On Friday night we had the second Ealing Tweetup, at the Rose & Crown pub.

We managed to block together a few tables and a good crowd came along to talk together in person, rather than just on Twitter. It was a really good evening and a chance to catch up with some people from the Tweetup last May as well as find some new friends.

There was quite a political flavour in the air this time as Lib Dem councillor and Ealing parliamentary candidate Jon Ball came along for a pint as well as Julian Bell, Labour leader of Ealing council and researcher for Ealing MP, Virendra Sharma.

Regardless of the fact we managed to end up with Labour and Lib Dem politicians, we all had a good time. Possibly that was because we never had any Tories joining the party

Each time I’ve arranged this now, I’ve just kind of put it together almost randomly. When I’ve tried to get a consensus on date and venue I have struggled because there are so many people who might be interested in joining, so I’ve just personally decided on the pub and date and hoped that people would come along. I think it might be a good idea to try deciding a date well in advance for the next one though, so we can get more organised and can even try promoting it further with some ads at the local stations or something.

How about a Sunday afternoon this time? Sunday March 28th… one week before Easter. How does that sound to everyone? We can continue to use the same venue as they have space, and a garden in case the weather is nice that day… plus they do nice Sunday lunches so that might be an additional attraction

A third entry from Northfield Avenue. An 01 hot spot if ever there was one. I like how there’s a bed out the front, in case there’s any doubt what they sell. I also like the sentence “Extensive range of beds beds”.

Photo taken: 28/11/09

Click for location

Tonight is the second Ealing Tweetup. In case you are wondering ‘what’s a tweetup?’ it’s a meetup for Twitter users… so a whole bunch of people who normally only ever interact online are going to meet in the pub for a few drinks and probably a bite to eat too.

I’m organising this ‘tweetup’ so all the local Twitter users in Ealing and west London get together for a pint and chat – and to meet in ‘3D’. Last time I did this we had over 25 people together for a drink, including school teachers, a local councillor, writers, web design experts, photographers… it was a random mix of west London neighbours and many have stayed in touch. The guy who took the portraits of me in my most recent book was someone I met at the Ealing Tweetup last May.

This time it’s going to be bigger and the pub is even promoting it too – as they want our beer money…! The Rose and Crown is on Twitter here if you want to start following what is going on at the pub.

If you are in west London then come along and say hello tonight. It’s from 7pm at this location:

Rose & Crown
Church Place, St Mary’s Road
Ealing, London
W5 4HN

020 8567 2811
roseandcrown@fullers.co.uk

You can find it on Google maps here.

The closest tube is South Ealing, on the Piccadilly line. The 65 bus (Ealing Broadway to Richmond and Kingston) runs right past the pub, so you can also come via Ealing Broadway station (District and Central line tube and fast train link to Paddington)…

If you can’t make it then at least send me a message on Twitter at about 7pm, so I can share it with the gang in the pub. You can find me on Twitter here…

On Saturday night we had a dinner to thank all our foster carers for the excellent work that they do for us.  Between them, they look after over 400 children in care.  Ealing has a superb reputation for work with children and our foster carers are vital part of the team.  I was able to show off the award we received a couple of nights before for Corporate Parent of the Year – the foster carers make a vital contribution to the work.

I presented the awards, including the Martin Award (an award in honour of Fred and Freda Martin who fostered for Ealing for 40 years.  This is a cross-party event, which had Conservative councillors Pagan and Harris, along with the Mayor, Cllr Barbara Yerolemou.  Labour councillors Julian Bell and Patricia Walker were present, along with Ealing North’s current MP, Stephen Pound.

This is an excellent event – sometimes as a councillor you go to events out of duty – this is one that is a pleasure to attend and what’s more, it’s with with a  smashing bunch of people.

Ladies and gentlemen; Gay Bum will be playing a dual-set on Thursday night at the Black George Pub in Ealing! Entry is free and drinks are £2 all night – there is no excuse not to be there!

SO BE THERE! (Or we’ll find you and wake you in the middle of the night for weeks on end)

Another one I thought I’d better grab whilst it’s still there. I fear that smart blue and white sign is headed for that skip.

Photo taken: 28/11/09

Click for location

A little off the beaten track of Ealing’s well-worn streets, hosts a quaint little restaurant by the name of Charlotte’s Place. Turning off The Mall and skirting past Ealing common, it wasn’t too long before aromas slithered their way into my senses. A sign on the window read, ‘please use winter entrance to the right.’ To the right I stepped then, and in front of me was a door like any other door: and a bell. It may just be me, but there is something peculiar about ringing a bell to enter a restaurant. Peculiar but homely. I found myself warming to it already. The door was answered instantly, my coat was taken from me and after a little light banter with the gentleman who took my coat, we were ushered downstairs to our table.

Dim but warmly lit, it has an intimate and rather minimalistic modern decor that controversially exudes charm, warmth and character. We had arrived in time for the ‘early diner special,’ which consisted of 3 courses from the A la carte menu including a glass of wine or a cocktail (restricted to a select few of course) for £25, excluding the Chateaubriand. I started with the Roquefort and Pear salad with beetroot, walnuts and creme fraiche. If looks were dazzling, then further adulation was in order for the delicately balanced flavours on offer. The pungent Roquefort was neatly deflected by the sweetness of the pear and beetroot, the walnuts and creme fraiche simulating a decadent evolution of a Waldorf salad. Not that I would liken this to be anything like one at all.

Since the Chateaubriand was out of the question this time, I opted for the Beef Onglet. Traditionally served with chips as they were, I couldn’t help but indulge my inner fat child and order an extra serving of Dauphinoise potato. I love them unreservedly and was as excited as George Best at Weatherspoon’s at the prospect of having them available as an extra. My excitement was a little premature though. It wasn’t bad at all. In fact it was very nice. My beef was cooked just how I wanted it, the chips were cooked to a crispy soft finish and my darling Dauphinoise were equally so. The problem was not that they were bad at all, the problem was that I have had this meal bettered countless times elsewhere. But for the price (without the early diner) of £16, it is great value. The wine list is sensible. They have easy drinking light fruity styles to heavy, full-blown tannin puckering vintages and interesting varieties: such as a Touriga Nacional from Portugal (2004) and a Fatagione from Sicily (2006).

I skipped dessert, as I had laden my belly full of pomme de terres. Instead, an espresso and a glass of port were ‘just desserts.’ A nice end to a lovely meal.  Starters are between £6-£8, mains between £14-£20 and deserts from £6-£9. Wine will set you back anywhere between £3-£5 for a small glass, £20 for a bottle and depending on your level of extravagance can go up and up, as is usual. But a nice little find, full of friendly and warm staff with real character and good food. 7.5 out of 10.

Do you use Twitter? Live in or around west London?
Why not meet and greet some other Twitter users from around the area over a pint or three?

I’m organising this ‘tweetup’ so all the local Twitter users get together for a pint and chat – and to meet in ‘3D’. Last time I did this we had over 25 people together for a drink, including school teachers, a local councillor, writers, web design experts, photographers… it was a random mix of west London neighbours and many have stayed in touch.

This time it’s going to be bigger and the pub is even promoting it too – as they want our beer money…! Hopefully we can get some free food or pints from Tom and his team if we get a good crowd along. We might even arrange a Twitter quiz or some other such games to try and drum up some cash for a good cause or something…

It’s a Friday night and Facebook users will be welcome to join us so please come along…

Mark Hillary

Event page on Facebook is here

Rose & Crown
Church Place, St Mary’s Road
Ealing, London
W5 4HN

020 8567 2811
roseandcrown@fullers.co.uk

The closest tube is South Ealing, on the Piccadilly line. The 65 bus (Ealing Broadway to Richmond and Kingston) runs right past the pub, so you can also come via Ealing Broadway station (District and Central line tube and fast train link to Paddington)…

Not a great photo this, but still definitely a confirmed 01. Confession: I haven’t been to the dentist for about 10 years. If and when I get round to it, I may well go here. If they’ll have me.

Photo taken: 13/01/07

Update: daytime photo, taken 28/11/09

Click for location

This one has puzzles me every time I pass it (which is quite often as I live nearby).  Cleaning rags, cotton waste – fair do’s. Mutton? Most odd. I’ve seen people and vans there, so I think the company is still in business. Maybe one day I’ll pluck up the courage to ask them just what the hell they think they’re up to.

Photo taken: 26/04/09

Click for location

Si us aneu a Londres i cerqueu, per exemple, una cambra per llogar, us caldrà saber on són els diferents barris londinencs. En aquí posaré el nom d’uns quants. Més endavant ja posaré on són i mapes adients.

BARKING & DAGENHAM
BARNET
BEXLEY
BRENT
BROMLEY
CAMDEM
CITY OF LONDON
CROYDON
EALING
ENFIELD
GREENWICH
HACKNEY
HAMMERSMITH & FULHAM
HARINGEY
HARROW
HAVERING
HILLINGTON
HOUNSLOW
ISLINGTON
KENSINGTON & CHELSEA
KINGSTON-UPON-THAMES
LAMBETH
LEWISHAM
MERTON
NEWHAM
REDBRIDGE
RICHMOND-UPON-THAMES
SOUTHWARK
SUTTON
TOWER HAMLETS
WALTHAM FOREST
WANDSWORTH
WESTMINSTER

Aquí us poso un mapo de Google maps:

View Larger Map

By Amy Dowd

According to the Metropolitan police homophobic crime in Ealing has risen from 28 cases to 40 cases since last year. Although overall crime in the borough is marginally down the levels of hate crime is on the rise.

Metropolitan police received 84 more hate related cases compared to last year across London. Last year the Home Office estimated that 90% of homophobic hate crimes go undetected. It is impossible to know whether these latest figures represent a rise in the reporting of these crimes or a rise in the actual number of attacks.

It is possible that the reporting of these crimes has risen due to systems put in place by local police authorities in Ealing last year. A Homophobia Reporting Kiosk, funded by Ealing Primary Care Trust, was introduced into the West 5 Gay club in South Ealing in an attempt to give victims of homophobic, transphobic and LGBT domestic violence an accessible and anonymous avenue to report attacks. It also gave information on support groups available, including the West London Men’s Project, Victim Support and the LGBT Advisory.

West 5 Gay Club, South Ealing

However John from the Ealing Gay Group says, ‘lots of clubs have closed down now because of it [the violence] and I don’t live in the area anymore. The police need to do more.’

Ealing police’s press office declined to comment.

Ealing’s Conservative Council has announced the latest extension to the kerbside recycling collection scheme – Tetra Paks can be included in the green box from 7th December.  Currently there are facilities to drop off these drink and food cartons at Ealing Town Hall and a few other sites, but this will make it much more convenient.

The Council estimate that this step could divert up to 400 toones of rubbish from landfill each year and will enable us to make further progress in improving our recycling rates.  Back in 2006 we inherited a miserable recycling rate of only 19% .  After just over three years we have:

• extended the food recycling scheme across the borough
• included cardboard in the green box
• set up plastic collections
• made garden waste recycling free
• extended recycling collections to flats

This has increased our recycling rate to an impressive 37.5% – the residents of Ealing really did vote blue and went green.

By Kate Ross

Ealing residents were surprised to see some early trick-or-treaters frequenting nearby restaurants and bars late in the evening.

Despite it being almost three weeks before Halloween, two young girls were sighted dressed in Halloween costumes entering Pizza Hut and bar Edwards in Ealing Broadway.

The children, thought to be around twelve years old, were dressed as a witch and an angel. Customers reported that the girls were approaching them saying: “trick or treat” and asking for money.

Edwards’ policies uphold that children should not enter the premises after 6pm and that only charitable organisations may collect money if granted permission from the manager.

When approached by bar staff at Edwards, the girls questioned why they were being asked to leave and were reluctant to do so. On leaving the establishment, the girls climbed into a vehicle outside.

Manager Lauren Pelling said: “They came in last year. They were very mouthy.” She believes the girls will continue to attempt their trick or treating antics in the weeks leading up to Halloween.

It has been suggested by bar staff that the girls were sent by their parents to ask for money. Jenny Howland, 21, an ex-employer of Edwards said, ‘[They] have been sent by their parents to trick-or-treat as a way of making money. Last year I saw a girl being forced by her parents to go into Pizza Hut and beg. She was really upset and didn’t want to.’

Customers were both amused and surprised by the girls’ actions, although remarked that it was not appropriate for them to be entering establishments at 9pm unaccompanied. It remains unknown who was responsible for the girls’ behaviour.

Hot on the heels  of the Ealing and Hanwell consultation on primary expansion, we are now launching the consultations for Greenford, Northolt and Perivale and Acton areas.  The six week consultation starts on the 2nd October and the online questionnaire can be found on the Ealing Council website.  After the Ealing consultation we agreed to go to statutory consultation on adding a form at Hobbayne and half a form (going from 1.5 to 2.0) at both St Marks and Brentside.  We’re also considering an additional form at Oaklands where I recently attended a public meeting with parents.

Birth rates are rising across the borough and the council has to plan for this growth.  We know more primary school places are going to be needed and, through this consultation, parents and local residents can tell us where they would like to see them created.  We want to ensure that we not only have enough school places for local children, but also that these places are delivered with the needs of local families in mind. I encourage you to go and have a look and let us know your opinion.  It should be available online by the 2nd.

Over the Wall We Go.

All coppers are nanas!

Here begins Bowie’s brief silly season, whose greatest fruit is our next entry (get ready!). “Over the Wall We Go” is part novelty Christmas song, part topical commentary (there were seemingly endless numbers of prison breakouts in the mid-’60s UK, including the Communist spy George Blake in October 1966) and yet another Bowie pseudo-radio play like “We Are Hungry Men” and “Please Mr. Gravedigger.”

Bowie seems to be auditioning for voice work opportunities here—there’s some Cockney, some dead-on Bernard Bresslaw, even some Lennon-esque Scouse (as well as what sounds like a parody of Pete Townshend’s singing voice, but I’m likely off).

It’s unclear as to when this track was recorded—possibly as early as mid-1966, but most likely during the David Bowie LP sessions in December, where, if so, it was apparently judged to be too much even for a record filled with assorted lunacies like “Gravedigger.” Ken Pitt gave the demo to Robert Stigwood in January 1967, who in turn offered to his new client Oscar Beuselinck. The Oscar single, released in early ‘67, got some play on pirate radio stations.

Recorded ca. December 1966; still unreleased, found on bootlegs like The Forgotten Songs of David Robert Jones.

Most Real Estate professionals are licensed in one State but Nancy Gordon, a Member of The Pet Realty Network, is licensed in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC and, of course, she is Pet Friendly – and to prove it she has owned an English Bulldog, a selection of Cats, Guinea pigs, Hamsters, and even a Tortoise.  And more importantly she has been involved in caring for pets with difficulties, illnesses and the challenges of old age.

Aside from being a Multi- Million Dollar producer Nancy is interested in travel and history.  Coming from London, in fact Ealing, which in Victorian times was called “The Queen of the Suburbs”, being only 8 miles from Central London, not only can Nancy tell you about Ealing’s interesting history but can also help find the perfect home in the Virginia/ Washington DC/ Maryland area.

It’s never pleasant to get a parking ticket.  That gut wrenching feeling when you see that yellow envelope stuck on your windscreen.  But did you know that Ealing Council has slashed the number of parking tickets issued by 30 %.  When Labour was in charge of the Council we had a traffic warden contract that rewarded them on the number of tickets that were issued.  We changed that to one based on rewarding the contractor for the quality and accuracy of issued tickets.  Cllr Phil Taylor reported at Cabinet last night the following statistics:

2005/06 (Labour) 383,667

2008/09 (Conservative) 264,870

A huge 30% reduction – good news for motorists but leaves a hole in the parking account which is used to fund transport improvements

Summer is over and just got back from a week in France.  A very relaxing holiday – the down side is the 350 new e-mails I’ve got to plough through this week.  

While I was away I got the GCSE results – Ealing’s schools have increased the 5 A*-Cs including English and Maths by 2% overall (53 to 55%).  The results are provisional at the moment – I’ll post the full set when it’s available.

I’d intended to do something cultural and improving today, I really had, but following yesterday’s shenanigans, my bones were feeling rather cross about the whole thing. So I didn’t actually end up going out until this evening, meeting some folks at a Greek restaurant in Ealing.

I’ve found myself in Ealing more and more recently. This is usually the choice of other people – I’m not a particular fan of the place. I recall well one recent occasion when I bumped into a friend and a friend-of-a-friend there, the latter of whom was unable to resist the temptation to shout abuse at random people. The rules of gentlemanly conduct indicate that, if the abused party is male, he must wreak his vengeance upon the male companions of the female abuser. This is one of a number of reasons why I left before the club.

Ealing is a bugger to get to from Colliers Wood. The problem is that the Tube and rail lines in South West London were constructed primarily to make money, and the way to do that was 1) to sell land in the suburbs and 2) to get people in and out of the City. If people could reach one suburb from another, then good for them, but there’s no money in ensuring that people can get from, say, Colliers Wood to Ealing in under an hour. What this means in practical terms is that I have to hike into Wimbledon, get the District Line to Earl’s Court and then get another train back to Ealing Broadway.

Old-skool Tube roundel, location unknown.

This weekend, what that meant was that I found myself running smack into a bunch of people coming back from Notting Hill Carnival. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they had a good time, but is it really necessary to give a blast on those whistles every ten seconds? I mean, I’m sure they’re great, but doesn’t the novelty wear off? Aren’t they worried that someone might take it upon themselves to punch them in the larynx? Not that that particular urge overtook me, but I’m just sayin’ is all.

Mind you, the fact that I was reading Kurt Vonnegut’s depressing novel Breakfast of Champions probably didn’t put me in the best frame of mind for dealing with humanity. It’s definitely a book you should read – basically, it’s a meta-novel about the futility of the human condition with childish drawings. It centres around a failed science fiction writer and a car salesman having a mental breakdown in a crappy city in Nowhere, USA. What really makes it, though, is the narration, which is utterly deadpan and dispassionate. It’ll devote as much time to describing, say, what guns are as it will to describing the characters. Every so often the author will draw attention to the fact that this is all fiction, throwing in descriptions of how he came up with a particular character or event and even directly intervening in the story. It has laughs, but they’re more the sort of slightly-too-loud, bitter laughs you get when you try to cheer a suicidal drunk up. As I say, a fine read, but don’t read it if you’re feeling down.

I’m not feeling down, but nonetheless it’s a book that won’t make you too kindly disposed to greater humanity.

I was witness to a slightly bizarre confrontation on the Tube back. Next to me were sat a couple of macho South African gents. The sort who sit with their legs so far apart that they’re practically doing the splits, you know the sort of thing. It’s particularly irritating to sit next to them, because as soon as you’re seated they’ll try to open their legs still further, invading that sacred space that is Where I’m Sitting. Damned if I’m going to have my knees pushed sideways.

Anyway, these two gents were discussing various things – sports and women’s arses, mostly. At Southfields a young fellow leaving the train decided to loudly break wind as he was leaving the carriage. Now, I’m with most people over the age of fourteen in not particularly seeing the hilarity of gaseous excretion, but the South African gent two seats along stood up upon hearing the young man’s chuckle and snapped, “I’ll break this bottle over your head, you little cunt.” The young chappie, had he not already given vent, looked on the verge of losing control of his bowels at the sight of this gentleman towering over him. There followed a to-and-froing in which the young chap attempted to reason with the large gentleman, an argument which hadn’t subsided by the time the door alarm started going – so the large South African decided to leap off the train to settle matters. I kinda wish I’d done likewise, if only to see how the whole thing turned out. Oh well.

I once knew a girl from Ealing/Who danced with such exquisite feeling/That all you could hear/Was young boys cheer/And fly-buttons hitting the ceiling. True story.