The Night North London Stood Still

Thursday, January 30, 2003

  Three inches of snow and North London grinds to a halt! Finchley was all snarled up. Even the old back-doubles let me down on my way to work tonight because they were full of cars either stationary or sliding around on the snow at 5mph. A bus had broken down, blocking the end of my road in New Barnet. Then I was stuck in Summers Lane for one hour, and East Finchley for twenty minutes. My mobile phone wasn't working: the network must have been overloaded. South of Highgate the roads were clear southbound. I arrived at work in the City about ninety minutes late, tense and feeling like I was under anaesthetic.

Then Espe rang from Archway, in tears. She is coming home. There are no trains north of Archway because all the lines above ground are closed: the platforms are slippery and the trains can't pick up enough power from the live rail. "You'll have to walk!", the Underground staff cry cheerfully. There are no buses because the traffic is not moving. I know the traffic is solid from where she is up to where our house is because I've just driven in the opposite direction. Egads. She faced a seven mile walk along the icy pavements, until she found by merry hap a chap from Newcastle and then someone let them in their minicab to keep warm. She is happier now! I don't think she will get home for another hour at least.

There was more extreme weather yesterday when I was driving home, stopped by Brent House in Whetstone, where my car was buffeted by the wind and then the wind started to push my car along!

I was late last night as well! There was a big warehouse fire in York Road, New Barnet, helpfully illuminated by helicopters with searchlights so the Green Goddess fire engines could find it, because the Fire Brigade are on strike. Less helpfully, the police had closed the bottom of my road and quite a few other roads they didn't like the look of. There was another fire at Archway, so I had to go around to the Hornsey Road after queuing for half-an-hour. Oy oy.

Update: 23:50 Espe reaches Woodside Lane (North Finchley).
00:15 Whetstone.
01:07 Home! The Whetstone and Barnet area is still gridlocked at 01:00. This has never happened before! And the next day the Mayor said his red routes were clear - pah! ω   10:01:00 PM.

The Establishment

  The Establishment is the Peter Cook Appreciation Society. ω   6:07:00 AM.

The 1953 floods

  In the terrible storm of 1953, 300 people died, 59 in Canvey Island, Essex.

"There was no warning . . . no time to escape. The storm that caused the disaster was amongst the fiercest of the 20th century.

It started life close to the Azores, heading north towards Iceland it looked like any other winter Atlantic low. Then on Friday January 30 it turned south.

Deepening explosively its central pressure dropped by 30 millibars as it raced down the North Sea."

ω   5:03:00 AM.

Gone in January 2003 - a Genius and a Hero

Tuesday, January 28, 2003

   ω   3:47:00 AM.

Keeping it together

  One thing that keeps me from going completely apeshit bonkers is that every couple of years I watch all of Blake's 7, Edge of Darkness and Star Cops. Yet again I experience the familiar stories with all their lucky breaks and redemptions, with grim or happy satisfaction. Not only does this remind me of all the good and bad in people and life, but also arms me with hundreds of smart-arsed one-liners to help in coping with it all. ω   2:03:00 AM.

Finchley County School For Sale!

Saturday, January 25, 2003

   Barnet Council have put Finchley County School and grounds on the market with property giant FPD Savills. Click on the clock tower to see the ad from the local paper. Also for sale is Friern Barnet Town Hall, Hertford Lodge, and Friary House as I mentioned last week.

Gulp. Another fine building under threat is East Finchley Library, which might be replaced by a new library above a new Waitrose Supermarket next to Cherry Tree Park. This is a damn shame. I borrowed hundreds of books from there as a child, and attended many lectures and exhibitions in its upstairs hall. I love that library.

Without these buildings of character and areas like the Glebelands, and with all the new ugly billboards and hoardings, road chicanes and signage, Finchley is losing its beauty. The local council is out to make money at the expense of turning the area into an anonymous urban hell. ω   3:23:00 PM.

Fun and games

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

  Random Poem [via Idle Type]

The Euphor!um experience at the Roundhouse (in Chalk Farm, North London) finishes on Sunday: "a hallucinogenic trip through Samuel Taylor Coleridge's opium-infused fantasia, Kubla Khan."

Beat the Dictionary [via Idle Type]

Mystery visitor returns to Poe's grave

Continuing a 54-year tradition, the man, whose identity remains unknown, put his hand on Poe's tombstone, bowed, placed three red roses and a half-empty bottle of Martel cognac on the grave and then silently slipped back into the shadows.

A huge, pale-white moon glowed over the city, yet the man still eluded dozens of people who waited in their cars or huddled together on the sidewalk outside the cemetery.

What a cute! weblog by Natsuko. [via little. yellow. different.]

ω   5:27:00 PM.

where once Dick Turpin plied his trade

Saturday, January 18, 2003

  The new Tory council in Barnet seems to be destroying the Finchley that I love. Worryingly, they are also showing no signs of removing all the ugly traffic schemes, road humps and CPZs that the previous Labour administration installed.

A �400,000 traffic calming scheme in Friary Park has been a complete disaster, Barnet Council admitted this week.

The hugely unpopular scheme, introduced in 1997 and covering five areas around Friern Barnet and North Finchley, is now to be withdrawn.

Councillor Brian Coleman agreed. 'This has been the most appalling, shameful waste of money that I can ever remember in this borough. �400,000 down the drain and we have absolutely nothing to show for it.'

The council was due to agree the reinstatement of the much hated traffic control measures after temporary approval expired last year. But in the face of massive public opposition, including 327 letters of objection, the council has been forced into an expensive U-turn. (July 2000)

The only reprieve has been for the 800-year-old Barnet Market which is to be rebuilt.

Last year I mentioned my beautiful old school, Finchley County, with its iconic clock tower and war memorial which has been sold off - it's 99 years old! and the classic Friern Barnet Town Hall, but first to go could be the Glebelands which is not only a nature reserve containing rare species but also the only remnant of the historic Finchley Common, an ancient woodland where once Dick Turpin plied his trade and nightly held the Northern Way, as my old school song had it. Now the Northern Way (A1000) has been moved to the right a bit and elevated onto a flyover where it crosses the North Circular Road (A406), just where a housing estate has been built on top of Strawberry Vale and what was the only pub for miles, the Green Man. Barratts want to demolish the Territorial Army Centre, a large building in good condition, and build yet another housing estate which will bury the Glebelands.

A wildlife habitat that is home to slow worms, bats and the great crested newt could make way for 147 flats after Barnet Council refused to carry out an environmental assessment of the area.

Developers Barratts want to bulldoze the Territorial Army Cadet centre in High Road, North Finchley part of the Glebelands close to the Finchley Lido swimming pool and build 147 flats.

Dr Oliver Natelson, of the Coppetts Wood Conservationists, said the development could disturb a nature reserve which includes species protected under British and European law.

But at a planning and environment meeting last Wednesday, councillors decided not to conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA). The Secretary of State leaves it up to the discrepancy of local authorities whether EIAs are carried out.

Dr Natelson said: "There are lots of other species of wildlife on this site; plants and insects which are found nowhere else in north London or even some of the counties outside London.

They also want to sell off the lease of Friary House in Friary Park! There is still time to protest about this.

The Workhouse which inspired Charles Dickens has also been lost. I wonder which other irreplaceable assets will be destroyed this year.

ω   11:39:00 AM.

Shakey Baby

  Get text messages from William Shakespeare. ω   10:56:00 AM.

Interesting Times

  Identity theft growing fast: Protecting Your Good Name

The United States has deployed troops in eastern Colombia in an area rich of oil. The Colombian fields are the USA's 10th largest supplier at the moment.

No Time To Hide

The U.S. Needs to Open Up to the World -- To this European, America is trapped in a fortress of arrogance and ignorance

By BRIAN ENO

Europeans have always looked at America with a mixture of fascination and puzzlement, and now, increasingly, disbelief.

ω   10:54:00 AM.

Corporations Claim The "Right To Lie"

Friday, January 17, 2003

  A man has filed suit against Nike's claims that it has stopped running sweatshops. Bizarrely, Nike have responded by claiming that a corporation should have a right to free speech, like a human being. Because these companies own most of the media, and have Bush in their pocket, this is very dangerous.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Exxon/Mobil, Monsanto, Microsoft, Pfizer, and Bank of America have already filed amicus briefs supporting Nike. Additionally, virtually all of the nation's largest corporate-owned newspapers have recently editorialized in favor of Nike and given virtually no coverage or even printed letters to the editor asserting the humans' side of the case.

On the side of "only humans have human rights" is the lone human activist in California - Marc Kasky - who brought the original complaint against Nike.

Corporate America is rising up, and, unlike you and me, when large corporations "speak" they can use a billion-dollar bullhorn. At this moment, the only thing standing between their complete takeover of public opinion or their being brought back under the rule of law is the U.S. Supreme Court.

ω   3:20:00 PM.

Identity cards

Thursday, January 16, 2003

  I've been spurred by Ben Hammersley to contact the Home Office and my M.P. about identity cards which are again being mooted. Ben has given a pointer to Stand which gives a lot of good arguments against ID cards, but it's better to use your own words because form letters get ignored. For or against, it's important for everyone to make their views known. I'm agin 'em, and my own reasons are:

This is a free country.

I'll be damned if my liberty and that of 55 million other British people is going to be compromised by a few dozen alleged terrorists, or whatever the fashionable excuse is for extending state power over the voters. French identity cards did not prevent thousands of would-be immigrants using France as a staging post to get here.

I am a free man, English, British, not a number.

Members of my family have died in the the last two world wars to ensure my freedoms.

I am not going to carry a card so that petty officials or stormtroopers can examine it in the street. I am not prepared to use it to continue accessing services which are mine as a birthright.

On a practical level it is unnecessary: I have a passport and a NI number: those numbers should give ample scope for Big Brother wishing to link data from different parts of Government, banking, retail, espionage, police, DVLA and other systems.

The state already has many hi-tech methods to track my movements and habits and e-mail and (mobile) telephone conversations; ID cards would be an enormous additional waste of human resources given the electronic snooping that already goes on.

I want to be free: let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

John V. Keogh.

I've also faxed the same text to my MP using a handy website called Fax Your MP which tells you who your MP is and their response statistics.

ω   1:36:00 PM.

All-American Meal

Wednesday, January 15, 2003

  The destruction of America's diet, landscape, economy, and workforce? New book: Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser

The USA has gone mad An article by John le Carre reminds us of the horrors in the White House. ω   11:15:00 AM.

Funny Peculiar

Sunday, January 12, 2003

  Ghost dancers [at fury.com]

Supposedly comprehensive Rocklopaedia Fakebandica - but they don't have the Little Ladies of Rock Follies fame! I'll be sending a e-mail. [via Ethel the Blog]

Extreme computing! Project EUNUCH [via Chinwag]

The Last Days of Ernest J. Bellocq: photos of prostitutes in New Orleans 100 years ago. [via gmtPlus9]

Subterranean secrets: The Lost Rivers of London [at Hydragenic]

The Les Dennis Experience: [via haddock.org]

"During Les' work with Russ Abbott, the stress levels reached such a proportion that Les had to take enough valium to kill a small cow. The abusive relationship between Les and Abbott cost Les eight stones of weight. Les still bears scars from this awful time. Les can no longer take a bath for fear of being drowned in his own filth, just as Abbott attempted to do after Les had 'fluffed' his lines. Amanda has to clean Les by washing him down with a damp rag."

ω   7:46:00 AM.

Software Wishlist

Saturday, January 11, 2003

  I like to see that woman in Sex in the City writing her column on her Apple laptop. But the software she is using is not available: there was something similar on the Amiga designed to write television credits, but not on the Mac or PC. When she types all you can see is the words in a giant sans serif face on a plain ground, with no windows or "chrome" around it. (In close-up the words magically change to a small font so the pixelation is visible.) Someone ought to write something like this, so that the writer can concentrate purely on the text instead of the ugly button-bars and rulers (all this stuff in the window border is known as "chrome") and so on.

The reason could be that BBEdit or TextEdit or Tex-Edit Plus (or even OmniOutliner) or whatever your editor of choice on the Mac platform is, will be a terrible culture shock to Windows users, who don't have a nice little text editor. ω   9:54:00 PM.

Contemporary Annoyances

  What a load of complete bollocks this Steven Spielberg's Taken is. It's on telly now. Completely bereft of imagination, it is simply recycling the popular mythology of the "gray" aliens and Area 51 and the UFO abduction religion. Pointless twaddle. Ye ghodz. I wonder why the series was made. I can see no artistic reason, so is it just to reinforce these myths? ω   9:35:00 PM.

Contemporary Annoyances

  Decisions affecting travellers on the London Underground cannot be made by people who are regular passengers.

Today Espe had to renew her monthly travelcard which usually takes about a minute. There is a bit of paperwork involved, because you have to have your details and signature registered at a particular station, but once this is checked the ticket machine can usually print the new ticket straight away. No longer! Apparently they have lost all the details in the computer, so it took fifteen minutes. If this is the same for everyone, by accident or design, at all stations, then there are going to be riots in the ticket halls on Monday morning. ω   9:26:00 PM.

My Enormous Hinterland (it's huge): Cinema

  I've added a list of my 21 favourite films which I compiled in 1987. It is worrying how little I need to change it, should I wish to bring it up to date. Have there been no classic films made since Alien in 1979? ω   8:51:00 PM.

Thunderer

Thursday, January 09, 2003

  Some interesting opinions in The Times yesterday. I don't completely agree with them. On Roy Jenkins' and Gangsta-Rap's effect on our society:

Was it so urbane to create this urban hell, Roy?

Roy Jenkins was a decent and civilised man: amiable, erudite, a considerable prose stylist, a historian, a bon viveur, witty, urbane and cultivated. He did incalculable harm to his country.

But what was so grotesque about his love of those good things in life was his simultaneous attack on the civilisation that brought them into being and made them possible. His great legacy to the leaders of the Labour Party is a completely unthinking and unacknowledged divorce between what they want for others and what they want for themselves.

Blame rap lyrics if you won't blame yourself

According to this week�s government whitewash, there are no fundamental flaws in the educational system, no big social problems in Britain�s urban wastelands. No, our present woes are the fault of rap music! How comforting that must be to parents struggling to raise decent children on lawless estates.

and

The hatred of America is the socialism of fools

Yankee-phobia is, at heart, a dark thing, a prejudice with ugly antecedents which creates unholy alliances. And, like all prejudices, it thrives on myths which will end up only serving evil ends.

ω   9:15:00 AM.

Roland Davies

  Anti-war train drivers refuse to move arms freight [via FridgeMagnet]

Brrr! Russian Freeze Traps Ships Some sad statistics in this report. [via GrayBlog] ω   8:11:00 AM.

Whee!

Wednesday, January 08, 2003

  On Monday, Danny Baker's Breakfast Show on BBC LDN returned and we were happy. He is the Candyman.

Yesterday, London got a dusting of snow, and today a lot of snow and we are all ecstatic! Whee! I watched several contractors in their yellow reflective jackets having a snowball fight at lunchtime. This is why the roadworks at Vauxhall Cross will probably never be finished. ω   6:28:00 PM.

18 Starring Kiefer Sutherland

  The "real-time" series 24 has been released on DVD. It is less than 18 hours long, including extra material. So how many millions of hours have the Americans lost watching commercials? ω   9:56:00 AM.

Small Print

Tuesday, January 07, 2003

  There are new clusters of cameras on huge poles and big letter Cs painted on the roads all over London, so I've just registered for the Congestion Charge.

"Data Protection: Transport for London (TfL) and its agents will process your information for the operation of the congestion charging scheme. Processing will include the use of cameras to record data. Your information may be disclosed to, or requested from, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), local authorities, law enforcement agencies and other organisations for the administration (including verification of discount entitlement) and enforcement of the scheme; the prevention and detection of crime and protection of public funds. TfL randomly selects and monitors vehicles subject to a discount to identify possible fraudulent use. If you persistently fail to pay congestion charges due or attempt to defraud the scheme, TfL may record your vehicle's movements and may disclose relevant details to local authorities and/or law enforcement agencies, to assist in tracing persistent evaders and those committing fraud."

ω   2:01:00 PM.

Long Weekend

  On Saturday, Espe and I slept until the afternoon and then we decided to go to Bluewater, Europe's largest retail park, because it is supposed to have a branch of Marks and Spencer. It does. For a shopping centre it is quite a place, with architecture that would suit a cathedral. There are two tiers of arcades with shops on both sides, arranged in a triangle. I found only one bookshop though which is a chainstore - Waterstones - and no proper record shop so I was a bit disappointed. It was nice to see avenues of trees at night festooned with white Christmas lights.

In the evening we had a curry and watched Amelie. Quite good. Not sure about the warm colours and flashy direction. Warm colours in my dhansak sauce, yes, but a film it seems affected, but this is by the director of Delicatessen, I believe, so we have to allow this.

On Sunday we put Johnson's Klear Floor Polish on the kitchen floor, which involved taking all the furniture into the back garden, and applying this clear liquid to the horrid Marley tiles. It dries like nail varnish. In fact it is still on my nails two days later, so girls! Don't waste money on clear varnish: buy Klear!

In the evening we watched French Kiss in Spanish on DVD. This film is our Sleepless in Seattle. Espe whipped up some of her famous vegetable soup which contains carrots, greens, fried onions and plantain and garlic and two eggs. Plus another meal of crispy fried pork and rice. I'm spoilt. ω   8:08:00 AM.

I don't know

Wednesday, January 01, 2003

  What Really Happened links to many news stories every day. Now we only have to decide what is reality, or conspiracy, or hate, or paranoia, or who is in bed with whom, or what their agenda is, what is a screw-up, what is evil.

[link via You can never weblog enough]

ω   8:49:00 PM.

MMIII

  Happy New Year to you all from John and Esperanza. We hope you are all healthy, happy and win the lottery. I hope it is not the final year for Western civilisation and Bush can be stopped. ω   4:43:00 AM.

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