Alex K

As submitted through the complaint form at the website recommended by thexwinglessxbird: "This problem is at second hand. "According to a narrative posted on an internet community forum "http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,371722 "a policewoman neglected to take action when a dog, not muzzled or on a lead, savaged and killed a cat, saying that nothing wrong had occurred. "For a dog not to be under control and for its owners thereby to kill a cat -- surely many ordinances empower a police officer to take action. "That a policewoman should shrug at, turn a blind eye to, condone, connive in such brutality sickens me." Perhaps something will come of the complaint, the RSPCA involvement. I hope so.

Meredith, I do hope that you are in a position to follow up the matter, through the RSPCA perhaps, with the police -- using the suggestions by winglessbird? If you elect to carry things forward, please let us know how they develop. Our cat Mike lives indoors, with an occasional saunter (under observation) out into a garden; we cherish her and want to keep her safe -- but thugs dump their dogs over garden fences, in Camberwell at least, to enjoy watching carnage. See James Delingpole's SPECTATOR column a few weeks back. To imagine Mike being savaged -- Mike, who has never had a cross word spoken to her -- distresses me greatly. And I am so, so sorry that any cat came to such an end, and that you had to watch it happen.

On and on I read -- "dropped footway"? What in the world...? Ah! The penny, like the footway, drops. "Kerb cut". A quick confirmatory Google. Pick myself up, dust myself off, and carry on.

Robyn0312 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Have to say I think a bakerloo line extension will > not happen. Looking at a map of where underground > train lines are routed through south london you > will see a great void around SE - for a reason. > Around these areas the underlying london clay > contains porous and waterbearing sand beds. This > makes tunnelling very very complicated and > dangerous and therefore engineers would always > advise against it. This was the cause of a major > accident when the northern line was extended south > to morden - and explains the kink in the otherwise > very straight route. A lot of poeple were killed > whilst constructing a tunnel in this material when > it collapsed, so the line was diverted. There > would be similar risks tunnelling at these depths > in our area too. > > The reasons aren't always just political. Thanks for this. I've heard similar reasons adduced; Stephen Halliday in his UNDERGROUND TO EVERYWHERE: LONDON'S UNDERGROUND RAILWAY IN THE LIFE OF THE CAPITAL mentions them only to contradict them, stating that blame for the lack of tunnelled railways in Southeast London is to be assigned to overground-railway proprietors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who combined to keep business competitors away from an area that they considered as theirs to exploit. Politics, geography, finance -- at the end of the day, we don't have the Tube! I wonder, though, about which entities in which combination, and how proportioned...

Mr Jones, I can't get over how helpful and informative you are. The "human face" that you confer on our railway service goes a long, long way toward reconciling me -- and others, I'm sure -- to the momentary disruptions that are... well, just part of the game. Thank you. I hope that as you advance in railway management your successor maintains this outreach / contact programme.

@Domitianus: Well, erm. Spain is not interested in trying to "punch above its weight", in justifying its "rotten borough" Security Council seat by nestling ever deeper into the USA's breast pocket, in spending money that it doesn't have on Iraq, Afghanistan, Trident. Once Britain realises that it is Belgium, we might get properly subsidised rail service. And herring at every meal, at least in the northern bits.

FWIW -- sixty lovely peaches from our back-garden tree (eight years old) this season. Yes, Bordeaux mixture applied against leaf curl; otherwise, benign neglect. Go global warming!

Barry -- what a treat to have you available for comment / whinge. Now, some whinge. Direct services from ED to East Croydon (and transfer to trains onward to Gatwick). Oh, how I wish there were more of those in the morning! And a query: The East Dulwich Garden Centre is to be sold and flats erected on its footprint. Will you be reclaiming the bit that used to be station?

Thanks for posting the photographs. We plan to catch the latest Harry Potter tomorrow at the Peckham Itch. A bit of a detour on the way, then, and well worth it. Harvesting the plums -- meh. Good that they'll be eaten, and no one's the worse for a bit of that sort of foraging. Different, I think, from flower-picking.

James and Emma -- it's dreadful to lose a cat. I am sorry for you. Have you considered restricting Buzz to "house cat" status? Our cats venture into a fenced garden only when we are there to watch them, and there they stay -- being older and more placid, perhaps, as well as a bit spooked by the neighbouring larger cats... Indoor-exclusive cats do live longer. Good luck with enjoying Buzz for many years to come.

As per Deptford Diva -- tubal ligation vs oophorectomy. Both leave your cat infertile. Only the latter ensures that your cat will not go into season. If your vet employed the former technique on your cat you might ask for do-overs. Livetraps for vermin (see bestpestcontrol.co.uk) may help. What you do with the trapped moggie is then up to you -- I would never consider driving it out into Kent for a drop-off, but then that's likely just squeamery on my part.

"Sourdough bread". First, a slightly sour flavour; second, a coarse, elastic texture; third, a greyish hue. Not at all what the Blackbird Bakery are selling under that name. Their version (white, fine crumb; no lactic- / acetic-acid tang) is much closer to a pain de mie. Oh, it's all right; if you want a sourdough bread, however, you'll have to go elsewhere. Note to Blackbird Bakery: Change your recipe, or change your labelling.

-- moved topic --

And at the Bishop you can actually have a rare burger?! Yowza! I'll give them both a try. We rolled out the gas grill (oh, shush, we walk to work, our bit of backyard cookery is a carbon toeprint, no more) Friday afternoon and did just what BENJAMINTY recommends: Our own burgers, just off tartare, with William Rose mince. Heaven.

No intention to argue here; no language employed that might be considered personally abusive; and, in fact, only one exclamation point, relative to "steak tartare". 8^) Jus' tryin' to be a sunbeam, that's me.

Well, Steve, you made me laugh. No, of course any independent restaurant can serve bad food, and your evening at Liquorish illustrates that point. Chain restaurants with central-facility food preparation use such a facility to foreclose any DOWNWARD variation in the "quality" of the standardised product. That central-facility food preparation also forecloses UPWARD variation in that "quality", however. GBK can't vary its burger preparation to let me have a rare burger. Franchised chain restaurants with individual-facility food preparation, like the Sea Cow, let you order your food as you might like it cooked. If I want my - how about tuna? - just off sashimi, I can get what I want at the Sea Cow. No chance of that at Harry Ramsden's. Can we agree that the point of difference may be the site of food preparation? I hope so. Can we agree that chain restaurants are more likely to prepare food at central locations than are independently owned restaurants? Again, I hope so.

Edit: Just received (noon, 1/12/06), a telephone call from a GBK representative - I'd sent GBK a separate e-mail saying that I hadn't had so good a meal as I'd hoped for, and outlining my dissatisfactions. The representative: Indeed the burgers are centrally prepared (see below), although not frozen; and it is the uncertainties of handling between a butcher-of-origin and a restaurant kitchen that preclude cooking one's burger anything redder than "medium rare". -- Alex K -- Last evening's visit to Gourmet Burger Kitchen on Lordship Lane in East Dulwich - a disappointment. The buns, the toppings - first-rate. But the burger... I asked for mine to be done very rare. "We can't, sir," I was told. "Health and safety." This was a bad sign. "We can't vouch that our beef is recently prepared or cleanly handled. We suspect" (or worse, know) "that it's riddled with filth that must be burnt out of it." A proper "gourmet kitchen" should be able to serve hamburger meat prepared to the same cleanliness and freshness standards as steak tartare! And indeed, the texture of the pinkish burger, when it arrived, was no different from that of what one is served at McDonald's. The meat was over-ground and too compacted. I suspect that it was prepared at a central facility, frozen, and shipped out to the franchised GBK outlets - necessary for "quality control" and absolute death to fresh-cooked REAL quality. That's why, for me, chain franchises are bad news, and why my partner and I will be heading back to the Sea Cow for our next evening out at dinner on Lordship Lane.