Recession? The place was throbbing all day; the PHO restaurant had long queues. Hundreds in Apple. I shopped in M&S, bought some nice shorts on sale; got paperback Dark Materials (want to read the three again - still not in E Book format); got the car washed; looked around the new Foyles there.

when you think about it..Westfields were ideal for the UK because of the weather similar in an opposite way to OZ..cavernous air-conditioned places to spend almost a day in with cinemas coffee shops etc.

My problem with them : without a doubt they are wrecking High Street centres and I can go from one Westfield in Melbourne to one in Sydney or London and they're reproductions of each other for shops.

One thing that was always fantastic about Melbourne was it's shopping- a great city centre with wide streets and footpaths with trees and neat little back lanes...very Parisian and Soho in the old days and wonderful imported goods.

But gradually slipping away.

Can't change change though,

## the scientist who first hit the news about Global Warming 30 years ago says we're totally f^cked now anyway and most of the UK will be under water in a few 100 years so make the most of it.

I'm with you on the destruction of city centres and shopping gems Hedda but, as you say, you can't change change.

JK2006 wrote:
I'm with you on the destruction of city centres and shopping gems Hedda but, as you say, you can't change change.

Heavily patrolled shopping centres also "protect" the public from the "sort" that infect High Streets - slurping from lager cans.

In The Know wrote:
JK2006 wrote:
I'm with you on the destruction of city centres and shopping gems Hedda but, as you say, you can't change change.

Heavily patrolled shopping centres also "protect" the public from the "sort" that infect High Streets - slurping from lager cans.

yes we have them as well.

In The Know wrote:
JK2006 wrote:
I'm with you on the destruction of city centres and shopping gems Hedda but, as you say, you can't change change.

Heavily patrolled shopping centres also "protect" the public from the "sort" that infect High Streets - slurping from lager cans.

They should protect us from those giant mobility scooters as well.
they are a great help for disabled people getting around but do they have to be so huge? And so fast? And driven by maniacs? (it nearly happened again today only I leaped out of the way. I am going to be ranting about this for weeks! )

honey!oh sugar sugar. wrote:
They should protect us from those giant mobility scooters as well.
they are a great help for disabled people getting around but do they have to be so huge? And so fast? And driven by maniacs? (it nearly happened again today only I leaped out of the way. I am going to be ranting about this for weeks! )

Oh dear, honey! - I once mentioned mobility scooters and started WW3 !

They have to be so large to carry the weight of their huge occupants.
As they never move about at all, no excess is burnt and it turns to lard !
Six months in one of them and their legs will never work again !

It makes you wonder how the world survived before they were invented ... except we all know people survived because they got some exercise.

honey!oh sugar sugar. wrote:
In The Know wrote:
JK2006 wrote:
I'm with you on the destruction of city centres and shopping gems Hedda but, as you say, you can't change change.

Heavily patrolled shopping centres also "protect" the public from the "sort" that infect High Streets - slurping from lager cans.

They should protect us from those giant mobility scooters as well.
they are a great help for disabled people getting around but do they have to be so huge? And so fast? And driven by maniacs? (it nearly happened again today only I leaped out of the way. I am going to be ranting about this for weeks! )

i refuse to join in ITK's shocking anti-aged mobility challenged senior citizen campaign but an old bastard ran into me in the Bondi Westfield yesterday and kept driving ahead with a determined look on his gormless face.

spilt a milkshake all down my beautifully laundered shirt.

ITK should be a Mall Cop.

In The Know wrote:

It makes you wonder how the world survived before they were invented ...


Recently I was forced to spend an afternoon in the Nice Etoile Shopping Center - due to vile weather in the south of France. The centre is Nice's biggest and about half the size of the Westfield in West London.

During the three to four hours there, we didn't see ONE disabled person - although the place was thronged, and no mobility scooters or wheelchairs. Ramps and disabled access points were non-existant.

Presumably, France has approximately the same levels of disabled as we have - but they don't seem to prioritise their needs as much as we do. Disabled facilities are a condition of planning permissions here,for buildings.

In France, it seems that no such rules exist - and, in the UK, there are about 300,000 mobility scooters, the latest number in any European country. When in the massive Vatican Museum in Rome, last year, I remember noting a distinct absence of disabled facilities also.

At least, we are making an effort and mobility scooters are a godsend to the infirm.

hedda wrote:
i refuse to join in ITK's shocking anti-aged mobility challenged senior citizen campaign but an old bastard ran into me in the Bondi Westfield yesterday and kept driving ahead with a determined look on his gormless face.

spilt a milkshake all down my beautifully laundered shirt.

..... in a hurry to collect the benefits ?

I rest my case, M'Lud

PS - Most users are clearly NOT senior citizens either - just fat lazy bastards !

In The Know wrote:
Most users are clearly NOT senior citizens either - just fat lazy bastards

You and I will get old and infirm soon.

We may need help to get out.

Is that wrong?

I wonder how many of these "old and infirm" people - a bit like the "disabled" who referee football matches when the DHSS isn't watching ! - would break into a sweat running like a greyhound if they saw £20 on the floor ahead ?

No answer!

You'll probably just sit at home, when you become infirm.

As you won't want people (like you) making comments - like yours - about you.

In The Know wrote:
I wonder how many of these "old and infirm" people - a bit like the "disabled" who referee football matches when the DHSS isn't watching ! - would break into a sweat running like a greyhound if they saw £20 on the floor ahead ?

She claimed she struggled to stand up, used a walking stick indoors and was dependent on a mobility scooter when she left the house.

But Department for Work and Pensions investigators saw her carrying a 32-inch TV, taking her dog for mile-and-a-half walks and carrying heavy shopping.

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/404872/UK-s-be...ar-hero-gets-NOTHING

But you will never sit on one - a mobility scooter?



No answer....

In The Know wrote:
hedda wrote:
i refuse to join in ITK's shocking anti-aged mobility challenged senior citizen campaign but an old bastard ran into me in the Bondi Westfield yesterday and kept driving ahead with a determined look on his gormless face.

spilt a milkshake all down my beautifully laundered shirt.

..... in a hurry to collect the benefits ?

I rest my case, M'Lud

PS - Most users are clearly NOT senior citizens either - just fat lazy bastards !

I think you would need to have certain amount of mobility to get into the scooter. Actually, you practically need a ladder to get into some of them!

A lot of disabilities are not obvious. I have a severe back injury and often can only hobble or not walk at all.

Nobody knows about it because I dont go out on a stretcher and the rest (most)of the time I am leaping round like a mountain goat.