Sue

I have no interest in sport, apart from a mild interest in Wimbledon (only because I understand rules 😂) , but surely lots of pubs round here are still very busy after 8pm, and many pubs still show sport which isn't rugby?!

Yes, I have had bad experiences with plants from Crocus in the past. I will have a look at Gardening Express, but I am wary about buying plants online, particularly if they use Royal Mail and might now take ages to actually arrive. ETA: I've just looked at Gardening Express, and I'm very impressed by the fact that they have a 5 year guarantee for perennial plants. That's extraordinary. I will definitely investigate further!

We looked at all the options, and have in past years spent a fortune on cooking Christmas meals at home! But this was nearly £200 for two people for appalling food, without drinks, and I don't use the term appalling lightly. We needed somewhere within walking distance as I didn't want to drive on Christmas Day, and we had been to The Ivy House for festive drinks beforehand.

I have had a fear of Pyrex plates since one was put down in front of me (with food on) in the seventies and suddenly it shattered into millions of tiny pieces 😮

Yes, thanks, I had forgotten them too.

❤️❤️❤️

Surely measures need to be taken to prevent people from parking there, not just dissuade them? Or at least dissuade them by having a no parking sign and fining them if they ignore it? There were two cars parked there when I passed this morning on my way to the station. Surely they must be aware that they are not supposed to park there if they have to mount a curb to do so?

Oh dear! I have had one in the past. Spines at the top would be fine, because it might deter the cats from jumping over the fence. I will try the cat deterrent fence topper as well.

Same.

It does depend on the pub. The Ivy House, for example, does not allow under 18s after 8pm, accompanied or not.

Thanks, that's really useful!

Ooh yes, good shout!

I was at Brockwell Park greenhouses very recently, they don't have any plants for sale which are suitable for my purpose (though that's not why I went there). I'd be very surprised if the Marsden Road place did either, as I need a fairly large prickly shrub! Thanks, I used the term nursery a bit too loosely, sorry. I did mean including garden centres. Your post is useful, thanks. I'm not looking for anything unusual though, just a prickly shrub to deter cats! Much as I love unusual plants, I only have a very small garden. Many of my plants (some unusual and some I had had for years) have disappeared due to wood pigeons trampling everything under my bird feeders in their quest to eat anything edible dropped by smaller birds using the feeders 😭

Thanks, I thought the Nunhead Gardener only did house plants. I'll give them a call. Thanks, I'm not sure a Berberis would be tall enough, but I'll check it out! It wouldn't get enough sun for a gooseberry, sadly. Thanks Tiddles, I will call them!

Now that we have sadly lost several of the local and localish places to buy plants, can anybody recommend a good nursery which is reasonably near and has a good selection of shrubs? Or alternatively a good place to buy plants online (though I would rather see what I am buying, as I've had bad experiences in the past when buying plants online). I need something urgently which is evergreen and prickly and will grow quickly to fill a shady corner space at the back of my garden where fences have become bare and cats are climbing over and waiting for birds to come to the feeders 😭 I'm thinking a Mahonia. It doesn't actually have thorns, but the leaves are prickly. Alternatively, is there some other way of deterring the cats without harming them (I like cats!) I don't want to use anything like spikes or barbed wire. If this is in the wrong section, admin, please move!

Thank you for clarifying, James. So why would anybody want to take this on as a franchise if it is staying in this building? If it is now to be a sub office, does that mean that much of the space could be used as a different kind of business altogether, with just part of it being used as a sub Post Office? Because if it is all to remain solely for Post Office business, (albeit as a sub Post Office it won't be providing all the services which it currently does) I can't see who would want to take it over? If it isn't profitable as a Crown office, how could it be profitable running just as a sub office, even if staff are being paid less and it's opening for longer hours? Because presumably all the other overheads such as rent will remain the same?

That's bad! Bad Thames Water! Are you sure you haven't got a leak somewhere? I think there's some way of monitoring that by checking the meter readings before and after a period when you aren't using any water? Eg overnight?

The trouble is that pub management and chefs are constantly changing, so what might be fantastic on one occasion becomes terrible a short time later, and vice versa. Two of the worst pub lunches I've had locally were at the Dog in the village and the Plough, but both those were some time ago. We had an absolutely appalling Christmas lunch on Christmas Day at The Cherry Tree, which was also exorbitantly expensive, so unless their chef (I use the term loosely) has changed, I wouldn't advise eating there. The menu looked amazing. We thought we would treat ourselves. Never again 😭

Sorry to hear that. Whether it works out cheaper depends entirely on the amount of water you use. You used to be able to work out via a calculation on Thames Water's website whether it would work out cheaper in your particular situation, to decide whether or not to have a meter installed. I don't know whether you still can, but once you've had it installed it's probably too late, although I think it used to be that you could change back to the old billing system if the meter wasn't saving you money?

Before privatisation people paid for water through water rates. How do you think it could be provided free? Do you think larger families should also not pay for the full amount of the gas and electricity they use, because they've been "hard hit by many increasing bills"? You started this thread to ask for advice on your increased water bill, and appeared to think it was because you were being charged according to a meter which had been installed by Thames Water although you hadn't requested it. Several people have given you advice and information which hopefully was useful. So what was the outcome of your call to Thames Water? As for your jibe about single people living in 3 bedroom houses (I am one of them, though the "third bedroom" is an extremely small office which wouldn't even have room for a single bed) "disadvantaging families by taking up more space than needed", you have no idea of people's background and circumstances and how they came to be in that situation. In any case, what on earth has that got to do with your water meter, and why shouldn't I have a spare bedroom for when my family and grandchildren come and stay?

We always see swifts over Ulverscroft Road in the Summer. It's a high spot of the year when they arrive. We probably won't now I've said that!

So it's an assumption, then? You haven't spoken to the driver?!

Article in today's Grauniad on how to save money on water bills. Though only if you are on a meter. If you aren't on a meter, there's nothing you can do to reduce your bills, so far as I know. Though from an environmental point of view etc I guess it is always good to reduce your water usage where you can. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/apr/16/cut-water-bill-england-wales-best-ways-to-save?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Is this just an assumption, or did you also speak to the driver?