The Brinkster - Another Worcester Park Blog

Have our useless LibDems dragged me out of retirement?

noreply@blogger.com (The Brinkster) — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 10:05:00 +0000

So it's just over six years since I last posted on this blog and Richard Johnson has been doing a superb job of keeping everyone updated on the goings on in Worcester Park in my 'retirement' so why post again?

Well we've got some local elections coming up in Worcester Park and they could turn out to be some of the most significant for years.

Should people vote for the Lib-Dems who gave us the white elephant that is the Sutton Life Centre, Busgate together with its disingenuous 'consultations' and across the borough a massive incinerator which has put Beddington on a scale of pollution alongside Heathrow Airport that has also been the backbone of the massively contentious Sutton Decentralised Energy Network (SDEN) which is a whole other story and on record as giving 71% of customers higher energy bills even before the current energy crisis.

Or maybe vote Conservative and help put someone on a career path like that of our own former Sutton Councillor and now local MP Paul Scully whose most recent TV performances in defence of PM Johnson haven't had the most rosy reviews.

Then you could always vote Labour and while I don't remember if Labour have ever had a local Councillor in Worcester Park the LibDems seem particularly scared of them as their recent letter drops seem to be mostly focussed on telling people not to vote for them.

Lastly there are the "others" and independents so I need to take a look and see who else will be standing.

The Dark Side takes Worcester Park by storm

noreply@blogger.com (The Brinkster) — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 09:59:00 +0000

Times are apparently hard for the Empire and because of their costly fixation with ever larger and more powerful, yet fatally flawed, space stations it seems that the lower ranks have had to resort to public transport as part of a cost cutting exercise. Austerity sucks....

A friend of mine was walking up Brinkley Road the other day only to find that she was following an Imperial Stormtrooper up towards Central Road. I feel that I should point out that this isn't a normal occurrence in Brinkley Road, at least not for me anyway, and with her curiosity suitably piqued she saw him cross the road and head to the bus stop outside Brabham Court to wait for a bus.

He obligingly posed for some photos and was apparently on his way to Richmond where I can only presume that a rebellion needed suppressing or a new weapon of mass destruction needed constructing. As you can see in the photos he did manage to catch his bus but those who know Stormtroopers well will suspect, as I do, that he was going for an earlier one.... but missed it ;)

Presumably he was a member of the 501st who cosplay as assorted Star Wars characters at various events and do lots of work to raise money for charity and other good causes, and to find out more go here - http://www.501st.com

Photos provided and used with permission. Copyright retained by original owner.

Panic at the deli #firstworldproblems

noreply@blogger.com (The Brinkster) — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 08:55:00 +0000

Taking in my early morning helping of news from the Evening Standard (spot the irony) a piece with the title "Shopper injured in deli counter scrum at south London Tesco" caught my eye. "Where" I asked myself "Is this going to be? Peckham? Lambeth? Perhaps Croydon?"

Nope. New Malden.

Our northerly neighbours don't come out as badly from the article as they could have done if the Daily Mail had got hold of it but then I can just about imagine what it would have looked like if Ricky Gervais had written the script for it.Here's an extract:

A supermarket shopper has called on Tesco to take action after he injured himself while scrambling for heavily discounted items in a south London store.
Oliver Sanders, 31, said doctors told him he had torn a knee ligament when he was hurt in what he described as a manic “free-for-all” at Tesco Extra in New Malden.
On Sunday, he said he was among more than a dozen customers jostling for discounted deli meat at the hot food counter after staff brought out reduced stock shortly before closing.

Really? REALLY??

He told the Standard: “I had my hands in a box when I was pushed up against the fridge cabinet. When they put the items in the fridges that’s when everyone goes nuts.
“It happened so quickly I probably had about three or four items in my hands but I wasn’t going for anything in particular.

I'd hoped we'd seen the last of this kind of stuff with the underwhelming Black Friday at Christmas but apparently not. I've never been near the deli counter in Tesco when they've been doing this so who am I to judge but I do inwardly despair for the future of the human race when people will shove others around for the sake of some discount deli items. Whatever next? Dawn duels at Waitrose?

News round up - 11th Jan

noreply@blogger.com (The Brinkster) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 08:35:00 +0000

If you've been reading the local news of late you'd be forgiven for thinking that Worcester Park is a hotbed of criminal excess.

First off was Harry Sullivan's court appearance in relation to his pre-Christmas BMW disassembly effort when he crashed in into a lamppost in Weybridge whilst nearly three times over the limit. His punishment was a two year driving ban with a 100 hours community service and £145 costs, though I doubt that the latter will genuinely cover the expense.

Alan Banks will be spending a heftier 18 months inside after admitting a post-halloween attack on a man outside a KFC in Surbiton in 2014

The attack by Banks, who was wearing a pink tutu, black tights and ballet pumps at the time, was initially said to be a homophobic attack, but this was heavily disputed by Banks and led to the homophobic element of the charge being dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Lastly there was a "crash and dash" last week in Worcester Park when a car crashed through a garden wall but the occupants scarpered before anyone could do anything about it. If you have any more information on that I'm sure the Police would be keen to hear it.

Worcester Park Christmas evening tonight!

noreply@blogger.com (The Brinkster) — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 12:07:00 +0000

Yes indeed! Tonight Central Road will ring to the sound of a marching band, carol singers, laughing children and quietly exasperated parents!

It should be a great chance to have some fun in Worcester Park and get some Christmas shopping done so do head down and make the most of the occasion. There's some rain forecast for this afternoon but hopefully it will have passed through by the evening, though you can always keep an eye on how it's doing here.

A special prize will be on offer to the first person who spots me in the crowd, though if you do see me that will mean that my evening will have gone pear-shaped as I'm supposed to be at a party up in London... you never know though.

On a more mundane note the event means that parking restrictions are in place on Central Road and that the side roads will be busier with traffic and the chances of parking in or around Brinkster Central will be virtually zero..

Have fun and let me know how it goes!

Worcester Park Cashpoint Smashed!

noreply@blogger.com (The Brinkster) — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 12:45:00 +0000

On the way home from my first Christmas party of the season last night I noticed that somebody had comprehensively smashed up the cashpoint at the Lloyds bank on Central Road. As you can see from the photo the scree had been completely shoved back into the unit and the front panel was quite broken.

There was nobody around to suggest that it had been done recently though presumably it had happened sometime after the bank had closed earlier in the evening.

I called the Police to inform them of the issue and it turned out that someone else had already called it in, which pleased me immensely so kudos to whoever it was who beat me to it... community faith level restored!

If you saw what happened or know anything about the incident then I'm sure the Police would be just as interested as me to hear from you.

Head Over Heels in Traffic!

noreply@blogger.com (The Brinkster) — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 13:31:00 +0000

More traffic problems this morning when someone found their Vauxhall Corsa inverted by Worcester Park station, according to the Surrey Comet here, together with a dramatic picture of the vehicle in question via Twitter.

Details are scarce so anything you can provide would be interesting, though they're unlikely to be quite as interesting as any dashcam footage that might have been available had one been installed, as is often the case in places like Russia.

Drivers there commonly install.dashcams for insurance reasons and the resulting video have proliferated while continuing to amaze and horrify in equal measure. Not for the easily disturbed. Drive safely people

Black Friday Mania Hits Worcester Park

noreply@blogger.com (The Brinkster) — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 08:03:00 +0000

... is probably an exaggeration but the pet shop on Central road did have this sign outside advertising dog and cat beds for half price!

Ironically that's probably one of the best deals out there as trawling through Amazon's wall of tat this morning has turned up such eminently resistible offers as "Unibond Aero-360 Moisture Absorber refills - pack of 2" for £3.89 (61% off) and the "Catit Litter Tray Filters" for £3.48, either of which would make a loved one's face light up in Christmas morning... with incandescent rage most likely.

The extent to which this has taken hold in the UK is probably a marketer's dream as it was previously the preserve of the US for whom Black Friday was the day after Thanksgiving. Seeing as we don't do Thanksgiving in the UK, other than giving thanks for not having the prospect of Donald Trump being in charge of our country, we shouldn't have a Black Friday by a process of logical deduction. And quite how Black Friday has now been strung out over a whole week by some stores I have no idea!? I certainly couldn't get away with telling my boss that I was celebrating Christmas Day for a whole week and that's why I wasn't going to be in....

If you've found any astoundingly good deals in Worcester Park do let me know in the comments!

Ne'er the twain shall meet

noreply@blogger.com (The Brinkster) — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 08:11:00 +0000

My train buddy from across the rails was bemoaning the fact that her neighbourhood watch meeting was discussing the prospect that her little corner of ~~Worcester Park~~ Old Malden was going to be adopted into the London Borough of Sutton at some point in the future.

"I don't want to live in SUTTON" she fumed.
"It's not even a ROYAL borough" she raged in a slightly suppressed commuter-ish way.

She did admit that the Council Tax was likely to be less but her opinion was that if you move into a borough on purpose then it's a bit underhand for some distant committee to take that away from you if it affects things such as services and perhaps the choice of schools, a big issue for secondary schools in Worcester Park.

Some Googling led me back to a Sutton Guardian article from 2012 which said that:

"The commission has also proposed changes to the Sutton and Cheam constituency which would include St James and Old Malden wards.Local MP, Paul Burstow, said: "The new proposals add Old Malden and St James from the Kingston and Surbiton Constituency of Lib Dem MP Ed Davey.
"In practice these proposals are not going ahead but if they did they are unlikely to dramatically change the political balance in the seat."

Looking at the Boundary Commission website suggests that in 2013 the review was put back until 2018

"A new law in 2011 set the timing of reviews of all constituencies to take place at fixed five year intervals, whilst also removing the ability of the Commission to undertake interim reviews. Although the first review under these new arrangements began in early 2011, Parliament postponed that review in 2013 for five years.

So it looks like my friend may have some time to wait before anything happens but it left me wondering whether Sutton is really so bad and whether being in a Royal borough is as good as it's made out to be.

Any opinions gratefully accepted, even if they're indignant and outraged ones.

P.S. Blogger is telling me this is my 500th post! Yay! Go me! There may, or may not, be cake, dancing girls and Justin Bieber...

New Christmas Lights in Worcester Park

noreply@blogger.com (The Brinkster) — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 08:19:00 +0000

As I strolled down Central Road on the way to the station this morning the undeniably eye-catching new Christmas decorations on the lampposts... erm... caught my eye. I'm presuming they were put up last night as I have no recollection of noticing them on the way home yesterday and whilst I may have been displaying almost terminal levels of inattentiveness I would have remembered them if I'd seen them.

The first thing I noticed was just how big they are, particularly in contrast to the petite ones of previous years (shown below), and the second thing is just how low they are to the pavement! I'd guess at 10 feet tops but possibly 8?

Now I'm not suggesting this for a moment but given how low they are I'd be quite prepared to put a bet on

at one of Central Road's various gambling establishments that by the time New Year rolls around some over-lubricated reveller with have attempted to swing from one, with potentially disastrous results.

Thoughts?

7/7 recollections of an adopted Londoner

noreply@blogger.com (The Brinkster) — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 09:15:00 +0000

What I've reproduced below is part of a longer post that you can find over here and was written back in 2007 by Worcester Park resident and American ex-pat The Noble Savage and is equally, make that particularly, relevant today.

If you're going to spend some time in silence today then reading this would be a fitting way to spend it.

Please feel free to add your own stories in the comments

"I was in central London the day the July 7 bombings happened. I pulled up to the train station and was told the Underground was shut. There were rumours of a fire. I called my boss to tell him I’d be late and asked him which bus would take me from Westminster Bridge to Oxford Street. I began walking to the bus stop when my phone rang and my boss was saying not to get a bus as there’d been reports of an explosion on one. He told me to stay away from tourist attractions and government buildings. He tells me this as I stood on Westminster Bridge. If I were one to freak out, I probably would’ve thrown myself from the bridge into the Thames right then and there. Amidst all the chaos and confusion, as I fought to stand still in a stream of people pushing forward, scurrying in all directions and at a loss as to what to do or where they should go, I made a decision. I would go on. So I began walking.

I walked through Westminster and up towards Trafalgar Square. Police sirens filled the air like wails at a young child’s wake. The roads were eerily empty as only emergency vehicles sped through. Stores were full of people crowded around tvs and radios. Tourists stood stricken on street corners, their maps fluttering in the warm breeze. And still, the suited masses walked on. Up past Trafalgar Square, down Haymarket. Through Piccadilly Circus. Cut over to Regent Street. Thousands of us, all walking the dutiful route. No signal on my phone, I was cut off from anyone I knew. These strangers, the ones I walked with, were my only lifeline, the only thing keeping me from feeling small and alone.

I’d chosen poorly in footwear that day, not realising that I would be walking miles to work. Blisters formed and I hobbled along, my pace slowing. I stopped for a coffee to refuel and try to hear the latest news. Standing in line at Cafe Nero, the woman behind me suddenly shrieked and then collapsed onto the floor, clutching her mobile to her chest. I immediately turned and crouched down beside her, thinking she had suffered a heart attack. I looked into her eyes and saw the kind of terror that is reserved for a loss of the highest magnitude. Real loss. Though I hadn’t seen it on anyone else, I knew that look. I’d made it before.

Sobs shook her body and she managed to choke out a strangled, fragmented sentence: “My husband. On the Tube. In hospital. Not good.” I touched her arm and looked into her eyes again, but she didn’t see me. I was a ghost to her, an apparition. Her heart was still beating but it had been blown apart, like London itself. I watched the manager flag down a policeman and the woman was bundled into a car. The fragments of her heart still lay around my feet. I wanted to scoop them up and make it whole again for her. But all I could do was keep walking. Stopping would mean being witness to more heartbreak, more carnage. I took my shoes off and stuffed them in my bag. Barefoot, I set off again, into the fray once more.

I made it up to Oxford Street and began walking down to Bond Street station, near where I worked. The streets were silent. Only a few dozen people wandered around. I saw faces pressed up against glass in high rise office buildings, like paper dolls in a house of cards. They looked so fragile and trapped. I was glad to be on the streets, amongst everything. I felt safer in the open, for some reason. The thought of being holed up in a building, not knowing what was happening to my city outside, wasn’t appealing. I came upon a fruit stand where a crowd of people were listening to the radio. Eyewitnesses to the Tavistock Square bus bombing talked of seeing limbs fly into the air and blood splatter bystanders. One woman said she saw a man with no arms wandering around in shock. Hands flew to mouths and brows were knitted. But when the crowd dispersed, we all kept walking. The only people contemplating ‘going home’ were American tourists. As if that were even an option.

I arrived at my office, feet filthy and bleeding, my face ashen. Two hours had passed since I arrived at Waterloo and began my walk. I collapsed into my chair, let my bag fall to my side, and then I cried. I cried for that woman in the coffee shop and wondered if her husband had made it through alive. I cried for the man with no arms. I cried for the people who were stuck underground and who had to walk along dark tunnels to freedom, wondering if they were next. And then I cried because I finally knew that I was a Londoner, that this was my city and that I belonged.

On the way home, on foot once again, I walked with a colleague back along the same route. In a new pair of shoes I’d hastily bought, we trod the same path and felt the same camaraderie as if we were marching to a bomb shelter in the East End together. The sheer mass of the crowds was amazing. Thousands upon thousands of people, mostly silent, walking en masse through Whitehall, and then over the Jubilee bridge. Everyone was desperate to get home, but at the same time, didn’t want to go home at all. When I arrived home, I spent ages making phone calls, assuring family and friends that I was okay. Physically I was, but inside I felt haunted. A strange mixture of pride, sadness, fear, tenacity and love boiled inside me, ready to spill over. I needed to talk to someone. I arranged to meet a few friends in the pub as none of us wanted to be alone. We needed to be together, to reassure one another that everything was okay, that life goes on, and that we were strong enough to withstand this. It’s the British way, and what has made them renowned around the world. Over pints of beer in neighbourhood pubs, with quiet words and silent hugs, we began healing. No drama, no wailing, no running home to mama, just the British way of dealing with tragedy. And I was finally one of them."