Cycle Friday?

Did you cycle this friday as part of the Mayor's campaign?

In case you feel like doing so next week the nearest route to us departs from Ravenscourt Park and is escorted by experienced riders to Trafalgar Square. It departs at 0800 sharp.

The snag is you will have to find your own way home!

My own tip if you want to avoid the roads altogether is the Thames Path from Hammersmith Bridge, which will take you on a country track next to the river all the way into Putney, and from there you can either cross into what is basically the west end or if you're like me on your way south press on a bit towards Clapham Junction. Beautiful views. And no cars!

Greenhalgh writes in Pravda

I have written about the poor state of our local media before, and warned what would happen if the area is only really served by a council propaganda rag. Here is an example straight out of the pages of yer best Pravda!

 

On the letters page a woman has written in, and to be fair to H&F News, has been published as she questions the bright new world that Council Leader Stephen Greenhalgh talked about here.

 

However, she also gets a 'right of reply' instant response from the very same Supreme Leader Greenhalgh! I have read this paper every time since it started to be published after the election and I have never seen this before. What it tells you is not only how a lack of local press scrutiny is a real gap but also just how sensitive the council must feel about its housing plans at the moment.

 

I note that the woman's question - where are these replacement homes for evicted residents - is well and truly dodged unless Cllr Grenhalgh is saying that the 900 new socially rented homes will go to those evicted from current housing. In which case that means a no real terms increase in social housing doesn't it? (Assuming the existing estates along the Thames are sold off privately to become private flats)

 

I will be speaking to the leaders of the campaign to save the estates shortly, so watch this space for more. And to my readers at Hammersmith Town Hall Cllr Greenhalgh would be welcome to respond on here too - but then so would the leaders of the opposition groups on the council as well. Just in the interests of balance, you understand.

W12 Business: I love my postcode

In the past couple of months I have been collecting some interviews with local businesses in the Bush, and will be sharing these in a series. Can you think of anyone I should include? At the moment its just really my own experience as a Busher - I'm particularly looking forward to profiling my local barbers who have yet to understand what this internet thingy actually is. What does that matter when you get a good haircut?

Anyway, on to www.ilovemypostcode.com

Run by Rachel and based within W12 on the Goldhawk Road this is a service that is among the most vulnerable to the recession - really nice to have but not essential - and yet I have known them since last year and they seem to be going strong - so much credit to them just for that.

Whats the idea? To wear your postcode simply. Ona  t shirt, a fleece, a piece of any description.

And the good news? Readers of this blog can even claim a discount. There is a £5 discount on t shirts, £3 on pants and vests and half price on kids t shirts. To get this discount you will need to email rachel at rachel@ilovemypostcode.com and tell her you are claiming the Shepherds Bush Blog discount

Rachel describes ilovemypostcode.com as follows:

"we're a W12 based business and a small independent online retailer experimenting with clothing and community pride. We design, print and sell top qualit items of clothing with London postcodes printed on them. Choose your garment, choose your print ink, choose your postcode and voila we'll print it just for you"!

Check out their website for more details, and once again well done to ilovemypostcode.com - both for weathering the recession and more importantly building people's sense of pride in their area into a viable local business.

So there we are, first review done. Any other ideas? I shouldn't need to say this but I probably do - I have accepted no payment or other inducement for any of these!

QPR Blackpool 8th August 09 match report

Nowhere near good enough. Maybe flirting with the bottom end of the playoffs but nothing more without much better finishing skills from this team. Thats my conclusion of our season ahead and from the words of those seated around me and on the way home what seemed to be the general conclusion of the fans of Loftus Road.



The game started as brightly as the sunshine, and at times during the opening 15 minutes it was almost embarassing for Blackpool. Chance followed chance for QPR, with some particularly impressive skills from Balanta who seemed to defy the laws of physics at times to turn no-hope situations into the basis for chances, but what we saw at the end of each move was almost breathtaking arrogance, with players apparently all believing that they were going to have so many shots they may as well have a punt themselves. We saw players nonchalantly just lob it  goalward and for it to be in turn gratefully gathered by the keeper.

And then Blackpool got going. All of a sudden it seemed like they were the ones with the momentum behind them, and chances started building up for them too. The difference was they were actually making an effort to convert each one at the finish and by the time the 37th minute score went in there was a resigned sigh from Ellerslie Road.

Half time saw a procession of the women's team who have just won promotion, so very many congratulations to them. Lets hope the men can draw som inspiration because ...

...the second half was sluggish to start with from QPR, and Blackpool appeared the quicker team both getting to the ball and then doing something creative with it. By midway through the half the crowd was beginning to get on the QPR players backs, with one shout asking about the retirement plans of certain defenders who seemed consistently second to the ball. I don't think this helped matters and when Rowlands went off injured there was a general downward feeling among everyone, that a day which had started so bright was really returning to QPR form.

The equaliser, when it came, was a really welcome shot in the arm for the crowd but you'd have to say it didnt look like it was coming and QPR were lucky to get it. Credit to the players for lifting themselves to get it though. And its also worth saying that the last 5 minutes of extra time (due to Rowland's injury) were nervy ones for the Blackpool crowd.



On this form there is no way that QPR will get anywhere near Middlesbrough, Sheffield or West Brom so its play offs for us. Unless something radical changes though we'll need that same luck that allowed us to equalise to even have a place in those. As if to rub it in those of us sitting opposite the VIP area were treated to the sight of Bernie 'some of my best friends are Jewish' Ecclestone storming out of the ground at 80 minutes!

Lastly, and very movingly, there was a heartfelt and warm tribute to Bobby Robson at the outset. Much deserved.



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Our tube heritage

In the last 2 years we in the Bush have seen more change than most. Europe's biggest shopping centre has transformed a lot about the area and not always for the better. Many of us, me included, have fought against our lives being impacted negatively by that. Two new tube stations and one overground station later, my journey has just about improved.

But when did you become a Londoner? I realised on a visit to the part I first moved to, Finsbury Park, that I had become a Londoner 12 years ago. I've never wanted to leave.

How about this, then, of a reminder of all our heritage - a 1938 tube train! I actually remember tube trains looking like this from the mid 90s when I used to visit my girlfriend here who lived on the Northern Line. Which tells you something about how much investment the network was starved of

QPR Blackpool 8 August: Hope

The talking is over, now is the time to do. Which is just as well since the less talking the likes of this odious little man does the better.

And shouldn't there have been a little more spending as well as the hot air? After all compared to F1 a couple of championship players are but a new set of tyres in a pit stop surely.

Either way I shall, after sitting out last season's great big puddle of disappointment, be there with the rest of W12's footballing fraternity. Hoping and shouting, and then hoping some more.

Match report to follow - come on you Hoops.

The London Loop

Seriously good recommendation for a day out from West London - go for a walk on the London Loop trail. More info here.

A few weeks ago, at the Acton Carnival, Transport for London, with whom I have had a hate-hate relationship in the past, were giving out leaflets about various walking trails around London. The aim being to entice people to use their feet for leisure and maybe to start thinking about using them for work as well. Whatever you think of that aim these walks are fantastic judging by what I have seen so far. And they are free!

The London Loop is a series of nature walks on the edge of where countryside meets the capital, and if the other routes are even partly as good as the one I did last weekend they are fantastic.

Quiet, serene and surrounded by nature from the rabbits running around you to the birds. The closest route to Bush is route number 12 which you can see here. It means getting the central line to the end of the line at West Ruislip and then a bus to Uxbridge - and within minutes you're on the Grand Union Canal walking past locks and the odd ancient tea house. Its well worth a try - what have you got to lose?!  Let me know what you think - here are some pics.

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Summerfest'09 White City

Having been critical of our beloved local council recently its worth saying that I am making thorough use of the new swim for £1 deal for kids during August and think its a fantastic initiative. So well done H&F Council.  

In fact at Janet Adegoke Pool today I picked up this flyer for Summerfest'09 which is also an excellent initiative. Phoenix School, which its fair to say continues to have issues despite the miracles worked by its formidable headteacher, is currently the home to a co-operative food market among other things.

One or two of the offerings on this flyer might remind you of the severe challenges that remain for the youth of W12 though - and my goodness does this bring it home.

A popular blog!

I think its appropriate at this stage to thank my friends, family, pet dog (which I wish I had but don't) etc. Either way I thought you might be interested, particularly regular readers to have a sense of how many people now regularly come here for news and views on the Bush so here it is.

This month (July 2009) there were over 3,100 visits and as you will see the trend has been broadly upward ever since the start. Popular articles regularly get over 200 people looking at them although compratively few of you comment - which is fine. So long as it serves a purpose.

Not bad for a one man band started after this incident in the Bush one cold November morning.

So enough of the self back slapping thank-you for coming back and giving us a reason to continue. A particular thank you to those who have contributed, in some cases anonomously, stories or leads. I have and always will respect people's anonimity. And of course to those who have contributed information, in some cases eye witness information, of breaking news - which the traditional media took over a week to get around to.

Together we've shown that there is both a need and a way of sharing news about the Bush that uses the best of the web and is genuinely local. Here's to more of the same.