Three year old playing Scrabble for the first time. First word he tries to spell is his brother Zion’s name.

Little kid turned on his Amazon Fire “Kids” tablet. A game asks him to enter his date of birth to play. He types in “1234”, et voilà!

This is why I’m always frothing at the mouth.

Based on [residents'] feedback, Ealing Council has drawn up a list of ideas to reduce congestion and to make walking, cycling and using public transport easier in Southall. There are links to the survey results and to a new survey.

Adam Curtis (1984), The Great British Housing Disaster, on how local councils dealt with unsafe new housing developments. “Privately, they know that their tenants are at risk, but publicly they have to try to defend the decision to leave them…”

Local council elections today in many areas. Don’t forget you now need to take some form of id with you (passport, driving licence, or something else from this list).

Big kid: “Dad! Dad! I killed the Ender Dragon, and I wasn’t even looking!” Me: “What are you doing?” Big kid: “Twerking backwards.”

RISKS TO HEALTH FROM REMEDIATING SOUTHALL GASWORKS

AI is more ethical than Ealing Labour Party. No money was exchanged. What are the risks to health from remediating Southall Gasworks on site in the open air? The land is highly contaminated with benzene, naphthalene and a while host of other VOCs, PAHs, heavy metals, “blue billy” and asbestos, and surrounded by residential streets. The local community is mostly of south Asian and African heritage, and it is known that people with this heritage can be genetically vulnerable to naphthalene poisoning.

First salad of the Sum…, er, Spring.

I AM THE LEADER OF EALING COUNCIL

I asked Google Bard to advise me on a local matter. I am the leader of Ealing Council. I have received more than 250 reports about a BAD odour nuisance and air pollution from the remediation of the highly contaminated Southall Gasworks land. We had a public meeting where 250 angry residents complained about health problems as a result of the air pollution, including eye, nose and throat irritation, respiratory problems and infections, and even cancer and death of loved ones.

UNDER POISONED SKIES

Watched Under Poisoned Skies on BBC iPlayer last night. It’s the sad and shocking story of children in Iraq dying from leukaemia as a result of toxic air pollution from mega rich oil companies burning off excess natural gas in the open air near their homes. Benzene (found in the air) and naphthalene (found in the children’s urine samples) are the main carcinogens. Levels of benzene are between 3 and 9.

SOUTHALL RESIDENTS TO GIVE BLOOD SAMPLES

After six years of campaigning for justice: “The fact that gas used to be manufactured from coal has been lost to the public consciousness, but the chemical legacy remains.” “These communities already have multiple disadvantages with air pollution, overcrowding and poor housing. This is another burden being placed on them.” Via: Scientists to examine health fears at west London luxury development

READING FOR PLEASURE

Two years ago my then six year old took what turned out to be a permanent break from the daily fifteen minute Easyread lessons he’d been doing for six months to catch up on his reading. When he started, he couldn’t and wouldn’t read. At the weekend he asked to go to the library where he chose a book by his favourite author. The following two mornings he read a chapter to himself before breakfast instead of watching TV.

Dark Star, Red Robin.

Dark Star.

It’s grim up north.

Baked bread with my little kid using my pizza dough recipe (substituted wholemeal flour for white flour). Turned out nice enough that we both ate it.

HORSESHIT PARADE

I visited the Palace of Westminster this week with my big kid on an educational school trip. It was a very cold, wet and windy day, and we were patriotically under-dressed and sans brollies. We took a good lashing from Mother Nature. The tour of the Houses of Parliament was cool, dry and stuffy, and the little radio headphones we were given so we could hear better were sub-optimal. The House of Commons was closed to ordinary commoners like us, but the House of Lords was open as long as we refrained from parking our cold, wet and windy working class bums on our superiors' ‘holier than thou’ red leather benches.

Finally got around to watching Our Friends In The North. ‘None of the issues the show mines so brilliantly – from inequality, deindustrialisation and the parlous state of Britain’s housing to homelessness and the corruption of our public officials – have gone away.’

Big kid’s current favourite song.

My little lad’s current favourite song.

TIL that brain surgery is basically an off-shoot of hairdressing.

Mmm… 🥦🥬🥕🇮🇪☘️

TOP O' THE MORNIN'

Showing my age this morning. I ‘heard’ my wife say, “My First Vegetables!” as our little boy chose a new TV show to watch. I ‘saw’ a picture of a broccoli on the screen. I got a broccoli from the fridge (along with some carrots and a cauliflower) to show him and keep it real. 🥦🥬🥕 Turns out the show is called “My First Festivals, Series 2: 4. St Patrick’s Day”, and the picture was a shamrock.

‘…housebuilders appear to be making ever greater profits.’ ‘[they] …blame the planning system, the costs of materials and labour for elevated prices. It’s also popular to blame land prices.’ ‘The evidence to back up this claim is hard to find.’