Two Eltham events for July

Life has been getting in the way of keeping up with local events in recent months - but here's two for tomorrow!

31 July
Tea in the Tarn

2pm to 4pm

“Come and listen to a harpist while enjoying tea and cakes.”
A Parksfest event with music, light refreshments, children's activities (free)
There are also events on more Sunday afternoons - check their website.

Address: The Tarn, Court Road, Eltham, London SE9 5AQ

The Tarn location map

31 July
Live music on the Lawn
2pm to 4pm
Enjoy the delights of live music on the Tudor Barn lawn every Sunday from 2.00pm to 4.00pm throughout July and August.
31 July:  Greenwich Soul Choir (see my previous post)
7 Aug:  Espree featuring Suzie Bailey
14 Aug: Espree featuring guest singer
21 Aug: Steve Mac
Address: Tudor Barn Eltham, Well Hall Pleasaunce, Well Hall Road, London SE9 6SZ

Summer holidays day out: South Bank London

We started Day One of the summer holidays this Monday with a great day on London's South Bank.

In theory, the whole of this day out need only have cost us £12.80 - that's the current train fare for an adult and two children from Eltham (in SE London) to Waterloo East on a mid-morning weekday.  After that, there's plenty of free pleasures to be had.

For example, a 'beach' has been installed along the railings overlooking the Thames, outside the Royal Festival Hall. Children can happily play in the sand while the adults relax on the benches.

View of 'the beach' from the RFH balcony. There are posters strapped to the railings at intervals reading "wish you were here". Further along there are brightly-painted beach huts, some used as impromptu mini-galleries.

After the sand, the children changed into their swimming costumes and had great fun in the 'Appearing Rooms' on the RFH balcony.

Apparently, "Danish artist Jeppe Hein's aquatic sculpture Appearing Rooms was originally commissioned for the garden of the Villa Manin, Italy. Inspired by the Baroque villa, he designed an ornamental fountain that combines sculpture, architecture, and technology and playfully invites visitors to interact with the changing spaces created by rising and falling walls of water."

As usual, there was plenty of entertainment along the South Bank walkway. The kids always love the performing acts - the gold and silver-sprayed mime artists, the magicians and the curious cat/dog in a box.  There's also the children's playground alongside the old County Hall building (where I once worked for several years on the 2nd floor for the the Inner London Education Authority, before it was abolished in 1990), and the traditional carousel (£2 a ride).

As I mentioned, you could just get away with paying your travels costs for the day but I was not an organised mummy that day and didn't pack, and carry around, a packed lunch for us. There are plenty of eating places here, though often busy and a bit pricey. There was a queue as usual outside the favoured Giraffe restaurant (outside the the ground floor of the RFH), and so we nipped to behind the National Theatre where there is a good Pizza Express and walked straight in to a table. Cost-wise, there was also the ice-creams (an eye-watering £3 each), small water bottles (£1.79!) and candy floss (£2 each).

We also spent some time around Gabriel's Wharf, further up the South Bank, where the kids still enjoyed playing on the wooden rocking sculptures (those sculptures have been there for years now). By mid-afternoon it was a step too far to expect enthusiasm from the kids for a session at the Tate Modern - another time.

On the walk back, I spotted this mocked-up Indian 'Chowpatty beach' cafe called 'Dishoom' (which is kinda equivalent to the 'pow' sound used in comics when batman punches a villain). Chowpatty beach is a famous hanging-out area in Mumbai, India.

So a great day out in London, and good start to the summer holidays. Anyone have any other suggestions for days out with children?

Hackgate, Norway and Winehouse

What intense and grim news recently. Corruption and cynicism riveted us for three weeks, then the shocking mass killings in Norway since Friday and then yesterday as if on cue, an outlet for people's pent up feelings and confusion, the sad and lonely death of singer Amy Winehouse for whom there is a Diana-like outpouring of public grief, despite few of those people knowing her.

People on social networking sites and the press have been ranking which merits greater grief, throwing in a further options of their own - soldiers in Afganistan and famine in Somalia. The psychological draw of concentrating attentions on one iconic figure, was encapsulated on Twitter - the #Amywinehouse hashtag immediately trending far above #oslo or #somalia. Many news channels were live-streaming yesterday from outside Amy Winehouse's house. I guess they wouldn't do that with Somalia - that doesn't offer known characters, or a neat narrative, and would contain many re-occurring tragic and disturbing events.

On the shootings at Utoya in Norway, I was moved to read some personal testimony published in The Telegraph, by one of the young people who describes her experiences as she managed to hide from the killer. It is the first detailed first-hand account I've come across. It happens that this woman is a Sikh Norwegian, Prableen Kaur:

"....We had a crisis meeting in the main building after the explosions in Oslo. After that there was a meeting for members of Akershus [a county bordering the capital] and Oslo. After the meetings there were many, many people around and inside the main building. We consoled ourselves that we were safe on an island. No one knew that hell would break out with us too.

I was standing in the main street [of the island] when panic broke out. I heard shots. I saw him shoot. Everyone started to run.

The first thought was: "Why are the police shooting us? What the hell? "I ran into a little room....."

Read the rest here.  Or Prableen's own blog, as translated by Google.

Eltham's Mecca Bingo Hall burglary attempt

Just received this news via the News Shopper:

"FIVE people were arrested when police foiled a burglary at Eltham’s Mecca Bingo hall last night.

Part of Eltham Hill was closed off for three hours following the incident, which happened at around 11pm. Police say four people wearing balaclavas had entered the premises carrying a hammer and cable ties...." Read more.

It must have been awful for the staff there, thankfully it wasn't worse. They do sound like hopeless burglars though...

More Eltham posts here.

'The public sector Woodstock' or Lewisham People's Day 2011

We dropped in on Lewisham People's Day yesterday. @cllr_mikeharris yesterday called it "the public sector Woodstock", which is some ways seems quite apt.

I think it's a great event, so much variety, and it means that hubby and I get to watch some live music for a change which we don't often get to do now amidst busy family life. Only problem is, as any parents knows, that we have to snatch those moments before the alert goes up -"I want an ice-cream/a drink/a fair ride/to go to the toilet"....I guess a 6 and 9 year old may not find an anarcho-jazz-punk band as fascinating as we might...

Anyways, here's some photos from yesterday:

Miss Kjah on the Dance for Life stage: Miss Kjah really hit the right note, with her RnB, dancehall, socca style. She's on Twitter  @misskjah and her website.

Stark Dangerous at the Rocklands stage

Felix's Rock Choir at the Bandstand: Fun choral singing of modern classics such as Ce-Lo Green and Dusty Springfield, at one of my favourite stages (and right next to the kids playground, which is always handy...)

Princess Amy and Isabelle, two Rajistani-style stilt-walking Indian princesses wowed all passers-by.

I didn't get a photo of the fascinating Ensemble Tramontana at the Blackheath Halls tent.  They were a four piece ensemble singing continental medieval troubadour songs - they were beautiful and haunting - no, really.  The singer gave very useful, and witty, translations of the lyrics before each piece.

It was while sitting on a hay bale here that we got talking to a fascinating elderly lady, with a Scottish accent, who readily introduced herself. She lived in sheltered housing, she said, but loved different music from around the world and made an effort to get to hear it whenever she could.  She then proceeded to name some Bollywood film stars from the black and white era, saying that she and her late-husband used to go to watch them decades ago. She even remembered some Hindi song lyrics. Wow. Talk about shattering stereotypes.

And finally, just love the graphics on this food stall:

East London Lines were live-blogging the event and have more pics and description on their site. Those covering it on Twitter included the ever-informative and local, @MattClinch81.

Lewisham People's Day 2011

Unglue yourself from the NOTW drama - this has got to be the one tomorrow:

Lewisham Peoples Day 2011

"Largest, longest running free festival in SE London"
Sat 9th July 2011 12-8pm
Mountsfield Park, Brownhill Road, SE6 1AN

"The Neville Staple Band leads a fantastic line up of over one thousand local and international performers. Enjoy music, magic, art, dance, sport, cabaret and spoken word on eight beautifully themed stages at Lewisham’s largest and longest running community festival.

There is something for all ages – grab a partner for Electro Swing, learn a circus skill, browse the craft market, Sing Out! With the BBC Singers, relax with a pint of real ale or take afternoon tea in a twinkly big top."

Full programme here.

2009 People's Day - Brockley Ukulele Band

2009 LPD - oh dear, I didn't label the photograph of this band on the ?Albany stage - anyone?

NOTW & Coulson: Lewisham enters the stage

In a local link with the current events surrounding NOTW and hacking, it seems Andy Coulson (ex-editor of the NOTW) was taken to Lewisham Police Station earlier today. The station is apparently Europe's largest with 96 custody cells.

I drove by earlier, about 3pm and there were a few journo types and one TV van (photo left). People are saying there's quite a crowd outside now though. Locals on Twitter are referring hungry hacks to the Sausage Man stall by the clocktower...

It also turns out that Coulson's a south Londoner and was picked up from his home in Forest Hill according to The Telegraph, though elsewhere they are saying it's Dulwich.  Discussion going on over at Brockley Central.

People power: Clive Efford speaks up for boycott

Watching the current News of the World (now RIP) and hacking developments agog. It's a fast moving news story which is keeping the 24-hour news channels and Twitter fuelled up. Looking forward to Question Time tonight though will have to do the usual trick of switching back and forth between it and Newsnight (when will the BBC fix this long-standing annoying clash?)

It was good to see our local MP Clive Efford speaking up in the Commons debate yesterday, in some high-flying rhetoric - worth quoting here at some length (it was after his speech that the Deputy Speaker broke the usual convention of allowing backbenchers to speak for 6-7 minutes, and restricted them to 4 minutes):

"...This debate is about what kind of country we want to be. A free press is an essential part of our democracy. It challenges us, exposes our weaknesses, sometimes helps to get our message across and keeps people informed of the arguments to help them to form a balanced opinion. However, the press has developed as Parliament has developed and there is a symbiotic relationship between politics and journalism. The issues we are debating here today really go to the heart of what kind of nation we want to be in the future.

We need to understand that what we are debating today has to do with how we treat weak and vulnerable people or the bereaved, and whether we stand up for people when they are under pressure or being unfairly treated, or whether we become part of a baying mob, egged on by the likes of the News of the World, eager for a kill just for the sheer excitement of it and heedless of the consequences for the victims and of whether what we are witnessing amounts to justice.

I do not believe that people want to live in that sort of country or feel that we have become such a country. The public do not share the values of the media people who have effectively brought this debate to the Floor of the House today. They do not share the values of those who have invaded the lives of innocent victims and bereaved families when they are grieving and at their most vulnerable.

I was not brought up in a country that stood by while others suffered. I always believed that the post-war Britain I grew up in was a country that stood up for fairness and perhaps for those who were not as strong as ourselves. I thought the country was populated by a heroic generation that was justifiably proud of what it had endured through the second world war and of the freedoms that had been won—not just for themselves but for the whole world. That was achieved by ordinary people doing extraordinary things for the greater good of everyone. It is these ordinary people we are defending today...."

He went on yesterday to join the growing calls for boycotting the advertisers in the NOTW, surely at least partly responsible for the eventual statement today about the closure of the NOTW:

"...Only if ordinary people make a stand will we stop these rich people—rich people who have invaded the lives of ordinary people in the street—making themselves even richer and even more powerful. Only by hurting them where it really matters—in their profits—will the ordinary person in the street influence their behaviour in the future."

However, things are getting messy, with the Left and 'people power' being accused of only achieving the redundancy of working people at the NOTW. Some strange alliances and bedfellows are emerging. Surely the NOTW can't have been the only newspaper at the hacking and police bribery game? And where will this end for Cameron? Word tonight is that Andy Coulson is to be arrested tomorrow - a man who David Cameron appointed to be his Communications Director after hacking rumours had already swirled about him. Could this end up being Cameron's Profumo? (though obviously without a glamorous call girl and a Russian spy involved - yet).

The rest of Clive Efford's speech, and whole debate, can be read here. The News Shopper reported on the story this morning. 

Guiding Leaders needed Mottingham and Eltham London SE9

Can you help out with this local appeal?

"We are not having a lot of luck with our leaders at the moment and have just lost 3 from the same set of units due to heavy work commitments that are preventing them getting to meetings and this is now threatening the future of all 3 units (rainbows, brownies and guides)

Is there anyone out there, in the Mottingham or Eltham areas or comimg to the University of Greenwich Avery Hill Campus or Rose Bruford College, that would be prepared to help out these units, which are full of girls who love their guiding ?

Thanks
Ann"

Reply to website thread here: Guiders.co.uk