h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Before I went up the road to shop for food..I had planned my today's entry. That'll have to wait until tomorrow.



Up the road from me I have a variety of traditional shops like butchers, green grocers, a big old bakery..and my favourite the fishmongers. It's brilliant.

I haven't been up there on a Saturday morning for sometime. But today, oh god, nice middle class types; and they were everywhere.; so inoffensive in the way they are dressed and talk. Ever so slightly plummy.not too much..just a bit.

Some already moved into my street..a very few but some. You immediately see the difference in the tasteful frosting of the front windows.no nets in sight..tidy front yards..despite the forest of multi coloured re-cycling bins. Privet hedges kept perfectly clipped..

Look I know I'm bigging up a stereotype..but really these people *do* exist..and they are invading my area at an alarming rate

Poorer people are having to move out to poorer parts of Peckham..or just are dying.

The Jeremies and Sophies..are grabbing these nice terraced Victorian places dirt cheap..and doing them up tastefully. Ghettoisation is happening slowly.

I don't mind a few..but really this morning there were whole platoons of them milling about. It's a saturday thing.

And a few really old boarded up or cruddy shops selling car parts or seconhand furniture are changing.

The very worst is this delicatessen..called 'bambuni' It's very spartan inside with a small collection of expensive continental cheeses; expensive wines..actually over priced is closer..and some sort of coffee shop area..selling something called 'Coffee from Volcano'


Look I know I'm giving these people a hardtime..and after all they are so unrelentingly 'nice'.

But this is the very CRUX for me. They simply do not know how to behave. They are rude in the extreme in their inoffensiveness.

They are ignoring the culture here...contemptuously.

They will NOT look you in the eye..they look down or away.
They will NOT speak straight back at you..but mumble from their throats..looking embarased at the idea of talking to a stranger...cluthching at their brat..grabbing onto their knee

Eventually you will get a very watery smile. You will NOT get normal warmth like we do here.

They will be exceedingly anxious to get away from you as soon as possible, in case they catch some sort of Peckham infection...but of course they will NEVER say this is Peckham..this is NUNHEAD area

I better stop. Maybe come back to this later on in the month..when I've calmed down..

(I have one hope.maybe most come from nearby gentrified areas..as its a saturday).

Is there a high street brand coffee shop yet? You know when one of those opens that the area is "up and coming".

Deb

Oh god no. There's nothing branded in Nunhead Lane. It's not a high street. It's not a lane either..it's like a old fashioned village area. But all the shops have been there for ever..the fishmongers started in the 1950s..everything else is just old fashioned south east London..that's why the delicatesen had to be so poncy.

That's the problem we were an abberation..well we still are for now. But these people just discovered us.probably there was some silly tv thing about it for all I know. It's a time warp.

Peckham is truly weird. Go one way a mile and your in hell on earth..another and its almost..back to the 1950s..with all the old fashioned family shops still in business.

The only thing saving us is the dreaded name Peckham..but now these new people always say Nunhead.

It's all very complicated.

Ahh, know exactly what you mean - my family is a bit like that - even the "radicals" - we dont talk about - we dont see -
now supposing our media is run by people like that -- what a terryfying thought ------------------------------------------
Every so often i meet refugees - people who suddenly realise that no one will miss them, that all of a sudden all they do and are is taking up space - they want out.