Remember loyal and distinguished Clapton Pond Blog reader Glyn? He tells me that when using his usual web browser, Opera, this blog appears in a "dark, dark brown" colour with the photos and hyperlinks visible but none of the text. When he switches to Firefox, though, it's fine. "Weird," says Glyn, "This hasn't happened on any other website I use - just yours..."
I told Glyn it's because I'm special. Not sure what anyone else's explanation is.
Yes, that's me on page nine of the latest Hackney Today. And, no, I haven't looked at it yet. (Big baby, see).
This is a Christmas card - a really lovely one, in my opinion. It was designed by my Clapton neighbour Becky George, who makes and sells them too. Her range also includes holly, bells, stars, Santas...yer basic seasonal favorites. If you want to buy some, you can contact Becky here. If you want to receive one from me, email an address and I'll oblige (as long as I like the sound of you). And now I'm off to buy a job lot of stamps.
Former British and European super-middleweight champion James Cook will next month receive an MBE for his work at the Pedro Club in Rushmore Road. The Sun's boxing correspondent Colin Hart reports:
"At face value it doesn’t sound as if [Cook is] doing anything special or even out of the ordinary. After all, hundreds of men are doing similar jobs at youth clubs throughout the country. But the big difference between Cook and the rest is that he is operating in an area of Hackney in East London known as ‘murder mile’. Feral teenagers armed with knives and guns roam the streets at night, shooting and stabbing each other. They don’t think twice about killing as they go about their business dealing in drugs and protecting their territory. Cook, a former British and European super-middleweight champion, lives in the middle of this urban warzone."
Urban warzone? Well, yes and no, Colin. Yes and no! Anyway, sincere congratulations to James for being awarded his gong. The rest of the Sun's story is here, and there's a really good piece about James and his work at Boxing Monthly.
I shop more and more often at Palm 2, my local mini-market by the Pond. That's partly because of a pledge I made to use my local shops a bit more and Tesco a bit less but mostly because the boss here is so friendly and nice. As you can see from this picture I took of him on Saturday morning, he's always striving for improvement. It really is high time I knew his name. Watch this space. Or if you know it, pass it on.
Sixthborn's friend Aisling was five today. Gentle sunshine. Excellent cake.
...passing the Pond, with style.
Yesterday, Steve and Becky (she's the one in glasses: the other woman is her sister) moved out of the house next door to mine after buying it - incredibly, for just £34,000 - 24 years ago. For the last 15 of those they have fed my cats - even when I wasn't on holiday, I'm afraid - lent me ladders, helped me extinguish a fire in my garden and generally been brilliant neighbours. Now that their son and Becky's nephew, who she and Steve raised as their own, have flown the nest it seems that the time felt right to move on. We're going to miss them. We will also miss Becky's mum Barbara playing the piano when she came to stay. But maybe they'll keep in touch, if only by reading this blog. Good luck to them both.
Following this post about the remarkable Henry Allingham, Britain's oldest man, I received an email from his grandson politely informing me that Henry had not, in fact, been born in Clapton as I wrote, but in Clapham! The diligent grandson had even been to the trouble of asking Henry himself, just to make sure. I hope all concerned will accept my sincere apologies for this error. That'll teach me to believe Sky News.
I've just discovered, quite by accident, that Britain's oldest man was born in Clapton. Looking further, I learn from the Council website that the first bomb dropped on Britain during World War I, of which Mr Allingham is an honoured veteran, landed in Hackney. Read more about him here and here and here.
This is KJ, photographed last month at the inaugural Millfields Market. She makes patchwork brooches of the type she's wearing and also scarves and cushions using vintage fabrics and buttons acquired from charity shops, kindly donors, whatever source she can. As well as Millfields she runs stalls at Spitalfields and Brick Lane. KJ has lived in Clapton for ten years and is a resident of Powerscroft Road. If you want to more about the lovely stuff she makes or have materials she could make use of, you can contact her here.
This time last week the Millfields Market was taking place. I arrived at 1.00 ready to spend, spend, spend in a good cause but ended up doing more talking than shopping (well, the company was outstanding: blogger Ben Locker; Maggie, head of Haggerston; the legendary Jennifer Tobias; all sorts of dodgy journalists). Some of my talking, though, was to stallholders. I'll be introducing you to a few of them in the coming weeks. I'm going to start with Gillian Best because I'm rather proud of the largest photo here - a triumph by my extremely low standards. 
Gillian, who studied textiles at the University of Ulster, handknits toys and clothes for babies. Click on the smaller pictures to see the lovely hats and shoes she makes. When she's not knitting and trading at markets, Gillian works in computer animation. She's a resident of Fletching Road and can be contacted via gillyb1@aol.com. It's a talented neighbourhood.