You have to love the internet, fickle and demanding lover that it is. If it wasn't for the internet we might not have seen this:
Worcester Park rocks!!
Saturday, 31 January 2009
Friday, 30 January 2009
It's all happening now
Worcester Park news does seem to be a bit like buses... nothing for ages and then three at once. Just when nothing seemed to be happening in Worcester Park it all seems to be happening!!
Tomorrow there's an illustrated, and grammatically interesting, talk at Worcester Park Library entitled "Nonsuch Park - thro' the seasons, its history, beauty and nature". Thro'? Hmmm... It's by John Willson, the chairman of Nonsuch Watch, and is at 3pm, Saturday 31st Jan. It does note that doors will open at 2.45pm and that admission, although free, is limited to the first 30 people! I doubt I can make it unless I can persuade one of the little Brinkster Clan members to come with me but I'll have to see how it goes.
Looking a little further ahead Worcester Park Disco presents K'n'G Sounds for 13-16 year olds on Friday 20th Feb from 7.30pm to 10pm at ChristChurch St Philip. Tickets are limited but free and are available either from Like or Suzannah on the Worcester Park Safer Neigbourhood Team either by calling 8649 3590 or by email. The event is part of a partnership between ChristChurch St Philip and the Worcester Park Safer Neigbourhood Team so all power to them.
In a bit of Brinkley Road news an untaxed car near the top of the road has been clamped and will, I assume, be removed in due course should the owner not cough up for the road tax. To be fair the thing's been sat there accumulating dirt without moving an inch for close on 9 months but because it had valid tax the Council or DVLA wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. Should make parking on Brinkley Road slightly easier when it's gone!
Tomorrow there's an illustrated, and grammatically interesting, talk at Worcester Park Library entitled "Nonsuch Park - thro' the seasons, its history, beauty and nature". Thro'? Hmmm... It's by John Willson, the chairman of Nonsuch Watch, and is at 3pm, Saturday 31st Jan. It does note that doors will open at 2.45pm and that admission, although free, is limited to the first 30 people! I doubt I can make it unless I can persuade one of the little Brinkster Clan members to come with me but I'll have to see how it goes.
Looking a little further ahead Worcester Park Disco presents K'n'G Sounds for 13-16 year olds on Friday 20th Feb from 7.30pm to 10pm at ChristChurch St Philip. Tickets are limited but free and are available either from Like or Suzannah on the Worcester Park Safer Neigbourhood Team either by calling 8649 3590 or by email. The event is part of a partnership between ChristChurch St Philip and the Worcester Park Safer Neigbourhood Team so all power to them.
In a bit of Brinkley Road news an untaxed car near the top of the road has been clamped and will, I assume, be removed in due course should the owner not cough up for the road tax. To be fair the thing's been sat there accumulating dirt without moving an inch for close on 9 months but because it had valid tax the Council or DVLA wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. Should make parking on Brinkley Road slightly easier when it's gone!
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Inadvertant cold cures
I was home later last night after a meeting so rather than eating with the little Brinksters we put them to bed as usual and then Mrs Brinkster and myself took a couple of cod fillets and weaved our particular brand of magic on them. Never slaves to the recipe book, which suggested "a pinch of chilli flakes", we decided to put a whole chilli in there and while I was thinking a little one Mrs Brinkster produced a rather large red one. Not being one to argue I cut it in half and removed the seeds with my fingers, which is where it all started to go wrong. Having had a cold since Saturday morning I could discern an approaching sneeze so I retrieved a tissue from my pocket and soon discovered an interesting fact, which is that tissues are a better barrier for germs than they are for chilli 'juice'. It took only a few moments to discover this interesting fact and I then proceeded to hop around the kitchen, nostrils aflame, for several minutes but I realised that thoroughly washing my hands wasn't going to undo the damage and I didn't fancy squirting water up my nose either so I endured the strangely painful situation throughout the rest of the evening.
Coincidentally my cold's a lot better this morning.
Did I tell you about the time I went to the toilet just after applying "Deep Heat" rub?
Coincidentally my cold's a lot better this morning.
Did I tell you about the time I went to the toilet just after applying "Deep Heat" rub?
Monday, 26 January 2009
Putting words in my mouth
Whilst perusing the joys of icanhascheezburger.com I wondered what might happen if a putting funny captions to photos took off in Worcester Park. Idle speculation turned to action when I discovered that bighugelabs.com have a thing called captioner which will allow you to add captions to photos from Flickr, your PC or anywhere on the internet.With the appropriate tools freely available I thought I'd offer up a challenge for you to dig up any photo which has a link to Worcester Park and come up with a funny caption for it, then send it to me to put up on the blog.
The instructions on creating your national treasure are:
- Go to http://www.bighugelabs.com/flickr/captioner.php,
- Choose "Upload" if the picture's on your computer or "URL" if it's on the internet,
- Give the location of the picture and enter your chosen captions,
- Click "Add credit to image" if it's not yours,
- Click "Create",
- Edit and save your masterpiece,
- Email it to me
Feel free to use any pictures from my Worcester Park Gallery or use Flickr or Google Image Search.
Friday, 23 January 2009
Chav fighting
I was walking near Liverpool Street yesterday when I had a leaflet entitled "Chav Fighting" thrust into my hand. For a few moments I thought I'd bumped into a new promotion for the Huntsmans and had visions of a return to pre-Victorian London entertainment but it turned out to be promoting a fitness club's class, which describes itself as:
"CHAV FIGHTING Protect yourself form the ‘YOUF’ of today. Learn how to defend yourself from gangs of HOODIES, avoid HAPPY SLAPPINGS and feel safe in KNIFE CRIME-ridden London. Using a mixture of self defence techniques (see Krav Maga) and other martial arts, our very own Chav Maga will keep you confident, switched on and ready for action! "
Not at all inflammatory... All this from Gymbox which also advertises classes such as "Fight Klub" (sic), "Pole Dancing", Celebrity Body, Bitch Boxing and Boob Aerobics...
How long before somebody reports them??
"CHAV FIGHTING Protect yourself form the ‘YOUF’ of today. Learn how to defend yourself from gangs of HOODIES, avoid HAPPY SLAPPINGS and feel safe in KNIFE CRIME-ridden London. Using a mixture of self defence techniques (see Krav Maga) and other martial arts, our very own Chav Maga will keep you confident, switched on and ready for action! "
Not at all inflammatory... All this from Gymbox which also advertises classes such as "Fight Klub" (sic), "Pole Dancing", Celebrity Body, Bitch Boxing and Boob Aerobics...
How long before somebody reports them??
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Tears on Central Road
A moment of silence please for the passing of Mahmut Aygün who, albeit indirectly and unintentionally, gave Central Road some of it's character and the late night Worcester Park drinkers something to eat.
Back in the Summer of 1971 Mahmut was the first person to put kebab meat in bread and so the Doner Kebab was born. Without him we would never have had such places as the Charcoal Grill or Nefis but as German Newspaper (translated via Google) so tenderly put it:
"Mahmut Aygün - without him it would be around 1600 Döner shops in and around Berlin did not give many immigrants in Europe would be unemployed. "
I'm all choked up.
Back in the Summer of 1971 Mahmut was the first person to put kebab meat in bread and so the Doner Kebab was born. Without him we would never have had such places as the Charcoal Grill or Nefis but as German Newspaper (translated via Google) so tenderly put it:
"Mahmut Aygün - without him it would be around 1600 Döner shops in and around Berlin did not give many immigrants in Europe would be unemployed. "
I'm all choked up.
Monday, 19 January 2009
Unseemly
There was some unseemly laughter in the office this morning, breaking the usual Monday morning silence. I asked the culprit what it was (being always in need of a laugh) and she pointed me in the direction of an article from the Times that she'd been sent the link to entitled "How to meet a man at 40" and was finding this page particularly amusing/ironic/true.
Cue memories of bad parties:
People notice single women getting drunk more than they would notice any other demographic. They are waiting for you to get swervy and take to the dancefloor, on your own, clutching a bottle of champagne, and then collapse sobbing on the shoulder of some man who has long since married your best friend. All men over the age of 35 have pretty fixed views about women and drink — not women in general, you understand, but women they could be interested in. They love women who drink. They’re crazy about wild party girls. But they are all petrified of a genuinely drunk woman. Uninhibited is good. Determined to dance is good. Singing is good. Stumbling is less good. Slurring is worse. Shouty and argumentative is not good. Legs buckling is bad. Weepy is bad. Sick on floor is really bad. He decided not to call you, by the way, at slurring.
Cue memories of bad parties:
People notice single women getting drunk more than they would notice any other demographic. They are waiting for you to get swervy and take to the dancefloor, on your own, clutching a bottle of champagne, and then collapse sobbing on the shoulder of some man who has long since married your best friend. All men over the age of 35 have pretty fixed views about women and drink — not women in general, you understand, but women they could be interested in. They love women who drink. They’re crazy about wild party girls. But they are all petrified of a genuinely drunk woman. Uninhibited is good. Determined to dance is good. Singing is good. Stumbling is less good. Slurring is worse. Shouty and argumentative is not good. Legs buckling is bad. Weepy is bad. Sick on floor is really bad. He decided not to call you, by the way, at slurring.
Friday, 16 January 2009
Firewalking
St Raphael's hospice is a local charity that supports over 900 terminally ill patients from the Worcester Park and surrounding areas each year. On the 4th of February they're having a fundraising firewalk in the grounds of the hospice at London Road, North Cheam. Blog reader Angela, recently of Worcester Park but now a refugee in Epsom, emailed me to ask for support so please go to her Justgiving donations page and support her and the hospice. I've put my money where my mouth is so I'd challenge you to match me (or show me just how generous you can be!)If you want to read more about what the hospice does then you can go to their website.
Just don't say they should have had a BBQ as well... ;)
While I'm posting I thought I'd give a word of welcome to the new "Teenage Worcester Park" blog! Two new Worcester Park blogs in one week!! Good job I'm already sitting down.
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Automation, schmautomation
I love it when things don't quite go according to plan. It's what keeps things like "It'll Be Allright On The Night" and "You've Been Framed" going after all these years and though I'll only catch sight of those programmes once a year or so there's normally something there that can raise a laugh... usually at someone else's expense of course.
Some blogs generate their content by having some automated piece of software sift through various search engines and spew the results onto their blog. One such blog would appear to be SecurityOracle.com who advertise jobs as "Detention Custody Officers" and "Mobile Patrol Officers" and state that:
"Security Oracle is a security information resource for those interested in finding out more about the security industry, keeping up to date with their profession and careers within the security industry. "
All fine until your read their recent article entitled "Bouncers To Skip Their Way On To TV" , which they snaffled from the Surrey Comet and, although creating a mental picture of hugely-muscled men in black jackets prancing around a TV studio, is in fact about:
"A team of skippers from Worcester Park will show off their rope skills on CBBC this week.
The girls are part of Bouncers which trains every week in Riverview Primary School in West Ewell. "
Not quite SecuritOracle.com's target audience methinks and I can't imagine any of the girls going for the "Detention Custody Officers" job any time soon.
Some blogs generate their content by having some automated piece of software sift through various search engines and spew the results onto their blog. One such blog would appear to be SecurityOracle.com who advertise jobs as "Detention Custody Officers" and "Mobile Patrol Officers" and state that:
"Security Oracle is a security information resource for those interested in finding out more about the security industry, keeping up to date with their profession and careers within the security industry. "
All fine until your read their recent article entitled "Bouncers To Skip Their Way On To TV" , which they snaffled from the Surrey Comet and, although creating a mental picture of hugely-muscled men in black jackets prancing around a TV studio, is in fact about:
"A team of skippers from Worcester Park will show off their rope skills on CBBC this week.
The girls are part of Bouncers which trains every week in Riverview Primary School in West Ewell. "
Not quite SecuritOracle.com's target audience methinks and I can't imagine any of the girls going for the "Detention Custody Officers" job any time soon.
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Familiar strangers
I was reading the blog of Richard Wiseman, author of such books as Quirkology and The Luck Factor, and he posted something that resonated with me as one of Worcester Park's railway commuting fraternity and so I'm completely unabashed at reproducing it in its entirety:
I am a big fan of Stanley Milgram’s work, and in Quirkology described his wonderful studies into social networking and letter dropping. One of his lesser-known projects examined the ‘familiar stranger phenomenon’. Familiar strangers are people that you see most days of your life, but never interact with: people that you might have seen for years at the train station, whilst out walking your dog, or at the gym, but have never even said hello to. Do you have familiar strangers in your life?
In an innovative study, Milgram took photographs of people on train platforms during rush hour, and then asked commuters to look at the photographs and circle the people that they saw almost everyday of their lives but had never spoken to. The typical commuter in New York City knew about four familiar strangers.
Milgram became fascinated by this strange phenomenon, referring to them as a “special kind of frozen relationship”, and noting:
“We spoke to people in station after station, and this is what they told us. As the years go by, familiar strangers become harder to talk to. The barrier hardens. If we were to meet one of these strangers far from the station, say, when we were abroad, we would stop, shake hands, and acknowledge for the first time that we know each other. But not here.”
Modern-day urban lives are full of familiar strangers. Who are the familiar strangers in your life? Research shows that familiar strangers start chatting when they meet outside of their usual context, or when they are faced with some kind of emergency. But perhaps there are other ways to help break down the barriers and so create a more connected society. Any ideas?
Talking of the spirit of community I'd like to welcome The Worcester Park Phantom to the blogosphere!! It's great to have a voice from t'other side of the railway from the Worcester Park Blogger and myself!!
I am a big fan of Stanley Milgram’s work, and in Quirkology described his wonderful studies into social networking and letter dropping. One of his lesser-known projects examined the ‘familiar stranger phenomenon’. Familiar strangers are people that you see most days of your life, but never interact with: people that you might have seen for years at the train station, whilst out walking your dog, or at the gym, but have never even said hello to. Do you have familiar strangers in your life?
In an innovative study, Milgram took photographs of people on train platforms during rush hour, and then asked commuters to look at the photographs and circle the people that they saw almost everyday of their lives but had never spoken to. The typical commuter in New York City knew about four familiar strangers.
Milgram became fascinated by this strange phenomenon, referring to them as a “special kind of frozen relationship”, and noting:
“We spoke to people in station after station, and this is what they told us. As the years go by, familiar strangers become harder to talk to. The barrier hardens. If we were to meet one of these strangers far from the station, say, when we were abroad, we would stop, shake hands, and acknowledge for the first time that we know each other. But not here.”
Modern-day urban lives are full of familiar strangers. Who are the familiar strangers in your life? Research shows that familiar strangers start chatting when they meet outside of their usual context, or when they are faced with some kind of emergency. But perhaps there are other ways to help break down the barriers and so create a more connected society. Any ideas?
Talking of the spirit of community I'd like to welcome The Worcester Park Phantom to the blogosphere!! It's great to have a voice from t'other side of the railway from the Worcester Park Blogger and myself!!
Monday, 12 January 2009
Ce n'est pas Le Kitchen
Pardon the schoolboy French but I noticed when driving past Le Kitchen (middle of photo above) yesterday that it has been reincarnated as "Bombay Masala", and looks very nice too. I really ought to give it a try as I've heard good things about it but we haven't got round to it as yet as the Munal and Meghna are both closer. I don't know if the makeover means that it's changed hands or just had a revamp.
With the weather as cold as it has been surely only a lunatic would be found playing football on a freezing cold Saturday in January wouldn't they?!?!? Ermm..... Well actually Brinkster Minor wanted to make use of the new facilities in the park in Longfellow Road so we braved the sub-zero temperatures to have a good kickabout. The nice smooth tarmac is great but has the side effect of letting the ball wander downhill as the site slopes down away from the road... not that the ball was stationary for that long with Brinkster Minor on the loose!
Has anybody else been to the Kimpton Park Way Recycling centre? It was gloriously quiet this weekend during the course of my three visits to the site (early spring cleaning!) unlike the normal carnage of the summer months but I was disturbed to see the workers on site sifting through the bins with a rake and pulling out anything that took their interest. I've seen them at it before (together with sharing round unsavoury images/videos on their phones) but on Saturday I saw one of the workers come up with a Man United pencil case he thought he could get a couple of quid for and other stuff too so I began to wonder what else they might have found... makes me want to make trebly sure I've shredded anything of potential interest before I put it in the rubbish.
Thursday, 8 January 2009
And now for something completely different.
Well. You've had 2009 for a whole week so what do you think of it so far? What you may not be aware of is that this year marks the 40th anniversary of a momentous event in Worcester Park and, arguably, TV history. As to what occurred on the 18th August 1969 I'll let Michael Palin explain:
"He [John Howard Davies] also worked fast and by the end of the day we had done the entire 'Confuse-a Cat' film, a very complicated item, and we had also finished the 'Superman' film. All this was helped by an excellent location - a back garden in a neat, tidy, completely and utterly 'tamed' piece of the Surrey Countryside - Edenfield Gardens, Worcester Park".
If you know exactly where it was filmed please do let me know!
It was pleasantly unexpected to see the outdoor temperature register above zero for the first time in over a week as I got ready to leave for work this morning. Going back to work after New Year's been a bit of a shock to the system but when I think about the Woolworth employees, and many others sharing their plight, I realise that my right to grumble has been understandably eroded.
It's nice to see that Checkers, the sandwich shop by Ross Fruiterers, has undergone a bit of a revamp with lots more space inside which means you don't have to sit outside if you want to stick around. He's a devoted chap and is normally opening up when I go past around 6.30 and closing up when I come home. Thinking about it I haven't if Cafe Piccolo's cafe has been open at 6.30 as it was before Christmas... anybody noticed?
I also notice that there's work taking place in the former Loving Thoughts card shop so the long promised betting shop looks like it's on its way. You'll no doubt have read about the demise of Silks and the current hiatus at the Huntsmans in the Worcester Park Blog so I won't repeat them here. Suffice to say it looks like Central Road may change a bit this year but here's hoping that Worcester Park businesses will find ways to overcome the downturn.
"He [John Howard Davies] also worked fast and by the end of the day we had done the entire 'Confuse-a Cat' film, a very complicated item, and we had also finished the 'Superman' film. All this was helped by an excellent location - a back garden in a neat, tidy, completely and utterly 'tamed' piece of the Surrey Countryside - Edenfield Gardens, Worcester Park".
If you know exactly where it was filmed please do let me know!
It was pleasantly unexpected to see the outdoor temperature register above zero for the first time in over a week as I got ready to leave for work this morning. Going back to work after New Year's been a bit of a shock to the system but when I think about the Woolworth employees, and many others sharing their plight, I realise that my right to grumble has been understandably eroded.
It's nice to see that Checkers, the sandwich shop by Ross Fruiterers, has undergone a bit of a revamp with lots more space inside which means you don't have to sit outside if you want to stick around. He's a devoted chap and is normally opening up when I go past around 6.30 and closing up when I come home. Thinking about it I haven't if Cafe Piccolo's cafe has been open at 6.30 as it was before Christmas... anybody noticed?
I also notice that there's work taking place in the former Loving Thoughts card shop so the long promised betting shop looks like it's on its way. You'll no doubt have read about the demise of Silks and the current hiatus at the Huntsmans in the Worcester Park Blog so I won't repeat them here. Suffice to say it looks like Central Road may change a bit this year but here's hoping that Worcester Park businesses will find ways to overcome the downturn.
Monday, 5 January 2009
The White Stuff
Saturday, 3 January 2009
Disturbing post
Back in the days of old I used to run this blog from a fairly unknown blogging site called 20six.co.uk. Whilst it was generally okay it did have the disturbing habit of going AWOL for days on end so as a result I moved most of the stuff across to here, though if you want to read my original posts from back in 2005 you'd have to go there to read them. Periodically people will still post entries over on it and so it was that I received an email last night to say I had a new entry on the guestbook from someone calling themselves 'jill'.
I don't know quite what to make of it:
DOG FOUND DEAD!!!!
last night i saw a man beating a dog to death outside KFC so i went up to him an he punched me in the belly i ran for help when i came back the dog had no head.
if you find a dog head around please call me on 0208 715 4353
There's an email address on the original post if you follow the link above though if you have any more information on this I'd be grateful if you could post something or, presumably, contact the Police.
I don't know quite what to make of it:
DOG FOUND DEAD!!!!
last night i saw a man beating a dog to death outside KFC so i went up to him an he punched me in the belly i ran for help when i came back the dog had no head.
if you find a dog head around please call me on 0208 715 4353
There's an email address on the original post if you follow the link above though if you have any more information on this I'd be grateful if you could post something or, presumably, contact the Police.
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