in adjacent to the windscreen. The driver got the bus  to the junction of Tom Cribb Road, where it met Pettman Crescent. At the junction there was a silver BMW 318i waiting for the traffic flow to stop. The bus driver slowed as one would have expected, but then suddenly accelerated hard into the back of the BMW. I saw what was about to happen, and “braced for impact” managing to grab a pole as I did so, but lots of people were thrown over – I almost ended up going out through the windscreen as it was – had I not been holding on as hard as I did, I could have ended up in a nasty mess. The back of the BMW was trashed, and the front of the bus had partially disintegrated too. I yelled at the driver, who looked back at me blankly – plainly in shock, and I then asked if anyone was hurt, when there was no obvious serious injuries, I got off the bus and ran round the corner to the bus halt in the main road and grabbed the duty inspector – he came round and I then gave a statement, saying I had been a witness as well as a victim and it was completely the drivers fault – I suggested that the Police check him for both drink and drugs as soon as possible. The Police came, took my details and then let me go on my way. That was the last I ever heard of the issue, and I don’t recall any local paper or news service picking up on the story.  Going back to last Tuesday’s crash, and the large number of people reporting back and neck pains, I may be cynical, but I wonder how many were thinking of juicy compensation claims from ambulance chasing claim handling companies? I read a report in the Times earlier this week that fraudulent whiplash claims are now so prevalent that it is alleged whole buses are filled with volunteer fraudulent claimers; the buses are then deliberately crashed on public roads in a set up manner to enable mass claims for non – existent injury – a case is currently going through Court, where the fraudsters were caught out by a few genuine passengers unwittingly caught up in the scam. I am in no way saying that this was the case in last weeks’ case, but any case coming to light involving crash related injuries does bring some understandable doubts to mind.  Apart from those paying for car insurance, who get on average a £90 per year increase in their premiums to cover the cost of spurious whiplash claims, the biggest other loser is the person who is genuinely injured in a motor accident, as many people automatically assume that anyone claiming for an injury obtained whilst motoring must be a con artist.

This high quality, glossy and expensive flyer came through my door a couple of days ago. The Redeemed Christian Church of God are an absolutely immense Nigerian based Pentecostal Church. I have written a little about them in the past, but it is only now when I have been able to carry out some research into them that some serious questions spring to my mind. Their presence in Erith is relatively low key – they have converted what used to be a car tyre warehouse opposite the hideous fish sculpture into a church and children’s crèche, and they attract pretty substantial congregations during their regular services. They have a slick and professional website – unsurprising when one considers that they are the fastest growing church in the world. When one begins digging around online, their slick and corporate image starts to get a little tarnished to say the least; a search on YouTube finds videos of their pastors making homophobic and intolerant statements that really have no place in a modern and civilised society. They also are actively involved in soliciting large amounts of cash from their members – an old style “the more you give, the more you receive in God’s blessings”. Nothing new there then – the Catholic Church were selling indulgences back in Medieval times. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see that whilst their congregation turn up in a motley assortment of well used and very worn vehicles, the pastor and his wife seem to have the latest Mercedes Benz models, year in year out. Much more to be discovered on this matter, I feel.

This week brings yet another anniversary; it is the 30th birthday of the launch of the Acorn Electron computer. Not heard of the Electron? Not that surprising really, as it was basically a cut down version of the BBC Micro, that was designed to compete on price and performance with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. The Electron was introduced a year too late, and was too little, too late - people wanted more performance for the price, not less. It was markedly slower than the £399 BBC Micro, and despite the assertion that it would run all BBC software, in reality it did not - some applications ran, albeit very slowly, but many did not, most tellingly Elite - the reason many BBC Micros got purchased in the first place. The Acorn was a major sales failure, and almost caused the end of Acorn Computers. The are very lucky in that at this point they created the revolutionary ARM processor which effectively saved the company.

At some point this morning, the Maggot Sandwich received its' 300,000th unique page view - many thanks to all of those who have read and contributed to the blog.

Ten percent of the cigarettes smoked in the London Borough of Bexley are illegal. This figure has been researched and compiled by the South East London Illegal Tobacco Cluster (which sounds like a criminal gang, but is actually a Quango). Overall they have discovered that the black market for cigarettes is worth £22 million a year in the London and South East region alone. This is basic economics – people discover that they can buy a products that is identical to that they find in the shops, but at a fraction of the price, then of course many will take this option. The Government argument that you cannot tell what is in the illicit fags, as they have not been through any quality control – the buyers counter this with “they are the same as you would buy over the counter in any European city”. Many large, organised criminal gangs have been moving from smuggling Class A and B hard drugs to tobacco – the market is larger, so the smaller profits are spread over a larger consumer base, keeping up cash flow, and additionally the penalties for tobacco smuggling are currently much lower and mainly classed as a financial crime, due to the loss of tax income to Revenue and Customs.  I am not, and never have been a smoker, so the whole appeal of cigarettes is a mystery to me; personally I cannot abide the acrid smell of burning cigarettes, and do my best to avoid it wherever possible. This has become somewhat easier in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, as following the comment posted here a couple of weeks ago, there has been a crackdown on illegal smoking in the centre, and things have improved markedly. The security guards employed by the centre have been visible and active in discouraging illegal behaviour, as the centre management have taken the matter seriously and acted accordingly.  It looks like we can chalk this one down as a win for the Maggot Sandwich readers.

Metal thefts appear to have subsided a little over the last couple of months. I think that this may in part be due to the slight drop in commercial  scrap metal prices, due mainly to a slowdown in construction  in China. The Chinese have been the prime reason for the scrap metal boom over the last few years, and inadvertently have encouraged metal theft because of the high prices the boom engendered. They have had a massive campaign of construction, as they turn their economy from being a primarily agrarian based one to a modern production based economy. This has caused all sorts of problems of a kind that only a centrally controlled society can effectively deal with – the huge amount of construction carried out all over agricultural parts of the country has caused conflict between farmers and property developers, and there have been a number of well publicised cases where developers have speculatively built entire towns, only to find that almost nobody moves into them – the properties having been purchased by wealthy property speculators to effectively “land bank” the property in a hope that over a relatively short period of time it will increase in value. My Chinese contact told me that not long ago his own apartment was lit at night by the reflected light from sparks from welders building a skyscraper across the road – the workers don’t stop; construction is a twenty four hour process on many sites. Having said all this, nobody seems to have told a bunch of feckless chavs who got collared by the Police in Manor Road on Sunday night. They were caught red – handed by the Police helicopter, which was followed up by officers on the ground. The three men were arrested after a load of copper power cable was found in their van, the origin of which they could not say. Most unfortunately the men were released without charge, as the original owner of the cable could not be chased. It strikes me as unusual, as two of the three scrotes did a runner, and the helicopter had to follow them using its’ night vision cameras, before they were eventually captured. The fact that they ran off surely indicates guilt? If they were innocent , they would have no reason to run off. I suppose the evidence was not strong enough to secure a successful conviction. I would imagine the officers involved must have felt very frustrated.

It is now a year since construction work started on the Erith Wind Turbine, which has become an important local landmark in this relatively short period of time. The turbine is located on an industrial park near the junction of Manor Road and Slade Green Road is one of the largest in London; it reaches 288 feet above sea (or in this case, River Thames) level, and is certainly impressively imposing. When the turbine was commissioned last September, a chap from Slade Green was vociferous in his opposition, and he secured some quite extensive coverage in the local press. I found this quite surprising, as after checking the location of his house on Google Maps, I discovered that Pewty Acres was substantially closer to the wind turbine site than his own place. The dire warnings the man gave about the wind turbine causing noise and disturbance have been wholly unfounded – the turbine is almost silent, even when a very strong wind is blowing. There was a lot of bluster and noise from the usual suspects on the News Shopper website at the time, but absolutely nothing since. It seems to me that a small but vociferous group of malcontents stirring up trouble, rather than a concerted attempt at changing the situation.  It was also evident at the time that the chap in the story must have had his eyes closed when walking locally (presupposing he is not one of those people who goes everywhere by car). Bexley Council put planning application notices on lamp posts all over the area surrounding the proposed site of the wind turbine, and I am led to believe no objections were lodged. As I wrote at the time, anyone who lives in that part of town does so for one major reason – the relatively affordable house prices. The reason for the low prices is partly due to the proximity of the industrial estate and the attendant heavy traffic that transits the locality, plus the foreknowledge that new warehouses and other industrial structures have a likelihood of being built. It kinds of goes with the territory, if, like me you live in proximity to such things. Personally I find it a functional and far preferable piece of industrial sculpture than the horrendous “so bad that it is good” fish sculpture that guards the entrance to Erith Town Centre. 

After a huge amount of marketing, millions of dollars spent in advertising, and investments my movie studios and television broadcasters, it would appear that 3D both in cinema and TV has turned out to be a  turkey. Cinema audiences for 3D versions of films have been dropping steadily for the last couple of years; the only really successful movie that took more at the box office in 3D than in its’ 2D version was James Cameron’s “Avatar” (popularly known as “Dances with Smurfs”) but generally audiences balk at the increased admission fee for the 3D version. On top of this, whilst sales of 3D capable TV’s are steady, the actual use of the 3D functionality is very low. It would appear that consumers are buying the TV’s despite the 3D features, not because of them. My suspicions regarding this were confirmed recently when I had a detailed conversation with the senior A/V installation engineer from local electronics retailer Wellington’s and he confirmed my suspicions. He said that people buy smart TV’s mainly for applications such as BBC iPlayer and other streaming “catch up” services – the other smart functions are generally regarded as a novelty – as is 3D. This novelty soon wears off. I have to say that this mirrors my own experiences – I have a Samsung 46 ES8000 LED 3D smart TV, and I have found the same thing. I have also heard that Sky may be dropping their dedicated 3D content channel, as the very low number of subscribers cannot justify its’ continuation. It occupies a channel that could be better used for content that would generate more revenue. The aforementioned James Cameron has announced that all his future movies will be made in 3D. He’s probably only one of a handful of movie moguls who could get away with it – the Avatar sequels will apparently all be filmed exclusively in 3D, though whether movie goers will continue to buy into this is debatable – since the original Avatar was released in 2009, the numbers prepared to sit through what a significant proportion of people find to be a headache inducing, eye strain causing ordeal will be instructive to see. Personally I can get on with 3D for about twenty minutes at a time. I would most certainly not be able to sit through a full length movie without feeling distinctly unwell. I gather that the way that the 3D processing works relies on the viewer having perfect unassisted 20/20 vision – the overlapping dual images that are displayed on screen and filtered by the stroboscopic (in the case of active 3D) or polarising (in the case of the cheaper and less effective passive system) glasses are not interpreted correctly by the brains’ visual cortex if vision is anything less than perfect – this is why problems with watching 3D content are more common with people who wear prescription spectacles like myself.

I am no  fan of social media. Sharing ones’ every movement and activity is not something that interests me. I know that FaceBook is an integral part of a lot of people’s day, and that many people would find it hard to do without. One of the legion of problems of any widely used social media service is that gossip and rumour can rapidly become reported as fact, and the phenomenon of Chinese Whispers can cause what begin as relatively innocuous conversations but that soon turn into horror stories. There was a rumour posted on FaceBook that I was alerted to earlier this week; the story went that a group of black youths had assaulted a wheelchair bound man in Erith, and that when he had reported the incident, the disabled man was arrested instead of the youths. This follows a previous story doing the rounds a few weeks’ back where several people reported a group of Romanians kidnapping small children from shopping centres in the region. When investigated, no substance whatsoever was found behind the story. What is instructive is that both these stories involve minorities threatening white British people, and the victim ends up getting into trouble, rather than the protagonist. I am of the opinion that these nasty little rumours are being propagated by some racist group like the EDF or BNP to try and stir up ethnic tensions. The trouble is, a significant number of people think that just because something is in print (or online) that it must be true – which is most certainly not the case. Generally speaking, if something genuine has happened locally, both the Bexley Times and News Shopper will have picked it up – they are very good in this respect. If you have seen no mention of an incident reported on social media within around twenty four hours, the chances are the story was concocted by someone for nefarious reasons. The local papers check the veracity of stories, and don’t often tend to print unfounded rumours. Bexley Neighbourhood Watch Association occasionally alert Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators like myself with information relating to local safety and security matters; they also provide alerts relating to social media propagated rumours – which invariably turn out to be utter rubbish. Any genuine issues will be published on the Erith Watch website without delay.

I need to offer an apology and a correction for something  I wrote last week in my piece about famous, fabulously wealthy  former Erith resident Hiram Maxim. I said that he had carried out the first heavier than air flight in Danson Park, nearly nine years before the Wright Brothers. Long time Maggot Sandwich reader Dave Martin posted the following:- "Hugh, with reference to Hiram Maxim I believe you meant Baldwin’s Park rather than Danson Park". Dave – you are completely right; I do believe that some earlier experiments were undertaken in Danson Park, and some sources have previously claimed that the flight itself took place there (the Science Museum even perpetrated this myth until they were corrected a few years ago). I think that there was a degree of confusion which has not been helped by the passage of time. The fact remains that a local hero is seriously under appreciated. Maxim was by many accounts not an easy man to get on with, but his inventions, engineering skills and legacy should be more celebrated. The fact that he flew in 1894 should not be overlooked – the achievement of the Wright brothers in 1903 was important, and led to the development of proper production aircraft, whereas the Maxim flyer (see the photo above - click for a larger view)was pretty much a design dead – end design, as it has no means of controlling itself in the air, but it did show the way for the other aviation pioneers.

Blues Brothers tribute band The Blues Brothers Experience played at TribFest last week; here is a promo video of the event. Do watch, and feel free to leave a comment below.

Potion commotion.

The photo above was taken by me on Wednesday afternoon on Erith Pier. It shows the bulk carrier ship the M.V Willeke moored up as she so often does. The Willeke is one of the most regular visitors to Erith Pier, and normally spends around three days of any seven day week period on the pier. What was quite unusual this time was that she was in cargo. She was loaded with what appeared to be raw talc - as used in talcum powder, or nowadays more likely used as a thickening agent in the production of non - drip paints. Normally when bulk carriers like the Willeke moor alongside the pier it is when they are in ballast and awaiting a cargo. so seeing it loaded was quite a novelty. None of the crew was around, though the ships' generator was on, and people were definitely aboard her. The crew like to visit Morrison's to stock up on provisions prior to their voyages, and it is not uncommon to see one or two of the junior crew members pushing a shopping trolley full of groceries along the pier and onto the ship. I would not be surprised if Morrison's is the only supermarket in the UK where commercial ships can stop off for shopping visits. Let me know what you think - comments are welcomed below.

One of my local informants has recently contacted me with some information to follow up a story I featured six weeks ago on my update entitled "Kebabs and College". I wrote about how B and Q in Lower Belvedere were displaying parking warning notices that were illegal - you can read my post about the subject by clicking here. Anyway, it would appear that the notices have now been removed and replaced with new ones. Whether I, or my contact had any influence over the situation I really cannot say, but the coincidence is noticeable anyway. What my contact also reported upon entering the store was the following, in his words: "I popped into the shop this morning for a small electrical accessory needed in a hurry. Checkouts are now four customer operated terminals and one traditional checkout - which was unstaffed. There was a small queue for the customer operated terminals so even that small advantage (no queue) has gone. B and Q Belvedere deserves to fail". This echoes my own thoughts on self service checkouts to a tee. I simply won't use them anywhere for any reason whatsoever. It has been proved that they are purely there to save the shop money and sod the shopper. As I have said before, why have a dog and bark yourself? The checkouts have been proven to take longer to use than a traditional one; they are purely a tool for reducing staff headcount. This can itself be a false economy, as shop lifting has been shown to increase in stores with self service checkouts. It may seem a good idea to reduce the number of checkout staff, but when the store then has to hire more security staff (who earn a higher hourly rate than the checkout staff) it can actually end up costing more money overall. 

There are echoes today of the controversy that arose some years ago when Erith Sports Centre opened. There was a competition to select a suitable name for the impressive new facility, and several local papers featured the story. The whole thing turned into a bit of a farce when, after much solemn consideration the name selected was, er, Erith Sports Centre. It would have not been so bad had not the national tabloid papers got hold of the story, and much merriment and ridicule was heaped on the choice of name. A similar total lack of imagination has struck the developers who are currently in the process of demolishing the old Larner Road housing estate. The name that has been selected for the new housing development to replace Larner Road is "Erith Park". Ahem. I can fully understand the desire to not tarnish the new development with a name associated with the dubious past of Larner Road, but surely something a bit less anodyne could have been chosen? When you spend the thick end of £100 million on a cutting edge combined commercial and social housing development with the latest energy saving green technology, you would have thought that a more forward thinking and dynamic name could have been selected – something along the lines of “Selkirk Heights” for example. (You may already be aware that Alexander Selkirk – the inspiration for the fictional character of “Robinson Crusoe” landed back in England at Erith after his experiences of being shipwrecked and left to survive for four years alone on a desert island – I would have though this hardy and resourceful individual would have been a great inspiration for local residents). There has been much going on regarding the Larner Road redevelopment over the last couple of weeks; I hope that sooner or later I will be in a position to write about it, as I am sure many readers would find the story of interest, but unfortunately now is not the time.

You may recall that I have mentioned the butchering to the exterior fascia of the former White Hart pub that now houses the seedy and disreputable drug den that is Potion bar. The owners of Potion illegally ripped out the preserved Victorian salt glazed tile and acid etched glass frontage, and replaced it with plate glass, even though it was specifically prohibited from doing so by Bexley Council Planning Department.  Not only is the building listed, but the whole of the Eastern end of Erith High Street is a architectural conservation zone, and no major architectural changes are permitted. The council forced Potion to get an architect to draw up plans to return the appearance of the exterior of the building to something fairly closely resembling its’ original look. Since then precisely nothing has happened, and after some research, I have discovered that the council have now dropped the entire case, probably as the owners of Potion are claiming poverty. It would seem that we will be stuck with the anachronistic and ugly glass frontage for good now. As previously mentioned, one of the down sides of the large plate glass front windows now in place is that they afford a very clear view of the establishment’s regulars inside, and it is not a pretty sight. If you recall the cantina scene in the original “Star Wars”, then this is loosely what you see occupying Potion, though possibly with fewer blasters and a bit more cocaine. I have heard an unconfirmed rumour which I heartily hope is true. One of my confidential sources tells me that Potion may not be around for very much longer. A combination of repeated Police raids due to a combination of public drunkenness and a reputation as the local drugs supermarket may now have take their toll on the unscrupulous owners of the dive. The rumour is that Potion is shortly going to be put up for sale, and that an investor is interested in turning it into an Indian restaurant. So far there is nothing on the Bexley Council planning application website, so I can only take the story with a pinch of salt at this point, but I would not be surprised if there was not at least some truth in the story. For much of the time Potion is largely devoid of the knuckle draggers and coke heads that lurk in the place on Friday and Saturday nights. I doubt it breaks even, let alone make any semblance of a profit for the owners. I think they have caught a cold on this enterprise. Their other Potion Bar is in Fitzrovia, and is a rather different, more up – market affair, which seems to specialise in cocktails – whereas the only likely mix of drinks in the Erith outlet would be  a half of strong cider and a half of noxious and gassy lager to make a snakebite. Hopefully more information will come to light about the precise fate of the unloved by many bar in the very near future.

I am happy to report that Welling born Kate Bush has now been appointed CBE in the last round of honours. Personally I would have like to see Kate given the full Damehood (one grade above a CBE and the equivalent of a Knighthood). She's done so much for the British music industry on both a business and a creative front; she's also inspired many other musicians - I doubt that Tori Amos or Florence and the Machine would have existed in anything like their current form if it was not for our Kate. Very few musicians inspire the level of devoted following that Kate has; the only band that spring to mind who have an equivalent dedicated band of fans who follow them around the world are Marillion, a band that many have not heard about since around 1985, when they were responsible for many parents naming their daughters Kayleigh after the hit song of the same name. Marillion are still going strong, albeit in an unusual, semi underground manner. The band were the very first group in the world to dispense with a record label and publisher, instead doing it all online - they were very early to grasp the power of the web, and the democratising of communications between band and fans. Their revolutionary business model is now taught at Harvard Business School as part of their highly prestigious MBA programme.

Here is the latest "Simon's Cat" video. Whenever a new one is released, they never fail to make me laugh. See what you think below.

Most ordinary, non technical people know about the Windows operating system, and may have seen an Apple iMac or two in their travels, but as far as the third major desktop computer operating system is concerned, most have not heard of it, and probably would not care if they had. Linux has been around for ages - 1991 was the year of its' birth, and I first started dipping my toes in it back in 1997. Back then it was very difficult to use, had little hardware or driver support, and was really only suitable for hardcore tech savvy people like me to use as a desktop operating system for my computer (I dual booted with Windows XP back in 2001). Much has changed over the years; the free and open source nature of Linux means that improvements and updates to the operating system are made collaboratively - a new hardware driver, for example, could just as readily be developed by a blue chip company, or someone sitting in their bedroom. For all that, the updates go through the same high level of peer review and checking, to ensure a consistently high quality level of coding. This is one prime area why open source software tends to have good quality programming code - the code is open to any programmer to see, comment and improve on, unlike in confidential, closed code that makes up Windows and OS X, where you just have to take the creator's word that the code is up to scratch. The end result for years has been curious - Linux is used in huge mainframe and supercomputers almost to the exclusion of other operating systems. it also is used in embedded systems - anything from a Sky+ HD or Virgin Media set top box, through to industrial equipment such as computer controlled machine tools; the internet is powered by Linux - almost every network switch, domain controller and firewall runs it in one form or another, and the very largest web based organisations like Google, FaceBook, YouTube and Twitter all are powered by giant distributed server farms running Linux. On top of this, the recently released Google ChromeBook range of laptops, and the famous educational computer, the Raspberry Pi runs it too. Did you know that the Android operating system, so beloved of many smart phone and tablet computer users, is actually Linux with a whizzy graphical touch screen interface layer grafted on top by Google? I think it fair to say that if you stopped a random ten people in the street and asked them if they had ever heard of Linux maybe one or two might have vaguely come across the name, but I doubt any would realise that they use it every day. Well, after this shameless plug for my favourite operating system, I guess you are wondering where this is all going. Well, after year upon year of Linux being out in the wilderness as far as being a popular desktop / laptop OS is concerned, the tide may be finally changing. High end gaming PC specialists Alienware have released a series of gaming PC's running the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, which is partnered by Valve Softwares' extremely successful Steam online game repository. Not all Windows versions of Steam games have yet been ported to Linux, but more are becoming available, week on week. Bearing in mind that Alienware are actually a hardware division of Dell Computers, and Dell already sell a small number of desktop workstations and specialist laptops running Ubuntu Linux, it is looking quite rosy for the operating system to finally get a foot hold in the living room in something other than the guts of a smart television or HD recorder. Time will tell, but it should be an interesting journey. 

The somewhat controversial Erith wind turbine has now settled down to become merely the latest landmark for the area; Personally I find it a very useful aid in assessing the local weather conditions. It tells you if there is low cloud (the tops of the turbine blades get hidden as they turn), it gives you an idea of the wind speed and direction (the speed of the blade rotation and the direction the turbine head is facing) and it also warns you of poor visibility (when you cannot see it). On top of this, it is a local landmark, which pinpoints the Manor Road Industrial Estate from afar. So all in all it has a multitude of benefits to the area. I wonder if anyone will set up a society for wind turbine enthusiasts? You may well mock, but there is an active and enthusiastic group of people who enjoy spotting electricity pylons – they have even published pylon spotting guide books! You can read more about pylon spotting and how to become a pylon spotter by clicking here.

Science fiction death rays have been promised in a real world environment by researchers and military suppliers since at least the mid 1960’s. Until now they have never got beyond the testing stage, mainly mounted on experimental aircraft. It has been the generally accepted wisdom that a military laser does not actually have to work; they have been so big and heavy that all you needed to do was drop the thing on the enemy to effectively wipe them out. This is all about to change. The U.S Navy now has a weaponised laser capable of destroying an enemy aircraft or fast attack boat (the kind of vessel used by Al Qaeda to attack NATO ships in the past). The laser system, which will be experimentally deployed on U.S ship, the unfortunately named U.S.S Ponce, will be used to test the defensive system in the field – in this case, in the seas around the Middle East; it would be likely that its’ main area of operation will be the Persian Gulf – where Iran operates small surveillance drones, and is also known for swarming and harassing U.S Navy warships with small and very mobile high speed gunboats. The laser, which is solid state, is said to work like an invisible blowtorch on targets; the $35 million development budget (actually tiny in defence procurement terms) will be offset by the $1 per shot cost of powering the system. A video released by the Navy shows the laser lock onto a slow-moving target, in this case an unmanned drone, which bursts aflame in mid-flight. The drone soon catches fire and crashes into the sea below. Laser weapons do have drawbacks – they are badly affected by rain, fog and sea spray, which drastically reduce the transmitted power of the laser beam, and the laser installed on the USS Ponce will not be able to target fast moving objects like fighter jets or incoming anti ship missiles, but the rumours are that version with this extended capability are only a few more months away. It will be interesting to see if Iran’s small fast-boat navy experience some unexpected fires when shadowing the American fleet. We are heading for interesting times.

Although I am not very active on the bands, I have been a radio amateur since 1997, and hold an advanced class radio licence. On the 18th April, World Amateur Radio Day celebrates the forming of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) on 18th April 1925. This year the theme is "Entering its Second Century of Disaster Communications". This commemorates the first known use of amateur radio in a disaster situation when, in March 1913, the Scioto River in Columbus, Ohio flooded its banks, killing more than 100 people. According to local newspapers, Herbert Akerberg, a 15-year-old from Hilltop, Ohio used his home radio transmitter to send SOS calls via Morse code for nearly 72 hours. His actions were highly commended by the city authorities and his achievement widely heralded over the country as a new contribution to the comparatively new science of radio.

The video this week is from an American TV show that has not been transmitted in the UK - yet. It is called Food Tech, and is all about the science and engineering that goes into producing some commonly eaten food products. The episode features the humble cheeseburger and chips - the staple of so many fast food joints. Before you dismiss this as a programme about junk food, it is actually far more than that. It explains the production of each ingredient, even going back to showing how the seeds that are used to grow the onions in the burger garnish are grown, separated and refined before being sold to the farmer to grow the actual onion for consumption. It explains why processed rather than "real" cheese is used, and how the fries are produced so that they are uniform in size, and how iceberg lettuce goes from the field to the restaurant table in less than 48 hours. The amount of engineering skill and management organisation that goes into many of these systems and processes was a real eye opener to me, and it certainly made for very informative viewing, whatever you think of the end product food itself.  Do give it a watch and let me know what you think.