wibble

#ScribesAndMakers 10, Have you ever seen a theatre production where you were impressed by the props?

Not exactly. Though, many years ago, preparing for a school production of a Lorca play, I was given a wheelbarrow and told to collect a coffin from a funeral parlour a mile away in what was, and remains, a very hilly town. The barrow was small and the lid got cracked, but I never suffered stage-fright again.

#SilentSunday

Although not a day for a grocery run it was sunny enough for a trip to the coffee store, so that's where I went on #TodaysWalk

#TodaysWalk was to Vauxhall where I had a look at the Thames and, on the way there, some things that had been stuck to walls.

One of them is a plaque made, perhaps unsurprisingly, for a non-gallery in Hackney but is now safely south of the river, unlike Camberwell Station, which isn't.

The other is part of a series of mosaics on Salamanca Street which, apart from the Duke of Wellington, are arguably self-explanatory.

#TodaysWalk was to Croydon, to see how the redevelopment of St George's Walk had progressed since it started in 2018.

It's amazing what can't happen in seven years, but at least it was sunny.

#TodaysWalk was to Victoria Station, by way of Clapham Common where, in the waters of Mount Pond, a shoveler was playing battleships with a tufted duck.

What a difference a week makes.

#StillNovember

#TodaysWalk turned out to be to Lewisham, expectedly via Catford and Sydenham and Forest Hill but unexpectedly via Crofton Park, which is really Brockley and not a park and nowhere near anywhere called Crofton. The area is, however, dotted with many streets (e.g Elsiemaud) that echo the geneaology of a land surveyor, and it's possible he was busier than his lawful relations understood.

Whatever it is, it currently boasts a celebratory spruce, as pictured, which is something.

#TodaysWalk was to Brixton by way of the fancy bits of Dulwich where neither inflated carrots nor superflu have yet defeated Christmas mania.

Coincidentally, I also saw my first deflated Santa of the season. I can't be sure it was the work of a cat, but there aren't many other animals here that are quite so discerning..

It's a grey sort of Wednesday in London, where the morning promises only emails and, if time permits, a grocery run.

Despite which, there are people out there who make it their mission to force fragments of joy into the humdrum lives of their fellow taxpayers, so here's a picture of a Celebratory Spruce at Honor Oak Park Station.

Before I forget (or after, depending on your timezone), it must be time for #BollardOfTheWeek

This week, my nomination is a bollard that stands, with four or five siblings, on the margins of Newington Causeway, as it must have done for at least thirty-nine years.

The "GLC" on the top stands for the Greater London Council, which was abolished in 1986, since when London's bollards have never been quite the same, though they weren't that beforehand either.

#TodaysWalk was to Penge, which is already in the grip of something.

Although their trees are smaller than some (the one at Vauxhall bus station springs unbidden to mind) and arguably less elegant, quantity clearly wins out in the minds of the Pengeoisie, who proudly display a whole two of them, not far from the Millennium Rock (which, though it sounds like it might be a venue, is more in the way of a rock).

#TodaysWalk was to the South Norwood Country Park by way of Crystal Palace.

As Crystal Palace is famous for its Transmitter Tower so the South Norwood Country Park is famous for its observation mound of which it's rumoured that, on a clear day, you can't see the fog.

I also remembered to visit the lake, which also isn't obviously visible, and found a fungus to look at. And so, despite my best intentions, the day wasn't entirely wasted.

@beecycling@wandering.shop A hobby is, by and large, a pastime with jargon that preserves a vigorous industry of baffling suppliers. Given that booksellers aren't at all baffling, it follows that reading is no more a hobby than looking at pictures or listening to music. We read to pique, and sometimes satisfy, our curiosity and it comes as naturally as picking our noses or poking wasps' nests with sticks, neither of which count as hobbies either (nor, for that matter, as exercise).

Yesterday's walk was to Peckham Square where plans are afoot, or thereabouts, to demolish the arch - a monument to regeneration, apparently* - and fill the plaza with unwise fountains.

In the meantime, they've put a Christmas Tree under it and, nearby, a banner advertising unlimited fun that doesn't, on the face of it, seem to be working.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peckham_Arch

@elduvelle@neuromatch.social You're right to feel nervous; owning anything brings (or should) responsibility, if only for disposing of it.

But we live in a world where taxable inefficiencies drive the economy, so shared- and public-ownership, even of natural monopolies, is rare, leaving us the choice of living with threats of eviction and rent-rises or mortgaging ourselves to financiers.

I bought a flat and resented it but I resented my landlords more. So I'm less resentful now but that's not the same as happy.

@marxistvegan@union.place According to "Rest Of World", which may or may not be reliable, 32 data centres in Chile will result in 909 permanent positions, or about 28 jobs per centre. Most of those, as you might expect, seem to be in security and cleaning, though as many as 20% might conceivably be technical and thus slightly better paid.

https://restofworld.org/2025/data-centers-jobs-microsoft-google-chile/

@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social It's not a wholly binary divide, and advertising has given many authors, composers, directors etc. the experience, money and contacts that they need to get started creatively. So, in a sense, the premium we pay for branded junk is a way of socialising the cost of their apprenticeships.

Personally, I'd abolish the whole industry, and require trade unions to commission improving books and rousing songs on a regular basis instead. But that might be an even harder sell.