The Slade

Plumstead Community Market

Are you :-

1. In the Plumstead area on Saturday 27th October 2012 between 10am - 2pm?
2. Looking for a gift?
3. Feeling the need for a gorgeous slice of cake?
4. Looking for a craft activity so your children don't smear Pritt Stick¹ all over your antimacassars at home?
5. Wanting to meet decent up-standing members of The Shire?

Well, why not pop up to St Mark's Hall on Plumstead Common and discover the newly (and perfectly formed), Plumstead Community Market?

This will be the second community market event and by jove, I'm sure there will be more, but why wait? "Come on down, the price is right", as Lesley Crowther used to say.

http://plumsteadcommunitymarket.wordpress.com

St Mark's Church is located in a picturesque corner of Old Mill Road. Look out for this building.

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footnotes

1 - Other adhesives are also available

Enough junk food already

Plumstead Common has its' fair share of greasy food outlets and we don't need another one. Here's a petition to give YOU, the good people o' the Shire a chance to stand up and be counted for. What the heck, I don't mind if you're from Guatemala or the South Sea Islands and never heard of Plumstead Common, you can sign and show your support too.

I want to live beyond 40 years old.

What a lot of people around The Shire want is a decent place serving decent food which won't block your arteries up as soon as you take your second mouthful. Of course, some people love such cuisine and well, I hope you're balancing out your diet with a ton of veg and exercise.

The fast food joint will be within spitting distance of Plumstead Manor School and I thought there are some sort of planning rules against lard in such close proximity to schools. Unfortunately, planning has been approved, but the owners are applying for planning permission for a shop sign which (considering it's a conservation area), is anything but subtle and, despite the name, lacks any sense of taste.

Here's the planning application.

I'd better write something

Zounds!!!! I almost forgot I had a blog.

I've polished the nib and cleaned out the ink well,
it's been too long already, I'm ready to tell,
of adventures and gossip, of miscreants local,
of gay happenings in the Shire, I hope to be vocal.

One thing which baffles me is a certain name.
Swaffered's the one, although rolls off the tongue,
I must turn to Google or a reference book,
you know those old fashioned things with things called pages,
with no USB cable that we've not read for ages.

Having just searched on the internet,
I'm none the wiser about Swaffered just yet.
I'll just have to accept this is a word I'll forget,
unless my nails are in need of some bling,
hmm, maybe not, it's just not my thing.

Speaking of books, like I just did,
I'm keen to know when the library will open.
You know the one, the one at The Slade.
It has colourful glass, it's a community centre.
When will it open, so when can we enter?

Lovely listener, do post a comment and give me a date,
This refurbishment looks good. No actually, it's great!
Grey window frames, of which I do approve;
it's powder coated so it's tough and yet smooth.

At the Manor School, the steels are going up.
Facing the Common, it's a brave new look,
maybe a brave new era for an area which some mistook,
for a nowhere place full of cads and crooks.

In this time of spending cuts we must applaud,
Greenwich Council for forging ahead,
with the building works here in little Plumstead.

Tennisgate - it's working well then?

I took this photograph. It's a sunny day and just right to go out and enjoy some sport. Up until now, these tennis courts would've been busy, but there's a distinct lack of human interaction going on.

I think I can safely assume that Greenwich Council's flash of inspiration to charge for the use of this sporting facility has alienated EVERYONE in our community. So much for Greenwich Council working for Greenwich residents eh?

PCEG hits gold

As some of you are already aware, the Plumstead Common Environment Group have won a Mayor's Safer  Parks Gold Award. The entire team at Plumsteadshire HQ would like to congratulate Nick Day and the PCEG for their unwavering efforts at improving Plumstead Common for us all to enjoy¹.

LX CUE 1 : House lights dim

SOUND CUE 1 : Spandau Ballet - Gold (played to death at conferences)

LX CUE 2 : Scanner lights sweeping all over Plumstead Common

FX CUE 1 : 20minute fireworks display starts with Big Berthas booming off the top of the old mill of The Old Mill pub.

FX CUE 2 : Lasers fire up and draw random shapes on the clouds

ENTER S.R. members of the PCEG in electric cars covered in fake grass and bunting

SOUND CUE 2: Tina Turner - Simply The Best (played to death at conferences)

ENTER S.L. Mayor BoJo and Ant & Dec with trophy in hand to present to the winners

Then we all go home and go to bed.

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The word on the street though, is that BBC Radio London might be 'doing a piece' on Plumstead Common on their breakfast radio show tomorrow. That's Saturday morning. I normally tune in anyway, so am definitely going to listen in. The Saturday breakfast show is really informative and fun and Simon Lederman, the presenter is a real fan of London. I don't know if Joanne Good still presents on this show, but she is absolutely hilarious and as mad as a box of frogs.

The gold award could look like this

footnote
1 -  Let's not sit back and leave the PCEG to it. They could always do with an extra pair of hands. Be pro-active and join in. Looking for friendship? You never know who you could meet at one of the fence painting days.

Spring is springing

This morning, I leapt out of bed and breathed in the fresh country air of Plumsteadshire. Winter has felt like it's gone on for far too long now and Spring hath arrived at long last. Of course, I had to take a photo of the Common.

Doesn't it look pretty?

Feeling thirsty?

Café society could be coming to Plumsteadshire but before we get too excited, let's just cross our fingers.

Plumstead Common in the snow

We were told about the arrival of the snow and it arrived in great style. Here, I had captured a couple photos during a short blizzard burst and really like the slightly Lowryesque quality. The children from the local school were surely having a gay time.

matchstick men

enjoying the snow

Plumstead Make Merry

There has been a very good write up about the Make Merry Festival on The Mirror website. I love the Make Merry and thank the organisers for keeping it going. I don't know its' history but it has a medieval twang about it. With this in mind, I applaud the inclusion of the maypole, Punch and Judy¹ and the terrifying Victorian clown, but would like to see more olde worlde past times such as troubadours, falconry and witch ducking.

Saturday 5th June 12pm onwards

Plumstead Common

Meeting about The Ship

One of my lovely listeners has informed me of a meeting to talk about The Ship's proposals. This sounds like a very important meeting for members of The Shire who care about our little patch of London. I guess this is open to all, not just PCEG members. Read on....

There is a PCEG meeting this Sunday 13/9. Anyone concerned about this matter that wants to discuss should come to the meeting!!

Meeting details:
Sunday 13 Sept. 3pm
St Marks Church Hall on Old Mill Road.

Agenda on the website:
http://pceg.org.uk/notice.htm

Be there. Together we can protect our Common, our neighbourbood and our community.

A busy weekend

The more observant of you will have noticed a countdown timer on Plumsteadshire. It is linked to atomic clocks on Easter Island, Jodrell Bank and Bryn Terfel's Barber Shop on Dallin Road.

We are counting down to 'Plumstead Live!', the premier cultural event on Plumsteadshire's calendar. Looking at the weather forecast, the weekend looks like it'll be nice and sunny for the concert. Keep yourselves free on Sunday 26th July between 3pm - 8pm and come to Winns Common. Spread the word, bring a friend. What the hell, even bring the family too.

There is a very exciting event this Saturday. It's called The Great 'Blow Up' Party In The Park. It's in Maryon Park and forms part of the Greenwich Film Festival. There are tours of the locations used in the film. Shaky bush number 1. Shaky bush number 2 etcetera as well as other goings-on culminating in an outdoor showing of the famous '60s film.

Before you get too excited, do check with the organiser's of the Greenwich Film Festival as the Greenwich Council website has noted that this event has been SOLD OUT. The promotional leaflet I have has no mention of it being a ticketed event, so do double check and if anyone has confirmation of this, please do let us know by posting a comment at the bottom of this blog post.

On Friday (tomorrow), evening there is a similar event at the Well Hall Pleasaunce in Eltham. This time it's the The Railway Children. I don't think there will be tours of famous herbaceous borders, but there definitely will be an outdoor showing of said film.

A vibrant part of suburbia

I had a really pleasant and eventful weekend. Normally, we'd be day-tripping to far off lands in deepest Kent and Sussex but this weekend was purely Plumsteadshire. Of course, Saturday was the Make Merry, an event which I feel should be more reminiscent of maypoles, sheep driving and smocks rather than a parade of unmuzzled dogs. However, I really like the utterly terrifying clowns which look like they hail from an Edwardian side-show.

Being a key part of the local social calendar, I bumped into alot of friends at the Make Merry and it was this feeling of a community hub that makes the Make Merry special and essential.

In the evening, I went to the comedy night at The Pavilion (AKA the rugby club), and it was an utterly brilliant night out. The comedians were top notch and the audience were very receptive. I really do love the Pavilion space as it's intimate and you're engaged with the performers. I can see it working as a film club venue. I'll try and look into the viability of this idea. My idea is not for another outlet for mainstream Hollywood tosh, but to screen classics, Saturday morning Laurel and Hardy children's club, Woody Allen Wednesdays, David Lean Sundays. Might be cost prohibitive, but you get the idea.

Today, I went to the model railway exhibition at the Firepower Museum. I've never been into trains but I think I might be coming out of the locomotive closet. I thought the model railways were incredible and with immense attention to detail, the scenery told many stories beyond just a train circling a village. Best of all though, I'd discovered a small scale railway which you can actually ride on. It's round the back of an electricity sub-station in Falconwood and not many people know about it. They have a few open days coming up so we can go for a ride, but we'll have to be quick as it looks like they're going to be moved on from this site. I'll have to blog more on this later.

As if I'd not endured enough excitement for one weekend, my trusted source confirmed that the Plumstead Live! music event is for real. This is the icing on the local cultural cake and promises to be a major date in Plumsteadshire's social diary. Hey, it might not be Glyndebourne, but it's here on our doorstep so let's spread the word.

Plumstead Live!

Apparently, there's a live event coming our way in the guise of Plumstead Live! Music Festival. I've held back from mentioning this so far as I'm seeking confirmation that this is a genuine event.

If it's kosher then we should all get really excited about it. There's mention of :-

Plumstead Sinfonia - never knew there was one

Plumstead Manor Musicians - these are real human beings and they definitely exist

The Bill Mudge Quintet - Google (and other well known search engines), confirm that BMQ are real, but I couldn't find Plumstead Live! on their tour schedule.

So, is this a red herring? Maybe Greenwich Council smoke and mirrors to 'bury bad news'?

Is such an event too good to be true? Gadzooks!!!! I hope not.

Been busy

My hands have been very full over the past couple of weeks and I've had so much to blog about too. Here are the subjects I'd like to have covered if I had the time:-

• parenthood - the gift that keeps on giving
• home births - it really is the best option
• comedy - because of the above, I'm gutted that I'm missing out
• snow - how Plumsteadshire looked like a happy version of a Bruegel
• ice - how to walk on it without looking like a total berk
• Elvis - he rocks in The Shire
• chavs - why keep all your house windows wide open when it's freezing cold outside (and 1,000 other things I don't understand about them)

Elvis lives!

Lots of important things to write about:-

1) Opening of the Woolwich Arsenal DLR and my sources tell me that mayor BoJo has cut the ribbon today.

2) Many fine comedians coming to The Shire.

3) Chavs......eeeeeuuuuuuuuuwwwwwwwwwwww no.

No, hot topic is that the one and only Elvis Presley is coming to Spice Island on Wednesday 21st January. Curry AND Elvis the pelvis, now that IS hot.

Modern architecture

I've been eager to see the architect plans for the Plumstead Manor School tuck shop for a while and have been pointed in the direction of the school's own website. In place of the pub is a modern glass construction with contemporary topiary. Looks very generic suburban architecture [at this point, I'd like to invent a new word - genurbantecture] in the style of the sports centres in Beckenham and Crook Log, Bexleyheath.

This is modern architecture without being offensive, although some would protest that this glass proposal would be a carbuncle on the face of Plumstead Common. As an example of contemporary genurbantecture, I like it. Of course, it's not aping the classicism of the existing school building, but that's good. It's not sympathetic to the Victorian terraces, but I think it's sympathetic to the Common. Time moves on and design moves on.

I'd be interested to see how the building will eventually look.

Board game

I'm working on a little project. It's for Christmas. It's for the good citizens of Plumsteadshire.

I'll keep you posted.

Warm your cockles with Friday night jaaaaaazzzzzzzz

Tomorrow night is jazz night on Plumstead Common. Ornette Coleman has had to pull out at the last moment as he is unable to remove bubble gum from his sax. Even better though, we have shampooed the red carpet for the great Enrico Pinna Jazz Trio - please ladies, don't throw your knickers on stage.

They say tall oaks from little acorns grow. Well, NYJO haven't a patch on the talented musicians coming from Plumstead Manor School. Stand aside Jamie Cullum, let's support the future of British jazz. Let's tap our feet to Chynna Maxius and Yolanta Boti!!!!

Friday 5th December. Doors open at 7.00pm

One Day Café

I'm sure the more 'with it' members of Plumsteadshire are aware of a movement to get a café community space realised. A great thing when (not if), it happens.

You know you want that Orange Mocha Frappuccino after a tough Adho Mukha Vrksasana.

Do take a look and get involved.

http://www.onedaycafe.org.uk