New Shepherd's Bush library

A video from H&F Council about the new library, opened in the Westfield shopping centre. It does look fantastic so well done to all involved.

Victoria Line strike off

Communist Bob has called off this threatened strike. Having achieved nothing. He was probably just bored.

Council at war with Boris over congestion charge

It's fair to say there is now no love lost between our Council and the London Mayor, the two Tory administrations having clashed publicly and repeatedly over issues including the chopping down of trees (the Council want to the Mayor doesn't want them to) the Thames Tideway Tunnel (H&F don't want what they call the "super sewer" the Mayor does) and now the scrapping of the western congestion charging zone (H&F have attacked the Mayor for delaying its removal). Arguments between former lovers can be nasty affairs.

I am at the Tory party conference next week for work. I remember very well being at a campaign meeting for Boris at the Conservative party conference before the Mayoral election and seeing Boris publicly single out Stephen Greenhalgh, our council leader, who was in the room for praise. Now though it appears they have right royally fallen out and dont speak to each other, only about each other and in not very flattering terms.

The relevance of this is that this is bad for us. What does or could it mean for the Bush, and for our Borough in general, for the Mayor now not to be on speaking terms with the council, who only seem to attack or disagree with him these days? I shall report back from Manchester next week with any signs of a thaw between the two men that between them wield so much power over our neck of the woods.

Labour Party Conference 2009

I am tapping to you from a balcony overlooking the english channel and Brighton pier with the sun streaming down on me and a park just below. The cries of sea gulls and the prospect of three evenings out eating free canapes and wine..oh life is hard! Here I shall be working until mid week, before going to the Tories' shin-dig up in Manchester next week.

So any Bushers down here too please make yourselves known .. I'll probably be meeting Bush Labour MP Andy Slaughter down here for work, and possibly Shaun Bailey his Tory challenger the week after. After this vote the other night I would think Andy's chances of keeping the seat probably took a step forward, but what do you think?

Welcome a new Busher?

Please help this prospective new Busher out using the comments section, she wrote to me today asking for local views..

Hi there,
We are thinking of moving into the Sundew Avenue area of the Wormholt estate near to the bottom of the road.....please can people tell me what its like to live there? Crime how safe it it too walk around, also especially burglary/car crime? How often does it occur and will premiums be hogher by much form the sothern counties?...

 The friendliness of the residents? Something of the history of the area....i believe these houses were built in 1918...i wondered who they would have housed and why they were named as flowers?
Many thanks!

Victoria Line Strike

Our old friend Communist Bob is threatening to bring the Victoria Line to a standstill again on the 5th October with this strike on the Victoria Line over hours.

Shepherd’s Bush dwellers should remember that they can use the Overground between Clapham Junction and Stratford with many tube connections along the way. No problems are forecast on that route. I usually go to South London to work on the Victoria but the Overground gets me to Clapham Junction from Shepherds Bush in just over 10 minutes. There are lots of buses from there to all over the place. Central Line appears unaffected too.

As ever the cause is a pathetic fig leaf to cover his real agenda of proving his worth when this sort of approach to industrial relations seems increasingly irrelevant. Apparently the drivers cab isn't cool enough to do 5 round trips in one go. Bugger the passengers who pay through the nose, get crammed in, and sweat every day before work then.

Bush at Dawn

It's been quite an intense two weeks on this blog with two high profile meetings at the Town Hall among other things. So how about this to start the week-end - a picture of the Bush at my favourite time of the day: the crack of dawn this very morning as I was gym-bound! W12 is a very different place then you know..happy weekend all

Accident on Uxbridge Road?

A lot of you have been searching for details of an accident that happenned yesterday, anyone have more details?

Goldhawk Block given approval

Hot, stormy and packed. Residents from Goldhawk Road and the surrounding areas crammed the ‘small hall’ in Hammersmith Town Hall last night to hear the planning committee debate the merits of this proposed development.

The proceedings got off to a slightly bizarre start as the Mayor of Hammersmith and Fulham solemnly declared that he had a potential conflict of interest as he had once accepted “hospitality” from Innocent Drinks, who are based on the proposed site and employ over 100 local people there. If the development goes ahead they will have to move out.

A sole planning officer was then handed the most un wanted job in the room – to lay out the council’s reasons for wanting the application to go ahead. Several shouts to “speak up” later we could hear her at the back of them room plough through the various objections that had been raised by residents, celebrities and eminent QCs alike. “No substantial points” were contained in letters from residents, John Humphrys had misunderstood the parking impact and the eminent QC, one of the leading planning lawyers in the country, had got it wrong because his brief was too narrow.

This was heard mainly in stony silence but then her presentation began to be punctuated by laughter as she declared that in response to residents objections the overall height of the redevelopment had been reduced by a glorious 0.5 metres, and that the materials used to build it wouldn’t stick out.

Cllr Cartwright (Labour) was asked to show a little more decorum as he addressed the planning officer but the sarcasm was dripping. The officer’s report had claimed Innocent Drinks “wanted” to move out. The officer admitted that at no stage had they said this. Even the Mayor (Conservative) questioned their assertions about parking, which they also had to concede.

But the vote when it came went the way of the Council and the redevelopment will now go ahead as planned. Residents are looking at what they can do next to save their neighbourhood, as they see it. This hasn’t gone away just yet, and come the general election I think its safe to assume that this will be a key issue. Where do Andy Slaughter and Shaun Bailey stand?

John Humphrys weighs in on Goldhawk

BBC presenter John Humphrys, one of many who live in the Bush, has made his feelings known about this proposed redevelopment ahead of the Council meeting tonight which will decide the fate of the Goldhawk Road industrial estate. He is no stranger to this sort of intervention having previously criticised previous changes to the environment around Ravenscourt Park, in particular allowing late night events to take place there. His letter is below:

I am surprised and dismayed at the plans proposed for the Goldhawk Road Industrial Estate. I have lived in this area for 25 years and regard the estate and the businesses it houses as a considerable asset to the neighbourhood.

My own personal association is with the Sound House, where I have been recording programmes ever since it came into existence more than twenty years ago. It is a classic example of a small business that has grown to maturity in the area where it was born. It meets local needs as well as bringing in both national and international clients, thus enhancing the status of Hammersmith.

All residential areas need a mix of domestic homes and businesses if they are to prosper. The Goldhawk Estate makes a vital contribution. It provides employment not only for the tenants and their staff but also promotes the use of local amenities such as shops, restaurants, hotels and taxi companies.

So much for the positives. The negatives will be familiar to everyone who lives here. In short, the proposed development is totally unsuitable for this restricted site: far too many new homes in an area that is already struggling with parking and congestion problems. It’s hard to imagine where all the additional cars will be parked, given that on-street parking can often be a nightmare as it is.

I am wholly opposed to this development and I hope my opposition - along with that of so many others - will be registered.

John Humphrys

Briatore on brink at QPR

The football league appears on the brink of taking action that would bring Flavio Briatore's association and ownership of QPR to an end. Following his jump-before-being-pushed resignation from the Renault Formula 1 team the league has asked the relevant motor racing authorities for a report of some kind. If the league takes what is surely the obvious view that the man is unsuitable to own or be involved with any sport then his involvement with our club will be at an abrupt end. Interesting times ahead ..

Crunch time for Goldhawk

H&F Council have a thing about developers, and this wednesday will see a final planning application decision which will affect the future look of Goldhawk Road for those that live in Brackenbury. The industrial estate  stands to be redeveloped by London & Newcastle into a dense mix of housing and commercial units which will sweep the existing small and thriving companies off the estate. None of these companies wants to leave. The Council seem not too fussed about the impact this would have on existing residents, who are up in arms and running a campaign to save their neighbourhood.

One resident commented “The estate is surrounded by a residential area. Traffic, parking stress, noise, light pollution, security problems, intrusion - this redevelopment package has got everything. And it would mean the loss of a light industrial estate which nurtured JC Decaux and is currently home to Innocent Drinks and The Soundhouse, one of the capital's busiest recording studios,”

In fact at this meeting last week it did seem a bit bizarre that we were hearing about how Thames Water were trying to stop people being flooded with sewage in eactly this area yet this development would be connecting lots more people to a system that is unable to cope with the strain already on it. Several residents cited this planning application specifically as an example of the council putting profits before people.

The council are quite clear that they want the redevelopment to go ahead and accordingly planning officers have given their masters the recommendation they wanted. Residents are dead set against it however, and commissioned Patrick Clarkson QC to advise them. His advice to residents, the summary of which I have printed below, is pretty devastating. He states that the proposed development is not in accordance with planning policy, is in detriment to the local area and "should not be allowed". Surely this can't now be nodded through? At the very least it looks like it needs more thinking about if not abandoning altogether if even some of this advice is accurate. Given the QC in question is one of the top planning lawyers in the UK its fair to assume what he says is indeed accurate.

The meeting will be this wednesday at 7pm, Hammersmith Town Hall. Report to follow.

Patrick Clarkson QC's advice:

Density: the application scheme is overdeveloped and too dense, creating substandard accommodation. The density is not endorsed by the London Plan, contrary to the assertion in the LBHF PAC Report.

Land Use: the Estate is not a brownfield site (ref PPS3), contrary to the assertion in the LBHF PAC Report. The existing use provides 3500sq m (including mezzanine floors) fully serviced commercial space housing successful businesses employing over 180 persons, including Innocent Drinks, who have been on the Estate since the firm began, and Soundhouse Ltd, who have been on the Estate for over 20 years in high quality sound recording studios used by the BBC and film companies.

The application scheme provides 2003 sq m commercial space, of lower quality commercial standard in every respect, being in a residential setting, no street frontage, limited parking, and wholly unsuitable for the type of entrepreneurial business operations currently thriving on the site.

Design: the proposals ignore Council and London Plan policies iterated in many sources requiring developments adjacent to conservation areas to protect, preserve and enhance both the conservation area and the existing neighbourhood; irrespective of visual style, the bulk massing, the scale and the street layout is quite alien to the Brackenbury area.

Amenity: no children’s play area is provided, without cause which might allow financial contribution in lieu . The proposed Home Zone recreation and play area provides for the access and turning area for delivery vehicles and is unsafe for children.

Conclusion: the application contravenes planning policy and is detrimental to the neighbourhood and should not be allowed.

Salmonella in the Bush

There is one thing the Bush is not short of and that is kebab outlets (and fried chicken shops).

I haven't had a kebab for years, and the last time I did I was over three stone heavier which tells its own story. What might make you feel like giving it up for a while is the news that around thirty people in W12 have gone down with Salmonella. Shahi Nan Kebab, next to the bus stop outside the Queen Adelaide pub, has closed voluntarily. The usual euphemism "helping with enquiries" has been used to explain this.

Would you like chilli sauce with that?

Lib Dem conference, Bournemouth

..is where I shall be for the next few days. My job takes me to each of the UK party political conferences in in the next 3 weeks, as its an important year before the General Election.
Although I shall be lobbying on issues of peace and war do let me know if you're a fellow Busher down here, or for that matter at the Labour even in Brighton or Tories in Manchester. A lot will be going on at each of the three conferences that in time will affect life in our very own W12.
I am sure both Andy Slaughter MP and his Tory challenger Shaun Bailey will be around, and what of the W12 Lib Dems?

Art on the Underground: Central Line Stories

'The Central line draws an invisible line across London – connecting east to west, rising up like the edges of a smile at each end.'

So says Sarah Butler who was commissioned by the Tube to have a 6-month "residency" on the central line to work with staff to tell the story of the central line using creative writing. Full story here.

Hammersmith flooding: it's your problem

Tonights' meeting was presented by H&F Council as a have-a-go-at-Thames-Water meeting. Alas for them I fear their favourite scapegoat was transformed into a saint george figure this evening while they have become the dragon.

In front of a packed residents meeting in Hammersmith Town Hall Thames Water's two top men genuinely seemed to impress with their 9 year plan for sorting out flooding in W12 and W6. The problem is thus - sewers built in the 1850s cannot handle poo plus rain (London is the only place the two are collected in the same pipes) in todays' quantities. So when we have heavy rain it's either got to go in the Thames or your house if you live in certain areas. Brutally simple.

Cllr Nick Botterill, Cabinet Member for the Environment argued at the outset that "we are on top of the problem" - this caused laughter. He bravely persevered and blamed Thames Water - at which point he was challenged for being "underhand" by the chair of Boswell Street Residents Association while another resident, who was looking at the H&F website on his palm pilot noted that the title said "flooding - its your responsibility". A good example of H&Fs' approach to residents he said. You're on your own.

Thames Water have produced a 'heat map' showing the areas most at risk from flooding in west London. H&F was a sea of red (high risk) up until the Goldhawk Road. In the next 5 years they'll be spending over £400 million trying to protect H&F from more floods.

H&F has more basement flat dwellers than anywhere else in London - 37,000 of us live in them. 54% of which are connected physically to the main trunk sewers that take waste from as far afield as Brent and Camden right through H&F and down into Bazalgette's sewage system from the 1800s. They are all at risk of flooding with foul water. But the targets of people's ire was the council this evening. It was notable that the leader of the opposition became a de-facto chair at the end of the meeting pressing the council to act on collecting more data.

Not a successful evening for Council Leader Stephen Greenhalgh by any stretch of the imagination. But I would say a pretty good one for Thames Water.

What next for Briatore and QPR?

You will have seen by now that Flavio Briatore has been forced to resign from the Renault F1 team for ordering one of their drivers to deliberately crash. To cheat in other words. As far as I can see this means one of two things for QPR - he either gets more involved in the club or decides to walk away and do someting else other than sport.

I suspect his friend and business partner, and an equally strange man, Adolf Hitler fan Bernie Ecclestone will have a large influence on his decision. And as QPR appear set for another season of drudgery would their walking away be any bad thing?

Back in the Bush

just arrived back - a strange feeling this morning I was driving through the backstreets of Kampala and I've just got out of a taxi in leafy W12. Great to be back. Normal blog service is resumed!

Super Sewer: Boris overrules H&F Council

Answering questions yesterday from GLA members, Mayor of London Boris Johnson was asked directly whether or not he had met with H&F Council over the need for the new sewer to stop the thousands of tons of, lets call a spade a spade, raw poo spilling into the river every time we get heavy rain.

Boris is clearly irritated by his Conservative colleagues at Hammersmith Town Hall. Very irritated. In his answers he does not dispute that the council's opposition to the tunnel is described as "ill-informed" and states that he has "required" our Council to recognise the strategic need for the tunnel to be built. I actually don't know whether he has the power to formally overrule the council but these answers sound like he does.

In his first answer the Mayor actually says he is "optimistic" that H&F Council will support the project. Which roughly translates as a message to COuncil Leader Stephen Greenhalgh to "drop your silly opposition sonny and do what you're told".  Given our esteemed council's die-in-the-ditches-fight-them-on-the-beaches approach to this, complete with letters that we have all been sent as residents at our expense, can we expect a spectacular U-turn from the Council to be in the offing now?

It's all shaping up nicely for this public meeting later this week. Hope to see some of you there.

The full questions and answers from the Mayor are set out below. They were published yesterday:

Thames Tideway Tunnel (1)

Question No: 2452 / 2009

Mike Tuffrey

Have you or officers met with Hammersmith and Fulham to ensure that the construction of the Thames Tideway Tunnel is not delayed; given that so far this year the Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) at Hammersmith, Lots Road, Western and Abbey Mills have discharged more than 10 million cubic meters of storm sewage - enough to fill over 4000 Olympic swimming pools.

Answer from the Mayor:

My officers have met with Hammersmith & Fulham Council.  I have also made a representation in respect of the Council’s Core Strategy Development Plan Document requiring the recognition of the strategic need for this project.

The Hammersmith area will be one of the key areas to benefit from the sewer tunnel and I am optimistic that the Council will support the project provided that appropriate assurances about its construction and re-instatement are provided. 

Thames Tideway Tunnel (2)

Question No: 2453 / 2009

Mike Tuffrey

Will you be forwarding a copy of your Water Strategy to Hammersmith and Fulham Council and asking the Leader to drop his ill-informed opposition to the Thames Tideway Tunnel?

Answer from the Mayor:

Hammersmith & Fulham, along with all other London borough councils, is being invited to comment on the draft Water Strategy.

My officers have met with Hammersmith & Fulham and set out the clear strategic need for this project whilst appreciating that there will be local concerns that need to be addressed through the design, construction management and re-instatement phases of its implementation.

16 September update - the advertiser led local press have caught up with this a day after it appeared here: you know where you heard it first folks.. I note they dont credit this blog.

Super Sewer: Brown stuff hits fan on thursday

An applicable title for where I am in Uganda at the moment, although I'm happy to say its died down now. But as I watch the brewing storm from afar over the Thames Sewage issue I can see some more brown stuff flying in W12 before too long. This thursday at 7pm to be precise.

The situation seems to me to be thus:

• Hammersmith & Fulham Tories (who lead our council) are dead-set against the proposed 'super sewer' as it will blight Furnivall Gardens. They have been campaigining against it for a long time now.


• Hammersmith & Fulham Labour (who used to lead our council until the last local elections) say the Tories are scaremongering and that the sewer is necessary.


• The Lib Dems are less prominent locally on the issue but London wide are calling for the sewer to built immediately on the grounds of the ecological damage the current situation is doing.

And on that note, its worth pointing out that I've been passed some information from one of the above parties which illustrates that sewage issued into the Thames sticks around for a long time. A very long time. The problem is that the Thames acts like an estuary rather than a fast flowing river. And the bottom line is that the sewage generally takes 80 days to get to the sea! That's a lot of poo for us to live next door to. But is there an alternative solution?

This thursday there will be a meeting in the evening at Hammersmith Town Hall which is open to the public. The meeting will involve both the Council Leader Stephen Greenhalgh and Thames Water. Expect sparks to fly. I'll be going along and hope to see some of you there too. Report will follow.

Uganda violence

Complete radio silence on this blog for at least the next few days am afraid. There has been serious violence here which started last night and is still carrying on as I speak not far from the office.

we're probably going to leave the office quite soon and go back to the compound - which doesnt have internet access. The riots have kicked off again this morning. most of Kampala was a no-go zone yesterday and it may get this way again today. Reports say between 4 and 7 people have died thus far, all having been shot. We could hear shots being fired from the venue so quite a backdrop to what we were talking about really at our conference which was about preventing armed conflict.

We can hear shots now outside more towards the centre of town so its obviously still quite tense. Over and out.

Disabled "treated like animals" by H&F Council

Our esteemed local authority has had bad write ups from the Standard on a couple of occasions now, most recently in this article. Wednesday's edition was just as damning with a story about how the cuts the council have been making in order to realise their much trumpeted council tax reductions have actually impacted on real people, this case the disabled.

Do we really want to save a few extra pounds a month each for this sort of thing? The Council won the legal battle but they've lost the all important one in the well cliched "Court of Public Opinion". But we can look forward to seeing our council in the firing line a lot more, they seem to be 'pioneers' of the sort of experiments the national Conservative Party want to see. Today's speech by George Osborne reported by the BBC here to local councils specifically holds Hammersmith & Fulham Council up as a shining light.

Super Sewer - do we have one already?

Judging by this report from the Guardian today the Thames in West London, including in W12 and W6, is already acting as a very super sewer, with 20,000 (yes twenty THOUSAND) tonnes of raw sewage having been disgorged into our waters over a short period in July because of heavy rain. Barbecue summer it was not.

I still think Thames Water have to stand condemned for having put profit before people by selling the one place that could have sited a perfectly useable sewage treatment plant without infringing on Furnivall Gardens. They sold that site to property developers to be turned into penthouse flats and are now demanding access to our parks as I reported here to turn them into entry points for the proposed new sewer.

H&F Council, who have run a campaign against this proposal are coming in for some heavy flak for their stance from other parties, with the Labour Opposition claiming that H&F are exaggerating the impact the new treatment plant would have and the Liberal Democrats claiming that the sewer should be built as a matter of priority.

With these sort of figures I dont think there is any doubt for the need - it will be interesting to see for how long H&F can now hold out against the tide, and a very brown tide it appears to be.

What is the point of the BBC weather service?

And why are we paying for it? Not content with having got their predictions for this summer in England completely wrong, I am currently sitting in an office in Kampala, Uganda where there are clear blue skies and a sun that is already very hot (its only 9am).

Imagine my surprise then to check the BBC weather service this morning which reports 'current conditions' as being stormy thunder showers with lots of rain. They couldn't be more wrong - and thats not even predicting anything, just accurately reporting the present that they can't even manage.

I mentioned this to my colleagues here who just laughed - they long since stopped using the BBC because it never gets it right. CNN and several other services have it completely right today and are apparently far more reliable. All of which would be by the by - were it not for the fact that we are taxed to pay for this completely pointless service!

Hereby concludes my rant.

Loftus Road killing: Accused "hunted like a pack"

The four men accused with this brutal murder which took place on our streets at christmas time last year have started their trial at the Old Bailey. Each is accused of murder but the prosecution cannot say which of the four actually fired the shots that killed Mr Brown. They all deny the charges.

The prosecution's case makes depressing reading on two levels for me. One being that any explanation of what led up to the murder was always going to be bad, but on another level the sheer pathetic nature of it is what leaves me wondering how anyone could be that stupid let alone so callous as to kill an unarmed person by repeatedly shooting them in a street.

Craig Brown, it is alleged, had been involved in some kind of fist fight with one of the gang who lived in Hammersmith. During this fight he bit or somehow injured their ear. Their pride dented they obviously decided the best next course of action was to go and kill him.

And this is what now happens on our streets with increasing frequency - either involving guns or like here or here with knives. The common thread isnt just the act of killing someone, its the fact that it always seems to be about something so incredibly dumb. And if you need anymore evidence of just how dumb, here are our very own W12 thicko crew.

Uganda calling...

Sorry for the radio silence, at least I warned you – internet access is quite easy here but all the internet cafés seem to have abysmal connection speeds so I have waited till getting to the office to drop this update through.

So.. have I got a Shepherd’s Bush update for you? No I have not! So let me tell you about this place instead .. weather here on the weekend was equatorial Africa at its best – scorching on Saturday and then stormy on Sunday. While I come to this region quite a lot it’s the firs time in Kampala, and to be honest its one of the safest cities in this region I’ve been to its also one of the most dull!

That said the abiding memory I have from walking the streets here is the shocking divide between have and have nots. People frolic in the high class hotels while just outside infants sit on almost every corner. Some of them don’t even beg, they just sit there staring.

I handed over a suitcase full of baby clothes that our own kids have grown out of on the Friday. It’s a fantastic orphanage but deals with the harvest of that poverty in its work. Many of the children have HIV and nearly all are abandoned in places that are so well used for that purpose the orphanage workers check them regularly. Roadsides are well used but I also heard of a little girl thrown into a latrine pit.

The days of Idi Amin are long gone here but its one of the most unstable regions in the world with armed conflict in the north of Uganda itself and across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwanda lies to the south and Kenya to the east.

Looking forward to getting back to the Bush, and I promise to post at least 3 W12 related stories from here, but whilst I’m away why don’t you suggest some? Use the comments section.

For now goodbye from the heart of Africa

Service outage possible

Unlike those tube announcements that proclaim "good service" for everything short of a total meltdown I  have to warn readers to be prepared for a slow down in updates over the next week or so. I fly to Uganda tomorrow for work and will be in that part of the world for a couple of weeks. So this Busher will be updating about the Bush from the African bush!

Bearing in mind I will be largely cut off from the online world for days at a time so please use the comments section to post any news or comments up for your fellow readers.

Will still update from Uganda but as I say, perhaps not quite as regularly. Au revoir!

Bush tube staff revealed

As part of a fantastic project Creative Review have been off interviewing and photographing staff members of the Tube from across London. The pic on this article is our own Busher with some info about his life and work.

It's all too easy for us to forget that our transport systems are staffed by human beings. That means they have their own good and bad days. Just like us.

It doesn't help that they seem to be led by an anti Londoner dinosaur but if you were a tube worker what could you really do about that anyway? I once ran alongside him on a treadmill at Leyton Fitness First you know.

And spare them a thought next time you're off out on the town, which involves a little too much alcohol - they cannot do that at all unless its part of their annual leave. They're all subject to alcohol tests and if found with almost any amount - they lose their job. I imagine that goes through their minds as they shepherd the rest of us with alcohol related social lives through the barriers at night. Mind the Gap, sir.

Ridiculous local councillors

No, this isn't a political rant, but I thought this website which I was sent today was worth sharing!

Our borough is at the centre of some very controversial issues and the battle for the Hammersmith constituency will be a knife edge one at the general election. With that in mind you can rest assured to be bombarded with images of concerned looking politicians and wannabe politicians on leaflets and flyers of various kinds in the months to come.

What better way to set the scene than this superb collection of local politicians from across the UK attempting to look like ordinary folk!

Popular blog gets more popular

It's that sickening Oscars style moment when I tell you how many of you love me again. Yes, more of you read this blog this month again, with the total of over 3,600 visits in August. Thats up a few hundred from last month. Thanks for your interest and I hope you carry on reading. I'll be here as long as you do. Now then, I'd like to thank my mom, my agent, my pet dog ...