Sue

If it was, somebody's having a lot of tea!

Obviously not shattering compared to many life problems, but relatively minor annoyances add up to become a horrible background buzz to life I've just phoned and cancelled the order. Getting a refund. I'll get it from somewhere else. 🤬 Oh, that is annoying. What has DPD got to say about it?

Yeh. I've now had yet another change on the tracking, and now they can't even give me a delivery date. It's appalling. I don't know why Staples use them. I ordered from Staples because the paper I use is cheapest from them, and to be fair I had no issues last time with the delivery and Staples customer service is very good, but this is really annoying me. Yet another phone call to Staples in the morning. UPS have very mixed reviews on Trust Pilot, with a lot of recent one stars (and about to get another one, but I'll wait till I actually get the paper .. ) 😭

I have a delivery from Staples, ordered 2 December, and I still haven't got it. It was supposed to come on Friday, but apparently the UPS van broke down. Ok that couldn't be helped, but annoying because I needed the delivery (a box of premium paper to print flyers). So then it was scheduled to come by end of day yesterday. No sign. Then scheduled to come end of day today. According to the tracking it's still at Dartford and not even out for delivery yet, so I'm not holding my breath. This is even worse than Royal Mail 🤬

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/10/thames-water-cash-emergency-funding-nationalisation?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

How awful. Poor man. Was he from the dry cleaners near the Post Office? Unless I've misunderstood, it seems that the police were already aware that this was a dangerous dog, so why wasn't it removed from its owner before?

And you back this statement up with what, exactly? But the outside kitchen waste bin is brown.

Cooked food can be composted. I think they use a process which creates a higher temperature than the common or garden (no pun intended) compost bins. My replacement brown outdoor food bin has not arrived 😭

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/06/struggling-thames-water-receives-buyout-offer-from-covalis?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other Trouble is, you are stuck if you are on a bus.

When the old Dulwich Hospital was there, there was a community herb garden at the front which was built, planted and maintained by local businesses and residents. If memory serves, they were told that this - or some form of it - would be kept when the new buildings were built. It's a real shame that (to the best of my knowledge) this hasn't happened. We (The Goose Is Out!) ran a gig at DHFC to raise money for it, and all the musicians (including Wizz Jones) gave their time for free. A local business (I can't remember which, sorry) built all the raised beds for free, and Monica from Health Matters in Lordship Lane played a major part in getting the garden off the ground (no pun intended).

It seems to me that the whole of the ancient London water system needs to be replaced, and as that is clearly not going to happen, we have this piecemeal approach. How many of the problems may be due to incompetent management, incompetent workmanship, privatisation and/or greed, I have no idea.

Local free paper The Dulwich Diverter may be interested in running a story? Also, is there any way either PALS or your union could help? Or your GP or your boss? Good luck, it sounds horrendous 😭

Again? Last time I passed that Sainsbury's on a bus there was water pouring out and Thames Water in attendance. They can't have repaired it very well!

The email I have is gmail not googlemail. No idea if they go to the same place.

Does anybody know what, if anything, is happening to the place that used to be a French restaurant up by the Plough? It's been closed for years now.

I don't think it's an easy location to attract custom to (ungrammatical, sorry) but I hope they do well. What happened to that guy who was going to have a stall outside selling some kind of hot food? I can't remember the details, but there was a thread about it on here some time ago, I think earlier this year?

The 484 has been quite unreliable lately as well. Today I waited 13 minutes for one from Kitto Road going to Camberwell Green, with another one following 3 minutes later. When buses have stopped at Waterloo or Vauxhall, it has sometimes been because of marches/demonstrations blocking roads on the other side of the bridges. Very annoying, but at least there are tube stations in both places, so usually it's easy to take an alternative route to wherever you are going

Thanks both! X

Are any of the local churches having Christmas Eve carols this year?

If you like singing, we have a Singaround at The Ivy House (London's first community owned pub) in Stuart Road, Nunhead, on the second Sunday of every month. Listeners are also welcome! It isn't an open mic - we don't use PA or the stage. Any genre or language, accompanied or unaccompanied, anything goes. For lots more info see https://www.thegooseisout.com/faq and go to the Singaround section! People of all ages come, but it's different every time. We don't ask how old people are, but I'm sure some of them are in their thirties 🤣 It's easy to get to from East Dulwich - a five minute walk from Peckham Rye Park, or a 484 from Goose Green (towards Lewisham) stops at the end of Stuart Road. Our December one is different as it's our Seasonal Singaround, and we sing carols and other seasonal songs in unison, as well as people singing by themselves as usual.

Yes she does, that's how I know she is an excellent teacher! I only had classes with her but am thinking of having individual lessons. I had to stop for health reasons, but want to go back.

Russell was very knowledgeable and competent, and would have had no problem "trying to please people like the Penguin", whatever you mean by that I am very sorry if he is no longer working, as he would definitely have been my first choice for anything connected with roofing.

That's odd. I hope he's OK. In regard to roofers in general, I've just seen this in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/nov/30/how-do-rogue-traders-get-past-checkatrade-checks?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other