黑洞社区

How do you design a barricade?

I hear there was trouble at the RIBA last Friday, as peace-loving beatniks descended on the neighbouring Chinese embassy to protest against Beijing鈥檚 hosting of the Olympic Games. Urgent internal missives were sent warning RIBA staff to avoid visiting the building to avoid the throng. It鈥檚 a good thing nobody told the protesters that Sunand 鈥淏usiness Class鈥� Prasad and 鈥淛unket Jack鈥� Pringle were soon off to Beijing to 鈥渇oster cross-cultural links鈥�, or it might have been No 66 that the crowd turned their wrath on.

Boris, Beijing and the Barracuda

The Barracuda Bar in the City of London opened its doors at 7.30 on Monday morning as Tom Daley competed in his first event in Beijing. Family, friends and media gathered to watch the ridiculously famous 14-year-old diver, but the man describing himself as mayor of London was conspicuously absent. 鈥淭here鈥檚 still hope Boris might change his mind and show support,鈥� said one bystander halfway through. 鈥淲e thought the offer of an all-you-can-eat fry-up may have swayed it.鈥� But alas, the sausage sarnies failed to lure Boris from his lair. 鈥淚 hear his response was 鈥楽even-bloody-thirty? You must be joking!鈥欌€� said another guest.

Balfour in taxi shuttle shock

Taxis 鈥� as readers are no doubt aware 鈥� are a mode of transport close to my heart. So it鈥檚 good to hear that Balfour Beatty staff will be relying on them a whole lot more over the next three years. As part of its 拢350m upgrade of Blackfriars station in central London, the company is to close it until 2011. This is annoying for us hacks, who are based right next to the site, but worse for Balfour managers a few floors below, who use Blackfriars to shuttle back and forth to their base in Victoria. According to one employee it鈥檚 going to be either taxis or bikes from now on. I have a sneaking suspicion I know which they鈥檒l choose 鈥�

Steady as she sinks

I slipped into my deck shoes last week for a day鈥檚 sailing with Franklin + Andrews during Cowes week off the Isle of Wight. We weren鈥檛 actually racing, but I must applaud those who were, above all contractor Dean & Dyball, whose boat won two of the event鈥檚 races 鈥� which is most fitting for a builder of Olympic sailing facilities. I wish I could say the same for all those present. The sight of a Royal Bank of Scotland yacht coincided with news that it had just made a first-half loss of 拢692m. Suspicions of a leak on board were unconfirmed 鈥�

Wetting their whiskers

Normally construction sites are places where fur tends to fly as opposed to being stroked smoothly into position, so I feel proud to report that a soft-hearted builder on an HBG site in Milton Keynes recently helped save a cat and her six kittens. They were rescued from an area that was due to be bricked up, so obviously the kitten, whose mewing attracted the site鈥檚 own Dr Dolittle, was named 鈥淟ucky鈥�. The names given to Lucky鈥檚 siblings are rather more revealing, though: they are variously Toffee, Sparkle, Whisky, Toddy and Bailey. Clearly the site workers were in celebratory mood.

Do it if you Cannes

To continue the cycling theme of this week鈥檚 issue, it has been brought to my attention that, if watching, reading and talking about cycling wasn鈥檛 enough for you, you can also participate. Yes, that鈥檚 right 鈥� Peter Murray is calling all budding Nicole Cookes and Chris Hoys to enter his annual cycle to Cannes, which is a mere 1,500km away.

And if you still have the energy, you can write about it on our new cycling forum at building.co.uk/cycleforum. Email C2C@wordsearch.co.uk for info about the 5-10 March 2009 trip to Cannes if you dare.