It's back!

Yes it's back. The ticket machine blocking the wheelchair access to the car park in Victoria Road Dartford was removed at the end of last year but has now been reintroduced.

I thought my blog may have had an effect when the machine was removed soon after my original post. I now believe that the first machine must have been stolen. Maybe it is the new TARDIS.

I have noticed that not a single car is pictured in my posts of this car park. Either everyone in town has read this blog and are boycotting it or it is not a popular place to park your car. The cost of a days parking has recently been lowered from £6 a day to £4 a day.



Please comment on this post if you think this machine should be removed again to free up the wheelchair access.

Original post about this access.

http://bloggedubdoze.blogspot.com/2011/09/wheelchair-access-white-knuckle-thrill.html

Wheelchair access white knuckle thrill ride (update)

I thought it only fair to do an update on the Victoria Road car park, wheelchair access blockage. I am pleased to report that the pay here machine has now been moved and is no longer blocking wheelchair access at the top of the drastically steep slope. At least now when you finally get to the top of the slope you wait for the beads of sweat on your brow to evaporate before moving uninhibited into the car park. The exit is still as scary though as you roll at speed down the slope towards a very busy main road. Another exit is available right down the other end of the car park if you don't fancy your chances here.

I hope in some way my blog had something to do with alerting someone to rectify this unacceptable situation.

Previous post about this access.

http://bloggedubdoze.blogspot.com/2011/09/wheelchair-access-white-knuckle-thrill.html

One step closer to old age

I had a tooth pulled yesterday which has left a huge gap. It was a tooth that has been filled again and again because the filling kept falling out. There was about 40% tooth and 60% filling so it had to go as they could not continue to fill it.

I really don't want to think about a time in the future when I wake up and I'm smiling at myself from a glass on the bed side table.

Take your dad for a night out

I got an invite with a plus one to The Youth Club Gallery (Kingly Court) to see 'It's Something Hells' (a celebration of rockabilly, rockers and ted's style). I thought it would be right up my dad's street and asked him if he wanted to be my plus one. He did and we met up after work at Charring Cross station. After a quick drink in Carnaby Street we went to the gallery. We got our free drink and waited for the place to fill up.

There were DJs playing a cool rocking set that got a few people dancing. I even got a picture of Mr Ducktail, 'the demon barber of Carnaby Street' sneering at the camera.

Even though my dad was older than everyone there (77) he felt really welcomed and started chatting to people and posed for photographs with some of the hep cats there. What a great night.

One thing I saw made me realise that these people may dress in the styles of the past but live very much in the present day was when I saw one bloke combing his hair and using his iPhone as a hand mirror by filming himself and watching the result live on the screen.

Wheelchair access white knuckle thrill ride

There is a new car park that has opened in Victoria Road, Dartford. It has the most ridiculous disabled access ramp - a really steep slope with no chance of a run up! The wheelchair user has only the width of the narrow pavement to gain momentum to reach the top of the slope. If they do manage to achieve this impossible task he or she is faced with an immediate obstruction, the "pay here" machine. Then, if they get this far the person then has to manoeuvre a 90º turn whilst teetering at the top of the ramp to finally enter the car park.

Leaving the car park may be a bit more fun for the wheelchair user if they thrive on danger. Without being able to see if any pedestrians are going to cross your path, just launch yourself down the steep slope at great speed then try to stop pretty sharp-ish to avoid over-running the narrow pavement into the busy main road and maybe under an articulated lorry.

Nice effort Dartford Council. The quicker this wheelchair access is disabled the better. Convert the stairs into a gentle slope. I'm sure the able-bodied souls will be able to cope with it without too much extra effort.







View update to this post at: http://bloggedubdoze.blogspot.com/

Insult from my phone

On the way to work this morning I could hear my phone making beeping sounds in my pocket. My keys where pushing the keypad as I walked. To avoid calling someone by mistake I took my phone from my pocket to see what number had been dialed. I was shocked to see that the phone had gone into text mode and was displaying the word 'Tranny'. The worst thing about it was that the word Tranny had a question mark directly after it. The cheek of it! I wasn't even able to reply.

Dean Chalkley's Young Souls movie and photographic exhibition

I was invited to the launch of Dean Chalkley's photographic exhibition last week and really enjoyed it. There were three DJs playing rare Northern Soul records. I got chatting to DJ Jo Wallace who has been playing on the scene since the early 80s. She was really friendly and was spinning discs that she had paid £400 for. I found this out when an arrival to the exhibition asked if she could put her bag behind the decks and nearly pulled the stylus arm across the said record. Jo Sprung like a cat to protect her rare 45.

I attended the launch with a friend of mine, Brian Kotz who used to be in a mod band called 'Back To Zero', they released a single called 'Your Side Of Heaven', in the 1980s. A few people at the launch party knew him.

Dean's Chalkley's short film 'Young Souls' was playing at the exhibition and it is well worth a view. Some of the cast were at the launch. I talked to Sonny Evans who plays the lead in the film. He was really chatty. All the cast are actually friends in real life. Sonny grew up in Southend On Sea and aquired a mods record collection at the age of 15. He now runs The Hush Club at The Queen's Hotel,  in Brighton.

The film was shot on location in Southend On Sea and The Dome in Tufnell Park. The house Sonny parks up at is 133 York Road and the car featured is his own. The cat that crosses Sonny's path in this scene was just a random cat with no previous acting experience.

Check out the film at
https://vimeo.com/26458402

Hear Dean Chalkley chatting about the film and exhibition on The Modcast (podcast) episode 6.
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/modcast-eddie-piller-friends/id409149579

Exclusive limited edition prints from Young Souls will be exhibited at YOUTH CLUB from 21st July – 6th August.

YOUTH CLUB
2.1 Kingly Court (Just off Carnaby St)
London W1B 5PW

OPENING TIMES

MON to FRI - 11AM - 6PM

SAT - 1PM - 6PM

SUN - CLOSED