Plaza Bicycles

Travelling up Ilford lane on the top of a 179 I noticed a hand written sign at a shop called Plaza that "Plaza Bicycles" is now open. I can't give you any more details and I wouldn't build your hopes up, but if you're in the vicinity of 350 Ilford Lane, (between Khartoum Road and Wingate Road) it might be worth popping your head round the door to see what's what.

Is this madness or revelatory?

I've come across an outfit called The Venus Project and it its activist arm The Zeitgeist Movement. It's a bit hard to say whether their ideas are hare brained idealistic lunacy or a workable whilst radical model for society.

Certainly some of the building blocks of their argument are undisputable and/or extremely appealing. For example, we only have the resources of the planet to sustain humanity. I think this is undisputable. They add that the amount of money that there is is irrelevant and it is created or destroyed at will.

They say that the planet can produce enough food for everyone (which I assume is true) but that not everyone has enough money to buy the food they need (plainly true). They place great faith in science and technology over politics, charity and religion.

They are truly internationalist (we're all fellow humans on one shared planet). Some of the futuristic stuff (maglev trains going at 4000 mph, for example) is a bit less plausible but they point out how much resource both physical and intellectual has gone into war and destruction, saying it should be spent on making things better - "weapons of mass creation" and how much stuff is made not to last, which is very wasteful.

The root cause of the world's problems is the monetary system, which is obsolete, they argue, and we can do without it. I promise you it makes a very thought provoking read.

Free packaging

I've taken to selling stuff I don't want on e-bay and Amazon. So far I've managed to re-use old packaging with no problems. One of my buyers gave me a good tip though: computer shops are often keen to get rid of packaging.

This may also make it easier for you to not stash boxes for equipment you've bought. If the manufacturesr/retailer doesn't require you to keep it then maybe someone else can use it rather than it gathering dust in your loft.

And the real threat to pedestrians is...

CTC's Cycle Digest issue 57 says:

• 364,082 pedestrians were injured by drivers between 1998 and 2007, while 2,623 were
injured by cyclists

• Pedestrians are 263 times more likely to be killed by a driver than by a cyclist - this despite
the fact that cyclists and pedestrians often share the same space and much of motor
vehicle mileage is made on motorways, where pedestrians are prohibited.

Source :www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2009-01-26b.250454.h

It's nice to have these facts to hand. BTW 364,082 / 2623 ~= 139

PLANNED CLOSURES ON GOSPEL OAK - BARKING LINE

Quote from TfL e-mail:

PLANNED CLOSURES ON GOSPEL OAK - BARKING LINE:

To enable the running of more frequent and reliable services across London, on time for the Olympics in 2012, there will be temporary closures on various lines of the Overground network. TfL will provide alternative travel arrangements to keep passengers connected to the public transport network. The first set of improvements, to enable the running of 4 trains per hour will take place at weekends on the Gospel Oak to Barking line from 7 February until 25 October 2009 during which time there will be a reduced service each weekend.

Works will take place as follows

Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 February, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 February, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Sunday 22 February, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 28 February and Sunday 1 March, normal service

Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 March, normal service

Saturday 14 March, line closed South Tottenham - Barking

Saturday 21 March, line closed South Tottenham - Barking

Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 March, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 April, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 11 (from 10pm) until Tuesday 14 April, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

ALL Saturdays between 18 April and 1 August (inclusive), line closed South Tottenham - Barking

Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 August, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 August, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 22 August, line closed South Tottenham - Barking

Saturday 29 August, line closed South Tottenham - Barking

Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Sundays 4 11 18 and 25 October, line closed Gospel Oak - Barking

Barking and east London hit hard by weekend tube/railclosures

This weekend there is no District line between Upminster and Embankment, no Jubilee line beween Green Park and Stratford until 1230 No Barking & Gospel Oak line and no Circle line. The Hammersmith and City line, which runs on the same tracks as the District between Barking & Aldgate East, a is running.

I know the work's got to be done, but it is taking a long time. The District line east of Barking seems to be closed weekend after weekend. Last weekend when it was only closed east of Dagenham East I thought the end was in sight.

As to the B and GO, we had a 4 week closure in September and we now have works pretty much every weekend until September. We welcome improvements of course.

Friends of Abbey Green

The Next meeting of the group is on Saturday 4 April at Maritime House, Linton Road, Barking. There's also a meeting with the Tree Warden (presumably a site meeting) on 17 February. The text message I got referred me to the website - I assume meaning http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/East-London/Barking/IG11 but I couldn't see anything new on there today.