Get a job in the music business.

The "Ryan Gate Effect" has now begun to kick in with North Cheam now boasting the imaginatively named "Cheam Food Centre", promising a collection of, most likely, unidentifiable mediterranean foods. It would be more accurately named the "North Cheam Food Centre" but seems to have fallen victim to the same stigma that finds properties in Raynes Park labeled as "West Wimbledon". Who know what will happen next!?!? Will even New Malden become a home for food shops boasting curious items only pronouncible in a foreign tongue......... no wait........ ah well.

When I thought about writing this entry last night I had two other seriously witty things to add but both seem to have escaped me now, darn it. I could fill in by celebrating how "Model Road & Rail" remains solidly unmoved by the vagaries of modern fashion and steadfastly refuses to have anything to do with modern culture..... not a Star Wars model to be found in there since I moved in over 8 years ago. They did once have an Airfix Wallace & Gromit sidecar in there about 4 years ago but that's as close as it gets.

Ah, I've remembered one! I noticed that reality TV is scaling new heights with "Teenage Tourette's Camp" on ITV. It's probably going to have elements of a good programme and let people with Tourette's address some serious issues while everybody else ogles the TV waiting for some major swearing to break out. As for me, if I wanted to see a bunch of teenagers with antisocial tendencies swearing their way through a supposedly normal conversation I'd go to the Huntsman's.......

I'm still eagerly awaiting the first blog entry from TheViewFromTheHuntsman but I think he's found a subtle way of making Worcester Park seem more interesting than it is by not writing anything about it. I don't think it can go on forever but it's a good opening move.

Oh yes, Happy New Year!

Not even vaguely, but the odd trinket shop aka "The Betty Boop" shop opposite Costcutter is sporting signs proclaiming a closing down sale. It acquired its nickname by prominently featuring a variety of Betty Boop statuettes (the largest around 4 to 5 ft high) in its window under the assumption that this was what the clientele of Worcester Park would be queuing up for. <br>

Apparently not. I can't say that I've ever set foot in the place and don't feel as though I've missed out particularly. It could all be a ruse but if not "Au revoir strange trinket shop".

Despite the season of goodwill to all men (and women and those of indeterminate gender) being over I've decided to respond to worcesterpark's tag anyway, being the kind of guy (or gal or indeterminate alien) that I am. It's unlikely to happen again so make the most of it

Seven Things to Do Before I Die

1. Live to see my children turn 18,
2. Stay married,
3. Go to California again,
4. See the Northern Lights
5. Relax more,
6. Retire early
7. Move out of Worcester Park,

Seven Things I Cannot Do

1. Play the trumpet,
2. Perform effective brain surgery,
3. Drive a train,
4. Put up with stupidity, particularly my own,
5. Drink stout or Guinness,
6. Believe in politicians of any sort,
7. Trust the Captains of Industry, with a few exceptions.

Seven Things That Attract Me to Blogging

1. Anonymity
2. The quirkiness of blogging about dear old WP
3. Did I mention anonymity?
4. Knowing someone's read what I've written,
5. It's an excuse to use the computer more,
6. Laughing often,
7. It's more interesting than IRC (chat).

Seven Things I Say Most Often

1. Never underestimate the power of incompetence
2. And on which planet did that seem like a good idea?
3. We can add that to the long list of 'things I don't care about',
4. I'll have a six-inch Spicy Italian on white with single cheese, toasted,
5. Oh alright then, you talked me into it,
6. I'll have the spicy shredded beef,
7. And why would I want to do *that*?

Seven Books That I Love

1. Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J R R Tolkien
2. The Hobbit - J R R Tolkien
3. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams
4. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (all) - Douglas Adams
5. The Cuckoo's Egg - Clifford Stoll
6. Ghost Rider - Neil Peart
7. Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences - John Allen Paulos

Seven Movies That I Watch Over and Over Again

1. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (TV series I admit but starring Alec Guiness),
2. Lord of the Rings trilogy,
3. Star Wars - original trilogy,
4. Battle of Britain,
5. Waterloo (the battle, not the station)
6. Blackadder (TV again I know but it's *so* good)
7. Die Hard trilogy (when accompanied by pizza and alcohol)

Seven People I Want To Join In Too

Nobody...... I think they've all been tagged

Well then. In reference to this entry the gossip on Central Road is that the former Classic Cuts and adjacent shops are going to become an Italian restaurant..... don't know whether it's true but if it is then that'll be yet another eatery, with attendant parking problems........ Oh well. It's the price that must be paid to establish WP as the centre of the universe.

The other piece of gossip is that the former camping shop at the top of Central Road (that disappeared in a very short space of time when the money ran out) may be the subject of interest from a certain company with Golden Arches as their logo. As there are already ones in North Cheam and NM I find it a tad hard to believe, but when I think about the site there's certainly enough space there. Whether WP residents will welcome the idea (not) and whether it's a good idea to put one witin 50 yards of a school will no doubt become subjects for great debate, should the rumour be true. Perhaps even the Sutton Guardian might be persuaded to give up a couple of lines to the issue?

While a New Malden resident apparently still lingers in Guantanamo Bay  (on a flimsy pretext according to many accounts) some residents of Worcester Park are apparently busy helping rebuild Iraq.
The smoke-belching chimneys of their huge factories may be carefully camouflaged from even the lidless roving eye of Google Earth but may I present to you Worcester Park's own Ariba Steel as a supplier to the coalition!
It seems to be the brainchild of the Obayda family but as an indication that times might be hard in the steel business they seem to have flirted with selling middle-eastern recipes, although that doesn't seem to have gone well judging by the rest of the website.

Perhaps they're a key force behind our beloved Ryan Gate deli?

"Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. In the case of Worcester Park, this has often been the case. To the outside world its tree-lined roads must appear to screen a cast of characters whose eccentricities would have had them exiled from Twin Peaks."

More can be found here

Excellent stuff