Ebony Vincent? Working for Walthamstow

So last night we heard the awful news that the dogtrack is going to be turned into flats. This is despite huge local opposition and completely against the spirit of local democracy. 

So today I was looking at who the councillors were that made this decision. Sadly two of them represent my ward and are paid to represent my views! They are Ebony Vincent and Asim Mahmood. 

Can I ask you to quickly look at these website though with regard to Ebony. She initially declares that she has no interests (admittedly dated from 2010 - but live on the council website and not updated). Yet also has a number of interests as listed on linked in. Whilst it is possible that this refers to two different people, the joint interest in Markhouse Ward makes this improbable. Hmmmmmmm.......

What happened to the London paper's gay about town

I don't know what started me looking at this today. I was thinking about blogs that I had not seen in a while and wondered about 'gay about town'. Josh Hunt used to write a regular column for the London paper and I was pretty sad to see the column disappear with the paper. Hence for a little while the column continued on the blog 'Gay about town'. The blog had not been updated in over a year, so you begin to wonder what happened to Josh and the column.

Twitter solved it. Josh was a pseudonym for Feargus O'Sullivan who appears to be a regular contributor to a number of columns. He also is writing a wordpress blog so take a look. Feargus if you do ever read this then we still miss you and it would be great if Josh could oust the awful Richard Dennen (looking at the comments following his most recent column he is pretty unpopular)

Merlin and Arthur respond to the 'love story' question

So the new series of Merlin is on TV and I again seem to be getting quite a lot of hits for my post in 2008 which commented on the evolving 'love story'. I thought I would take another look at what was on the internet around this question and found this video on MerlinTVshow.com where the actors respond to a Gay Icon question. 

Bryndlewindle on Cupcake Mafia

So bizarrely I find myself on the Cupcake mafia tumblr following my trip to Brugge. They spotted the cakes! Am loving the Beyonce soundtrack to this website.

I hope that the Cupcake Mafia team have spotted Bath baby cakes and the pics of their amazing cupcakes. B x 

School boy stabbed in the neck on Chingford Mount road

... and even more now. Apparently a few days ago a schoolboy was stabbed in the neck. You can read all about it again at the Waltham forest guardian. 

Leyton: Capworth street attack

So after updating the map yesterday I would have hoped (stupidly) that all would go quiet for a few days. Anyway, first thing this morning the Waltham forest guardian reports on a probable stabbing in Leyton. Read more about it here.

**Update** It apparently was not a stabbing but an attack with a baseball bat.

What has happened to 'Crap cycling in Waltham forest'?

So there was I thinking something was missing in my life when I realised Freewheeler@CrapCycling seems to have disapeared. Can anyone shed any light onto the lack of posts since August. The last post does say that four years have passed since the first post, but there was no goodbye? 

Updated Walthamstow violence map

So I have been slow at updating this. Sadly there is quite a lot to add. In reverse chronology we have.
December 2011
Higham Hill recreation ground stabbing
Street fighting outside Walthamstow academy
Pensioner gun and drugs find
Stabbed for refusing to buy alcohol
Hatherly mews attack

November
Bell corner stabbing
Marlowe Road attack

October
Cedars avenue stabbing
Wood street attack
St Barnabus road shooting

See the updated map below


View Walthamstow violence in a larger map

Update on St Saviour's Markhouse road

So this post is a little behind schedule. After my post in 2009 about David Waller there is now have a new vicar Steven Saxby. I am not a regular church goer, but I was impressed a few weeks ago when I heard the bells of the church ringing out in the morning. I hope to hear them again. It would perhaps make this part of E17 feel a bit more 'walthamstow village' though there is some way to go. 

Gerde de Jonghe and Hans Memling

I had to share both of these. Amid the Christmas shopping we spotted works by both of these artists. Very different though both pretty amazing. 

The first is Gerde de Jonghe. This bronze (above) was on display in a gallery in Brugge and you can see a further selection on his website. 

The second is Hans Memling. The hospital museum has a number of hit works however this image is just amazing. 

Weekend in Brugge

So R and I took the eurostar on Friday to Brussels and headed onto Brugge. I have never been to Belgium before and I totally loved it. Hot chocolate at De Proverie, dinner at Spinola, millions of chocolates for all the relatives. All in all a great weekend.

So as ever here are a few of my favourite pics from the weekend. See the full set here.

Ordessa national park

So I am being very slow at sorting out photos etc. I am off to Belgium today for a spot of christmas shopping and need to make room on the camera for some photos. Anyways here are some of our pics from earlier in the year when we went to Spain (Pyrenees and Donostia). The ordessa national park is amazing and apparently bigger than the grand canyon (without the helicopter rides and zillions of tourists). Loved it. Off to get some Belgium chocolate now. View the rest of the pics here. B x

A leave of absence

So I have not posted on here for ages. There is no point in a full update but you can see pics of what I have been up to on my flickr account.
Alissa and Nick Legroux's wedding
Rome for IAS
Mull
Rashmi's wedding.

At the moment I am in a hotel in Biarritz heading back with Ryanair tomorrow. We have been away for the last 7 days and I am not at that point of hankering for a good cup of tea and home cooked food. Loving it here though. 

Simon Clarke on Vimeo - When it rains

when it rains from Simon Clarke on Vimeo.

So I was just checking out R's cousin's videos that he has put on Vimeo when I came across this. I love Aphex anyway and this just goes with it so well. Had to share. B

Walthamstow - the fire and the smog

So I woke up this morning, worried that something was burning in the house. Thanks though to the power of twitter I realized that half of Walthamstow was worried about the same thing. There was a huge fire yesterday on Billet road in a tyre factory. Mix that with the still air and all of the smog warnings we have been having and you have an issue.

StowScene has some excellent pics of the fire on their blog. Just a bit surprised I have not seen it on the BBC.

Update - This pm there is a BBC report on BBC London news that you can find here.

Update 2 - Thanks Zefrog, here is the view of the fire from the city of London.

Update 3 - Crazy photos of the fire here. 

Gay Kiss in at the John Snow Pub

So last night R and I headed to the Kiss in at the John Snow pub. We have been in the lucky position of not having much to complain about (in our lives at least), so the prospect of actually having something to say (without having to leave Soho) was quite exciting. The event was in response to two guys being chucked out of the pub for kissing as reported here.

Sadly we arrived at 1915 and missed most of the kissing. The Pub had heard that the event had been planned, so decided to shut for the evening. Still there were hundreds of people outside, with banners and TV cameras. Lots of fun. 

I spoke to a few people yesterday and despite the pub shutting its doors they made it clear that they would pop in to the pub when passing (it is not out of the way) and avail themselves of their right to a snog. 

Update - Walthamstow violence

View Walthamstow violence in a larger map

There is a lot to update with regard to this map.

Jan
Teenager bus death - was he chased?
Clay path machete attack

Feb
Attack on cyclist teenagers held

March
Roma cafe killing on Lee bridge road
Teenager shot on priory court estate
Pembroke road stabbing
10 year old wields knife in mugging

April
Burka woman sought over knife attacks
Man stabbed to death in Brunel road

Long weekend in Dorset

So last weekend R and I headed out from London to Dorset. We had an amazing time and fantastic weather. Two days in Beaminster followed by a night in Dorchester.

Golden Cap, is one of the highest points on the South Coast. In reality it is not actually that high but the views last weekend were amazing. Here is R posing at the top!

R had to spend a day in the graveyard in Swanage with Martin transcribing. Here are the two of them hard at work.

Then finally it was onto Stourhead before heading back to London. I love this place. You can see the rest of the pics from the weekend here.

Favorite pictures from the last few months

So it has been ages since I posted here. The crime map has fallen behind and we are now quite definitely in spring (I seem to have missed documenting winter). In order to catch up I just wanted to share some of my favorite pictures from the last few months.

So these two pictures above are taken in the Pentlands, on a very wintery trip to Edinburgh early this year. Below was a trip a couple of months later back to Wales. Here with Mum, John and Milly (the dog) on the top of Dinas Bran.

Greasy spoons - Caffs.co.uk

I was in Epping the other day (for the first time). R and I spotted Poppy's and we find it difficult to resist a good greasy spoon despite the new year's resolutions. Poppy's was not bad but I was even more impressed later by twitter. Within a few hours caffs.co.uk had contacted me for details. Yes I know I write this blog and occassionally you do get contacted by people/websites but I was particularly impressed to be found by this website which tries to answer the question "where is my local greasy spoon?"

My top read posts of 2010

So this is what people have been reading on my blog this last year.
1. Its all about the Richard Dennen. I know he is awful but people just want to read about him.
2. The London Fields shooting. This may have happened in 2008 but we are still lapping it up!
3. The Merlin and Arthur love story continues to be popular.
4. I think this should be higher but a number of you are looking for the Nic Fancuilli remix of Lusine.
5. Zachary Quinto as Spock
6. Walthamstow High street stabbing in March of this year.
7. The last Tuesday Society May masked ball
8. The reworking of David Cameron's election poster.
9. Shweta gets back in there with 'Naked horrified Shweta'.
10. The fowler sisters remain popular as ever.

Markhouse road assault and other shootings

So I realise that I have fallen a bit behind with my Walthamstow violence map. What better to do on the 25th of December. Firstly there is the recent Markhouse road assault which Police speculate may be linked to the Michelle Samaweera attack last year. You can read all about it here on the local papers website.

Next we have the Hollow Ponds stabbing near Whipps Cross where a man was stabbed 15 times. Again read more about it here.

Then just down the road in Leyton Sylvester Senyah was murdered by a fatal stab wound to the groin in November.

Finally we have the Laurence avenue shooting from October 2010 again read about it here.

And below you can see the updated crime map.


View Walthamstow violence in a larger map

Merry Christmas from Kitty

So we could not help ourselves in our cheesyness over the last few days. Kitty has had to endure a photo session with various playthings to keep her entertained. Here are a couple of the pics.

Nottingham

A couple of weeks ago R and I headed to Nottingham to see my brother and his girlfriend in their new house. Having not really been to Nottingham before we did all of the tourist things.

First we went to Nottingham castle. I have to say this museum was particularly unipressive and could not decide whether it was a museum of local history, modern art, textiles etc? Essentially it was a big mish mash that did not work. A shame because it could be so much more. 

Then the Jerusalem pub. It claims to be the oldest pub in England, and it does a pretty good lunch. Definetely worth a visit. 

Finally drinks around the town and in West Bridgford. Essentially my brother lives in this suburb of town. Drinks around West Bridgford kind of similar to drinks in Wimbledon or Fulham. Mainly generic bars but good fun and company. 

I was really excited to see the Lady G and Neckie whilst in Nottingham. It has been too long since we caught up. 

Bookgroup - All my friends are superheroes

So this was our first bookgroup meeting since our summer break and we read 'All my friends are superheroes' by Andrew Kaufman.

I think the general opinion was good. I quite liked it though I was pleased how short it was. Essentially all the characters are turned into caricatures in a superhero form. It is quite fun but you would not want too much.

November the 5th in Walthamstow - quite some time ago

So I have been busy and neglected the blog yet again. Anyways today I am going to create a quick retrospective of the last month or so.

First here are a few pics from Bonfire night in Walthamstow. I was pretty amazed at the amount spent on fireworks given the savings the borough is supposed to be making. Still I really enjoyed it.

Alex and Tayfun's Drag party

Again I am catching up in putting some recent photos online. Alex and Tayfun had a party a couple of weeks ago and I love these photos!  You can see the rest of the pics here. 

Florence and the Cinque Terre

So it has been a few weeks since R and I went to Italy and I have been rubbish and putting the photos online. However here they are finally. Above is R getting into the pool at our hotel. I have to say that we booked the hotel after seeing an article in the evening standard (Italian hotels with pools on the roof). I have to say that even though the paper is not always on form with its news, it was spot on with this.

After a few days in Florence it was off to the Cinque Terre for some walking and sunbathing. The towns were full of tourists (like us), so it was not quite the get away we were expecting. Still as you can see it was very pretty.

With a final night in Pisa, we well and truly did the tourist trail. You can see all our pics here.

Walthamstow station plans - OBJECT NOW

Tonight on leaving Walthamstow central I was surprised to be handed a leaflet detailing a few plans for Walthamstow central. I initially assumed it one a local resident's association explaining how I should object to the plans. However instead it was a leaflet from the developer's with a reply slip asking me to support the plans. I recycled my leaflet however I suspect that many more will be scattered along the street along with the chicken bones.

Up until recently it has been pretty difficult to find the plans for Walthamstow Central. They were supposed to have been posted on the Waltham forest council planning website. However I have repeatedly been unable to open them. However you can find them courtesy of 'fight the height' here.

Most importantly to object to the plans email - dcmail@walthamforest.gov.uk

Woman shot outside Walthamstow Police station

I woke up this morning to hear this on the news. Shot outside the Police station. The news report does not yet say why she was there. Read more here. Here is the updated crime map.



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