Erith Fun Day 2016.

Erith Fun Day 2016 at the new venue of the field behind Erith Sports Centre. The new venue meant that many more stalls and exhibitors could take place than in previous years. The new venue lacked the atmosphere of the Riverside Gardens, and was difficult to navigate with a child's buggy or wheelchair, but this was far outweighed by the positive benefits. Unlike the Riverside Gardens, which is located on a main road, the sports field is completely self contained, so small children were able to run around safely at will. I also noticed that visitors seemed to stay appreciably longer at the new venue - probably a combination of more to see and do, along with the fact the stalls were not set out in a line like they were in the Riverside Gardens, which used to mean that visitors would walk the length of the road, then go straight home; now they were far more likely to walk around in a circle and spend more time than before. 

Various bands and acts played on the main stage over the course of the afternoon. A couple of people suggested that a dedicated live music tent might be a positive suggestion for future Fun Days. The increased size of the event could certainly justify this. A strong wind blew for much of the day, and although the level of amplification used was by no means excessive, I heard a report that the sound of the fun day activities could be heard in Slade Green. 

Piper Chic Mackie and the Black Watch Pipe Band; in the photo above Chic is checking the output of a set of bagpipes with some kind of measuring device. Rumour has it that when not playing music, the bagpipes can take still out a T72 main battle tank at over a hundred metres....

It was quite windy on the open sports field, and many stallholders had problems with their gazebos wanting to take off.  The event was very well attended, and much larger than in previous years. A new addition to the event was a beer trailer, which attracted a long queue of thirsty visitors; from what I could see, it only seemed to served lager, so it was of no interest to me personally. 

The local Police and Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association were well represented at the Fun Day - you can see Claire Tack (in black, to the left of the picture) trying to get out of my shot. She did not succeed!

The photo above shows the Current Mayor of Bexley, Councillor Eileen Pallen, with her husband (and Mayor's official escort) Mark, alongside Councillor Ed Boateng, who represents Erith Ward. All in all, the Erith Fun Day was a great success - many more exhibitors and visitors than ever before, and the weather was OK - no rain, though it remained overcast for much of the day. I think that thanks must go out to the organisers for what must have been a huge amount of work. Now I look forward to next year's event!

One thing seems clear to me since the News Shopper closed its Petts Wood Office and made its reporters spend much of their time working from home; through no fault of their own, the accuracy of their stories has suffered to a greater or lesser extent. They have also reduced their use of their staff photographer – a pleasant chap I have bumped into at many events over the last few years. The News Shopper seems now to rely on (usually poor quality) photos taken by eye witnesses using camera phones, and to employing stock images. They also seem to have increased their usage of screen captures from Google Street View. I understand that this is all a means to reduce overheads – running a local paper nowadays is a really hard thing to do, with advertising rates static or decreasing, and the widespread use of browser ad blockers by visitors to their website. I can appreciate all of these decisions the newspaper has had to make in order to be competitive, and indeed to survive. What I cannot understand is the dislocation of reporters from the local area when it affects the quality and accuracy of reporting. There have been several instances recently where stories have had serious errors that have not been picked up and corrected by the editor. Currently the News Shopper is carrying a story about the Bexley Business Academy; it says:- "An Erith school has been de-rated to “inadequate” by Ofsted after a damning report shows improvements are needed across all areas. The inspectorate has given The Business Academy Bexley (BAC) in Yarnton Way a withering set of scores including substandard levels of management and leadership and a shoddy quality of teaching and assessment. Ofsted also reported that outcomes for pupils in the secondary school are inadequate with progress is too slow across the curriculum - including in English and mathematics. White British pupils, and boys in particular, are making poor progress, the report adds. Teachers do not have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve at the school and as a significant number of teachers are temporary, this is also inhibiting pupils’ progress, Ofsted inspectors believe. Management policies and practices are also weak meaning self-evaluation is inaccurate and therefore the school’s weaknesses are not comprehended. For example, in the secondary school, poor teaching has led to unacceptable behaviour from pupils, too much of which has gone unchallenged by teachers. Financial constraints have also led to reductions in provision, including for pupils who have special educational needs or disability”. The story is all very well – it is disturbing to hear that a key local school is underperforming, and it will be interesting to see what measures are put into place to restore the school’s performance. What does irritate me is a fundamental inaccuracy in the reported story. Yarnton Way connects Lower Belvedere and Abbey Wood, it is NOT located in Erith. Bexley Academy is located in Abbey Wood. The News Shopper has been making some fundamental errors of this nature recently, and it undermines their reporting authority and credibility. I note that even the negative Ofsted report claims that the school is in “Yarnton Way, Erith”, which is hardly cause for optimism. You can read the full Ofsted report by clicking here (download a PDF file).

Following my article last week about the break in and burglary at the Cross Keys Centre, and my invitation for suggestions as to how the £3.9 million regeneration fund for the local area could be spent, I got the following message from a regular reader who chooses to remain anonymous:-"You asked for regeneration suggestions. Not exactly Erith Town Centre, but it seems a shame the Council didn't have the money (or enthusiasm) to keep the Splash Park open. And surely they could regenerate the lovely Carnegie building before something awful happens to that.  I know you hope it will become a civilised pub, and I'm happy with that, but it would be good if Bexley still kept ownership and granted them a long lease. Or what about investing money in a regenerated lifeboat station by the riverside, as you have recommended previously? And what about the road improvement proposals they had, whereby the corner end of Christ Church's grounds would be sold to the Council to make Bexley Road a bit wider?   Is that still on the cards?   It all went very quiet. I don't suppose the Council own the unsightly block with the kebab shop near the fish roundabout and where the Erith Snooker Club was/is?  If they did, then that could be redeveloped and smartened up, with some proper shops.  But then there are still empty units in the town centre.  Perhaps the Council could invest some money there to somehow make it easier for businesses to survive??   I really don't know. Or put some stocks in the town centre to put those young toe-rags in who vandalise and steal. Talking of which, the youths whose photos you have published clearly touched the stair railings and other places - I assume they are not "known" by the police and have their fingerprints on record? "

Back in January I wrote the following:- "Word reaches me that production of the new revised BBC version of “Top Gear” is not going very smoothly. I understand that the pilot episode for the new format of the show has been screened to a test audience, who apparently hated it. BBC bosses have demanded extensive changes and re – shoots. Personally I am not bothered, as I won’t be watching the new BBC Top Gear when it airs in May. I am sure that many people like Chris Evans, but personally I cannot stand the man – my reflex action whenever I encounter him on TV or the radio is to either change the channel or switch off. I, like many “proper” Top Gear fans, am waiting for the announcement of the air date for the new car show starring Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, and produced by “proper” Top Gear boss Andy Wilman which will be shown on Amazon Prime. I am happy to take out an annual Amazon Prime subscription just to watch the new show. Apparently even some of the crew working on the BBC revamp of “Top Gear” refer to the show using the acronym “TGINO” which stands for “Top Gear In Name Only”. I think this says more than enough about the confidence in the programme. Time will tell, but I would not place to many bets on the success of the show under the stewardship of Chris Evans." Oh how prophetic I was!

I received an Email earlier this week from one of my local contacts; she wanted to let me know about some positive developments that are about to take place in the Arthur Street Estate. The estate, which is located on the opposite side of Northend Road to the Erith Park Development (which, incidentally has recently won London Regeneration Project of the year at the London Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Awards (RICS) and has been shortlisted for a National Housing Award for Best Regeneration Project). The Arthur Street Estate consists of three high rise blocks of flats – Cranbrook House, Cobham House and Canterbury House, and some low level accommodation – Challock House, Charing House, and The Nursery. Orbit Housing Association have managed the estate since February 1998. Historically the Arthur Street Estate has been regarded by many as somewhat of a problem, this is principally because historically there has been a large proportion of prolific offenders, people with a criminal background, and people with high support needs - particularly with drug and alcohol dependency living on the estate. Figures from a police report for the 12 months to 30 September 2011 showed 56 suspects of crime in Bexley living within the postcodes for Arthur Street Estate. Of the 56 crimes, only 1 was a motoring offence and 3 public order offences, the remaining 52 more high level crimes. The effect on community sustainability has been huge, with law abiding residents seeing this as short term housing, a means to an end. They have often been subjected to incidents of Anti  - Social Behaviour. This led to those residents requesting transfers, moving out from the properties and increasing turnover of residents. Orbit have been working with Bexley Council and various authorities to address these issues, and much good work has now been done, in a similar way to how Orbit were able to filter out the real trouble makers from the old Larner Road Estate, and not permit them into the new Erith Park Development, and since the start of the programme the situation has markedly improved. Now Orbit are about to start a new project in relation to the estate. They are consulting with the residents of the Arthur Street Estate regarding what they would like to see happening to it.  The invitation reads: “The Arthur Street estate is now almost 40 years old. Your local Orbit team has worked hard to keep this an attractive place to live but we don’t think that’s enough. We need to make some important decisions about the future of the estate to make sure we provide homes where people want to live, now and in the future. We want to hear your views. Should Arthur Street and Boundary Street: • Be redeveloped (similar to Larner Road/Erith Park)? • Left as it is? • Do you have other ideas? Drop in to our exhibition at Peareswood School on Saturday 16 July between 11am - 3pm and give us your views. If you miss the exhibition, our consultation will continue on Facebook Arthur Street Future after 16 July”. This sounds like an excellent opportunity for residents to actually have a proper say about what happens to their residential environment. My own view (as a non – resident) is that the main tower blocks are old, fuel inefficient and end of life, and should be demolished and replaced with modern, energy efficient apartments with better buggy and wheelchair access – as has proved so popular from the new flats on the Erith Park Estate. As for the lower – level accommodation, I feel that some could be extensively refurbished, but many of the buildings will have concrete frames, which are always problematic, especially as they age. To be honest, most of the housing stock on the Arthur Street Estate is old and looking understandably rather worn and past its best. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Following the despicable forced closure of Belvedere Splash Park by Bexley Council, the park has been closed and silent for the most part, with access to the site limited by metal barriers. The public toilets on the site have been unaffected by the closure of the Splash Park – they are some of the only public loos still open in the whole London Borough of Bexley. One of my sources tells me that there was a disturbance last Monday, when at around midday he drove past the toilets, where two fire engines were in attendance. Bearing in mind the toilet block is constructed of brick, and the interior is composed mainly of stone and porcelain tiling, it makes me wonder as to exactly what could have been burning? Apparently drinkers in The Eardley Arms (the Mos Eisley Cantina of Upper Belvedere), across the road were looking on with interest. I know Bexley Council are strapped for cash, but surely an insurance job on a public bog would be out of the question? If anyone can cast light on the origins of the khazi conflagration, please let me know.

Long – term Maggot Sandwich readers may recall that in the past I have mentioned FrightFest – the UK's premiere fantasy and horror film festival. One of the main sponsors and organisers of the annual festival are Darenth based video and TV production company Splice Media. FrightFest will be taking place over the long weekend of the 25th to the 29th of August at the VUE West cinema complex in Shepherd's Bush. You can see a list of all of the films that will be shown at the festival by clicking here. Tickets for the event can be obtained by clicking here. 

Bexley Council reported earlier last week that it was joining with Lewisham and Greenwich to make use of Connect Care, a new data sharing initiative designed to speed up health services. The programme was supposed to combine data from hospitals, community health bodies and GPs’ patient records together with local authorities’ care systems to form one record for each person. For example, if someone receiving home care was to go visit Queen Elizabeth Hospital emergency department, the nursing staff will be able to access details of your medications and the social care plan in place for you. Then, their social worker and GP would be able to see that you attended Accident and Emergency  and take appropriate action. This all sounds like excellent, forward - thinking stuff, if it was not for one fact. The NHS currently has the worst reputation for data security of any organisation in the UK. Whistle blowers alerted the UK's data watchdog to twenty NHS trusts, thirteen local government authorities, five courts and five central government departments with reports of serious data breaches in 2014 (the most recent year for which records are currently available). An extra 498 data breaches were self-reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) by the NHS departments. Further, 148 local government departments also admitted to losing personal information, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. The breaches ranged from losing hardware like a USB key or printed copies of patient information for example, to uploading sensitive information to websites, to technical failures and hacking. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Cafcass, the children and family’s court service, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Crown Prosecution Services were named and shamed. The NHS’ title as ‘most investigated’ for potentially serious data breaches by the ICO could be the nail in the coffin for health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s highly controversial care data program. The scheme to feed patient records into a UK-wide data program was proposed to allow online access from any health service and to serve as an extra revenue stream for the NHS by selling "anonymised" information on to third parties. Of the breaches that were self-reported, four breaches were served undertakings, highlighting their seriousness. They were in the retail, health, local government and estate agent sector. Now perhaps you can understand why I was about to formally request that my data not be stored in this new system - as I have no faith whatsoever on the information being kept safe and private. You can download an opt - out form from here - good old fashioned NHS technology - you have to print out the form and post it to them. Not quite like writing on the back of a sealed envelope, but almost. Only days after the announcement by Bexley Council, the Department of Health announced a complete reversal of policy; The controversial  patient information-sharing scheme has been binned. The closure of the scheme was announced in a statement by minister for life sciences George Freeman MP. It follows a review by the National Data Guardian Fiona Caldicott which recommended better safeguards for the sharing of patient data. Freeman said: "In light of Dame Fiona’s recommendations, NHS England has taken the decision to close the care data programme. However, the government and the health and care system remain absolutely committed to realising the benefits of sharing information, as an essential part of improving outcomes for patients. "Therefore this work will now be taken forward by the National Information Board, in close collaboration with the primary care community, in order to retain public confidence and to drive better care for patients." The Care data programme has faced ongoing controversy and delays since it was first announced three years ago. The main concern around the programme has been the sharing of sensitive medical information with commercial entities without explicit consent. So far one million people have opted out of the scheme. However, the report by Caldicott  recommended that patients must be allowed to opt out of their personal data being used for purposes beyond their direct care. It said not enough had been done to gain patients' confidence in the scheme. Earlier this year, a leaked document revealed that the Royal Free NHS trust had controversially signed a deal with Google's DeepMind to give the outfit access to 1.6 million patient records. Responding to the announcement, Phil Booth, coordinator of medConfidential, warned that while the "toxic brand" may have ended, the government policy "continues to be the widest sharing of every patient's most private data". He said: "The care data programme did exist, and has a toxic legacy leaking across the NHS".

The rather pleasant photo above of Erith Riverside Gardens was taken back in the summer of 1966 - exactly fifty years ago. It shows how both the gardens and the river have changed in the intervening half century. 

The second photo from the summer of 1966 shows Erith High Street. The only building that is still present nowadays is Erith Post Office, to the extreme right of the photo. All other buildings have sadly been demolished. Thanks to the ReV for sending me the historic shots. 

If some readers think my concerns with cyber security are a little on the paranoid side, then perhaps you should consider the following story; security researchers at Binghampton University in New York State have been investigating the use of smart watches, and have discovered that a person wearing a smart watch is vulnerable to malicious snooping which can reveal details of their cash dispenser PIN number and other private information. By combining smart watch movement sensor data with an algorithm to infer key entry sequences from even the smallest of hand movements, the team was able to crack private ATM PINs with 80 percent accuracy on the first try and more than 90 percent accuracy after three tries. Mobile systems and cyber security expert Yan Wang said in an interview on the IEEE.org website “I have to admit, at the beginning, I thought this would be science fiction, but it can actually be done. There are just so many sensors on these wearable devices. It provides sufficient information of your hand movements.” There has long been concern over the security of smart watches, fitness trackers, and other internet-connected wearables that gather sensitive information, such as what time of day a user leaves their home. To infer user inputs on keyboards, past cyber security studies have used cameras to observe how a hand moves over a keypad or machine-based learning techniques to train a program to detect user movements.  Now, spying on a PIN just got much easier, thanks to sensors that measure acceleration, orientation and direction in wrist mounted devices. The researchers conducted 5,000 key-entry tests on three different keypads—a detachable ATM pad, a keypad on ATM machine, and a QWERTY keyboard. Twenty adults performed the tests wearing one of three different devices: the LG W150 or Moto360 smart watches or the Invensense MPU-9150, a nine-axis motion tracking device. The security team downloaded sensor data from the tests, which recorded hand movements down to the millimetre. Using an algorithm they called the “Backward PIN-sequence Inference Algorithm,” the team was able to break the codes with alarming accuracy. The most challenging part of the process was eliminating errors that emerge when trying to calculate distance moved based on acceleration, says Wang. The team found the best way to minimize those errors was to work backwards: Most people end a PIN entry by pressing ‘Enter’, so the team started with the Enter key, then traced backwards to each preceding key—a hacker’s version of join-the-dots. The method does not require an attacker to be anywhere near an ATM or other key-entry pad (such as an electronic door lock or computer keyboard). Instead, data can be stolen by either a wireless sniffer placed close to a keypad to capture Bluetooth packets sent by the wearable to a smartphone, or by installing malware on the wearable or smartphone to eavesdrop on the data and send it to the attacker’s server. All very worrying stuff.

And now let me publish an appeal to all the readers of the Maggot Sandwich. The weekend of the 23rd / 24th July will mark the tenth anniversary of the start of Arthur Pewty’s Maggot Sandwich. The blog has not missed a Sunday publication since then. I would be interest in getting feedback from you on the blog – how you discovered it, what you like / dislike, and any anecdotes related to the Maggot Sandwich that you might have. The specifics are open to you. If you would like to write a short piece for publication on the 10th birthday edition, please Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com at least three days before Sunday the 24th July with any submission. Your submission can be anonymous should you so wish.

The ending video is a short documentary on the origins of London - how the great city came to be. 

TGINO.

Bexley Council have published updated and revised plans for the redevelopment of the former Erith Riverside Swimming Baths site on the corner of Erith High Street and Walnut Tree Road. The proposal from London and Quadrant is to build a total of twelve town houses and sixty one apartments, along with several retail units at ground level. You can see a full collection of relevant documentation online by clicking here. What strikes me from the artists impression is that the artist had patently never visited the site. As locals all well know, Erith High Street is one way only, with vehicles able to pass West to East only, whereas in the illustration above, a cyclist can be seen in the foreground riding East to West. Secondly, Walnut Tree Road (on the right hand side of the picture) is a fairly steep hill, not flat as is shown. On top of this, the former Erith Library building, which is directly behind the proposed construction site is not shown. Nevertheless, it would be good to get the currently empty plot of land re - used for something productive at last. 

Word reaches me that production of the new revised BBC version of “Top Gear” is not going very smoothly. I understand that the pilot episode for the new format of the show has been screened to a test audience, who apparently hated it. BBC bosses have demanded extensive changes and re – shoots. Personally I am not bothered, as I won’t be watching the new BBC Top Gear when it airs in May. I am sure that many people like Chris Evans, but personally I cannot stand the man – my reflex action whenever I encounter him on TV or the radio is to either change the channel or switch off. I, like many “proper” Top Gear fans, am waiting for the announcement of the air date for the new car show starring Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, and produced by “proper” Top Gear boss Andy Wilman which will be shown on Amazon Prime. I am happy to take out an annual Amazon Prime subscription just to watch the new show. Apparently even some of the crew working on the BBC revamp of “Top Gear” refer to the show using the acronym “TGINO” which stands for “Top Gear In Name Only”. I think this says more than enough about the confidence in the programme. Time will tell, but I would not place to many bets on the success of the show under the stewardship of Chris Evans. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The News Shopper are reporting that there is now only a month left for local residents to have their say into the proposed new river crossings to the East of London.  The consultation period ends on the 12th February. The report on the outcome of this consultation is expected to be published in March with the crossings to be completed by 2025. The proposed crossings are in addition to the planned Silvertown Tunnel near the existing Blackwall Tunnel and the proposed new Lower Thames Crossing being developed by Highways England for the Department for Transport. To have your say on the schemes, particularly in regards to the integration of public transport, pedestrian and cycling routes to new crossings visit this site. While the exact alignment of each crossing has not been finalised, the Gallions Reach crossing would link the A2016 Western Way in Thamesmead with the A1020 Royal Docks Road in the North. The Belvedere crossing would link the A2016 Bronze Age Way in Belvedere with the A13 Marsh Way junction in Rainham. A decision whether to build a bridge or tunnel as the preferred option in each location has not yet been decided either. As I have previously written, I think that at Lower Belvedere, a tunnel would be a superior engineering solution. I know that some local groups oppose any kind of new river crossings – the main one being here. London Mayor Boris Johnson said in a recent interview that “Delivering new river crossings to the East is going to be vital to the future success and prosperity of the Capital. We know from this consultation that Londoners are overwhelmingly in support of new crossings and TfL will now be pushing full steam ahead with plans for Gallions Reach and Belvedere." The main local concern seems to be that it will be all very well building extra river crossings, but if changes and upgrades are not made to the road infrastructure in Bexley, then it will merely increase local congestion to traffic using the area as a cut - through when heading elsewhere. The debate will no doubt grind on for years. 

I had some great reader feedback from the article last week on AM Stereo radio – the great media format that was successful in the USA, Japan and several Commonwealth countries, but never got off the ground in the UK, despite the best efforts of a failed offshore radio project. The article was even more timely than I had anticipated, as standard mono AM (Medium Wave) broadcasting is now being phased out all over Europe, as engineers in France, Germany and Luxembourg flicked the switches and turned off their Medium Wave signals at midnight on New Year's Eve. Amongst others, Deutschland Radio closed down its seven Medium Wave transmitters; and Radio France, France Info, France Blue RCFM and France Blue Elsass all went off air. RTL also finally turned off the famous 1440 (208m) Luxembourg apparatus which had carried the UK directed 'Luxy' service until 1991. In the UK, the BBC has quietly begun to shut down some of its power-hungry BBC local radio AM transmitters, using the cunning plan of turning them off for a ‘trial‘ and seeing if anyone notices. Many though still battle on. Commercial radio’s local AM business is in peril too, with many frequencies kept operational by leaning on parallel brands and sharing business overheads. BBC 5 Live still delivers appreciable audiences on AM as do Talk Sport and Absolute Radio (formerly Virgin AM). The national scale of those stations adds bulk to the UK AM total listening hours figure, but one imagines that the costs of transmission and the Ofcom licence fees mean that the owners, UTV and Bauer, can see the day when they wouldn’t trouble to contest their AM licences. DAB alone would work better for them. Radio 4 boasts a clutch of Medium Wave transmitters, but its prize possession remains its powerful 198 Long Wave transmitter, beaming out from an antenna slung from the 700' high masts at Droitwich. The closure of that would be for the BBC would be extremely unpopular with the core Radio 4 audience.  It may be apocryphal, but it is suggested that this dusty transmitter relies on valves which can no longer be replaced. (Actually this is untrue – the Russians still  make the huge ceramic RF power valves that could replace those in the Droitwich 198 kHz Long Wave transmitter). The fact is that whilst AM services are being retired, the predicted rise of DAB just has not happened at anything like the extent the powers that be would have wanted. Ironically, listening figures for Internet radio have in many instances exceeded the number of listeners to DAB, especially as many people listen on the move using 4G on mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. Many European governments would love to sell – off the VHF FM band as well, but for many people FM is still the radio waveband of choice – signals are reliable, receiving equipment is cheap and widely available, and unlike DAB, FM portable receivers can run for ages on batteries. AM analogue services may be well on their way out, but analogue FM still has years of life in it, and in my opinion may outlast the never very popular DAB. What do you think?

I may have got to the bottom of origin of the mysterious lights I saw in the sky back in September. Earlier this week I received an Email from a reader who has seen my account of the bright lights I saw flying over the River Thames at around 8.30 on the evening of Monday the 20^th September. My informant wrote:- “I have been reading for many months of the balls of light over the Thames which you witnessed last September and have been meaning to contact you since your first post in regards to them. I am pleased to be able to finally put your curiosity to rest, I couldn't see you suffer any more haha. The lights you saw were Chinese lanterns released from the Riverside Gardens after Courtney Webb nee Terry's funeral. You may recall the story as it made many papers at the time. I assume there were actually 27 lanterns released, one for each year of her life but cannot say for certain.” Well that makes a lot of sense – I knew that there had to be a rational explanation for what I saw, I just did not know what it was. I had mistakenly assumed that the lights were quite high in the sky, and moving very rapidly; it would seem that they were actually a lot lower than I had perceived, and moving more slowly, with the darkness hiding their actual identity. At a guess, what the other observer in New Eltham saw and what I saw were not the same fire balloons. I counted eighteen and no more, but apparently twenty seven were launched. I am guessing that there was a change in wind direction during the mass launch, and some balloons went in one direction, and the rest in another towards New Eltham.  As far as the going against the wind direction is concerned, winds on Erith river front are very confused, and can blow in one direction on the ground, yet in another higher in the air (you can sometimes see this with aeroplanes on the approach to London City Airport - the air is calm at ground level, yet you can see the plane fighting against a crosswind at altitude). I understand it is to do with (relatively) hot ground near cold water - and back at the time of my sighting it had been an exceptionally warm day. Thanks to Brett for supplying the information it had been bugging me ever since I saw the lights. Brett is a DJ for online retro radio station Radio Sutch. You can hear them and find out more about the station by clicking here. The original Radio Sutch began in 1964, following the launch of Radio Caroline, Screaming Lord Sutch (born David Edward Sutch - Screaming Lord Sutch, was an English musician. He was the founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party and served as its leader from 1983 to his death in 1999, during which time he stood in numerous parliamentary elections. He holds the record for losing all forty elections in which he stood) said he would start his own station. On 27 May Radio Sutch began broadcasting from the south tower of the Shivering Sands former army sea fort. It was a low-powered, low-budget operation. broadcast (intermittently) on 194 metres (1542kHz) medium wave. The broadcasting hours of Radio Sutch were somewhat variable – DJ’s would wake up late for their shows, or the studio equipment would experience regular breakdowns. Even the broadcast transmitter was a total lash – up, based on a heavily modified wartime Royal Navy H.F unit re – crystalled for medium wave, which was powered from a bunch of truck and milk float batteries The antenna system was laughably inefficient, and it seems to me that it was a miracle that it worked at all, based as it was on a scaffold pole with a skull-and-crossbones flag on the top . After four months, Sutch got tired of running the station, and sold it on to businessman Reg Calvert for a reported £5000, who renamed it as Radio City, injected some capital into it, and re-launched it. The new station has the same musical format as the original Radio Sutch – basically music from the 50’s and 60’s that was considered “left field” at the time. The current Radio Sutch was started in 2012 and runs as an internet radio station, broadcasting the same style of music as the original offshore station. Do give them a try.

A couple of very sad local stories this week. I am in the fortunate position of being party to many news stories before the press manages to get hold of them, and I have quite a number of mostly anonymous sources who send me all sorts of interesting facts. I try and act responsibly – unless a source is well known to me, and has proved completely reliable in the past, I will not print a story without third party verification. Also, when a story involves potentially damaging impact to the family and friends of someone involved in a story, I will not report it until the mainstream press has already done so; an example of this happened at the beginning of this week. One of my longest serving and most reliable sources of local information emailed me with the name and personal details of the man who had been killed in a tragic motoring accident in Heath Lane Dartford on New Year’s Eve. I held back the details until the News Shopper had published the details of the deceased – Doctor Wilson Fok, who worked at the Northumberland Heath Medical Centre. He was hit by a van whilst out walking with his wife. A tragic story, and by the sounds of it, a genuine accident. I also have a policy of not normally featuring stories that make the national news – there is no real point, as “proper” journalists generally do a far better job than I could, and in any case, the stories I cover have very strong local interest. This week I have found that I cannot avoid the story of Erith resident Sian Blake. The story has been covered and picked apart by the press to a very large extent. All I have to add to it is that I used to see Sian occasionally walking around Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, and every so often in Morrison’s. I did not know she was an actress, or had been in EastEnders at one time (I am not a soap watcher).  I had not seen her for some considerable time, I guess as her Motor Neurone Disease got worse, and she was forced to limit her mobility; the whole case is tragic. What do you think? Post a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com

Last week I wrote at quite some length about pioneering inventor, engineer and innovator Richard Trevithick, and how the last couple of years of his life was spent living in Dartford. I complained that there was no monument to the great figure of the industrial revolution in the town; well regular Maggot Sandwich reader Dana Whiffen has proved me wrong - he recently took the photo above which shows the blue plaque which is on the wall of the Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel in Dartford. Back in the day when Trevithick had lodgings there, it was known just as the Bull. Another giant figure of Victorian technology has recently had what would have been her two hundredth birthday. Ada Lovelace - her collaboration with Charles Babbage on mechanical computers included her writing what is arguably the world’s first computer program. As well as being a woman pioneer of what is still a male-dominated profession, Lovelace was an engaging writer, a gambler who lost money at the races, and an aristocrat by marriage and birth – she was the daughter of Lord Byron, although her mother left the notorious poet (accompanied by Ada) as a one-month-old baby. Lovelace died at just 36 with Babbage’s computers unbuilt, leaving plenty of room to imagine what more they might have done. Since then, books, plays and films have imagined just that. Lovelace may not have been too surprised by her cultural impact, as she was perhaps the first person to imagine how computing and culture would be linked. “Through translating her poetical inheritance into the mathematical and scientific sphere, Lovelace was able to bring a startling and unique perspective to bear on Babbage’s engines,” Imogen Forbes-Macphail, a graduate student of English at University of California, Berkeley told a recent symposium on Ada Lovelace's short life. Lovelace thought the computational engines could produce works of art such as music and emulate the human nervous system, as well as just manipulate numbers. Babbage and Lovelace were rediscovered by 20th century computing pioneers including Alan Turing, the father of the modern computer, who included ‘Lady Lovelace’s objection’ in his 1950 paper on artificial intelligence that included his eponymous test. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that Ada Lovelace emerged as a cultural figure.

As regular Maggot Sandwich readers will be fully aware, I have frequently featured content related to televisions,  and the pros and cons of HD versus 4K. Up until fairly recently I advised people on the lookout for  a new TV to not bother with 4K, but just to buy a cheap HD screen, and then wait for a couple of years until proper 4K content became more widely available. That is now about to happen; Sky have announced Sky Q, their 4K UHD content delivery system.  From the details on their Sky Q website, it would seem that what is remarkable about the new receiver is its sheer versatility in terms of content sharing and advanced smart functionality features. At least based on what we’ve heard so far about the Sky Q, it’s looking to turn out as the most advanced set-top media and streaming box with 4K capability on the market so far. In effect, the new Sky Q will essentially be a sort of hub that offers a central content delivery point for 4K and HD content, from which video and other media can flow outward to assorted devices in the home simultaneously through the system’s dual-band router with its ability to share as many as twelve different content streams at the same time. The new set-top box will come with a 2TB internal hard drive which Sky claims will be capable of recording as many as 350 hours of HD content. In addition to this, the box can use that space to deliver its on-demand content for viewing around the home, on a 4K TV or on other mobile devices to which the content can either be streamed or even downloaded completely in some cases for later viewing. For the sake of helping out all this content distribution, the Sky Q comes with twelve different internal tuners. These tuners will allows users to record as many as four different programmes at once, and still be able to watch a fifth at the same time. Additionally, the tuners also supply the Sky Q Mini additional box, which is capable of streaming live TV and supporting features to two different tablets or phones at the same time if they have the Sky Q app installed. There will also be other capacities built into the twelve tuners in the Sky Q Hub but so far we don’t have every one of them detailed out too finely. There is a possibility that some of their functionality is reserved for still more complex future content delivery plans by Sky in 2016. At least based on these descriptions, the Sky Q is shaping up to be more advanced and versatile than some existing 4K UHD set-top box competitors like the Roku 4. This is all very well and good, but no process for this new it have yet been published; at present you can register an interest on the Sky Q website here, but little else - no prices or dates of availability have yet been released - so from my perspective it is still a promise of "jam tomorrow". On top of this, the industry standards for 4K television have only just been formally agreed. The technical specification covers production, distribution and display characteristics, with a bunch of individual content line items. While there are audio recommendations, video is front-and-centre of the specification. To pass the spec and buy the right to use the "Ultra HD Premium" logo, TVs will need a minimum display resolution of 3840 x 2160 (which, naturally enough, will be the production and distribution resolution as well). Devices will also need 10-bit colour depth, and will support minimum specs for colour representation (based on the ITU's BT.2020 recommendation), and the SMPTE's ST2084 EOTF (electro-optical transfer function) dynamic range spec (which defines the range from black to peak brightness). Producers and distributors have to meet the same specs – for example, if Netflix wants to brand a program Ultra HD Premium, it'll have to comply all the way from source to when it starts firing packets to the Internet. There are also specs for the displays in mastering suites: they'll have to cover one hundred per cent of the DCI's P3 colour space (consumer devices can get away with 90 per cent), and go from 0.03 nits (candela per square metre) at black to a maximum brightness beyond 1,000 nits. Samsung is one of the first consumer TV outfits to take the brand, for its 2016 range of UHD TVs, but inexplicably the Korean giant isn't running with Ultra HD Premium for its  recently launched refrigerator with video display (!) It looks like 2016 will be the year of UHD 4K visual displays – and may see the ramping down of production of HD televisions – production costs for 4K screens is dropping rapidly, and for the end user will soon come to parity with HD.  Once this happens ( which I predict within six months or so), there will be no financial incentive to either purchase or manufacture “old” HD units any more. It seems only a short time since HD was the best thing since sliced bread, and the great aspirational purchase for many people, yet now it is regarded as old hat. Things are moving fast, and it would seem to me that 2016 will be the year when 4K Ultra High Definition TV will actually hit the mainstream. 

The ending video this week is some archive footage of Erith and the surrounding area which was taken back in 1969 when the historic old town was being demolished and the grotesque 1970's concrete shopping centre was being constructed - events that all those old enough to remember regret to this day. Only now is the town recovering from the historic act of architectural and cultural vandalism. Watch the short film and leave a comment below, or Email hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The Golden Dustman.

Bearing in mind Erith is very much a maritime town, the River Thames does not really get the exposure or use one would expect. Historically Erith was an important port outside of London. Many ships which were too large to make it into the Port of London were unloaded at Erith, with their cargoes being taken further up river by Thames sailing barges. This was before the river was fully dredged and managed as it is nowadays. Today one can watch huge container and bulk carrier ships passing Erith river front on a daily basis; the best time to see ship movements is at or around the changing of the tide. As previously mentioned, some of the small and medium sized vessels can often be seen moored on Erith Pier as well. Some rather more photogenic craft will be appearing on the Thames soon. The annual Thames sailing barge race is due to take place on Saturday the 13th of July. It will be the 150th anniversary of this historic race, which was first run in 1863, when the barges were an integral part of river traffic and a major source of local employment, with thousands of boys and men crewing the river craft. The race starts at Mucking in Essex at 8.30am and finishes at Erith Pier at around 4.30pm, where many of the barges will moor. It will be an excellent opportunity for local sailing and photography enthusiasts to get up close to a large fleet of these classic vessels. The origin of this historic competition is well documented. It was the brainchild of a man who was nick named “The Golden Dustman”. His real name was Henry Dodd. He was born in 1801 into a very poor family; his first job was as a plough boy in arable fields that were within view of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which he did until he was in his early thirties, when he found employment as a “scavenger” – a sort of prototype recycling consultant. He soon discovered that the big money was in transporting waste, rather than actually sorting it. London was rapidly growing in size, and the population was booming. As the number of people in the capital increased, the amount of rubbish they generated went up. Dodd saw this as a very lucrative business opportunity, so instead of using slow and somewhat unreliable horses and carts to haul rubbish, he first hired, then purchased a fleet of sailing barges, which could transport far greater cargoes at a higher speed than any contemporary road solution. Most of the waste material Dodd was transporting was burned outside the capital, and the resulting ash was a vital ingredient in making bricks, which in turn were used to build the expansion of London. Never one to overlook a business opening, Dodd invested in several brickworks, including a very large site on what is now Manor Road in Erith. Nowadays, this kind of end to end ownership of all stages in a manufacturing process is known as “vertical integration” and Henry Dodd was a pioneer of it. All this made Dodd incredibly wealthy; he was one of the richest commoners in England, right at the start of the then new middle class. Dodd’s money bought him a degree of respectability in Victorian society (though I am sure there were whispers behind his back – though after having been brought up in the environment he had, I somewhat doubt if this bothered him). Dodd became a very enthusiastic patron of the theatre, and through this mutual interest he became very good friends with Charles Dickens. Dickens scholars believe that Dodd was the inspiration for the character of Mr. Boffin, the millionaire dustman who appears in the novel “Our Mutual Friend”. Dodd invested a large amount of money in sailing barges, and soon discovered that there was an intense rivalry between barge skippers. Never one to miss a main chance, he decided that in 1863 he would stage a sailing barge race – for entertainment, but also as a means to improve the business. The first race was only for his own sailing barges, and was run from Erith to Canvey Island and back, with the fist barge and skipper to make the round trip being awarded a generous cash purse, which was awarded under the auspices of the Prince of Wales Yacht Club. Many in society assumed that the event had Royal patronage (something that Dodd did little to discourage), but in fact it was named after an Erith pub! In 1864 the race was opened to all comers, and after a while it became such a big event the running of it was passed over to a committee of barge owners. Within ten years, specially built racing barges were being constructed purely to try and win the race. Passenger steamers would be chartered to follow the racing barges on their course, and records show that over 10,000 people watched the race from on board these steamers. Henry Dodd, the “Golden Dustman” died in 1881; he left a fund to sustain the match – an eye watering sum of £100,000, which today is equivalent to tens of millions of pounds. In the latter years of the 19th century, the event was covered by Charles’ Dickens son (who confusingly was also called Charles) in his annual gazetteer. For the Centenary Match raced in 1963, the two principle rivals in Britain’s coasting trade, F T Everard and The London and The Rochester Trading Co. lavished money on their fastest barges in an attempt to ensure success for craft which were, by that time, an anachronism in transportation terms. The 48 mile course was from Mucking to the Mouse Lightship, and then back up to Gravesend. F T Everard’s Veronica was the winner, leaving the rest far behind in her wake. The 150th Anniversary Match on Saturday 13th July 2013, has the contest finishing at Erith for the first time since 1894. Not only is this spectacle thought to be the second oldest sailing contest in the world after the America’s Cup, unlike the America’s Cup of 1851, it is still sailed in craft virtually unchanged since those times, and as such is in itself an especially important part of this nation’s maritime heritage. Hopefully the News Shopper and the Bexley Times will be covering the event, as it is of considerable historical and local interest. I will certainly be on the pier with my camera. Many thanks to one of my small group of local informants for bringing this fascinating story to my attention.

It has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. A chap in Bostall Heath called James has recently set up a Blog called “The Bostal News” (sic) in which he cites the Maggot Sandwich as his source of inspiration. I am very happy that he feels that I have motivated him to write, and to take a keen interest in his local area. Starting off a blog is not an easy task; I sometimes look back at my early postings and wince. The style and content of the Maggot Sandwich did take quite a while to settle down into the form that it takes now. It is now only a couple of weeks until  the Maggot Sandwich has its’ seventh birthday. I did not think for a moment that it would last more than a scant few months – I certainly had no inkling it would achieve the following it now has; as of today I am getting a tad over 23,500 page views per month, which is quite astonishing. I hope that James keeps at it and produces something he can be justly proud of, though at present I don't think he's discovered the Blogger spelling and grammar checking functions. Still, blogging is a continuous learning process, and you have to begin somewhere.

On Monday, I attended a meeting at the Royal Society in Carlton House Terrace, near St. James’s Park. After the meeting (where I had a chat with Ian Peters CBE, the Chairman of British Gas, but that is another story), I was making my way out of the impressive Georgian building. When I reached the reception area, I saw a tall figure standing with his hands in his pockets. He looked vaguely familiar, and after a couple of seconds of trying to recall his name, I realised that there was a portrait of him on the other side of the reception area – it was Sir Tim Berners-Lee! He’s a fellow of the Royal Society, so I suppose that it was not so unlikely to see him on the premises. I did think of asking for his autograph, but then I thought that it would be a rather naff thing to do, so I nodded politely as I passed him on my way out of the building. There are very few people who can lay claim to have really changed the world, but Sir Tim Berners-Lee is most definitely one of them.

The News Shopper are reporting that the Pizza Hut in Northumberland Heath that made the national news over the appalling state of its’ cleanliness has now re – opened after a full refurbishment. Actually that’s not quite what they wrote. Once again they got Erith and Northumberland Heath confused. Erith does not actually have a Pizza Hut; it does have a Domino’s delivery shop, and a host of kebab and fried chicken places that can knock up a pizza if required. Personally I don’t use any of them, as I think that pizza is one of the biggest consumer rip – offs around. The profit margins are phenomenal – after all, it is just a bit of bread dough covered with tomato sauce, a bit of cheese and some toppings – which then retails for around £10. I also find them heavy and hard to digest – “proper” Roman style pizza is thin enough to see light through, is given a very minimal topping and is designed to be simple, rustic fare – even a Milan style pizza, which has a slightly thicker base is still thin in comparison to the type of thing offered in the UK. The eye watering array of weird and eclectic toppings that are offered by many pizza retailers strikes me as odd – where in Milan or Rome would you find a chicken tikka or lamb doner pizza I wonder? To be honest, Pizza Hut has such a poor level of hygiene overall, that just because this franchised takeaway has had its’ act cleaned up for now, there is no guarantee it will still be that way in six months or a years’ time. I avoid it for all of the reasons above. Your thoughts and feedback are welcomed, as always.
The local area seems to be having a resurgence of interest in the arts and culture recently. Not only do the Running Horses have a monthly stand up comedy night, which I have heard very good things about, but the Red Barn pub in Barnehurst are hosting regular jazz music nights, the next one being on Friday the 28^th June with music from the Neil Tucker Group. The pub has a strong historic connection with jazz, and in particular Trad Jazz – it was the centre of the Trad Jazz revival movement, which began in 1944, when a group of amateur musicians, who worked at the Vickers armaments factory in Crayford came together at the Red Barn to form a Trad Jazz combo called “George Webb and the Dixielanders” who used to have a regular Monday night gig in the pub. After the war, the Dixielanders got a recording contract with Decca, and released a number of very successful records. In 1949 the trumpeter Humphrey Littleton took over leadership of the group from George Webb. The newly revamped Dixielanders then made some historical recordings with Sidney Bechet, and later moved to the Parlophone label, where they had a major hit with a track called the “Bad Penny Blues”. Back in 1985 the Jazz master George Melly unveiled a plaque on the outside wall of the Red Barn, commemorating its’ historical place in the great Trad Jazz revival. Incidentally, I used on occasion to see George Melly at Charing Cross station, where he was probably waiting for a train to his home in Blackheath. I used to think his outrageous, lurid suits were part of his stage attire; this was not the case – he really wore them in public! You really could not miss him, even in a crowd of people.

As some of you will be aware, I was a carer for quite a few years; my Dad died in 2011 after a ten year battle with the degenerative neurological condition known as Multi System Atrophy / Lewy Body Syndrome. Although no longer a carer myself, I am acutely aware of the issues and challenges that carers experience; I am chair of the Carers’ Network at my employer (a blue chip multinational). I was interested to see an article in the News Shopper earlier this week, which stated that the London Borough of Bexley has the third highest number of unpaid carers in the whole of London. Quite how anyone can come to this figure surprises me – many carers are not registered or described anywhere as a carer, but nevertheless have caring responsibilities – it is widely accepted that the figures from the 2011 census are nothing more than a finger in the wind. Something like one in six people in the UK are currently caring for someone other than a child, it really is the elephant in the corner as far as the welfare state is concerned – if the NHS had to fund all of the caring that currently gets done for free, its’ overall budget would end up more than doubling. One phenomenon that is now commonplace is that of what is known as the “Sandwich Carer” – a person who is caring for both small children and elderly parents – the increase in average life expectancy in the last few decades is a major contributor to this. The past week has been National Carers’ Week, and you may have seen a few references to this in the press; I was interviewed by the Reuters News agency the week before last in my capacity as a corporate Carers Network chair. It will be interesting to see when the article pops up.

I was gutted to discover that the oldest continuously run business in Erith is closing due to lack of business. Owen’s Iron monger shop has been in the town since 1905 and has been selling plumbing, electrical and building materials ever since. I have used the shop on several occasions, and it is a real pleasure to shop there –the two guys that run the place really know their stuff. Until a couple of years ago, Owens could also boast that it was the home to Britain’s largest cat, which used to sit in a box on the counter, watching the world go by. I recall that on one occasion when I was in the shop to buy some two core electrical wire, a chav in a hoody came into the shop with what looked like a pit bull on a very flimsy lead. The dog saw the cat and went berserk – barking and snarling and trying to lunge at the counter where the cat was sitting. Rather than running scared, the cat slowly and methodically climbed down from the counter and walked up to the dog, who was still making a fearful din. The cat swiped the dog’s nose with a paw complete with claws – the dog howled, then ran behind the feckless owner and looked terrified. The two chaps behind the counter were somewhat amused to say the least – they knew full well how territorial their pet was, and being as large as a bulldog, the cat had absolutely no fear. I do wonder if the animal was a cross with a Lynx or other wild cat, as it was so very much larger than any other domestic cat I have ever seen. Unfortunately the cat died a while back, and from talking to the two chaps in the shop, they still get customers coming in asking after it. From September even that will be no more. I am guessing that a combination of the downturn in the economy, and the spread of chain stores like B and Q and Wickes have take their core business away. A real pity, as the place has a real charm, and you can still order things in Imperial measures if you so wish (though I did once hear a customer asking for a three metre length of two by four) – which got me intrigued – the owners did not seem to mind, and the wood was soon supplied just as the customer had requested.

As you will see from the scan of the certificate above, the Erith Watch team have won a national award; as you may already be aware, yours truly is one of a small team who operate Erith Watch, and I am webmaster of their website. It is very gratifying to see that we have received formal recognition for our work. You can view the Erith Watch website here. Erith Watch is the largest Neighbourhood Watch group in the London Borough of Bexley. The average Neighbourhood Watch group consists of around 40 houses. Erith Watch has just over 300 residential addresses under its' remit, and is looking to expand still further. Do feel free to join the Erith Watch website - even if you are not a local resident, you may learn more about safety and personal security issues that will help you wherever you actually live.

I notice that the lemon flavoured alcopop drink Hooch is now back on the shelves of supermarkets and corner shops all over the country. The drink was the poster boy of the alcopop craze in the mid to late nineties, but was taken out of production in the UK in 2003 following concerns that it, and other brightly coloured and fruit flavoured alcoholic beverages were encouraging under age drinking.  I was in Morrison’s last week when I noticed that it was back on the shelves in the off – licence area. After doing a little research, it would appear that its’ manufacturer (I won’t dignify it with the name brewer) is Molson Coors. They are targeting the re – launched Hooch at young men, attempting to woo them away from boutique ciders and other fussy concoctions.  The difference between Hooch when it was originally launched and now is that they have made the taste sharper and more lemony – partly to refute the original complaints that the drink was aimed at children who tend to have a very sweet tooth. They are also now recommending that it be served with ice – just like Magners, the “Irish” cider – which is actually made from apple pulp imported from Spain, and is coloured with caramel. It strikes me that alcopops do tend to attract the younger drinker – in my experience it tends to be young women, however – usually glugging on bottles of lurid blue WKD or similar. I don’t know if as the drinkers get older, their tastes mature too. I somehow find it hard to imagine an alcopop drinker moving on to real ale, but I would love to be proved wrong.

And now on to the ending video. I don't know if you recall that a couple of years ago, there was a Top Gear special, where Jeremy, Richard and James challenged their counterparts on Top Gear Germany to a series of car related challenges, and they famously turned up at the race track in a trio of two seat Spitfires? Well, I have found the out take video on YouTube, which shows them taking off and flying over South East England, on their way to the challenge, which was filmed in Belgium. Here you can see three normally grumpy and fractious middle aged blokes transformed into eight year old boys.

The old and the new.

In previous years I have written a year end summary as my first entry to the New Years' Maggot Sandwich; but not this year. If you want to see what has happened to me over the past twelve months, click on the Blog Archive button to the right of this text - you get a drop down menu allowing the selection of Blog entries by month. All very easy. The photo above shows a good analogy to the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. To the left is my old Apple wireless Mighty Mouse, and to the right, its' successor, the Apple Magic Mouse. The reason for the change is simple. The Mighty Mouse has a design flaw. The small grey scroll ball on the rounded mouse body picks up sweat and grease from your fingers, and after a while the ball stops scrolling. The mouse body has a unitary construction, and it cannot be disassembled for cleaning. There are a multitude of solutions available online, and a number of videos discussing the issue on YouTube. The fix that worked for me for over a year was to turn the mouse bodily upside down and rub the scroll ball backwards and forwards over a clean sheet of paper. This had the temporary effect of rubbing off the finger grease and restoring the scrolling action. These cleaning fixes have got progressively less and less effective, to the point that the mouse seems to have now permanently lost the scroll ball functionality. I bit the bullet and went over to the Apple Store at Bluewater yesterday afternoon, and bought one of the new completely touch sensitive Magic Mice. Initial opinion is good. You can read all about the revolutionary Magic Mouse here.

As you may know, I am a great fan of hot chilli pepper sauces; indeed, I have a collection of them on my desk at work, which several of my colleagues share and contribute towards. Ian bought me an excellent new one as part of my Christmas present. It is somewhat unusual, as it is based on Indian Lime Pickle - a flavoursome, sour and spicy condiment that is unfortunately very oily and heavy. A company called Holy Cow have developed a healthier alternative that is less oily, and free of preservatives and nasty additives. You can see their range of products by clicking here.

I reported a while back that Erith Morrison's had installed four customer operated automatic scanning tills. It would appear that supermarkets in the future will expect customers to scan and pack their own shopping, from a recent article in the business section of the Times.

They sparked fears that the days of the checkout girl were numbered, that a feature of British supermarket shopping for more than half a century was coming to an end — and on Wednesday those fears, if not quite realised, were stoked even further. NCR, the American technology company behind 80 per cent of the UK’s self-service checkouts, has predicted another bumper year in 2010, forecasting a 50 per cent increase in UK sales of the self-service scanning machines that have become a feature of stores nationwide. Seven thousand have been installed in supermarkets since their introduction in 2002. According to Elton Birden, the managing director of NCR in Britain: “Self-service checkouts will revolutionise retail in the same way that selfservice supermarkets did 60 years ago. It’s going to be a combination of existing customers rolling out and new users. It’s still a small percentage of the overall checkout.” Non-food retailers, and the fast-fashion market, in particular, are the next target in the march of Mr Birden’s machines. Self-service counters cost about £8,000 each, including installation, and NCR estimates that they pay for themselves in about 15 months. A third more tills can be squeezed into a store and checkout staff can be deployed elsewhere. But the devices — and their frequent complaint of “unexpected item in bagging area” — are disliked by many shoppers, who argue that retailers are asking customers to do their work for them and that it reduces interaction with staff. NCR argues that the counters cut prices. “Staff can be redeployed to the shop floor, so it can actually improve service,” Mr Birden said. He argues that interaction with staff at the checkout on a convenience shopping trip is usually minimal, anyway. Much like supermarkets in the Fifties, NCR believes that it is benefiting from modern social change, especially the growing convenience market. People are making more shopping trips, for fewer items — hence the spread of convenience outlets to meet demand — a phenomenon attributed by analysts to the breakdown in the nuclear family and traditional working patterns. NCR believes, moreover, that shoppers’ desire for healthy and fresh food and a growing desire to have cravings satisfied immediately have also driven the convenience boom. The number of self-service checkouts will more than double to 15,000 in the next three years, according to Retail Banking Knowledge. The attraction for retailers is such that Tesco is testing a supermarket without any staffed checkouts at all. Nearly every Asda store, apart from its 24 non-food standalone stores, is equipped with self-service scanners — about 2,500 in total. Sainsbury’s, the third-largest supermarket, has 1,800 self-service checkouts in 220 stores, and Morrisons, the No 4 supermarket, says that 9 per cent of its checkouts, or about 1,000, are self-service. Even larger stores have adopted the machines because they allow shoppers to purchase a few items quickly without getting bogged down in a queue behind customers on their weekly shop. Justin King, the chief executive of Sainsbury’s, recently defended the supermarket’s use of self-service checkouts. Asked on Times Online about the impact of the checkouts on customer service, he wrote: “A growing number of our customers love the speed and freedom selfservice checkouts provide. They might listen to their music and not want to talk with anyone at the checkout.” He added that Sainsbury’s would always have manned checkouts for customers who prefer not to scan items themselves. NCR said that the self-service checkouts also helped to improve availability by freeing staff to replenish shelves. The weakest link in a supermarket’s supply chain is most often that between the stockroom and the shelf, according to research by the British Retail Consortium.

Bugger that, is all I can say - why have a dog and bark yourself? I resolutely refuse to use these dreadful devices. Part of the whole shopping experience is the service and interaction with the staff - and as has been previously proved, the auto tills are not very secure. In fact, the whole chip and PIN security system is indeed threatened, as you can read by clicking here. I refuse to do the supermarkets' work for them - and I detest these impersonal infringements on our shopping experience.

A photo of the local area from the air, courtesy of Google Earth. As already mentioned, the area has now had a Neighbourhood Watch scheme started, so with any luck the level of petty crime, burglary and general Chav induced nastiness should start to reduce. The Neighbourhood Watch web site can be found here.

You can view my Flickr photos online by clicking here. Comment as you see fit.

The dreadful and intrusive Oyster card system went live on the local train network on the 1st January - they have very stealthily brought in this additional means of spying on ordinary people. The system records every journey a user makes, then stores the information permanently, despite this contravening the Data Protection Act. The whole premise that Oyster is cheaper than individual fares is an utter travesty; they artificially increased the single fares to make Oyster look like good value. The ability the unelected and un-policed officials on both a local and national level have to monitor and spy on ordinary people is one of my greatest worries.

Local radio station WNKR have had an epic broadcast over the holiday period; in fact it has been so successful and popular that the internet stream I mentioned last week has been recorded by U.S radio giant WBCQ, who have then rebroadcast it over their hugely powerful shortwave transmitters for listeners all over the world. You can listen to several samples of their programmes by downloading some MP3 files of their shortwave transmissions here.

A photo above of is of Hengist - a new addition to the Atkinson - Davis family, part of the extended Pewty clan. He's recently arrived from Battersea, and a very handsome chap he is indeed.

Does anyone else think that Top Gear has jumped the shark? (For a definition of Jumping the Shark, please click here). I still like the show, but feel that it has run out of ideas and is now just going through the motions. The recent Christmas special really just underlines this. To be honest, their expedition to Bolivia was frankly predictable and boring. I have always loved the show, and thoroughly agree with the recent Channel 4 decision to award  Top Gear as the TV show of the decade. I just think that enough is enough, and that the producers should call an end to the programme before it ends up becoming a parody of itself. You can read an editorial about the situation from Top Gear producer Andy Wilman here.

One event that occurs each Christmas without fail is the appearance of multiple pirate radio stations on the AM band; mostly on short wave. There is an excellent web site which documents the various activity on the short wave bands that you can view by clicking here. They usually only broadcast for a few hours before going off air or changing frequency. One of the largest, most powerful and most professional of these broadcasters is Weekend Music Radio from Scotland; They were on air over the festive break, and I was in contact with them. In exchange, they sent me a virtual QSL card. If you are not aware, in amateur radio terms, a QSL card is a written acknowledgement of a listener having heard a particular radio station. In ages past, these would be sent in the post, whereas nowadays they are usually emailed.  Here is the WMR QSL card, so that you can get an idea of what they are like:

I just wish that the BBC would terminate the contract of that interminable bore and pretentious quarter wit Melvin Bragg. His adenoidal whingeing and pseudo intellectual posturing just go to underline what a superior presenter Paul Gambuccini is. Bragg's appearance on either television or radio is an instant cue for me to switch off.

I have been a user of Google since they first came online back in 1998 - their great strength back then was their clean and uncluttered home page, which loaded relatively speedily over a 14.4K dial up modem. A great bonus over the cluttered and advert filled alternative of Yahoo. Google have progressed in great strides, to the point where they now provide a credible rival to Microsoft as information supremos. This I feel is part of the problem. They are getting too pervasive - Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps, Chrome,  Chromium OS and so forth. I like what they do, but in the words of Tom Waits "There's always free cheese in the mousetrap".  I just worry what they will eventually do with all the information that they have gathered. Knowledge is power. I would hate to see them go over to the dark side, as Microsoft did in the early 1990's. I fear this is becoming increasingly inevitable, however.

The two part Doctor Who Christmas special was generally regarded to be a bit of a mixed bag; you can read a number of online reviews here. I thought that David Tennant made a fine Doctor over the past four years, and I am sorry to see him go.

The video clip this week is the teaser trailer for the forthcoming 2010 season of Doctor Who, starring new actor Matt Smith. Some familiar faces turn up - it should be interesting.