Our weekly roundup of London blogs
Our find of the week is The Greenwich Phantom, who writes daily about the goings-on in that borough of contrasts. And as phantoms go, he is vociferous. On the demolision of a Victorian building to make way for a new Terrance Conran pier.
It couldn't possibly have been approved because it was designed by Conran could it? Honestly - what was Conran going to say? "No - you have a dinky and much-loved little piece of history there - I'd recommend you keep that and add a few loos and a little cafe?" Of course not. He's seen the pound signs and gone for it - and I don't blame him. I blame Greenwich Council for not noticing that they're not wearing any clothes.
If you don't want to use the new pier, why not cross by the Blackwall Tunnel instead? Which is a cack-handed way to link over to Tunnel Bore - the finest blog you will ever find dedicated to a river underpass. This week, the bore examined the contaminated fuel debacle, and what it means for the Blackwall Tunnel.
A blood relation of a close friend of a regular user of the Blackwall Tunnel told us "If it is shown that the supermarkets are at fault, then what did people honestly expect buying low price fuel from Tesco or Morrisons? Whenever I can, I buy Sainsbury's organic Taste the Difference fuel, or search for petrol made from hand pumped oil from the deepest wells in the Arabian desert, lovingly refined by master chemists, and delicately decanted into luxurious gold plated barrels, not just any petrol, but Marks and Spencer Petrol.
Back to serious matters, and Random Acts of Reality has some issues with emergency services pay increases:
Isn't it nice to be valued by the government? Pay rises below the rate of inflation which are also staggered which effectively means that my standard of living is set to go down... It's enough to make me want to strike, and I'm hardly militant. Makes me feel so happy to go to work this weekend and pick up drunks all night while the MPs sleep safely in their beds. Makes me want to punch someone... preferably someone in Westminster.
Meanwhile, Annie Mole reports that Tube workers are calling off their strike, after promises of a 4% pay increase and a three-year deal to ensure future increases. As Tom Reynolds says: 'Maybe striking does work'.
One slice of Lodon Transport for which you can't buy a ticket is the Museum in Covent Garden, which remains closed. Nothing to do with strike action, but to make way for a major refurbishment. Diamond Geezer decided he couldn't wait until the Autumn reopening, and took a trip to the Acton museum depot.
If you were a true transport aficionado you could go round meeting like-minded souls and telling them "Of course, the Class B was withdrawn in 1957 and replaced by the frankly substandard twin-valve Class F." But I went by myself, and kept myself to myself, and kept reminding myself that actually I'm nowhere near as borderline Aspergers as I sometime think I might be.
Indeed, we believed him. Until we scrolled down the page to find the declaration: "Total number of cups of tea I drank in February 2007: 137"
Finally, Onionbagblog manages to make a profit out of buying pizza from Nine Elms Sainsbury's. And Ham over at London Daily Photo visits the Handlebar Club, for gentlemen with exceptional whiskers.
