Girl collapsed at Blackheath station

Two ambulance-people attending to a girl who had collapsed on the up-ramp from Blackheath station – swarmed by rush-hour passengers. She was sitting up and conscious when I passed. The ambulance people seemed very helpful and attentive. Hope they don’t get cut back like everything else.

More than 4000 people against closing Blackheath Library

The fight back against Lewisham Council continues – over 4000 people have signed the petition against closing Blackheath library, and in the blog below, Alan Gibbons suggests that the council were already planning the cuts before the new government came into power:

Latest from Lewisham Libraries Campaign

What Lewisham are proposing is intellectual vandalism. It should be stopped. If only that building was listed!

She’s Electric

There’s a mysterious addition to the car park. Looming at the back, near the payment machine, is a PodPoint. Despite looking like a Cylon, it’s actually a docking point for electric vehicles. The scheme costs £50 to join, but the electricity is free (at the moment).

Much like the BorisBikes, there is a live map, showing whether the points are available, in use, or broken:
http://www.pod-point.com/live-availabilty/

Unlike the BorisBikes, there’s actually one in Blackheath! So, my question is – has anyone used one? Does anyone in Blackheath own an electric car? How is it?

Blackheath hit and run: police asking for witnesses

As reported by many people yesterday, there was a car crash at the junction of Stratheden Road and Charlton Road around Blackheath Standard yesterday, resulting in the death of an elderly lady. An eye-witness emailed me with this info:

Two cars were chasing each other like lunatics and going at very fast speed, I reckon about 90mph. They both nearly hit my car on the Charlton Road before the first one went out of control and crashed into the pedestrian traffic island opposite the Old Dover Road (near M&S)

The really awful thing is that they collided head on with a pedestrian who was killed outright. She wouldn’t have stood a chance at the speed the car was going. It was so fast, that the car took most of the concrete and railings with it.

Amazingly, the driver and passenger weren’t injured but then got out of the car and tried to run away. At least one of them was chased and caught by some builders in the area.

I know the police are keen to take more witness statements of anybody who saw what happened. They really want to get a conviction since this poor pedestrian died so I wondered if you would mind publicising this.

If you know anything, you can call 0300 123 1212 to get through to Greenwich Police.

Blackheath Standard Time

This photo of an estate agency in Blackheath is brilliant. And how often do you get to say that?

The new Foxtons, which is replacing the army centre, (see here and here previously), will have a hard time living up to that… Especially given that 135 people didn’t think it was appropriate to build another bloody estate agents in Blackheath – from the council’s planning page:

Incidentally, I emailed the council asking them why they approved it, given that it was 135 against and 1 in facour. They replied, informing me that they had approved it. So I asked why again. Still waiting for a definitive answer. Planning laws seems so opaque in this country.

Clocks photo by Garry Knight on Flickr.

Vodafone ad shot in Blackheath

Do you remember the “More Mysterious Filming in Blackheath” business a few weeks back?
Well, Sonja has written in, to say that her son has spotted the actual ad:

Look at about 14 seconds in. It’s rather a “blink and you miss it” moment, unlike the epic version of the Bookshop on the Heath, that appeared in an episode of Spooks last year.

Screenshot below – she’s either annoyed about her stupid boyfriend, or perhaps SouthEastern Trains have screwed up again:

By the way, whoever did the music edit at 32 seconds in should be shot. Or at least, buy some new razor blades…

Greenwich refuses to fund Blackheath Fireworks

As mentioned on greenwich.co.uk, Greenwich Council has decided that it cannot afford to co-fund the Blackheath Fireworks with Lewisham Council. I guess this is just the beginning of the cuts to come…

Last year’s fireworks being prepared on Blackheath by twitter user niponravel

Lewisham Council ask for donations towards Blackheath Fireworks

In a charmingly quirky press release (“Penny for the guy”, and “damp squib” puns ahoy), Mayor Bullock has asked that people contribute towards the fireworks on Blackheath.

Given that financial fund managers are partially to blame for the mess the country is in, it seems beyond ironic that a fund management company are partially sponsoring the fireworks:

“This year the event will again be generously backed by independent fund management company GLC Ltd, who have been involved with the Blackheath Fireworks display since 1994.”

Long-time readers may recall that the Bugle has never actually made it to the fireworks, due to bugle-Dad being born on the same day that Guy Fawkes decided to blow up parliament.

It’s not that I mind Lewisham asking for money for this. It’s just that I find it hard to discover any examples of them running anything better than Greenwich. And here we Blackheathens are, straddled between both, waiting to see where the axe falls next.

A penny to the next person who finds me a good news story about Lewisham, and I’ll promise not to burn an effigy of Sir Steve on November 5th…

http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/NewsAndEvents/News/PennyForTheGuy.htm

(Thanks to Eva for spotting the story).

The Greenfinch Tree?

Every morning, at about 7am without exception, I see several bright green birds. They’re perched in the trees opposite the Everest Inn. I’ve tried to take photos of them, but my camera phone is rubbish, and they’re too quick. Does anyone know what they are? Domestic parrots that have escaped and gone feral? Greenfinches? Please let me know!

(Greenfinch photo from Wikipedia).

Running in Blackheath

For the last eight weeks, I’ve been running round the heath. As someone who has always hated exercise, I’m amazed that I’ve kept it up this long. But I’ve discovered the secret – as long as I can turn running into a geeky activity, aided by various gadgets, I can enjoy it!

To start with, I bought an app called Couch to 5k for the iPhone. This is a brilliantly simple idea. It allows you to listen to your own music, and promises that each run will take about 30 minutes. Crucially it also only requires that you use it three times a week. In fact, it warns against doing more exercise than this! The secret to the app is you don’t need to think about your progress – you put on your headphones, listen to your favourite music or podcast, and follow the instructions. Every so often the music dips down, and a voice says “Run now” or “Walk now”. The intervals between running and walking are perfectly spaced, so that your first few weeks are gentle – truly I think that anyone who isn’t actually unwell could begin to run using this app. The first weeks consist of running for a minute, followed by walking for 2 or 3 minutes. Really easy. And as the runs go by, these intervals are gradually altered. I’m now running for 28 minutes without stopping.

This may not sound like much – I’m sure that if I had really tried on the first day, I could have run for 25 minutes continuously – but I would have given up after a few runs.

After 2 weeks, I started to get some pain in my legs. I was convinced that I’d done myself a terrible injury, and that I wasn’t cut out for running. But a bit of research showed that this was caused by shinsplints, because I was wearing my usual crappy trainers. So I bought some fancy new trainers. At £85, these are the most expensive trainers I’ve ever purchased, but they still cost less than two months at a gym.

The running shop I bought them from was truly amazing. They put you on a treadmill, and film you running. Then they give you some other shoes, and film you running with those. Then some really ingenious software syncs up the two videos, side by side, plays them back in slow motion, and compares the angle between your foot and your leg, to see if the shoes are helping you to run without damaging yourself.

The shinsplints went away within a week.

Then I started to get annoyed by the nasty white in-ear headphones that come with the iPhone. They fall out of your ears when you try to run. So I got these Sony MDR-AS30 headphones. They cost about £15, sound better than the white earbuds, and crucially never fall out of your ears. If you wear them for more than about an hour, they can get uncomfortable, but unless I double my running time, there’s not much chance of that happening.

And that’s the complete cost to my running. £100.

• Things I’ve noticed about running in Blackheath:
• Seeing Blackheath & Greenwich park lit up by the morning sun – it’s something I never used to see.
• Chasing the squirrels down to the Observatory, and back again.
• Seeing the beautiful Observatory, and the view across London in the first light, completely deserted.
• The people who clean up the litter on the heath in the mornings. Usually just one guy in a little buggy.
• The Greenwich council van cleaning the roads up to the observatory. Really noisy, must cost a fortune to run – guess it’s cheaper to burn petrol than to employ more people with a broom.

I can’t help feeling sorry for groups of people on the heath (like you know who), knowing that they are spending hundreds of pounds a season to be shouted at by an ex-army instructor, when they could have bought an iPod, an app, and some headphones, and a more pleasant experience!
Squirrel photo by Flickr user waldopepper.