Now incorporating The Sudbury Hill Harrow and Wherever End Times

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Prelude and Fugue

Things aren't out to get you, it's you who are clumsy.
...The train wasn't late, you missed it.
It's not that what you wanted wasn't there, but you,
...You looked like you were moving, yet no more
Than the swaying of trees that answer only to the wind,
...And move only to stay where they are.
Your actions are like the flickering of a candle flame
...As the time it measures dwindles
.........to no more.

But trees don't walk. Don't wait for trees to walk,
...Go and caress them, whisper to their silence.
And if you quench a candle with your lips tonight,
...Relight it tomorrow night
.........with your hands.

--
Stephen Moran

Note: The dots are to simulate indentation, which is not possible in the normal way on Blogger.

Friday, December 11, 2015

How to open walnuts



"Don't use a nutcracker. Apart from being very hard to crack with a nutcracker, the walnut will break into fragments. You might even put someone's eye out with flying pieces of shell. Here's a much easier way to open it and get the walnut out in better shape. Trust me, you'll never go back to using a nutcracker."

Willesden Herald Kitchen Testing Laboratories # 7

Tuesday, December 08, 2015

Conversations with the first alien scout

"Ni hao? Hola? Hello?"
"Wotcha."
"Hmm. Wie geht's? Pryvet?"
"Yewoh?"
"Shalom?"
"Wos yer game!?"

"What is your energy source?"
"We eat stuff."
"Okaaay. Crude. How long do you live?"
"About 80 years."
"What!? Are you serious?"
"'fraid so."

"Is there a waste output resulting from this 'eating'? I'd like to see it."
"No you wouldn't."

"I like what you've done with that star."
"We didn't do anything, it was like that."

"We don't have a planet of our own."
"Oh yeh?"
"Did you notice you have a loose roof tile there?"

Bob Harmless

Wednesday, December 02, 2015

Oak terrorising a hawthorn

Oak scaring the hell out of a hawthorn (left)

Dublin Christmas streets

Harry Lemon has been to Dublin and reports that it was looking good, albeit the stormy weather was inimical to brass monkeys.#dublin #christmas #christmaslights #carolsingers

Posted by The Willesden Herald on Monday, 30 November 2015

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Harrow Road snaps

London Print Studio

Corner of First Avenue

All Stars Gym, where Frank Bruno trained

Half Penny Steps bridge over the Grand Union canal

Willesden Junction from the number 18 bus

Sahar Food Centre, Harlesden from the number 18 bus

Derelict nursery under development, Harlesden

London Plane trees, Stonebridge

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Saturday afternoon

The tree in the middle is Ash.

English Oak

English Oak

Photos from South Vale, Harrow

Friday afternoon

Greenford Road North

Chiltern Line east

Chiltern Line west

Wood End Road

Monday, November 16, 2015

A dog's dictionary

Ah-ah!
I'm not really going to hit you.

Bad!
You are the lowest, most despicable creature on the face of the earth.

Coochycoo
I'm lonely.

Down!
Well done, impressive, keep it up!

Ew!
Congratulations, you really stink!

Fox
A free dog

Garden
Small poo field

House
Emergency poo field

Park
Huge poo field

Sic!
Thus!

Thattaboy
I love you.

Tsk
Creep slowly away.

Walkies
We're going for a holiday right now!

Bob Harmless

Thursday, November 05, 2015

Haytarma



Haytarma (Return) is the name of a traditional dance and the inspiration for this film about the mass deportation of the Crimean Tatars by Stalin at the end of the second world war. The film had its London premiere at Dash Café in Shoreditch last night. You can watch it here on YouTube. It tells the story of a Tatar war hero caught up in the events.

Wednesday, November 04, 2015

Horsenden Hill Park on Sunday

Horsenden Hill Lane
Wiff waff
Each map only shows its own part of the park




Click below for another 40 or so photos, including a canal barge, moorhen, wetland and sundry delights...

Fog on Sunday night

Sudbury Hill

Monday, November 02, 2015

North Greenford Road

Tip-Top Kebab

Crispy Dosa

Ryan's Bar

Polska Chata


Bulgarian & Romanian Food

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Paula Meehan at Women of the World 2014



Many highlights. A great communicator, with humour and ranging the gamut of emotions.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Bombs, war crimes and our diminished sensitivity - Rana Dasgupta

'The recent bombing of a hospital in Kunduz highlights a decline in Western efforts to make wars less brutal. ... The vision of a consensual internationalism built on parliamentary and judicial process remains the only way to restore to global affairs the kind of legitimacy that might give young people in Iraq or Syria or Afghanistan a feeling that the world is not entirely lawless and senseless - and it does not need to be burned down. And the starting point of such a "society of societies" must be that the strong - as in any society worth the name - be bound by the same rules as the weak. ...' (Read)


The new library centre is open

It's pleasing that the new library centre has not been saddled with the awful Stalinist sounding working title of "Willesden Green Cultural Centre". There was nothing wrong with the original name, the library centre. Now it's called The Library, which actually is a misnomer, because it's a lot more than that. But at least it's a bit better than the painfully patronising old proposal.

If you think about it, calling it "The Library" is probably only a marketing tactic for the new block of foreign investment units, sorry I mean flats, that occupies the space where the car park used to be. It's still really the Library Centre but you don't want that for selling flats in Singapore, where the block of flats was advertised as having "no affordable housing and no key worker housing". That's because a "centre" might mean local people would be hanging around, and you certainly don't want that, if you're a Singaporean investor. Not that you're ever likely to visit.

But if you do, by the way, there are loads of public services you can avail yourself of, which will save you whatever the same things cost in Singapore, probably a lot, right? It's all paid for by those invisibles and key worker types you never want to see. As well as contributing via P.A.Y.E. most of them pay in monthly to the local council as well. What a brilliant wheeze!

Tuning stone

The original Victorian library (left) is only a shell.

Grange Road side still has Bin Laden's phone booth, updated.

Periscopes?

"Inspire and be inspired"