I'm such a snob

Many thanks to one lovely listener for putting me right on my 'It's Safe Innit?' piece.

Anonymous said...

Do I notice a touch of snobbery in the land of Plumsteadshire?

Pangloss, you should try having a light ale in either The Prince Albert or The Wo'd a Thought It. I'm quite confident that you would feel suitably uncomfortable in either of the said establishments.

Go on, try it sometime.

You really neeed to remove those blinkers!

I know there are unsavoury characters in Plumsteadshire and I know there are places to avoid; that can be said of any village, town and city, but I'm a 'glass half full' kind o' person. I like a rant now and again, but why is it snobbish to highlight the positive points of an area? Why is it snobbish to have a positive outlook on life? I'm certainly not blinkered, I know what's going on around me.

As for the pubs you mention, yes I have been for drinks in both establishments. You're right, they're not a picture of CAMRA utopia, but that's real life. These places aren't my first choice, but I don't condemn places like these either. Whether you like it or not, they serve a strata of society.

Use your mirrors!!!!!

Do MPs actually live in the real World?

Introducing speed limiters on bikes? Yes, there are lots of maniac bikers around who show no road sense or road respect, the vast majority of these have big square boxes on the back and deliver pizzas. There are lots of maniac car & van drivers too and let me not forget Royal Mail
trucks or buses.

Yes, speed does kill, but what statistics for bad driving? Tail-gating on a motorway, turning without signalling, changing lanes without checking a mirror or the blind spot? Every one of us has seen some silly mistake or really stupid manoeuvre. Did I mention using mobile phone whilst driving? Or applying lipstick? I've seen even worse.

I've been knocked off my scooter. I was riding below 20mph and some f****r pulled out towards my legs. My headlights were on, my dayglo jacket was Cillit Bang zingy, but did they bother to look before changing lanes? No. If this brilliant government want to tackle road accidents, try tackling bad driving.

It's safe. Innit?

It seems the subject of safety in Plumsteadshire has cropped up, and not before long neither!!

A few lovely listeners have brought this up in the previous thread [I think that's the technical terminology - ed.] and I know which side of the fence I stand on; many thanks to Sibonetic for coming up with some serious crime stats.

I moved from Brockley to Plumstead Common and have never looked back. For me, Brockley was a fairly scary place. I never relished walking home from the train station at night and there was a very grizzly looking place called the Alpha Club, the sort of place where all music and chatter stops once a stranger walks through the door. I only got burgled once, and that was quite enough.

My friends thought I was mad when I told them where I was moving to, but ho ho ho, who's got the last laugh now.

I don't want to tempt fate, but I definitely feel safe walking around the Shire. I even feel safe waiting at bus stops in Woolwich!!!! Did I say Woolwich???? Yessirrrreee I did.

My journey home from work takes on a series of stress/anxiety levels.
1 - 10. (1 - being calm as a lake on a nice hot summer's evening. 10 being as stressed as a London commuter on stinking hot summer's evening)

Inner London - 7
Camberwell - 9
Peckham - 9
New Cross - 7
Deptford - 8
Blackheath - 2
Royal Standard - 3
Charlton - 6 (cars parked along the village and blocking up the road)
Plumstead Common Road - 4 (traffic jams on long hill leading up to Roy's Store)
Plumstead Common - 2

PCEG

I really wanted to go to the Plumstead Common Environment Group's meeting on Sunday. I believe they were discussing the plans for the Plumstead Manor School.

Well, here is my submission for designs. It plays homage to the English suburban vernacular style. Latin classes will be taught on a one-in-one-out basis.

Roadworks can be great

I've always thought the junction at the top of Griffin Road & Waverley Crescent to be a tad dangerous. Vehicles driving (usually with mobile phone in hand), from The Common, heading downhill love to cut the corner at a brisk speed. Is this a dangerous junction the Council should be aware of? I'll say.

Thanks for the respite though. The roadworks are a real boon to road safety.

On this subject, there is a very dangerous junction near Queen Elizabeth Hospital. I'm talking Charlton Park Lane and Cemetery Lane. Cut corners? Massacre corners more like. No wonder Greenwich Council built a cemetery and a hospital there. Forward planning eh? So I assume we need a few road deaths until the Highways Dept will do something about it.

Estate Agents

One lovely listener, The Plumster no less, has come across a little rumour on the Plumstead Common rumour-mill express.

The shop that's not a shop [it's a shop space, but advertises nothing for sale. There are baths and toilets and stacks of plasterboard, but no sales desks. Nor is there any indication of where to purchase aforementioned goods. It's a kind of storage space/installation art hybrid; more Hoxtonshire than Plumsteadshire]. I digress.........the shop on the corner of Admaston Road and Plumstead Common Road.

Is it or isn't it? Turning into an estate agent I mean. Deal or no deal?

Reading the many comments posted on Plumsteadshire - It's All For The Best In This Best Of All Possible Worlds, there's clearly an interest in the potential gentrification of our leafy suburb. And the more astute of us will know that the early signs of this trend are when estate agents move into the area. Oh, and coffee shops too. Any whiff of serious money will be snuffled out by an estate agent.

It's also a fair point made as to why little old Plumsteadshire would want another estate agent. If this is all just rumour, why have we not been offered the opportunity to purchase the shop-not-shop? I for one would be interested to turn it into a jazz café.