White Van Man

This morning I was cycling through Greenwich towards the foot tunnel. A white van pulled out of Royal Hill turing in front of my path. When the driver realised he couldn't make it without hitting me he did an emergency stop blocking three quarters of the road.

Clearly feeling a bit guilty Mr White Van Man stayed a respectable ten meters behind me as I continued down the road. As I cycled through the traffic lights on Church Street they went amber. I wasn't going very fast and the white van was still a good ten meteres behind me so would have had plenty of time to stop safely before the red light. However, he sailed straight through!!!

Who was this white van man? A Police van!

Gleeming White Teeth and Medical Tourism

I went to the dentist today. It is the first time I've been in 18months so I was a bit aprehensive about the bad news that might be in store for me. However, I was pleasantly surprised to be told that my teeth were in tip-top condition and not even showing the early signs of decay.

What did come as a shock was the bill. £107 for check up and clean that only took 25mins.

Last time I visited the dentist was when I was in Bangkok Thailand. At the end of the Soi where my friend lives is a Bupa clinic that opperates to full Western standards. The same treatment there only cost £12.

I have always been pretty sceptical about medical tourism, despite all the negative press I would still trust the NHS over anywhere else. But such big savings do make you think..........

Not so Friendly St?

Tonight on my cycle ride home, as I turned into Friendly St a kid jumped of the pavement kicked my rear bike tyre, laughed and ran off again.

Nice.

UPDATE: Brockley Central has just kicked off a debate on how safe our area is. Would Jacqui smith buy a kebab in Brockley?

Dreaming of the other side of the world on a drizzly London day

I was watching Bill's Food on the TV earlier. Not my favourite cookery show, but it did get me romanticising about trips to Australia and wishing I was over there at the moment.

When I was in Oz last April, Bill Granger was doing a toothpaste add, which made me chuckle as he is want to pull a cheesy grin and flash his pearly whites at the camera on far too regular a basis.

Despite finding his over enthusiastic smile mildly annoying, he does make the best breakfasts I have ever tasted.

Sydney is also home to my favourite restaurant in the world Billy Kwongs. Unbelievably tasty modern Chinese food.

I had dinner with my friend Kat the other day who is going to Oz for a friend's wedding in a few weeks. I leafed through her Lonely Planet and discovered that both Bills and Billy Kwongs have made their first appearances in the guide book. I've got mixed feelings about this. A good write up can really help a place, but backpackers also have a habit of ruining places too. I was pleased that the Billy Kwongs review seemed too pre-occupied with how difficult it is to book a table and forgot give the food the write up it deserved.


The photo is of the outside of Bills in Darlinghurst Sydney.

Two faces of Brockley

I was woken up this morning at 06:28 by a car alarm outside my flat. I stuck my head outside my window fearing that it was my car. I didn't want to be the local social pariah responsible for waking everybody up on a Sunday morning.

It wasn't my car but unfortunately it was my neighbours who have had their car broken into before. (If they stumble across this blog I didn't see anything useful otherwise I would have come down and spoken to the police. Post a comment if you like to get in touch.)

After lunch I went out for a walk. Across Hilly Fields to Ladywell, returning to Brockley centre via Adelaide Avenue and then drifted back to Lewisham Way up Manor Avenue. I was struck how full Brockley seemed to be with trendy early 20 somethings drinking coffee and hanging out. Where did they all come from? And when did I get so old to be posting about trendy early 20 somethings?

Restaurant Review: Fifteen

The blog returns to its roots today with a restaurant review. I used to be a bit of a Jamie Oliver super fan (see links on the right) and am a bit surprised that this was my first visit to Fifteen.

My sister, Ruth, and I arrived 15mins early for our table, so had a drink in the buzzing Trattoria before being shown downstairs to the restaurant. The restaurant was a little smaller than I expected. With a contemporary feel (a huge graffiti mural covers the wall next to the kitchen) and a young brigade of professional waiting staff.

To start Ruth choose the celeriac soup and I had the carpaccio of beef. Both were tasty, but we felt the seasoning was a little off and there was no salt and pepper on the tables. For the main course I ordered slow roast saddle of pork and Ruth decided on the beetroot ravioli. I think the pork was the best plate of food I have eaten in a long time. It was beautifully tasty, very tender and came with crispy roast potatoes, parsnips and baby carrots. I didn't try Ruth's ravioli, but she was very complimentary.

For desert I had the ricotta and mascapone tart (pictured above) and Ruth ordered the panetone bread and butter pudding. Great ends to a delicious meal.

All of our food was correctly placed in front of us, without the waiters needing to ask "Who ordered the beef?". Our coats were also waiting for us when we left. Simple touches but they impress because not everywhere else does them.

The final highlight was the Dyson air blade hand dryer in the toilets. Simple things pleasing simple minds and all that.............

The Stephen Lawrence Centre

I've been cycling past the it every morning for what feels like two years and my only question is: will it ever open?

I don't mind them knocking down some attractive Victorian industrial architecture, but the the least they could have done was open time! The Stephen Lawrence website says it should have opened in 2007.

Does anyone know what it is going to be used for when it opens?

The Magic of Soap Bubbles

Yesterday I went to a Royal Society of Chemistry Family Lecture called The Magic of Soap Bubbles at Southampton University. Organised by my mum's cousin Prof. John Dyke

It was designed to be educational, trying to get young people interested in Chemistry. I can't remember any actual science, it was just a lot of fun. There were soap bubbles of all shapes and sizes, bubbles inside bubbles, bubbles filled with smoke, children inside bubbles, bubbles used to map the shortest route between towns in the UK and bubbles refracted through lenses.

Forget Fairly Liquid, Persil is the best apparently. One third of a 500ml bottle to about 40l of water.

New Spectacles

I went to the optician today for an eye test. How times have changed. I remember when that chart with all the letters on it in different sizes was a poster, stuck on the back of the door. When technology stepped up a gear it became a light box on the wall next to the door that the optician could switch on and off.

Now the light box has been replaced with some whizzy LCD screen hooked up to a computer that has infinite sizes and combinations of letters. Meaning that you can't confidently read the bottom row from memory. At one point the characters got so small and the lenses so absurd that I couldn't read a thing. The optician was trying to force me to have a go at the top line. And I was meekly trying to point out that I couldn't see a thing. I've never not been able to see any of the letters at the opticians before. I knew my prescription may have got worse, which is why I booked a sight test, but I wasn't sure if I was going blind or it was a cruel trick. I felt quite inferior and a little bit concerned.

UPDATE: I've added a photo of my new glasses for you viewing pleasure! (A pun Clint would be proud of!) Having worn rimless glasses for the last 5 years they are a bit of a change.

2008 Predictions

It seems to be fashionable at the moment to put together your 2008 predictions. Capitalists at Work, Iain Dale with his ironic musings and Brockley Central are all at it, to name a few.

Predictions aren't my thing. I'm no good at seeings trends or observing things before others. The only prediction I have so far attempted on this blog, turned out to be utterly wrong.

But Brockley Central's invitation for 2008 predictions for this area we call home got me thinking. But the only thing I could come up with I am too scared to post on the Brockley Central blog for fear of being chased out of the area. It is this: one of Dandelion Blue, Degustation or Shop on the Hill will close. Now I hope I'm wrong. They have all started off small and seem attentive to their customers, hopefully recipes for success. However, odds are on for an economic slow down in 2008 reducing our disposable incomes for luxury items. Although up and coming Brockley is no East Dulwich. (I hope it is a while before we get blogs like this one.) Can we sustain all these trendy new shops, galleries and cafes that seem to be opening?

Let the abuse begin............

Things you realise between Kennington and Brockley on New Years Eve

1. Free public transport isn't much good if there aren't any buses.

2. You can waste an awfully long time waiting at a bus stop for a bus that doesn't arrive.

3. The best / most gaudy Christmas lights I have seen are on No 4 Southampton Way, Camberwell.

4. There is a lot of traffic on the roads. Are they all under the drink drive limit?

5. The walk is an excellent way to break in a new pair of shoes.

6. You'd never have thought that the neon sign outside Venue in New Cross could be an uplifting sight for a weary traveller.

7. I was pleased that it wasn't too cold.