What have I missed since February 13th?
While you were all receiving a dozen red roses and gambolling in the still public forests, what did West Hampstead have to say for itself?
Local actress Jessica Hynes joined the campaign to save Charteris Sports Centre.
There’s a Kilburn Book Club launching: first meeting is March 3rd at the Black Lion.
Initial reports of a body found by the Brondesbury Medical Centre on the Kilburn High Road turned out to be a serious assault.
The north-west London graffiti fox story makes the Ham & High.
Admin and gas installation problems will delay the opening of Ladudu, the new Vietnamese restaurant on West End Lane.Now looking at April or May. Sainsbury’s Local meanwhile looks like it’s less than a week away from opening. The sign is very bright.
West Hampstead gets one of its fire engines back.
Camden published its budget and council tax report. [pdf]
Cllr Mike Katz argues that Camden is wrong to propose closure of Acol’s children’s centre:
In Sport, Hampstead Cricket Club’s indoor team have made the South East England Regional final, beating Merrow from Surrey by 93 runs.
West Hampstead Wanderers lost to the impressive Kilburn Wizards.
Coming up this week:
Friends of West Hampstead Library has been reinvigorated in light of the threat to local libraries. There’s a meeting for restarting FOWHL on February 22nd at 7.30 at the library of course.
Swiss Cottage Safer Neighbourhoods public meeting on February 22nd 7-8.30pm at Crossfield Centre, Fairhazel Gardens.
Swiss Cottage Safer Neighbourhoods drop-in surgery on February 23rd 11am-1pm at the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre.
West Hampstead Safer Neighbourhoods street briefing on February 27th 2-4pm outside O2 Sainsburys.
Tweet of the Week
Tough choice this week, we had some classics, but the winner is this public service announcement from Moya
There’s been one big story all week. Twitter went a bit snow crazy at the first sign of flakes on Wednesday morning. Just after 9am the first reports of NW6 snow appeared although it was 20 minutes before West Hampstead had its first snowflakes. 
The localised nature of the snowfall meant that some were seeing snow while others were only reading about it.
It was almost 10am before Digest confirmed a snowflake sighting. 
Of course snow evokes many different emotions. 
More snow fell on Thursday evening – this time more impressively triggering reports of flickering lights and a dodgy TV reception for whampers.
There was some hope of a snow day on Friday, but ’twas not to be. 
Of course the puppy-dog excitement of snow soon turned to discussion and complaints about gritting roads and transport headaches. #whampsnow
Electioneering begins in earnest
No sooner had 
Thoughts as to who was behind the @not.. account flew around but as yet no obvious candidate has appeared. #whampvote
Although of course this is not a straightforward option from everyone’s perspective. For many people it seems that clear communication around what work is being done when, and WHY it’s taking so long would all help ease the animosity towards TfL. As 
Darker Shores: Panto for grown-ups?
West Hampstead’s discerning diners were at 
Jubilee Line delays continue to 2010
Tuesday’s West Hampstead ward meeting presented another opportunity for FCC and Network Rail to hear locals’ concerns about the new ticket office although apparently the session did not cover the topic. Instead, rail representatives were available for discussion before the meeting started.
Changing rooms
The racing green empty property at 149 Broadhurst Gardens is being refitted. This quickly triggered the usual reaction to any possible new retail operation.
A call to the agents revealed the truth.
That news didn’t sit well with everyone.
A reminder that there’s also a whisky & cigar shop opening in Broadwell Parade, raising the prospect of a fragrant walk to the tube for local residents.
The new supermarket at 194 Broadhurst Gardens is yet to open, but signs have gone up revealing some of the treats that wait in store. #whampshop
First Whamplunch finds the mark
Bizarre tweets from Elephant Walk
Exciting tie-up with The Winch
First Capital Connect is never far from the news at the moment. Its timetable continues to be a work of fiction as staff work to rule. It has got to the stage where 
Saturday saw traffic chaos outside the O2 centre as a combination of lane closures and a broken-down car led to lengthy delays. 
Two hours later, the sporadic distribution of fireworks hadn’t changed. In just 8 minutes Digest received these three:
The stretch of West End Lane from Iverson Road to Broadhurst Gardens is particularly narrow, with three different buses ploughing down it and pedestrians frequently crossing at any opportunity. Accidents here are too frequent:
Cycle accidents in London are on the rise, as more of us turn to two wheels in the wake of high public transport ticket prices. Ride carefully! #whamptravel
But Councillor Keith Moffitt quietly dropped a bombshell earlier in the week. Details were not forthcoming. I think we all dread to imagine. #whamptravel
It wasn’t long, however, before the novelty of life in the dark began to wear off.
Power was restored the following morning but dropped out again later that day. Let’s hope Cllr Keith Moffitt delivers on his tweeted promise. #whampower
It’s not a positive result for everyone. Joule the jewellers has to move, as Network Rail owns its property and it will fall victim to the pavement widening scheme. Joule has notices of protestation in its window. Full details of the overall Thameslink programme 
The Alice House agreed to give us the same space again. Negotiations over any free drinks will take place nearer the time, but the signs are encouraging. The immediate reaction was positive, and numbers should be good.
For any confused readers:
The Wet Fish Café has generously agreed to donate a prize of a meal for two. The winner will be drawn from a list of attendees on Dec 10. #whampgather
The first ever whampgather took place on Monday 12th at 
No awkward silences meant no time for the “Rename whampgather” competition, and the consensus was that we should stick to whampgather. Therefore, the draw to win an NW6 t-shirt from 
Whampgather excitement lingered late into the week as 
There’s also professional music at The Railway, Lately, and even Pizza Express. Talking of which, 
BBC Travel confirmed the road closure but, as the excitement wound down, residents still weren’t entirely sure what had happened. It wasn’t until later in the week that we got updates from 
All the drama led to an exchange the next morning over the crime rate in West Hampstead. @WHConservatives said crime in the area was on the rise. When @Whampstead challenged this stance (which one person had criticized as “
Of course the flooding was a problem for local businesses too, but not all handled it as well as some of you might have hoped for.
None of this is new, as 
But no longer will they slurp their coffee in Caffé West as the news broke that the house this year is in Golders Green. 
Fans had already tracked down the property and there were photos in the press the next day of the place being beseiged by fans. The police now have to spend resources controlling people like this person who fruitlessly begged @WHampstead for the location.
However, 
