AndrewP

I cycled from ED to Horseferry Road in SW1 (4.5 miles each way) on a Trek Hybrid for about 8 years. My journey took about 25 mins in the morning (Lyndhurst Way, Southampton Way, Portland Street, back of Elephant & Castle), but 30 mins in the evening as I was tired, but I came back along Camberwell New Road which has a useful bus lane. I enjoyed the commute and it certainly kept me fit without the need to have to go to a gym (I'm lazy). My main cycling tips are to: - avoid cycling too fast to reduce the chances of either hitting a car or pot hole; - get kevlar lined tyres fitted (they do not cost that much extra) to significantly reduce the number of tyre punctures that you will inevitably will get; - but learn how to mend your own tyre punctures - practice makes perfect; - use fingerless cycling gloves - they keep your hands and fingers just as warm as normal gloves, but they don't require you to take them off to do other things when you are not cycling. The cheapest place that I found for major servicing the Trek was Dialabike in Strutton Ground, SW1. However 18 months ago I took up motorcycling and haven't looked back. Although biking (as opposed to cycling) is seen as being more dangerous (and as a Department of Transport civil servant I know all the statistics!), I feel much much less vulnerable on the Suzuki in traffic than on a push bike. When I used to cycle I tended to find myself hemmed into the side of the road in busy traffic and was always concerned that some idiot car or lorry driver would plough into the back of me. On the Suzuki, I can position the bike in the centre of the road and know that no one can get past me, especially given the bike's quick acceleration. It also provides a great means of transport for long journeys. I am moving jobs to Hammersmith soon (8.5 miles each way) and on the Suzuki it will take about 25 minutes without a sweat, as opposed to around 50 minutes on a push bike and a very large sweat. Taking into account 'recovery time' on the Trek, the Suzuki will save me almost 1 hour per day. The 10 year old Trek is still going strong. I regularly take it out for a spin at weekends with the kids and find that my enjoyment of cycling is now much stronger as I don't associate it with the daily grind of having to commute. I guess I feel a slight twinge of regret in no longer cycling each day to work, but this is far outweighed by the benefits of motorcycling.

The white population may be increasing, but it may be getting more diverse if the increase is due to more non-British whites i.e. West and East Europeans, Antipodeans, S Africans etc. I suspect that there has been a big increase in people from these areas in recent years.

Tandoori Nights on Saturday, without any unwanted smoke from others, was heaven. The vindaloo was rather good too! I have to say that the smoking ban was one of TB's few successful policies. Generally I think it is a bit too early to gauge the main impact of the ban. At present the relatively warm weather means smokers congregate outside pubs and someone you have to wade through the clouds to get into a pub. But come November, when its dark, raining and cold in the evenings, I guess the smokers will have to either drink without a puff, or stay at home.

Get a motorbike. You won't regret it. Journey times are very reliable, they're cheap to run and great fun. From ED you can get to Old Street in about 15-20 minutes.

The quickest (about 50 minutes), easiest and most pleasant route (takes you through Hyde Park) is: - go down Camberwell New Road - bear right at Oval Cricket Ground (either immediately before or after the ground) - go round the Oval and turn right (or left if you turned right after the ground) up Vauxhall Street - go across Kennington Lane and turn left on to Black Prince Road - turn right on to Albert Embankment and left on to Lambeth Bridge - go straight down Horseferry Road and turn left onto Artillery Row - cross over Victoria Street and go down Buckingham Gate - turn right and go round front of Buckingham Palace - use cycle path to get across Hyde Park Corner - cycle inside Hyde Park (parallel to Park Lane) on cycle path/round round to Lancaster Gate - turn left on to Bayswater Road and follow road all the way to Holland Park roundabout - go across to SB green and up Wood Lane. Hope this helps

Last week Southwark Council approved a ?5m redevelopment of Dulwich Leisure Centre See http://www.southwark.gov.uk/Public/NewsArticle.aspx?articleId=21458 No it's not the 1st April.

Mark The LSE/DfES report you refer to only looks at faith-based primary schools. EDEN is campaigning for a secondary school. It is not at all obvious to me that the conclusions from LSE/DfES report apply to secondary schools. Has a similar study been carried out on secondary schools? Andrew

Whilst I support the EDEN campaign, their stance on this is a bit baffling - results from Church run schools are significantly better than secular ones.

If you go to Peckham Multiplex on Monday's you are paying about 1/3 of the cost of Surreys Quays. And any other night you are paying around half the price of SQ. Seems a no brainer to me, given that the seats, sound, screen size are comparable to SQ. I've never had any trouble at Peckham.

St Johns and St Clements CofE Primary in Adys Road is also very good. Three of my children are really happy there and are learning to a good standard. The Head is very impressive. I think these 3 factors are the most important in relation to a school. But you can also check out: - school performance results at Department for Education and Skills web site - just type in the school's post code; - school spection reports at Ofsted's web site - click on Primary Schools, then Greater London, then Southwark.

We used to find red rubber bands on the pavements when we lived in Ulverscroft Road, but are free of them in Oglander.

Peckham Multiplex is a billiant cinema - you can nearly always get a seat, even on opening nights of big blockbusters. The tickets are still ?2.99 on Mondays, ?3.99 on all other days before 7pm and ?4.50 after 7pm. And of course its 2 for 1 on Wednesdays if you are an 'Orange' customer. See Peckham Multiplex