Back to basics, London again

A few thank yous to a lot of different people rather than a big, subject, post.

I've called this back to basics as I'm remembering the initial idea for this blog; people who do their job with a smile; who bring something extra to the job and their day thereby making your day all the better.

So first of all, to Ann-Marie at Volvo in Swiss Cottage.  Thank you for always welcoming your customers with such a friendly chat and making them feel like they're coming over to a friend's rather than getting their car serviced or repaired.  

You always make it feel like there's time to sit down, have a natter and coffee.  Excellent, thanks.  

(This is where I would have put the 'thumbs up' but as of the last post, we're dropping that from the blog unless people want them back?).

picture courtesy
www.allinlondon.co.uk/images/

Next a couple of thanks without pictures for the moment but hopefully they'll get their own posts in due course.

To Rosey the hygienist who manages to make me smile and laugh while scraping my teeth. Thank you.  I'm hoping I might feature her in a later post with her lovely smiling face.

To the two armed police outside the Chinese Embassy on Portland Place the other day who were smiling and laughing with about twenty nursery school children walking past with their teachers.

And to Ellias of David's Deli Garden.  Ellias and his brother, Sam, run David's in West Hampstead and have now opened a branch in Praed Street.  I bumped into him in the Castle Chemist in Cricklewood Lane and was so enjoying chatting and catching up, forgot to think of the blog and getting a picture of him but he and his brother definitely deserve a post (see RNIB Black Lion Pub Quiz post here read-for-rnib-pub-quiz-thanks-and-photos), so again hope to feature them in a proper post with photos in due course.

Now to the last thank you of this post, it's to Le, Nba and Nimah of the Sensation Café in Fitzrovia.

Lunch hour midweek in the West End of London is fairly manic in all eateries, particularly places doing fast takeaway food for people in offices.  

However, you walk into the Sensation and you are greeted by three beaming smiles and calm descends. 

Le is behind the counter making up the food and taking the orders.  I had a seriously wicked Báhn mi (a Vietnamese sandwich in a baguette).

Lovely, (shy), Nimah was behind him on drinks and I had a good latte.  I think she thought I was mad taking their photos!

and then Nba (I hope I've got all your names right), is everywhere, serving, clearing, smiling and making sure everything's as it should be.  

An oasis of calm (good food) and smiles in the middle of London.  What can be bad?!

So thank you to everyone above and thumbs up for making all our (London) lives that bit better.

Do you want to say thank you to anyone?  Well this is the place to do it.

If you would like to write a post to thank someone or tell us something nice that happened just get in touch and we would love to hear from you and to spread the thanks.  You don't have to know how to do the formatting and stuff, we'll help you with all that.  We just need some words and preferably some nice smiley photos.  (don't forget to ask if you can take them).  This blog is for you, somewhere for you to have your say.  Thanks.

A Guest Post from Anne Clarke - THANK YOU TO CRICKLEWOOD

Having thought about writing a guest blog a fortnight ago, I've been rolling around in my head who I'd like to thank. 

There  are simply so many it's difficult to know where to begin. I could thank my very patient family for forever putting up with my busy life, 

I could thank the shopkeepers who go the extra mile and sweep their bit of Cricklewood Lane  

Cricklewood Lane

or my friends and neighbours who take the time to listen and look after each other. 

But, it occurs to me, these people are my community. These people build each other up while maintaining the things we all share from green spaces to schools.  So a big thank you and thumbs up to them all.

The name of this blog is EverdayFolk. I've had the song Everyday People by Arrested Development in my head for over a week, (YouTube - Arrested Development). Everyday people make the community what it is. 

Living in Cricklewood, our community comes from all over the world and bring a wealth of lived experiences and talents. Our communities are forever changing; some people live their whole lives in Cricklewood, some people's parents met at The Galtymore,

(photo courtesy of BRING-BACK-THE-GALTYMORE-NITECLUB Facebook Group) 
others stay for a long while and some quickly come and go without getting to know the area at all well. Given that so many of us have families who live oceans away, it makes all the more sense for us to get to know each other and take an active interest in the wellbeing of our neighbours. 

The Clitterhouse Farm building dons a sign “watch this space”. I certainly am watching.

Who are these community builders? It's the people who give their time to plant and nurture our station garden, Swan Hill, the Clitterhouse Farm (The Clitterhouse Farm Project) and the Millennium Green

The orchard at Clitterhouse Farm

    Cricklewood station, now with community garden and the wonderful
@nw2_coffee serving delicious, locally roasted, fair trade coffee. 

Swan Hill, a tiny parcel of land between the railway bridge & the B&Q carpark.
This land has been overgrown for decades & a real eyesore.
The Cricklewood Town Team & NorthwestTwo Residents’ Association
cleared it,put some lovely wooden sleepers at the
bottom and planted it together with local volunteers. 

The Millennium Green is maintained fully by volunteers and there is a
community clean-up 14 July 2018. - millennium-green-cleanup-saturday-july-14

I want to say thank you and thumbs up to say many, too many to list but you know who you are.

The Cricklewood Town Team at the end of the annual Cricklewood Festival, summer 2018. We had another wonderful festival and installed a sheep on the green space. This green had been marked for development in the Brent Cross/Cricklewood Regeneration. A 5-year community battle against Barnet Council finally saw it listed as an Asset of Community Value. More here: https://www.northwesttwo.org.uk/green-space-asset-community-value/

It's also the Cricklewood Town Team who lovingly arrange community festivals and ensure that everyone is included. Governors of local schools give up countless hours of time pursuing the best possible outcomes for children.

So to our community gardeners, the Cricklewood Town Team and all our schools’ governers, a big thank you and thumbs up .

Loch Ness Monster, laid out by residents for the enjoyment
of children on the estate.

Further up Cricklewood Lane, is the Granville Road Estate  

Granville Road Estate flowers planted by residents,
set against the barrier which protects the new private development.

who pulled together while their green spaces were threatened with development. (twitter @GERANW2  They have lost many well fought battles but what can't be taken from them is community. They look after each other, care for the most vulnerable on the estate and celebrate their friendships with the Great Get-Together that took place on 23rd June, #TheBigLunch - there are some super photos on both @GERANW2's twitter page and their facebook page facebook.com/gera.  It's more than an estate, it's a community which can't be built nor destroyed by development.  A special thanks and thumbs up  to Anthony, Tracey and Deepa.  

In times of austerity with cuts everywhere we look, it's easy to want to give up and look for the negative. Communities don't give up, there's far too much to be lost that way.  

So to all communities sticking together and promoting the positive, thank you and thumbs up     

                                    Anne Clarke was born and raised in Illinois, she came to London in 1998.

She is a member of the Cricklewood Town Team

 and NorthwestTwo and she is involved with local schools. 

In 2018, Anne was elected as a ward councillor for Childs Hill.
Anne lives in her very favourite place in the world, Cricklewood.

She can be found on twitter at @anne_clarke

The sunshine helps

Well we're still having lovely sunny days in London and oh, what a difference it makes to everyone's mood; people are happy to say hello and linger.

I'm getting nice reactions to the blog as well, a lot of people asking if I will thank so and so on their behalf and, except for my mum, I'm trying to avoid this as I really want it to be your voice on the posts and comments, not mine.  But moving on.....

I got home late last night to find one of those annoying red cards from Post Office on the door-mat telling me they had tried to deliver a parcel that's too big for the letter box.  Normally I really hate going to the Cricklewood Royal Mail Sorting Office as it's in the absolute opposite direction to my normal route in to work and a mile's walk on top.  But this morning, with the sun shining down, I didn't mind at all.

When I got there, instead of some pimply youth who won't make eye contact, I met the very nice Sunny, who, before he was in the office, was a postman on my route and he asked about all the old neighbours, remembering both them and their house numbers.

So, Sunny, may I offer you a big thumbs up
for starting my day off with such a nice smiley chat and for making Childs Hill feel even more like a real community.  

Later on when I was on the bus, there was this young man, probably in his twenties.  There wasn't anything "wrong" with him but he obviously doesn't understand normal, recognised social boundaries.

His name was Sam and he was introducing himself to everyone around him, be they white grand-fathers, black middle aged men, young Indian mothers or Malaysian students.  He told us where he lived, he wanted us all to stay in touch and drop in on him, he asked for our mobile numbers.  Not unsurprisingly, not only did no one write down Sam's address but they didn't proffer theirs.

What was sad, was that the young Indian mother, when Sam got off the bus, told me she'd been scared by him. 

Even though I'm doing this blog and trying to see the good where I can, I have to admit to also not wanting to "engage" with him in conversation so I have to give myself, and all the others on the bus, a thumbs down .  Sam on the 46, if you ever read this, I apologise.

To close this post, I'll just remind you all again, this is your pin-board, you can send me yours posts or comments, preferably positive ones and preferably with nice accompanying photographs, and I'll put them up here.  Oh, and one other thing, if you are reading this, tell others.  Let's spread the "nice".

Thanks for reading.