Alex K

Thank you, Loz. Dulwich Hamlet was where Sainsbury's is; it moves onto green land, Sainsbury's is built. Dulwich Hamlet now is to shift to Greendale (the playing fields behind its present site); housing will be built. And so, step by step, no green land at all remains.

Maybe this ties in with the fate of Dulwich Hamlet Football Club. An Abbotswood Road neighbour told me today that DHFC's lease on the site has only a year to run -- and that they don't mean to renew it. Well! Wouldn't THAT open up a chunk of development land! Slice by slice, one at a time, and one day you look up and... the whole salami is gone. Anyhow, that aside, can anyone knowledgeable comment on the length of the DHFC lease and when it comes to an end?

Jess, I've learnt from your posting, and from the thread. I regret your loss and thank you for making it into something from which people like me can learn.

I hope that someone will post a photograph of the new gates.

Brendan, thanks for that suggestion. We've strained it several times. It's approaching the colour of Coca-Cola and... well, it's just OLD. Time for a new jug. Marmora Man, you are BRILLIANT. What a good idea! And, Elloriac, if your suggestions don't work out, I'll try MM's. Thank you all.

@dulwichmum: Oh dear. A friend who did a gap year on the Inuit Health Service somewhere circumpolar told me that the hardest thing to enjoy on home visits was "Eskimo ice cream". Dried blueberries and a dollop of -- Crisco. According to several Inuit matrons, "In the old times, it used to be seal blubber, but now we just get it out of the tin!" But this gets me no closer to learning how to dispose of used deep fat fryer oil. **sigh**

I like the bread idea. Waddling little steatorrheic robins!

If we were diesellers (dieselers?), fa-shure. But we queue for the petrol pumps like everyone else.

We love beetroot / parsnip / carrot crisps and hate paying for them at packaged-crisp prices. So we bought a deep-fat fryer and now, a few weeks into the enterprise (and mercy!, those blue potatoes at Sainsburys fried up a treat), we have our first three-litre jug of molasses-coloured "used frying oil". I should feel very wicked if I poured it into the drains, or onto someone unsuspecting's allotment. Is there an East Dulwich Diesel Charity Drop-Off? What does one do with this stuff?

I say: VIVA CCTV !!! Without CCTV how would we know that Mary Bale is a secret cat-tormenter? (Of course, she IS from the Midlands.) Let us hope that none of US has anything so shameful to hide. Yes, I mean Midlands origin. For Heaven's sake, what did you think I meant?

@peterstorm: No geologist, me. But in UNDERGROUND TO EVERYWHERE (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Underground-Everywhere-Londons-Railway-Capital/dp/075092585X) I read that a cabal of railway interests, and not Mother Nature, prevented diggings on their South London patch -- securing mass-transport choice in this part of London to the railways then, now, and forevermore. I'd favour a Tube stop at Goose Green if it meant that a sushi bar would open around here. Otherwise, status quo is fine with me.

That's a shame, Tanza. Experiences like that, anecdotes like that, put everyone off trick-or-treating. You must have been in a rush when posting -- did you see the kids doing the spraying? -- sorry not to follow.

Well, they showed up, although they took their sweet time about it... a clot of seven or eight youngsters from the neighbourhood, and all enjoying themselves immensely. Hurrah! Their enjoyment let us enjoy ourselves too. The vegetable-marrow sculpture is in the compost bin; the Sainsbo treats destined for the ward sisters' desk, a spot frequented by junior doctors and suchlike. Locusts -- I bet the candy all will be gone by tomorrow. @Ladymuck: Don't get a reputation for handing out apples, boxes of raisins, and sugar-free chewing gum. Word passes quickly among children, and memories last at least a year -- in 2011 the savvy ones, like Dorothy's daughter, will pass you by.

No pumpkins?, I enquired of the attendant in the Dog Kennel Hill Sainsburys vegetable section Saturday morning. Sold out, sir, I'm afraid... I came home with the only vegetable marrow I've ever bought. It's hollowed now, and carved with my imagined version of a melancholy spectre back-lit with a votive candle; and leering from the kitchen window down the front walk at any approaching parents and sprogs. The fruit bowl is emptied out and re-filled with fifty (FIFTY COUNT THEM FIFTY) bite-size Sainsbo generic chocolate bars, with another 50 in reserve. But no one is coming to the door. Phooey.

DMC, Crystal Palace Road / Chadwick Road: A corporation with GPs on hire; the owners of the corporation, in my opinion (that of a hospital-based physician as well as of a care-seeker), are out to squeeze the penny till the Queen screams. The care provided may be unexceptionable. The approach to provision of care... well, "odious" may be a bit over-the-top, but not by much. Forum members interested in directing their custom, their purchases of goods and services, to providers who are small, locally based, and personal might want to consider looking into caregivers other than DMC. -- Edited for grammar 0022, 31-10.

@Sue: "And having groundless accusations flung about, like the OP in this thread, doesn't help." As the OP, let me take exception to... well, to a groundless accusation flung in a manner that seems very haphazard. Sue, please: Go back and read the original post. It is, I trust that you will find on re-reading, not an accusation, but an accounting of an observation (a postie putting something through a door without attempting to alert residents to a delivery); a careful stipulation that I did, and do, not know what was put through the door; and an enquiry of forum participants -- Is it a shared perception that delivery attempts by Royal Mail personnel often are faked? The response of forum participants has been, I think, overall: Yes; we believe that they often are. Several anecdotes to that effect have been shared. These anecdotes, these experiences, would not be grounds for an accusation. (No accusation, again, was made.) Assuredly, however, they are grounds for a suspicion. Was the suspicion warranted? On the basis of community experience, yes. Was it correct? On the say-so of the postie, no. I'm happy to leave it there. ** Twirly's suggestion -- home delivery to be paid for "extra" -- sounds a good one. Big Society idea-scoopers, you read it in the EDF first!

Thanks, all, for this thread. I shouldn't have had the nous to do what DJKQ recommended. But, putting myself in the shoes of the person whose companion cat never came home that morning... of course DJKQ is correct. Mike the Wonder Cat, by the way, who has us under her soft but inexorable grey paw, doesn't go outside. Ever. (Of course she could. This is HER house, and she has perfect freedom. She simply prefers not to.) Yes, we endure the corvee of the litterbox. A small matter, however, if indeed by staying indoors she is likely to live twice as long as her "free-range" sistern.

@Longea: Thanks for that. As the OP, who wrote (paraphrased) "Can't be sure what was slipped through the door as I watched, but is it a shared impression that 'delivery attempts' by Royal Mail personnel may be faked?", it's of interest to learn from you that, yes, fakery is "very common among the delivery drivers". Now, were you ever REALLY in Royal Mail work training? "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." But -- trusting that most who post here are who they say they are, and stand behind what they post -- again, I thank you. As to opinions on what constitutes a proper wage, here is a phrase that I enjoyed when living in the German Democratic Republic (technical training; 1987; three months in Dresden): "They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work."

Oh, yes, GWOD -- that's just how they cruised along on the seawind above the ferry across to Bolivar. All they need is a set of buckles and an over-the-shoulder carry strap. Thank you!

Oh, Sue. How much you care about this! Why does invoking Wittgenstein, whose philosophy was that there IS no objective truth, bother you so? **grin** Du hast Recht, ich hab' meine Ruhe. You're in the right, I'm left in peace. Mad hugs! And may your post never be mis-delivered.

@GWOD: I really LIKE the idea of a pelican being sighted in East Dulwich. I wish that I had seen it. It doesn't matter, not all that much, if what you interpreted as a pelican WAS a pelican. The concept is grand enough to stand on its own. I spent two years in Galveston, on the Gulf of Mexico, where pelicans were yawnable and everyday. Pelicans are like flying handbags. They don't extend their necks in flight (as I remember), but instead S-curve them back against their stumpy broad torsos. Was this the profile that you and your daughter saw? I hope that it was.

Thanks, Ian. I'm happy to take responsibility for what I imply, but not for what you infer. However, if you understand my tone as sneering and dismissive, so be it. I believe you. What you felt is what you felt. It's not easy being coarse-fibred. Like a safecracker her (how's that for sensitivity?) fingertips, I need to fine-sandpaper my expressive and interpretive skills if I have a hope of writing to be read in a properly nuanced manner. Postings to this forum are a challenge! As to truth, and acceptance: Rashomon, and all that. None of us ever knows the truth of someone else's version of events. We have confirmation from EDDORC that something was passed through my neighbour's door. And then the trail grows cold. So what colour IS your red, Ian? Pondering the heritage of Wittgenstein, who received at least two postal deliveries a day...

Thanks, Sue -- our thresholds for "rude" differ, it seems. But I'm still evolving! Give me some time, I may catch up with you. I'm pleased that your postie is a champ. I wish the ones were who handle our mail. More motivated or less motivated... Tough one. Could they really be LESS motivated? We can't assess the motives, only God can do that. We're limited to assessing the performance. And my partner's passport application is, yep, STILL lost. I wish that application had been handled by the Ulverscroft Road staff...

@EDDORDC -- Please re-read my initial posting. Note this paragraph: "Without a glimpse of the slip of paper, of course I can't be sure. It might not be a notice to go pick up a parcel on Silvester Road, or at the Forest Hill sub-station." The shoe may fit, but you claim that this time you weren't wearing it. Well, it's pinched you enough to call forth a reply. Thank you for taking the time to present your version of events. As for opinions on postal service held in this household: My partner's passport application, sent Friday to Liverpool via recorded delivery service of your employer -- the Royal Mail, EDDORDC, and entrusted to your colleagues -- has, you've guessed it!, BEEN LOST. No doubt you're the exception, EDDORDC. But the services provided by you and your colleagues make you lot out to be a bit of a shower. See the posting by DJKillaQueen, above, and reflect on it... and on your chances of continuing to ride the gravy train when, as it must, privatisation comes your way.

Bit rough on Sally, eh? I rarely visit Iceland, not with Sainsbury's DKH as my corner shop, but Sally's entitled, de gustibus!, to find it an aesthetic outlier. Or so it seems to me. Whether Waitrose / M&S Simply Food would be an upgrade... there, I'm not sure. And as far as pressing a campaign... oh, just fetch me a cider from the fridge, there's a love, I can't be bothered to get up myself.