Worcester Park Christmas evening tonight!

Yes indeed! Tonight Central Road will ring to the sound of a marching band, carol singers, laughing children and quietly exasperated parents!

It should be a great chance to have some fun in Worcester Park and get some Christmas shopping done so do head down and make the most of the occasion. There's some rain forecast for this afternoon but hopefully it will have passed through by the evening, though you can always keep an eye on how it's doing here.

A special prize will be on offer to the first person who spots me in the crowd, though if you do see me that will mean that my evening will have gone pear-shaped as I'm supposed to be at a party up in London... you never know though.

On a more mundane note the event means that parking restrictions are in place on Central Road and that the side roads will be busier with traffic and the chances of parking in or around Brinkster Central will be virtually zero..

Have fun and let me know how it goes!

Beechdean Motorsports - Brands Hatch 2011

Hopefully you'll have seen from my recent posts that the newly-opened Nonsuch Pantry has taken on a range of Beechdean ice creams so in probably one of the most tangentally connected posts you're likely to read on a blog I went to watch the 007 car of Beechdean Motorsports compete in the Brands Hatch round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship.

The Beechdean Motorsports car is a black and yellow six-litre Aston Martin DBRS9 capable of 0-60 in under 4 seconds in the GT3 class with ice-cream company director Andrew Howard and professional driver Jonny Adams behind the wheel. Things were looking promising after a good run in qualifying but on an alternately sunny and rainy day in Kent it'd be fair to say that they had a bad day at the office. Starting from 4th on the grid an early spin dropped them down the field and a later puncture, slowing them to a crawl for an almost complete lap of Brands Hatch's Grand Prix circuit, and a couple of trips into the gravel meant that it was not going to be their day. They finished the race in a disappointing 20th and will be hoping to regroup before the next race in Spa, Belgium in three weeks time.

Nice car though. And nice ice cream.

*n.b. They don't sponsor me and didn't get me into Brands Hatch. Promise!

Punishing schedule

It was brought to my attention yesterday that the fine people of Sydenham may have some unexpectedly progressive thinkers in their midst. It seems that one of their residents has initiated a "Campaign to Restore Sydenham Ducking Stool" in order to help restore law and order and to stop throwing money away in expensive legal cases. Click the image to the right and you can read the full text

I'm not sure that it'd work so well in Worcester Park, unless you fancy installing one by the pond up at the Plough, and I think we'd be better off with a set of stocks on the corner of Green Lane and Central Road so that miscreants could be pelted with leftover fruit from Ross Fruiterers on a Saturday morning.

In the photo to the left two children are modelling the stocks having been apprehended for giving their teacher some cheek. It's not all fun and games at school nowadays!

From the original Londonist article here.

The race is not to the swift

I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11

Whew. What a weekend! The Brinkster Clan was at Legoland by 9am on Saturday for a day of Star Wars themed activities and the usual rides and shows and stuff and although the heavens opened in the afternoon our several layers of clothing meant we stayed warm if not exactly dry. The fireworks were spectacular and Mrs Brinkster was debating whether she'd have to give up watching fireworks from now onas it's going to take something really special to top that. After the fireworks we went and saw another show and meandered around but when we got to the car park some time later there were still queues to get out! Fabulous day, even though my coat is still drying out!

The quote at the beginning of this post came back to me when reflecting on the Formula 1 last night. Last night saw me pacing around the house as the Brazilian Grand Prix progressed which the championship contest turning an otherwise dull race into a classic. Having been at Silverstone in the rain to watch Hamilton win earlier in the year watching last night was assorted agonies rolled into one with hope and expectation turning to imminent misery but turned around to sudden exhilaration and celebration. I do feel sorry for Massa and family to have the Championship torn away from them at the last moment, but not enough not to pass this on.


After that there was the new series of Top Gear with the fabulous challenge to the guys to become a trucker and pass a series of challenges. I think I laughed more at this episode than any other and watching Jeremy Clarkson drive his truck into a brick wall at 55mph was the icing on the cake. If you haven't seen it you can watch it on BBC iPlayer or catch the repeat (or download it from the internet no doubt).

Avast!

Seeing as it be Talk Like A Pirate day I challenge ye one and all to feats of derring-do in the name of our fair town of Worcester Park [more here].

That be all. Arrrrr

Friday mega-entry

SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to problems at 20six you may not be able to access this blog from any or all locations on the internet. Currently I can only access it from one of three of my regular locations but I'm at the mercy of 20six and their hosting provider If anyone can tell me how to export the entries and comments so I can put them on Blogger or Livejournal then I'd be grateful.

I know in my preview of the week I promised you some Welsh Ass but The Longster posted a story so good it deserves reproducing here before I say or do anything else:

I’d popped into Waitrose for a “top up in-between Tesco online delivery” type of shop and it was as walked out of the car park that the incident happened.

A small Fiesta sized car was waiting to turn let onto Central Road, and when a gap opened in the traffic it pulled out.

However, as it was turning left the driver decided to stop on the corner and stay there. This obviously caused a bit of an obstruction both for people coming down the hill and for other cars coming out of Waitrose.

But that’s not the odd thing – after all, she may have broken down or have been taken ill in which case she’d have had a good reason to stop.

But neither of these were the reason she had stopped.

In fact, she was causing traffic chaos in Worcester Park in order that she could shave her arm pits! Huh?

Bonkers! Surely someone that mad shouldn’t be behind the wheel of a car?

I’m sure she annoyed a lot of drivers that day, but as a pedestrian it made my day! :-)

Back on yesterday's subject of yellow things another one had appeared by the time I'd got back from work yesterday, and here it is:



"On Sun 5th Aug 07 at about 1.30am a male was attacked opposite the Hunstman Hall public house sustaining serious injuries". Before they closed the Hunstmans they could probably have left one of those out permanently and just changed the date......

Knowing that it's probably not going to live up to the build-up that I've given it I fell that I need to explain the Welsh Ass story. I was flicking through the Sky programme guide the other night when BBC Parliament presented me with the listing shown below. I grabbed one picture of it but because it was blurry I was going for a second when the programme listing rolled over before I could get it. It's still legible though if you look carefully: