N30 Demo: on the streets again

And it's obvious what the goal of today's demo was:

As a bonus here's a special "spot the odd ones out" competition:

More photos here

Demo against student fees and the cuts

. . . and to link the post to the title of the blog . .

The police were out in huge numbers and they made a few attempts to goad the demonstrators into a violent reaction, but the crowd was too wise and good-natured to fall for that.

Although people showed up to back a number of different causes, this girl expressed what we all feel about those who want to create a market in every area of our lives.

Can't reach the lock?

Poundland on Portobello Road was waiting for someone tall to arrive this morning.

Their street is wetter than mine

It was a clear, sunny day so I went for a walk along the canal.Once again I only had my phone but, thanks to the brightness of the daylight, it managed better than usual. I tried to take a photo of a heron to post here but that one didn't work. I also spotted this cafe . . .

. . . and as it seemed lonely,  I wondered if any reader of this blog knew of a cafe in another city it could be twinned with.

Renaming the streets

I went to check on the Occupy LSX stalwarts yesterday and found they had renamed the square. I only had my phone and it was night, so my photos aren't the best quality.
There were signs during their daily meeting that some of them are feeling the stress of camping out in the cold and coping with the constant pressures of  being under the microscope.

The many posters and illustrations which have appeared around the place since my last visit are evidence of the creativity and determination of the protesters. The weekend is approaching, so I would urge anyone with some free time to pay a visit, see for yourselves and show them some support. After all they are not just doing this for themselves, but for me and you as well.

On the streets again

After watching the occupystream from St Pauls for a while this morning, I knew I had to go back for a second visit. (Thanks to The Brain Police, one of my favourite blogs, for alerting me to this link).
Today I managed to get into the main occupation. The atmosphere was great, with people really seeming to be coming together for a common cause.
There were plenty of people prepared for the long haul

And they'd worked out some basic communication protocols

More photos here, and I'll be trying to show my continuing support by going back again.

Occupy (a more important street than the one we live on).

I went to the Occupy! event today but, because I decided to walk there, I arrived a little late and found my way blocked by these guys . . .

There were plenty of us unable to get to the main event . . .

. . . and we all would have preferred to be on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral with the main bunch, who I could only photograph from a distance

I made my way all round the cathedral and at each access point it was the same story:

Protesters on each side of the police line, but those outside the square unable to get in. But were they trying to keep us out or were they kettling the ones who had made it in? I suppose it will give them a chance to report much smaller numbers attending as they'll only count those those inside - and they'll understate them as usual.

And then . . .

Of course, if people throw their rubbish out whenever they feel like it, foxes will come looking for food. This one looked like he needed a good feed, but I'd rather he learned to hunt rats and other vermin and didn't rely on the Kentucky Fried Chicken left-overs that people throw away.

It brings to mind a song by a certain Slovene band . . .

From pirate to geologist

Today our visitor spent some time being a pirate:

But to show her serious side she decided to spend the evening in a search for crystals:

She found one!

Our visitor took us to the Science Museum

and it made her come over all wobbly

A visitor to the street

Yes, we have a visitor, and today she took us away from our street and on to the London Eye

Ghosts

The sunlight shining on one of Sunčan's photos which hangs in our hall, caused a reflection in our kitchen window, and our neighbour's kitchen window. Sun was a rare phenomenon today, so I grabbed my camera and managed to catch it before the next cloud.

The way they do it in Ljubljana.

As I'm in Ljubljana for a week, I've decided to compare the way they deal with rubbish on the street I'm staying in (thanks for the hospitality Sunč!), with our street in London.
First:

They provide containers like the one above for general rubbish.

Then there are bins like this for recycling glass, paper, and packaging:

Finally, residents of this street can put food waste in brown bins:

And I haven't seen any fly-tipping or rubbish just lying around on this street.
I wonder why?

Another time . . . another street

I'm in Ljubljana so I'm seeing other people's streets. On Saturday I joined a demo in support of migrant workers' rights, that took us down a number of different streets. This photo is on the one which contains the building where the president has his office.

I think everyone got the idea by now

and because it's boring to film rubbish everyday, here are a couple of shots of our lovely cactus.

I took them as an experiment with the macro setting on my camera, which I've never used before.

 

 

Nadja bought the cactus in Poundland, so it shows that it doesn't have to cost a bundle to have something beautiful on your kitchen window ledge.

And by Midday on Saturday

The miracle workers

After the regular collectors had done their rounds and removed the regular rubbish, the hard working special squad came and cleared away the garden rubbish and broken mirrors. They left it looking like this:

Full credit to the local council (RBK&C) and their hardworking crew. If you wonder how long it will take for the rubbish to build up again, check back here later.

Update . . .

The first picture was taken at 11.27 this morning. About an hour later I looked out the window and saw this:

This second picture was timed at 12.34.

And by 5.15 pm . . .

Another photo from my phone

I came home from the shops and the sun was trying to come out. Rather than go up for my camera and risk missing the pause in the drizzle, I whipped out the phone to take this shot that shows some new, smaller bags arrived on the scene. So now we know what rubbish bags get up to in the rain.

Caught in the act

I had just gone downstairs to take today's photo, and I was standing at the front gate thinking about how to shoot it. Suddenly a woman appeared with two bin bags. Her memory must be bad because when she moved on she forgot to take them with her. While she was standing there my finger must have slipped resulting in me accidentally taking a photo of her. 

The collectors come

on tuesday mornings, and they do a good job. Unfortunately there are some things they cannot deal with. Most of the stuff they've left behind is recycling bags stuffed with garden refuse. The bags clearly list things you can and can't recycle. In the NO list is 'Garden waste or wood'. So these bags can't be included in the regular collection. I understand why the collectors are reluctant to deal with chunks of broken glass - they're dangerous. So the broken mirrors are still there too. I'm sure some other collection service will be alerted about the things left behind and, in due course, they too will be collected. Meanwhile, the remaining pile continues to advertise the place as somewhere to dump unwanted stuff, and we can expect the pile to grow.

Spring Bank Holiday

I return to my viewpoint from my window for today's photo on this sunny bank holiday
.

I invite you to compare this to my first post to see the build-up over the 4 days since I started.

A new angle for Sunday

From this side we can see that among the new additions, someone, attracted by the growing pile, has added a broken mirror to the other contributions.

and an update . . .

Someone was so impressed by this as a place to leave broken mirrors that they decided to add another

Down at street level . . .

. . . for this Saturday post. You may be able to notice a few new items have been added since yesterday.
This being the start of the weekend, this street is one that many tourists use to get from Westbourne Park Station to Portobello Road. I wonder what their first impressions of the Royal Borough are as they pass this pile of rubbish?

Friday 29 April

This is a photo taken from my bedroom window. Every day people dump rubbish out there. How would you feel if that was your window right there where all that garbage has been left? I'm going to post a photo every day to say shame on the people who dump it, and shame on the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for allowing it to happen for years now.