Regular readers know about how my REAL wall recently fell foul of local council restrictions on business waste disposal.

In what may well be the final chapter to this long running saga, local magazine Westside have covered the story for the second month with a quote from a Hammersmith and Fulham council official.

Again, the magazine have reported the story in a humour-free, irony-free way, no quotes from me and none of your protest post, which is a massive disappointment, especially as I had taken the story to them almost fully written, including scans of your postcards and I was on the phone to them giving them priceless quotes.

They called and asked for my response and I said "I look forward to seeing some post from the council on my wall soon" but nothing at all from me.

A wasted story opportunity.

my REAL wall pays a visit to Hammersmith Town Hall, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

A windy Sunday in London and I finally had a chance to get your protest post together and take a walk down to the Town Hall in King Street, Hammersmith.

This was the address on the letter from the council, where I was told to "furnish my documents", following their demand that my REAL wall pay business rates foro rubbish disposal, so I thought I would come down to the town hall and "furnish" it as they asked.

I must confess that I thought that if the conditions had been a little better this could have been a better shot. It was so windy and I went down there on my own and the cards kept blowing off, so I had to keep chasing them down the street in case anyone working weekends in the council offices saw me and accused me of littering.

If anything, I was only sad that this little gem from Lorraine Kwan never arrived, but all of this protest post will be sent to the council in a fancy envelope this week, so watch this space!

Westside Magazine December 2009, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

This months press coverage is in a local magazine called Westside

The write-up is on page 10, under a headline about the local library running out of books.

I have to confess I don't particularly like this write-up. I wrote a full write-up of the incident and they've pretty much left out the facts and written up a pretty poor, humourless article. There's no mention of my REAL wall, the headline screams that the council have actually levied the fine, which they haven't and the picture is a generic pic not one that I sent. I'm most miffed that your protest mail hasn't made it into print anywhere too, which is a real shame.

Oh well, any publicity is better than nothing I guess, and I've finally got some time to get your protest post to the council this weekend, so watch this space.

my REAL wall - Protest Tree, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

I got a bit of a shock call today from the editor at Westside magazine, who called to say that she was writing the article that is due for the December edition today!

It seems that my REAL wall vs Hammersmith council will indeed make the December paper and online editions, but the edit date was much sooner than I thought.

As a result, I decided to quickly try and get in the protest post from you that I have already received. Over my lunch break I ran outside to the rock garden and found an appropriate Bonsai sized tree and set about sticking all your protest mail to it.

This is the REAL wall I sent in, a protest tree with protest mail from RejinL, Mark B, Ruud Jansen, TicTac, Dumpsterdiversanonymous, and Okadascat.

Not sure what exactly what pictures the paper are going to run with, but I'm just happy I brought all your mail to work today. All these pieces and all the pieces I have seen online, like this awesome one from Lorraine Kwan and this piece of social commentary from Feltypants as well as the hilarious footballing one emailed from Neil G, are now in the editors hands in digital form, so let's see what the magazine do in December!

But don't stop sending in, as I'm going to push for even more press coverage, following the revelation that local councils are using actually anti-terrorist legislation to snoop on their residents! This may have some way left to go yet...

As regular follwers of my REAL wall already know, we had a little trouble from the council recently, who are convinced that this bit of international postcard fun is a business.

I thought I'd send them a little message courtesy of the people at Nokia, who filmed me yesterday at Tower Bridge for their next viral advertising campaign, and I thought I would use the opportunity to make a small announcement to the council and to thank all my super fans from around the world who have sent post for my REAL wall.

Here's what me and Elena saw when we turned up at Tower Bridge for the filming of the Nokia advert yesterday at about 4pm.

A 50ft screen shaped like an arrow was hanging from a crane advertising Nokia maps.

I was scheduled to have the message

"Thanks to all the people who have sent post to my REAL wall. The council will never get us!"

The filming started later than expected and the light was not great by the time the shooting started, and the message had been edited so that by the time it went out it lost a lot, so consider this an insider gag to fans of my REAL wall.

The final message read

"To all the postcard senders"



"From around the world" (We missed that one - the message wasn't up very long and I was busy being filmed)

"You are all fantastic!"



"The council will never stop us!"



"by Andy Hoang"



I was a little miffed that the words "my REAL wall" were unceremoniously dropped (it was too late to do much about it at the time) and the filming took place so late with such poor light I don't hold much hope of it being screened, but I will be sending the pics to some local papers to make sure that the pen-pushing jobsworth who sent me the demand letter gets the message...

my REAL wall in the local paper, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

We made it into the paper! This screenshot comes from the online edition of this weeks Hammersmith and Kensington Times, where my REAL wall, yours truly and your postcards are the prominent headline on page 3.

Thanks for all your outstanding contributions and a new REAL wall featuring the paper to follow soon!

UPDATE - The online version of this story was the top story on the website for nearly a week. See the full online text here

my REAL wall - 1 October 2009 - Pay your taxes!, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

This week among the other post I received I got one from Hammersmith and Fulham council, demanding that I declare my REAL wall as a business and pay for waste disposal for my REAL wall at business rates.

Clearly the postman has reported that I'm getting a whole lot of mail delivered, and the council probably have spies out looking for that sort of thing I guess.

Anyway, as is normal for anything that appears in my postbox, the demand letter from the council is now up on my REAL wall for all of you to enjoy.

Think I might send them a mailart postcard collage in return, probably made up of rubbish in the style of Dumpsterdiversanonymous. See what they make of that.