£150 for a polar bear

Technically it’s three polar bears. They’re not real. They’re stuffed. Two of them are quite small.

Christmas spirit

Every time I see this poster it freaks me out. I imagine a ghostly woman with hair over her face slowly dragging a sledge of presents towards her unsuspecting victims. A smell of lavender oil fills the house. And they all begin to feel calm. Too calm…

Missing sausage dog

Eimear writes:

My little sausage dog Holly is missing and has been sighted in the Morden Road area of Blackheath Village in the last few days. I’ve put up posters and searched and asked around. People have been very kind. She was last seen near the white gate on Morden Road coming out of the green gated garages – yesterday afternoon.

I’ve searched and called but obviously can’t go trespassing on people’s property. I think I heard her barking tonight. But she stopped after a short time, afraid perhaps to call attention to herself in the dark. This was in the Plantation/Swayne Place area. I think she is holing up in gardens. Could you please, please send out a plea for people to search gardens, sheds and garages. It is so cold for a small dog to be lost. She is friendly on approach. I need the next person who sees her to hang on to her and contact me (07904033338).

Blackheath Village Day

Great to see the village lights working again – much better than last year!   Mysterious sightings of pigs notwithstanding, the whole day was full of music, events, food and drink.  Really good effort.  My range of fabric bags will be available any day now…

 

Pigs in (green) space

Finally photographic verification of the mythical pig lady.. After many tweets, a photo from @catamacleod :

Just when I thought I couldn’t love #Blackheath any more, I saw a woman telling her pig to sit http://t.co/DcS3NHd27s

And this from @WarrenKing:
Found: ‘Walter’ the Blackheath Pig, having his belly tickled outside @Brakebikes in Montpelier Vale #BlackheathPig http://t.co/EJBO3RSkGv

Bakerlooisham

UPDATE: Replaced this image with my own, because the official image doesn’t use the right font.

Transport for London are consulting on extending the Bakerloo line as far as Lewisham, and possibly further. The consultation ends on Sunday, so if you think it’s a good idea (I do), please go and have your say before Sunday. The Labour party have also jumped on the bandwagon, and coined the catchy Bakerlooisham name, but think that starting work in 2023, and finishing it in the 2030’s is possibly a little tardy. You think?! I totally agree, but I wonder how many of these politically inspired petitions are really about hoovering up email addresses of potential voters whose viewpoints might align with Labour. I’ve signed a few in the past and seem to have been inadvertently subscribed to all manner of mailing lists… Anyhow, the TfL consultation page won’t have this problem. Links below:

• TfL’s consultation page (expires on Sunday)
• Labour Party’s petition to get the extension to go through Lewisham.
• BBC News article
• Campaigning website
• Heidi Alexander’s post (Local MP)
• Worth reading the comments on Brockley Central’s post, especially about Lewisham becoming an overcrowded hub station..

Finally, here’s a wonderful map, reimagining the tube map, so that South London had as many stops as North London currently does, and vice versa:

Breadwinner in Blackheath

The new Bakery in Blackheath is going to be a massive success, if today’s footfall was anything to judge by.  Having taken up the space that India Jane left empty, the place was totally heaving by 11:30 today.  I counted at least 6 buggies being dragged up and down the steps.  I can’t understand why they would put steps in rather than a ramp, as the place seems to be a total push chair magnet right now.

Maybe there’s not enough space at the bottom level, if they want to keep the lovely rounded windows, but the upper level could easily have accommodated a ramp.  Instead, their army of staff and customers seem to be constantly helping people up and down the steps with their buggies. Wonder whether that many staff will still be on hand, after the initial setup time is over?

The entrance level has a tonne of proper bread in one window, and a few small tables in the other.  The bread is handed to you by the bread person, and then you take it to the counter, which is full of fantastic looking brioche sandwiches, cheese straws, biscuits, and scones.  If you want to eat in, it’s table service – you order at the central bar thingy, and are handed a table number.  They sell teas (in a pot) & coffees (which were great).

None of it is cheap – two cheese straws and a herb & cheese scone with a couple of coffees and a pot of tea came to more than £15, but it’s a lovely environment, and it all tasted great.

Downstairs, you can see an army of bakers making more goods, which are constantly being carried up and downstairs on trays.

They have gently blasphemic loyalty card “Give us this day our daily bread (or coffee)” – the tenth bread or coffee is free..  Which brings me to the Bugle’s thesis on loyalty cards:  If all customers acted rationally, when handed a loyalty card, all customers should pass the card to the person behind them in the queue.  Then every tenth coffee sold would always be free.  But we don’t, because humans are weird.

Anyway, back to the bakery… The whole place feels like something out of the movie Chocolat, but with bread instead of cocoa.  It’s going to be here to stay, I reckon. If only they rented out VHS tapes, they’d be perfect.