Charlton vs. My Car

Well I had my car ticketed this morning, parked somewhere that it shouldn't have been on a match day. I've got no excuse, I knew there was a match today and also knew that it was starting early today. It's just that I was expecting to go out in the car last night and on the way home park it around the corner. I didn't, so I didn't. Hands up it's my fault entirely.

However would it be too much to ask the council to put up the parking suspended signs a day early? As is they only do it two hours before the restrictions come into force, which is no real use to man or beast.

I guess the counterpoint is that the date of the next restrictions is shown on the board up near the station. However that's quite small and easy to miss, the yellow signs would be more obvious.

I'm not trying to find an excuse, as I said this is my fault, but I do think earlier signage would be nice.

Blackheath Fireworks - Conclusion

I never mentioned the fireworks again. Well I did go and they were great, very happy with it all. A great show with a nice atmosphere in the crowd, I can really recommend it.

I got the train up there to save some time and then walked home through the crowds. The only downside to the evening were the handful of people who thought that trying to drive a car through the crowds would be a good idea. The roads were meant to be closed, it looked like people who were inside the closed area were trying to drive out. The bemused security staff were trying to guide them to somewhere to stop.

Trouble at the tunnel

I was visiting friends north of the river yesterday and as per usual roadworks were going on in the Blackwall Tunnel. I'm sure I read somewhere that they were meant to be finishing over a year ago, it's been like that ever since I moved south of the river in 2004.

I approach the tunnel on the A13 and there are two lanes, the left hand one for the tunnel and the right hand one that goes straight on. I've always got a decision to make about whether to queue or go on and cross through the Rotherhithe Tunnel. If going straight on at the junction were easy and quick then this would be an easy decision.

However what happens is that selfish idiotic drivers (and that's far more polite than I want to be) that want to use the tunnel drive right up the right hand lane past the long queue for the tunnel and then indicate that they want to cut into the head of the queue. The queue moves slowly, combine that with aggravated drivers who don't understand why the pusher in is so important and special so are reluctant to let them jump the queue. The right hand lane is now blocked, traffic can't go straight on into London. Horns will sound and occasionally the queue jumper will realise the knock on effect they're having and give up, more often than not they just sit there and the traffic builds up behind them.

Chaos.

And it happens every week, without fail.

If that didn't happen then going to the Rotherhithe would be a no-brainer, it should take seconds to clear that stretch of road. As is when you've got to queue 10 minutes just because of self centred idiots then it's a much harder decision to make.

I should take a photo one night. It's amazing the trouble that those idiots can cause.

Blackheath Fireworks

The fireworks display at Blackheath is happening on Saturday the 4th of November.

Here are two links with some information on it:
Greenwich Council
View London

The View London page is a bit weird, it says "This year marks the 401st anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot and as such, visitors to Blackheath can expect something special." So what's so special about 401 years? Are they just trying to say that they forgot it last year?

Anyway last years show was great and I hope to go again this year. It's free too :)

Filming in Charlton

I popped down to Currys over my lunchtime to look for some networking gadgets and discovered that there's a film unit parked up in the carpark of Currys/PC World. There's about half a dozen white dressing room vans, a catering lorry and two buses that have been labeled "crew dining only."

There were some names on the doors of the changing rooms, I remember seeing Shaz, Rhona and Father Henry. I'm guessing that they are the names of the characters and not the actors. The catering truck seemed to be cooking stuff up so maybe they were getting ready for a break, other than a few people there wasn't anyone around.

The names don't mean anything to me, I was wondering if it's for "28 Weeks Later" (which I know is filming in London at the moment, I've got a friend who was an extra in it) but the names don't appear to be linked to it.

I did have a quick scoot off to the back of Currys to see if I could see any filming going on, not a thing.

I'll have to return with my glasses and camera at some point soon....

Charlton vs. Bolton Wanderers vs. Roadworks

Well Charlton are at home again and this time I think the trains are working, so all's well then? Well no. Some company's been digging holes in Floyd Road, which is the route thousands of fans take to get to the stadium. There's at least one big hole and two coned off areas restricting access down the road. I'm wondering if someone's going to fall in. Where's the health and safety man when you need him?

Greenwich reuse and recycling centre

I've been doing a bit of DIY on my flat and decided to go down to the dump to throw away some of the bulky rubbish that I've produced. However it's not the dump anymore or the waste disposal site or the enigmatically named civic amenity site. Oh no. It's not the Reuse and recycling centre (I think that deserved to be in bold).

It's not just been spun a new name but there's been major changes. It's much easier to get into and out of plus they're set up loads of different skips into which you can recycle all sorts of things. Great stuff! I was expecting to have to throw my waste timber into the rubbish skip but they've now got a proper place for that to go into it rather than just landfill.

So anyway a big pat on the back to Greenwich Council, I'm really impressed with it.

A slight downside is that their web site is slightly out of date. The page for the centre doesn't mention that it can recycle wood, I've just noticed that it doesn't say it can do paint either, which is something else that I noticed that it does. Basically it's dead good and they seemed able to handle just about anything you'd want them to.

The page does say that you need a "Waste Permit sticker", well I haven't got one and I wasn't stopped. That said I did have a residents parking permit on display so maybe that was enough. I'll have to look into that.

Match day in Charlton

It's match day in Charlton all the trains will stop,
It's match day in Charlton the cash machines will flop,
It's match day it's match day in Charlton!
Hip hip hip hip hip hooray!

Thousands of people are flooding into the area and South Eastern Railways have stopped the trains between Deptford and Charlton. Well that's what their web site seems to claim...

"Deptford to Charlton. Bues will replace trains between New Cross and Charlton connecting with train services at Lewisham" (note the spelling error, we're dealing with muppets on a grand scale here).

The line between Deptford and here doesn't go through New Cross or Lewisham, that line breaks off outside of Deptford. In theory the buses should go from Charlton, through Westcombe Park, Maze Hill, Greenwich and then Deptford. So what's going on? Beats me. Probably beats those fans trying to get here for the game too. We're playing Watford so people are going to want to come in from the north and through town. They'll probably have to drive now. Thanks a lot South Eastern Railways, ingenious.

You might think that the allegedly environmentally minded Greenwich Council might have something to say about things like that. However they seem to be too busy threatening to take legal action against a blogging site for having a logo that looks vaguely like theirs.

On the subject of the train company and their engineering policy with it's seemingly random shut downs they're also the idiots who shut down the trains when Elton John played here. Thanks for that. First gig at Charlton Stadium for years, could have been the start of something special. Not when SE Railways managed to botch the day up.

I guess someone at that company doesn't like Charlton Athletic, or Elton John.

It's not just the trains though. There's two cash machines near the stadium that I know of. One at the grounds and another down at the BP garage on Woolwich Road. Both are out of order. Top. All those people flooding in and wanting to put money into the local economy, even if it's just the beer and kebab economy, are scuppered.

The Antigallican

The Antigallican's finally reopened for days other than match days. It's been being refurbished for a few months now and has a sporadically open over the last few weeks. In all honesty it might have been opened for a little while and I've only just noticed it. However on Saturday there was a sign outside saying that it was open 12 to 12, I had some friends coming around that evening so I gave it a go.

So what did I think?

Well it's actually rather nice, the colour scheme reminded me of my living room so it all felt quite homey. There's a fair number of sofa's scattered around and they had nightlights lit all around. The owner's have been to Ikea more than once though, some of the furnishings look very familiar.

There was a downside though, it was dead quiet, I think there was only another two or three people in there. They were also playing some music channel that was up way too loud, it went even louder during the frequent ad breaks. Not pleasant.

After Saturday the chance came up again to revisit it with someone else. I went back when they were showing a football match and it was actually reasonably busy which was nice to see. He quite liked it too, I'm sure we'll return soon.

The big question I've got though is will it survive? They've gone for a quite an "up market" feel (or maybe it's just me that's very low market). It's in a bit of an odd place stuck between Charlton Village itself and the wilderness of the Yuppie Village. I guess in the end though they just need to pull in enough punters in the lull between match days when they're as full as a little egg. Fingers crossed.

Oh and get some nice guest ales on tap if you'd be so kind.

That and turn the music down.

Good luck though!