The chippy.

I am always suspicious of anyone who uses more than one exclamation mark in a sentence or announcement. To me it smacks of desperation, as in “look at me!” A prime example of this was for many years displayed outside of the Manor Fish Bar (which, somewhat unsurprisingly, is located at the Western end of Manor Road, Erith). Under the main name board on the front of the shop, there was the phrase “Freshly Prepared Fish!!!” The three exclamation marks would jump out at me every time I walked past the place - as you can clearly see in the photo above - click on it for a larger view. I am in that sense happy to say that the source of my irritation has now ended. The Manor Fish Bar has changed hands and is currently being gutted (fish bar – gutted – oh why do I bother?) I am unsure who the new owners are, or what they plan for the shop; the previous owners were ineffective. They ran the place down into the ground – it was grubby, dingy and the fish was very expensive. The place only rated a one out of five star rating on “Scores on the Doors” and I think that star was being rather generous. When I first moved to Erith in 1996 the fish bar was run by an Iranian couple who had recently purchased the shop. They were excellent – the fish was immaculately cooked, reasonably priced, very tasty and served in large portions. On occasion I would go into the shop not long before it was due to close; rather than giving me a piece of fish from the warming cabinet, they would always insist on cooking it for me from fresh. The wife spoke very little English, but when I saw her in the street, or shopping in Morrison’s, she would always smile and say “hello”. They were by far the best proprietors of the shop in my experience. The photo below was taken during their tenure – it shows the 1950’s vintage marble effect Formica that lined the shop. It was kept immaculately clean and tidy. I had a gut feeling that if I did not take the photo when I did (September 2005) it would not be around for much longer. I was correct; only a couple of months later, the Iranian couple sold up and moved on. Since then the shop has changed hands a number of times, progressively getting shabbier and less welcoming with each passing owner. The last proprietors ripped out much of the classic Formica and opened the back of the shop up. They also started selling pizza and kebabs – and the cleanliness and hygiene of the place slid further downhill. Being just a hundred metres from a large KFC drive through and a similar McDonald’s drive through cannot help – although the Manor Fish Bar did tend to attract more custom from local residents, than passing traffic. I just hope that whoever has now taken the place on can put it back to where it once was. I don’t know what the new owner intends for the shop – my local contacts have thus far drawn a blank.

Erith has a long and varied past, and has been home to many enterprises and industries. One that you may well not be aware of, is that Erith was the home of one if the UK’s top land based pirate radio station for some years. The station is apparently on hiatus at present, although they do still broadcast online - you can listen here, but one never knows if it will come back on air again. West and North Kent Radio (WNKR) originally started broadcasts on the FM band from the roof of the old Norvic House on the Larner Road housing estate back in August 1987. They later moved to Shortwave, where they had listeners all around Europe and beyond. They also broadcast on Medium Wave to South East London and North Kent on 1476kHz until a couple of years ago, when they decided to take a break. I stumbled across this audio only documentary on YouTube which is a fascinating and at times hilarious account of the history of the local radio station during their early years.  Give it a listen and see what you think.

I have had an absolutely phenomenal response to last weeks’ blog posting; specifically my account of meeting murderer Rod Newall when I was working on the Radio Caroline ship, the Ross Revenge, back in the summer of 1992. The blog posting was highlighted and linked to on a number of pirate radio chat rooms and discussion forums. Thanks Dave – much appreciated for the plug! At the time of writing I have had 514 page views for that Halloween special update alone. In case you were wondering, my account is not fictionalised or embellished – everything I wrote did actually happen as described. I had almost completely forgotten about the whole incident, when by complete coincidence there was a dramatised documentary about the whole Newall murder case on Channel 5 the previous Thursday. I had just got in from a Neighbourhood Watch leaders meeting, and switched on the TV to be confronted with a recreation of events that led up to, and resulted from Roderick Newall and his brother bludgeoning their parents to death. I noticed that the documentary was pretty accurate, but missed out on the whole of Rod’s yacht coming to Dover. They said he had gone to France to pick up the vessel – which was not the case. I suppose I should not be too surprised, as to my knowledge, nobody from the Radio Caroline organisation was ever questioned by the Police over the matter. At that time Caroline were beginning the transition from an “outside of the law” organisation and into a more conventional enterprise. Any association with a high profile criminal – however innocently it happened – would have been public relations suicide. It is probably just as well that the Radio Caroline element remained undiscovered for well over two decades. It cannot do any harm for me to have discussed it in my last posting. Talking of Radio Caroline, I have heard the sad news that its’ founder, Ronan O’Rahilly is very ill with an advanced case of Vascular Dementia.  Ronan was the person who changed the face of British radio – before Caroline the BBC only played a few hours of music a week, and were loath to broadcast anything challenging or different. It is probable that many British bands from the 60’s and 70’s would not have had the success they did without the extensive air time Caroline gave them. Ronan was behind the tours of the UK that the Stax and Motown labels undertook – this was when other UK radio stations played no music of black origin. Ronan was one of life’s eccentrics; he would come up with some utterly crackpot idea, but such was the power of his warmth, charm and personality, he would have you believing him – at least until he disappeared. Usually a couple of minutes later, you would get a “hang on a minute” thought, and you would realise how bonkers what you had just been told actually was. Ronan had a soft half Irish / half American accent, and it became a running joke amongst staff that if you heard the “Old Man” start a sentence with “Hey, I’ve got this really great idea!” you knew what followed was going to be challenging, if impractical, dangerous, or downright contrary to the established laws of physics - nevertheless, it would always be interesting. Having lost my own father to dementia (albeit of a different type) I know how challenging caring for someone with the condition can be. My thoughts are with his family in Ireland, who are now looking after the great, inspirational man, and a truly lovely bloke.

As mentioned in some depth two weeks ago, the traffic diversion around the Bexley Road railway bridge has now gone into force. The West bound carriageway is completely out of use for the next couple of months; bearing in mind what a bottleneck the bridge is during rush hours, even when working normally, it will be interesting to see how local traffic copes. The bus diversions are detailed on the poster above (click on it for a larger view). It strikes me that the most popular and heavily used service – the 99 route from Bexleyheath to Woolwich via Erith, is also going to be the most dramatically affected. The 99 normally runs across the rail bridge on both directions of its’ circular journey. Because of the remedial engineering work to the bridge, it will no longer be able to head West along Bexley Road and then turn right into Fraser Road, and in turn Erith Road, where it meets Upper Belvedere. Instead it is being redirected  along the dual carriageway of Bronze Age Way, then onto Lower Road, and finally up Picardy Road (often incorrectly referred to as Picardy Hill) to then join up with Woolwich Road, and resume its’ normal journey. The problem with this is that parts of Picardy Road are very narrow; the existing double decker 401 buses have difficulties on a couple of the bends of the very steep road, which is not helped by a lot of irresponsible motorists parking illegally. This especially true during the school run, when parents park there when taking children to Lessness Heath primary school. The other concern is that the residents of Fraser Road and Erith Road will be without a bus service for the best part of eight weeks. Erith Road especially has a high proportion of pensioners, some of which don’t have cars. Mobility for them during the diversion may well be a headache.

I do my best to bite my tongue, but there are times when I find it very difficult; for example when I hear people saying “them” instead of “those”, as in “them people”, or “we was” instead of “we were” – you know the kind of thing. It is so common locally that it seems to have become almost the norm. I heard a clanger of one the other day whilst in the bakery section of Morrison’s, where a woman wanted a Ciabatta loaf. The bakery assistant took several goes to identify what she wanted, as she had asked for a “Seeabatta” loaf – causing much unintentional confusion. 

I have written in the past about renewed interest in the scientific and engineering community in Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR), which used to erroneously be referred to as “Cold Fusion”. The phenomenon, which was widely embraced, then derided as a con back in the heady days of 1989. Since then, a few amateur researchers have continued to plug away, convinced that the process is real, and that it can be harnessed to produce unlimited, almost free power with no nasty nuclear waste to worry about. It would seem that LENR may well have taken a step closer to achieving this goal, a paper has been published in the Japanese Journal of Applied Physics (a very well respected publication with impeccable academic credentials). The paper states that Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories have successfully replicated an experiment originally carried out by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, where an LENR generator produced energy output far in excess of that which was input to the device. This the first independent, peer reviewed academic journal to record such a success. The fact that multinational industrial giants such as Toyota and Mitsubishi are funding and carrying out research into an area formerly thought of as “crackpot” is instructive; these hard headed corporates would not be spending money on LENR research unless they had a good idea it would not only exist, but be capable of being engineered into a viable power source. This is all very encouraging. People have looked for years to find a cheap, clean, reliable source of pollution free power; there is a distinct possibility that this may be a lot nearer than we previously thought.

The news this week that Blockbuster has gone into administration for a second time in a year really should come as no surprise. The Erith branch closed nearly a year ago now (see the photo above), and it was a constant source of amazement that it stayed open as long as it did. It was scarcely used and had little stock for much of the time. The owners of Blockbuster do not seem to have realised that the age of the hardware media format is now well and truly over. People no longer wish to queue up to hire a DVD or Blu – Ray disk, then have to worry about returning it on time, or risk a fine. The online streaming services such as LoveFilm and Netflix have stolen a march on this business; it surprises me that Blockbuster have not updated their business model to accommodate the dramatic change in their customers’ viewing habits. Online streaming is becoming the norm; I seriously doubt that there will be a physical media storage format to replace Blu-Ray, as the need for such a format will be minimal. Movies and TV series will be streamed over the web onto TV's and tablet devices, and as bandwidth increases, the capacity for ever higher resolutions will be met. 4K high definition television is already with us, albeit with minimal native 4K content. In a nod to the future, the only “proper” 4K content is delivered via streaming, not by Blu-Ray, as it does not support full 4K resolution. Time will tell, but I don’t think physical storage media has very much of a future.

Things seem to be hotting up in respect of the campaign to preserve Bexley Local Studies and Archive Service, and prevent it being absorbed into the service run by Bromley Council. It seems not one single person who I have spoken to is in support of the move, which is said would save the council around £41,000 a year. This is a laughably small amount of cash in the greater scheme of things – when you compare this sum with the wage bill of the senior members of Bexley Council, it is a drop in the ocean. Bexley is Bonkers webmaster Malcolm Knight has already written extensively on the subject, which you can read here.  The problems relating to a potential move are multiple. Firstly there is the issue of distance – Bromley library is approximately ten miles from Bexleyheath library, and the journey by public transport is slow and difficult. Even when travelling by car there are problems, due to the parking restrictions which Bromley zealously apply. Much of the physical records stored by Bexley Local Studies and Archive service are very fragile paper – they have not even been captured on microfilm, let alone digitally scanned for web use. Any mass movement of old and brittle documents, some of which date back hundreds of years is bound to cause irreparable damage. I doubt that Bromley will be interested in the archiving of Bexley’s documents – I think it more than likely they will get thrown into a store room and forgotten – after all, Bexley residents don’t pay the wages of Bromley council workers, so there is little or no incentive for them to make any effort whatsoever. It also seems like cruel irony;  we are on the verge of the 100^th anniversary of the First World War; children and adults alike are being encouraged to find out more both about that historic conflict and the effect it had locally, along with schools running special events based on WW1. An opportunity for school children to learn will be wasted if the archives are relocated – and the costs of the relocation are likely to exceed the savings made by the move. In my professional life, I manage projects, some of which are markedly similar to a local archive relocation – I can say that a £41K saving is a drop in the ocean when one sees the bigger picture – it strikes me as being a classic “box ticking” exercise . It is clear that Bexley Council care little for the history of the local area; it would not be the first time they have acted in this manner; they closed the beautiful, historic Erith Library and Museum in Walnut Tree Road, scant months after an extensive (and expensive) refurbishment project had been completed. They then moved the library into its’ current airless and charmless shop unit opposite Erith Health Centre – and did away with the museum entirely. It seems to me that certain council members who get to make the decisions are acting like modern day Visigoths – destroying the history and local identity of the borough, with no thought for the legacy of future generations. Thankfully the Bexley Times have picked up on the story, and have published an article that you can read here. 

House prices in Greater London are again sky rocketing.  Bexley has some of the cheapest house prices anywhere within the M25, and Both Erith and Slade Green are the cheapest of all. It is one of the principal reasons I moved into Erith in the first place; it is just about the cheapest town in which to live within easy commuting distance of Central London. When I first moved into the town in 1996 that was about the only thing to recommend Erith. It was to be honest, a pretty grim place – a grim, brutalist design shopping centre that was filled with broken glass, litter and the constant smell of wee. There was no big supermarket, and little investment in the town, which was still recovering from post industrial gloom – the place was not nearly as geared up as a place that is welcoming to its’ inhabitants than it is now. Overall the last decade and a half have seen big improvements for Erith. The opening of Morrison’s (the first Morrison’s in the South, closely followed by one in Ilford – the rest is history). This led to the redevelopment of the pier – the longest on the entire River Thames, and now a very popular destination for anglers and walkers alike. The Erith Riverside Shopping Centre redevelopment was a substantial improvement on the frankly shockingly bad old town centre, which nobody had a kind word for, even if the new development did take quite a long time to find its’ feet. Erith is now a pretty nice place to live, despite what some naysayers might think.

The ending video this week is surreally bonkers. It is the campaign film created by Brian May and Brian Blessed to end the Badger cull. Whatever your views on the cull, the short film is extremely odd - it features badgers in the role of Hawkmen from the cult film "Flash Gordon", with a reworked sound track from the film by Brian May. Brian Blessed, who would have won an Oscar for his role in "Flash Gordon", had there been an award for scenery chewing, also makes an appearance. Watch and wonder - what were they thinking?

Platform Two and the Stones.

A yacht on the River Thames off Erith. I took the photo from Erith Pier last Sunday afternoon; it was bitterly cold and windy. In the background you can see part of the huge rubbish dump in Rainham, Essex. The Northerly wind blows dust and pollution from there straight into Erith, one of the reasons why we suffer from some of the worst air pollution in the United Kingdom. Still, it was nice to see members of Erith Yacht club braving the cold weather for what looked like some excellent sailing.

The photo above shows the M.V Folgefonn, the former Norwegian car ferry that has been used as the home for Erith Yatch Club for many years; I understand that it is being prepared for the sea journey back to Norway. It is being returned there now that the new Yacht club HQ is nearing completion, courtesy of a substantial National Lottery grant. Both the ferry and the new club HQ can be seen in the photo above - click for a larger version. In the background can be seen the Queen Elizabeth road bridge, which links Dartford in Kent, and Grays in Essex over the River Thames. I can see this view from my back garden. To see more of my photos, you can click here to visit my Flickr photo stream. Here is a photo of a scale model of the Folgefonn as she looked during WW2:

Those nice chaps from local free radio station WNKR are on their annual trip to the USA to attend the Short Wave Listeners convention at Kulpsville in Pennsylvania. As per last year, they have set up a blog with photos and video clips of their trip, but it is private, so you will just have to take my word for it. One thing that is not private is their customary American radio show, which as well as being transmitted over parts of America on FM, is also available streaming online. The four hour show, which runs as a loop can be heard by clicking here. Great stuff. If you want to drop them a line, their Email address is WNKR@rock.com.

An update from last weeks' posting; it turns out that Erith Police office may be some time from opening; apparently the authorities have decided that the building is too big to house just one Safer Neighbourhoods team, and are now planning to expand the office to house a total of four teams. This will mean some alteration to the existing structure, but in time will mean that the facility should be staffed pretty much full time, by the four overlapping Police teams, which can only be a good thing in the middle of the wild and lawless cesspit that is Erith town centre.

As you may be aware, before the 1997 hand gun ban, I was a keen and active licenced full bore pistol shooter. I was a weekly visitor to the Stone Lodge range at Dartford, and used to own a Glock 17, 9mm pistol. I was trained as a range safety master and qualified as an advanced pistol coach. The gun ban has done absolutely nothing to combat illegal gun ownership, or the level of firearms crime in the UK. Before the ban, legal gun owners were some of the most respectable and responsible members of society; before being granted a class 1 firearms certificate, we all had to be checked out by the Police, involving a number of detailed home security and applicability visits, and having clean bill of mental and physical health from ones' local GP.  Anyway, here is a video clip showing a new assault rifle that I feel would be a great improvement on the now venerable, unreliable and somewhat poorly made SA 80 5.56mm assault rifle currently used by the British Army. Here is the Tavor TA-21. See what you think from the video below.



My review of "The Boat that Rocked' (also known as "Pirate Radio" in the USA) has now been published in Popular Communications magazine. Thanks to Andy Walker for the photograph of the piece, which you can see below. Click on the picture for a larger view:

News just in; A 40 ton artillery gun has been put on permanent display at the Firepower Royal Artillery Museum at Woolwich, after being in storage for more than a decade. The Gibraltar Gun is one of the largest and heaviest objects in the Royal Artillery’s collection and will now be on display at Firepower. This type of heavy artillery was used to protect important coastal locations throughout the British Empire such as Dover and Hong Kong. I will be popping along to see it just as soon as this execrable bout of cold and inclement weather is over.

Bexley Council is once again accused of spying on its' residents - here is an excerpt from an article from the News Shopper:

At least 2.6 million households now have microchips in their bins which can be used to weigh the amount of waste used. Critics fear the chips will lead to "pay as you throw" charges. Bexley council revealed its microchip of choice was a radio frequency identification read-only tag, pre programmed with a unique number. Big Brother Watch's report, Lifting The Lid, found councils had spent more than £1 million installing the chips in the past year. Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, criticised the "surreptitious" installation of the chips. He said: "The number of local councils placing microchips in bins is increasing, despite the fact that only one of them has volunteered to trial the Government's 'pay-as-you-throw' scheme. "Councils are waiting until the public aren't watching to begin surveillance on our waste habits, intruding into people's private lives and introducing punitive taxes on what we throw away." He added: "The British public doesn't want this technology, these fines or this intrusion. If local authorities have no intention to monitor our waste then they should end the surreptitious installation of these bin microchips." 

This follows on from a new practice that many local authorities and private individuals now have of discouraging or moving on chavs hanging around shopping centres and other municipal areas by fitting loudspeakers that play classical music - apparently the low lives hate anything that smacks of civilisation or high class, and disappear as soon as the music starts. There is an article about the practice here. Once again, I am a proponent of civil liberties, but my own line is drawn in the sand when it comes to low life chav scumbags. Nuke them until they glow, then shoot them in the dark. It is the only way.

Have you noticed that as soon as anything to do with the city of Liverpool is mentioned, it is almost inevitable that the Beatles will crop up in the conversation. The two are inextricably linked. One cannot say the same for the Rolling Stones. Most people are unaware that they started in Dartford, and the town seems almost embarrassed by the connection; some years ago there was a proposal to put a blue plaque on platform two of Dartford Station, to commemorate where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards first met, which soon led to them forming the world famous band. The proposal has seemed to evaporate into nothing, and the general public are still ignorant of the link between the medium sized town in Kent and the worldwide musical phenomenon. If this was America, the town would now be a Stones theme park.

This weeks' video is a new one; it shows Jimi Hendrix playing the Glastonbury Festival. Before you comment that he never played there, I know. A clever bit of digital manipulation and a pretty good video to boot.

Stop Messing About.

A busy weekend. The weather on Friday afternoon and evening was abysmal; I took a couple of hours off work to ensure that I got to the Bexley Beer Festival in good time. A combination of torrential rain and a road traffic accident in Barnehurst meant that the 229 bus from Erith to Sidcup took the best part of two hours to make the journey, redirected via what felt like Reykjavik, but was actually the mean backstreets of Northumberland Heath. We then had to trudge a mile or so from the bus stop to Sidcup Sports Club in the teeming rain. Not pleasant at all. I had been hoping that the organisers would have learned from last years' event, where it became seriously overcrowded as nobody wanted to go outside because of the inclement conditions. I had hoped they would have provided a gazebo or marquee tent to handle the overflow of people from the main hall. No such luck - by about 8pm it was Sardine impression time. To add insult to injury, some jobsworth had stuck signs on the door leading to the club's excellent changing rooms and toilets, banning beer festival visitors from using them. We had to use pitch black, unlit portable toilets - often colourfully described as Turdises. On the upside, we located a medium sized, unused room, probably used as the cricket umpires office. Our group decamped there, and I produced my small Roberts radio, tuned to WNKR and the party began. Ian and I were joined by Alan and Debbie, along with WNKR DJ's Andy Walker, Steve Underground, Hugo LeJay and Dave Martin, along with local listener Darren from Bexley, who remembers me from my time on Radio Caroline (!) The beer was excellent, the company fun and a good time was had by all, with the caveats already mentioned. I will be contacting Bexley CAMRA with some suggestions and improvements for next year though.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, which boded well for the events planned for the day. Ian and I travelled up to London to watch a matinee performance of the comedy "Stop Messing About" - a recreation of the recording of the classic radio comedy show starring Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick. Click on the link in the title to take you to the shows' website. It was very well staged; the conceit was that you were attending the actual recording of the original show back in 1969, complete with brown warehouse coated recording engineers and "Applause" signs. The actors playing the Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick were excellent, and the whole performance was delightfully filthy, with not a single rude word being uttered - just some amazing and sophisticated innuendo which came thick and fast. I am sure I missed quite a few jokes, they were so numerous. The show is in the West End for another month before going on tour. Well worth a visit.

We then got the train back to London Bridge, where we got off to visit the Market Porter pub. The place has featured in a couple of movies recently - one of the Harry Potter films, and in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It serves an amazing range of real ales, and is located right inside Borough Market. After a swift drink, sitting on the kerb outside of the pub, along with around a hundred like minded people, watching the world go past, we decided to move on. Another short train journey and we arrived at Maze Hill and the excellent Plume of Feathers pub for a quick refresh on the way home. The weather was kind, the afternoon's performance entertaining and the beer top notch - a quality excursion and something to remember.

Onto this weeks' rant. This is an old chestnut which I have mentioned before, but it is not going away and something needs to be done. Why does the Greater London Authority introduce laws which it then fails to enforce? The number of chavs I have personally witnessed drinking Stella or White Lightning on the train has increased markedly. The GLA made carrying an open container of alcohol on public transport a criminal offence from the 1st June 2008. Nothing is done to enforce or take action against offenders, and British Transport Police appear to turn a blind eye. It is inconsistent and sends out a confusing and unclear message to those who may be vulnerable to petty crime and disorder. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing; on one side I am a civil libertarian with a dislike of government intervention into private affairs, and on the other hand, those individuals who do break the rules regarding alcohol on public transport are almost invariably precisely the micro browed spongeing low - lives I so detest.

Back to a video clip this week after last weeks' experiment with the embedded Google Street View of Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere. After wandering through London's China Town yesterday afternoon, something nice to eat from that part of the world would seem to fit the bill; here is an authentic recipe for Chinese crispy vegetable spring rolls.

Lily Savage and a bird.

This is getting familiar. Once again I am in my favourite hostelry, blogging with the Asus mini Eee PC. Things have now got back to a semblance of normality after the pleasant madness of the last week. You may have already seen the photos on my Flickr site – both of the party, and of the actual post induction shots outside of Buckingham Palace. Incidentally, whilst waiting for the inductees to be admitted to the palace, I was standing next to a tall chap with white hair, dressed extremely smartly in a morning suit, complete with top hat. I thought to myself “he looks familiar”, but did not really think anything more about it. I was reading that amiable and easy reading daily commuter friendly rag, Metro on Thursday, when I discovered that I had been rubbing shoulders with TV chat show host and former alternative comedian Paul O'Grady!

Whilst writing this piece, comfortably ensconced in my favourite corner of the pub, the door opened and a very familiar figure, accompanied by by a small person entered – it was Ian with elder daughter Ella; they came to see me and say hello before going off to the cinema. I am obviously getting extremely predictable in my weekend behaviour, as they knew exactly where to find me.

One thing I have discovered with Shepherd Neame Late Red best bitter, is that it has an unfortunate side - effect; especially if imbibed in the evening prior to bed. To put it bluntly, it makes you fart. I am currently doing a very accurate impression of a two stroke outboard motor on full throttle.

Something that I have recently noticed, is that very few school children seem to smoke nowadays. Whether it is that the health message has finally got through, or that the cost is now prohibitive is not the issue. They are just not smoking nowadays, and that has to be a good thing. Personally I think the main motivator is that they would rather spend their pocket money on credit for their ever present mobile telephones. I suppose it is a toss up health – wise as to whether it is preferable to croak from lung cancer (fags) or later on from a brain tumour (mobile phone). No doubt the debate will drag on ad infinitum.

I was travelling back to Erith on the 99 bus from my daily Dad visit, when I took the photos above. The bus abruptly slowed, then stopped in Woolwich Road, opposite the entrance to Abbey Wood. A car in front swerved to avoid an object in the road, which turned out to be a bird of prey. I am no twitcher or bird expert, but it looked like some kind of hawk. Perhaps a kind reader can inform me one way or another? Anyway, two blokes got out of a car in front and ventured over to the bird, standing in the middle of the carriage way and skillfully scooped it up into safety. I suspect that it was a tame bird that had escaped – it certainly had no fear of people. The two guys may well have been the bird's owners. I took the photos through the buses' front window; I have had to do some tweaking with Aperture 2 on my Apple iMac to restore the contrast lost through photographing though a pane of glass. All looking good enough now though. Click on any one of the shots above for a larger version.

I have noticed that an increasingly large number of people are lounging on public transport and putting their feet on the seats – something that really winds me up. I cannot recount the number of times I have got dirty marks or used chewing gum on my trousers due to the thoughtless actions of these scumbags. Knee capping with a chainsaw would be a suitable answer. I find that the type of person that acts in this way is quite usually the same as those that talk overly loudly on mobile telephones, and also play music out loud, from a mobile phone - something that is a major personal bugbear for me.

I had a bit of a trauma on Sunday night, just prior to the start of Steve's pre MBE party. His wife Jenny got a call on her mobile phone from a couple of party goers who were asking for directions to the Robin Hood and Little John. Jenny handed her phone to me, as party organiser – apparently I visibly shied away from the infernal device as she moved to hand it to me. Personally I cannot recall this, but I certainly would not discount it.

WNKR are currently sounding terrific on 1476kHz Medium Wave. You can also listen to them online here.

Also, do check out Thore's Blog. Until recently I worked with him; he's now moved onwards and upwards. All good, slightly surreal stuff anyway.

Here is a video clip of what I believe is the largest model aircraft in the world - a scale model of an American B52 heavy bomber; this is it in action during a UK model plane demonstration.

Anniversaries.

The photo above (click for a larger version) shows my JRC NRD 345 communications receiver, which although getting a little long in the tooth at just over ten years old, still produces superb results on both Medium wave and Short wave (H.F). Here you can see it in action, earlier today tuned into this weeks' broadcasts from WNKR.

It is quite a time for anniversaries; WNKR are celebrating their 21st birthday this weekend - they had their inaugural broadcast on F.M from a tower block on the highly dodgy Larner Road estate in Erith, way back during the August bank holiday in 1987. They have been going ever since, though they have now moved onto (temporarily) 1395, and now to their regular weekend home of 1476 kHz Medium wave.

The other anniversary was overlooked by me at the time, so I intend to remedy that now; the Maggot Sandwich was two years old in the middle of July, and I completely forgot! You can see my first ever posting here. As you can see, things have changed somewhat in the last two years.I really had no inkling as to how the Blog would take off when I set it up in mid summer 2006, and get the level of readership that it now enjoys. I just wish a few more people would provide feedback (use the comments link below - you can post anonymously if you so wish). This surprisingly enough is my 178th Blog posting!

You can see all of my photos, including my most recent uploads, by visiting my Flickr site here.

Wife Beater Airlines (the Stella Zeppelin) have now finished for the year; on some days the airship was overflying my house up to seven times a day. I think it stopped before it outstayed its' welcome. I have been carrying out an unscientific and informal investigation - I have been counting the number of discarded beer cans I see in the street and in hedge rows. So far the results seem pretty conclusive; for every ten discarded cans I see, one is Heineken, one is Fosters and EIGHT are Stella Artois! It would seem the street drinkers' tipple of choice is indeed Stella. Please read the article here - unfortunately sourced from the daily paper I most despise, but the article is well written and puts some valuable points into consideration. Stella Artois has indeed "done a Burberry" and ruined its' own reputation.

The video clip this week is doing what the BBC do so much of in the summer - it is a repeat of something I featured around a year ago; I don't think that many people actually watched it before, so I am giving you a second chance. The mini film is set in Canada, and the dialogue is in French with subtitles, but please do not let this put you off. It is hysterical - if the writer and director Kevin Smith was to make an art house movie about a group of Dungeons and Dragons players, this is what he would have come up with. Do feed back via the comments link below this post.

River buses and tattoos.

A photo of a coaster off Erith a couple of days ago - click on it for a larger version. There is a surprising level of commercial activity on the River Thames; much of which passes behind my house. There have been rumours of a river bus service to and from London stopping off at Erith Pier, but so far it has been all talk and no action. It would be an excellent way for me to get into London; when in the capital I am usually based in an office close to Blackfriars Pier; it could be a pleasant way to commute. Come on Boris - earn your hefty pay cheque!

Local free radio station WNKR broadcast on 1476 kHz medium wave to London and the South East; they also have an internet stream which you can listen to here. They always have unusual and interesting programming - give them a listen.

As many of you know, I have been banging on about mobile phones and the potential health risk the things pose for a considerable time. There has been recent impartial (ie: not sponsored by a phone company) research by the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute in relation to this very issue; their findings will be very worrying for any hardcore mobile phone user - you can read the summary and recommendations and decide for yourself. Personally I will never use or own a mobile telephone. I have had a number of people saying "Won't you get the Apple 3G iPhone?" The answer is no. Subject closed.

Incidentally, I don't know if I'm the only one who has noticed, but the recent ban on drinking alcohol on public transport has had about much effect on anti social behaviour as the ban on mobile phone use by drivers, and the ban on smoking on railway platforms. In other words, none at all. I still see shaven headed, bare chested Neanderthals guzzling cans of Stella Artois (why is it always Stella?) on the train from London - and the scrotes usually have their filthy feet on the seats as well. I welcome the apparent influx of British Transport Police who are to patrol trains on a more regular basis - as long as they have teeth and deal with the drinkers and the fare dodgers - often one and the same. Automatic tasering of anyone without a shirt or t-shirt in public would be a move forward too; the horrid sight of pasty (or otherwise sun burned) Chav skin, usually accompanied by a swathe of tattoos is really just too much for a civilised person to have to deal with. There is a tattoo shop in Erith town centre that even has the temerity to offer gift vouchers! I wish I was making it up.

You may have seen an article on the BBC News website regarding Calvin Prior, a 13 year old rock guitar prodigy, who is currently earning an average of £70 per hour by busking on Brighton sea front during the summer holiday. I unearthed another video of him from YouTube, which you can see below. He's really rather good you know...

The origin of the Maggot Sandwich.

Click on the photo above for a larger version; this is one of my pet peeves - a leaflet that came through my letter box earlier this week, one of an increasingly duplicitous and worrying nature from a commercial clothes redistribution company. The leaflet never says that it is anything to do with a charity collection - but it does (to my mind) imply it very strongly - the design, layout and wording bring to mind the commendable works of organisations such as the Red Cross and Mencap. I get a lot of these things spammed through my front door, and I am sure that many hard of thinking people "donate" clothes and other goods to what are fully commercial companies exploiting the good will of the unsuspecting public. What they are doing is completely legal, yet totally immoral. Personally I donate my unused goods that are in good order to the Ellenor Foundation - a Dartford based hospice for both children and adults.

WNKR are now streaming their entertaining and varied programming content 24/7 in 128 kilobit / second stereo - you can find their website here.

I have uploaded a few more photographs onto Flickr - you can find them here.

I am now getting well over a thousand hits on the Maggot Sandwich each week - not bad for something I was unsure was going to last for more than a few postings, back in July 2006. Until now I have never revealed where the name for my Blog came from - something I now intend to remedy. Back in 1987 I was a callow youth with wide eyes, big hair and ambition - which had yet to be beaten out of me by experience. I had a show on Bexleyheath based pirate radio station Radio Lumberjack and my on - air pseudonym was Arthur Pewty (after the ineffectual character in a Monty Python sketch). My show was called the Maggot Sandwich - something dreamed up by myself and fellow presenter Bongo - and the rest is history.

This weeks' video clip comes from Garth Merenghi's Darkplace - a music video "I'm a one track lover". Ahem.

Drains and No Love Remains.

During our meeting with the guys from WNKR last week at the Bexley Beer Festival, they gave me a very swish customised QSL card which you can see in the two photos above. I was extremely chuffed to say the least - thanks chaps! Click either image to see a larger version.

My drains decided to back up at the beginning of this week - one of my neighbours had apparently a lot of solid cooking fat stuck in their branch of the foul drainage - it then backed up to my end; fortunately I have insurance to cover such an eventuality. It was truly horrible, and although I did take photos of the clearing process, I shall not share them with you - I took them just as cover in case of a dispute with my insurers. I still have a back patio that looks like the result of a chemical warfare experiment, and I need to borrow a pressure washer to make the area good. Suffice to say that currently the area has a "distressed toilet paper" motif. The flurry of snow today was most welcome - it hid the mess quite admirably.

Check out my Flickr photo site. Ian and I took some photos of Dartford based rock band No Love Remains - unfortunately the lighting at the venue was absolutely atrocious and I have had to rescue quite a lot of the photos using iPhoto on my Mac, so some do look a little on the artificial side. I hope to upgrade to Aperture 2 when I get my new Mac.

I am looking forward to this Friday; I have booked the day off work as I have a handyman coming round to replace my disintegrating garden fence with a custom built new one, along with a new (lockable) gate. Various local kids have used the current fence to play football against, and it has taken the inevitable toll. It was pretty cheap and nasty to be honest, and I am surprised it has lasted as long as it has.

This weeks' video clip is of a bloke who has built a half sized, working replica of a WWII German Tiger tank to go paint balling in - only in America...

Bexley CAMRA real ale festival 2008.

A happier blog posting for the most part this week; Work colleague and friend Martha accompanied me to the Robin Hood and Little John for lunch on Friday, and then on to meet Ian, his cousin Joe and Alan at the Sidcup Rugby Club for the third annual Bexley CAMRA real ale festival. The festival has, I think this year become a victim of its' own success; my guesstimate is that it has grown in popularity by about 33% each year, to the point at which I think it has now outgrown the venue. It was rather overcrowded and slightly uncomfortable. The fact is was wet and absolutely freezing cold outside did not help matters in the slightest. A good and friendly crowd of people, over sixty premium real ales and ciders, and some high quality home cooked food made it all worthwhile. The grotty and unseasonal weather could not cast a damper on proceedings.

A bonus was meeting up with the excellent chaps from local pirate radio station WNKR - who have been heavily promoting the event on the station for the last few weeks. I have honoured their wishes for anonymity by not publishing any photos of them online here - you also won't find them on my Flickr photo site either. We also met a former Radio Lumberjack fan and anorak from Old Bexley who remembers more about both me and my radio shows on the station than I do! I did not realise exactly how much I had forgotten - after all, he was recalling events of over twenty years ago.

Another radio enterprise with which I had a small involvement was the original special event radio station Offshore Radio from back in 1992 - you can watch vintage (and slightly wonky) coverage from Sky News - and look out for a younger Captain Alex from last weeks' Blog posting in the footage...

http://www.mediafire.com/?snmx1l0py2g

No real word of how the M.V Galexy was pivotal in the supply of Radio Caroline (okay, a small passing mention) and nothing about its' role as a prime location in the seminal British Gangster movie "Get Carter" - but not too bad all things considered.

I recently whinged about the pitiful state of the rebuilding of Erith Town Centre, and its' part in the Thames Gateway regeneration scheme. It would appear that my misgivings are not alone; Lord Richard Rogers has said the same thing, only somewhat more eloquently - you can read his thoughts here.

Here is a trailer for the new series of Doctor Who, which starts at 6.20pm next Saturday.