What's all this, then? This is Casino Avenue, my little journal/ weblog/ ranting thing. Welcome aboard. Sit down, take a seat, and enjoy a glass of Ribena, why don't you? It's partly-written to rant in, partly written as entertainment, partly a forum for discussion. Well, that's what I'll tell my mum when she finds out about this.

Who the bloody hell are you? Well... I'm a season-ticket holder at "well-run small Premiership club" Charlton Athletic. I spend a lot of my life moaning about public transport, pubs, politics, and the rest of the human race, and there's a lot of that in here. My star-sign is Leo, and I have blue eyes. I work in the media, look young for my age, and I try my best not to be a media arsehole. In fact, I might not be who you think I am. I try to stay as anonymous as possible. While obviously what I do for a living's going to impact on what I write, this isn't a website about my work - because that'd be boring. Really, it'd be bloody tedious. Nothing in it has anything to do with my various employers or their views whatsoever. So there.

Do you know anything about football, then? No. But that doesn't stop me maintaining All Quiet In The East Stand as a sister site devoted to issues about and beyond Charlton Athletic.

This Inspector Sands character? Inspector Sands is a code used by transport operators to alert staff to the fact a security alert may be about to take place. It derives from a Mr Sands code used in theatres (as in "bucket of"). Search the uk.transport.london newsgroup for more.

Why all this local nonsense? I live in Charlton, which is by the river in south-east London, between Greenwich and Woolwich. I was brought up around here, and I stayed around because I like it here. As well as my hugely exciting life, I'm trying to reflect a few issues about living in this area in this journal too - like the lack of affordable housing and the shocking transport network, the Dome cock-up, that bloody stupid shopping park off Bugsbys Way and why most of Blackheath's pubs are crap. Come on, they are, aren't they?

After all, there's no decent local paper and no real discussion going on about some of the huge changes that are taking place around here. So if you're from the area as well, please stay and contribute.

Can I find out more? I suppose I should link to one of the Greenwich sites so you can find out more about this area. But they're all absolutely dreadful, and aimed at thicko Yanks who are going to spend five minutes here. But I can recommend the fantastic Ideal Homes for a thorough primer about the area's history, while this home-grown site has some interesting stuff about Charlton if you really want to find out more. One day, I might even do my own.

What's with the name? Oh yes. Casino Avenue is the name myself and a couple of friends had for an indie club we were going to run a few years ago. Needless to say the idea fell apart, not helped by one of the people behind it growing up and getting married. And one of the others trying to sleep with his sister. But the name stuck, and now I've got a use for it - the domain was bought on my behalf by somebody far cooler than me as a present a few years back.. It's the name of a street in Herne Hill, by the way, and should you fancy a visit, it's the terminus of the number 42 bus from Aldgate.

Hope you enjoy nosing around this site. If you'd like to e-mail me, feel free to do it from my new address here - watch the anti-spam guff.