Black Friday Mania Hits Worcester Park

... is probably an exaggeration but the pet shop on Central road did have this sign outside advertising dog and cat beds for half price!

Ironically that's probably one of the best deals out there as trawling through Amazon's wall of tat this morning has turned up such eminently resistible offers as "Unibond Aero-360 Moisture Absorber refills - pack of 2" for £3.89 (61% off) and the "Catit Litter Tray Filters" for £3.48, either of which would make a loved one's face light up in Christmas morning... with incandescent rage most likely.

The extent to which this has taken hold in the UK is probably a marketer's dream as it was previously the preserve of the US for whom Black Friday was the day after Thanksgiving. Seeing as we don't do Thanksgiving in the UK, other than giving thanks for not having the prospect of Donald Trump being in charge of our country, we shouldn't have a Black Friday by a process of logical deduction. And quite how Black Friday has now been strung out over a whole week by some stores I have no idea!? I certainly couldn't get away with telling my boss that I was celebrating Christmas Day for a whole week and that's why I wasn't going to be in....

If you've found any astoundingly good deals in Worcester Park do let me know in the comments!

Ne'er the twain shall meet

My train buddy from across the rails was bemoaning the fact that her neighbourhood watch meeting was discussing the prospect that her little corner of Worcester Park Old Malden was going to be adopted into the London Borough of Sutton at some point in the future.

"I don't want to live in SUTTON" she fumed.
"It's not even a ROYAL borough" she raged in a slightly suppressed commuter-ish way.

She did admit that the Council Tax was likely to be less but her opinion was that if you move into a borough on purpose then it's a bit underhand for some distant committee to take that away from you if it affects things such as services and perhaps the choice of schools, a big issue for secondary schools in Worcester Park.

Some Googling led me back to a Sutton Guardian article from 2012 which said that:

"The commission has also proposed changes to the Sutton and Cheam constituency which would include St James and Old Malden wards.Local MP, Paul Burstow, said: "The new proposals add Old Malden and St James from the Kingston and Surbiton Constituency of Lib Dem MP Ed Davey.
"In practice these proposals are not going ahead but if they did they are unlikely to dramatically change the political balance in the seat."

Looking at the Boundary Commission website suggests that in 2013 the review was put back until 2018

"A new law in 2011 set the timing of reviews of all constituencies to take place at fixed five year intervals, whilst also removing the ability of the Commission to undertake interim reviews. Although the first review under these new arrangements began in early 2011, Parliament postponed that review in 2013 for five years.

So it looks like my friend may have some time to wait before anything happens but it left me wondering whether Sutton is really so bad and whether being in a Royal borough is as good as it's made out to be.

Any opinions gratefully accepted, even if they're indignant and outraged ones.


P.S. Blogger is telling me this is my 500th post! Yay! Go me! There may, or may not, be cake, dancing girls and Justin Bieber...

New Christmas Lights in Worcester Park

As I strolled down Central Road on the way to the station this morning the undeniably eye-catching new Christmas decorations on the lampposts... erm... caught my eye. I'm presuming they were put up last night as I have no recollection of noticing them on the way home yesterday and whilst I may have been displaying almost terminal levels of inattentiveness I would have remembered them if I'd seen them.

The first thing I noticed was just how big they are, particularly in contrast to the petite ones of previous years (shown below), and the second thing is just how low they are to the pavement! I'd guess at 10 feet tops but possibly 8?

Now I'm not suggesting this for a moment but given how low they are I'd be quite prepared to put a bet on

at one of Central Road's various gambling establishments that by the time New Year rolls around some over-lubricated reveller with have attempted to swing from one, with potentially disastrous results.

Thoughts?