shell_8

I've just finished reading the Kindle version and absolutely loved it. I bought it because I liked the idea of reading a book set in a familiar surrounding but the fact that ED was the back drop to some of the scenes was by the by. It's a really well thought out novel with a fascinating central character. I have recommended it to my friends :-)

When I eat a fry up I have to create a sausage barrier down the middle of my plate so that my baked beans don't touch my eggs...

I was given a tortoise by my grandfather for my 1st birthday. I'm now nearly 34 and he's still going strong - although he lives with my family in Wales as we were advised against moving him when I came to London. They are amazing animals and fantastic pets but some breeds are sensitive to big changes in their environment so I'd advise against getting a garden tortoise if you're not planning to stay at that particular house long term. A lot of people think that they're quite dull little creatures but they're most definitely not. Tonga (my own tortoise) seems to be able to tell the difference between each member of my family by the noise we make walking down the steps into our garden. He will always start to walk towards me and my father across the grass. He is indifferent to my mother (probably as she's not normally the one to feed him) and he moves away from my brother as he doesn't seem to like him. I am the only person he will allow to feed him by hand and I'm also the only person he will allow to stroke his head and legs - if anyone else tries he pulls all of his limbs in and snorts. He's a great little character. When I first got him he was no bigger than a pork pie but he's now about 16 inches long and is noticeably bigger when he comes out of hibernation each spring.

This years Thaipusam was 19th-21st January so that would make sense.....

When I was 11 my grandfather, who I was very close to, died. He had lived with us and he and my grandmother had their own living room within the house. After his death my grandmother spent more time in with us and their living room fell into disuse. My mum used it to store her ironing, the hoover etc. One evening a couple of years later (when I was about 13) she was ironing in the kitchen and she sent me into that room to get the next ironing pile and some hangers. I opened the door and saw my grandfather sitting there in his usual chair smiling at me and tapping his foot as he used to do when he listened to his records (he was a drummer). I yelled and ran into my mum but when we both went back in there was no one there. My mum has always claimed that it was my mind playing tricks as I wanted to see him again but something in the way he smiled at me has always made me think otherwise :-)

I'm intrigued!

Wonderful!! Time to start ramping up the complaints methinks :-)

We recently upgraded from a normal Virgin set top box to a V+ box which allows us to record etc. Ever since the new box was installed we have been unable to access the 'Catch Up TV on Demand' portion. We get an error message on screen that tells us to call Virgin and quote a specific code. We did this at the weekend and was told that there was a known problem in the area and it wouldn't be fixed until February. When my partner enquired about compensation for the loss of service he was told there wouldn't be any because this service was free anyway (which kind of missed the point). Has anyone else in the area experienced anything like this? I'm on Goodrich but a friend on Upland has a perfect service so I have a feeling we're being fobbed off.....

I'm a big fan of Asian horror films as they always manage to maintain a really unsettling atmosphere. I can highly recommend 'A Tale of Two Sisters': http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365376/ A great psychological chiller :-)

The Elder Scrolls V has just been announced: http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/elderscrollsvskyrim/news.html Not sure I can wait till November though. Oblivion is up there with my fave games of all time so i'm very excited about this one!

The pavements on Dunstans Road are like an ice rink this morning. Slipped on my bum 4 times on my way to the bus stop. How embarrassing!

It's called Deadliest Warrior - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadliest_Warrior My other half loves it!

Apologies if that came across as harsh Concita - it wasn't meant to :-) Once upon a time I was a very happy East Dulwich resident (despite being mugged on my own street back in April) but since this thread started up i've become a nervous wreck. Whereas I would once attribute creaks in the night to my neighbours comings and goings, I now always presume that it's someone trying to get in and do me harm and then I can't sleep for the rest of the night!

Surely this thread has now run its course? * We all know there have been burglaries * We all know to be more vigilant * We all know to report any burglaries or suspicious activity to the police * We all know it's horrible for those affected What more is there to be said? Perpetuating the thread can only serve to scare people.

I went to school with Gavin. All of the above was equally true back then, apart from he hadn't yet discovered the 'joys' of being orange.....

Red Dead Redemption is really fantastic - if you liked Oblivion (my all time fave, along with the Mass Effect series) then you will definitely enjoy this. The environment is huge and really beautifully created and the soundtrack was great. I would definitely recommend. I'm a bit of an achievement whore and will always aim to get 100% completion on games like this. It was tough but managed it about 2 weeks ago and it was hugely satisfying :-)

Hi Alec - Unfortunately I rent so my hands are tied. I had a similar idea myself and approached our landlord about it (I thought it could be viable as we have a long term rental agreement, have been great tenants and it's in their best interests to make sure it's maintained) but was told that no, it would breach our tenancy agreement :-( Seems such a shame as it's just green space going to waste. Shell x

This thread really interests me as I'm on the other side of the fence so to speak. gm99 - The garden that you'd like to purchase sounds exactly like mine (hell, it could actually be mine I guess!). When moving to East Dulwich we specifically wanted a garden because we hadn't had any outside space in our previous flats around London. I had rose-tinted ideas of sunbathing in the back garden surrounded by neat little flower beds and then enjoying bbqs with friends on summer evenings. However the reality is that, because of our jobs, we have no time at all to dedicate to maintenance, and even less time to actually use the garden. In fact the only time we ever go out there is to retrieve balls out of the overgrown grass for the neighbours children. It's the cause of much stress for me because I feel as though every time the neighbours see me they must be thinking 'there goes the girl with the awful jungle garden' and I feel like dragging them inside and saying 'But look my home is lovely!' We just don't have the time to maintain it. I've contemplated getting a gardener in once a month just to trim it back but as we don't have time to use the garden either then it does seem like this money could be put to better use. I guess my point is that I would *love* to hand the garden over to someone else just so that I don't have to deal with it anymore - so there are definitely people out there who would consider this.

The view from Dawson's Hill on a sunny day is phenomenal, as is the view when you come over the brow of Dog Kennel Hill

*Wow*

I don't know who said this, but one of my favourite quotes is: "Going to war over religion is basically killing one another to see who's got the better imaginary friend." Pretty much sums up my thoughts on the subject.

The guys selling dishcloths really annoy me as they don't seem to co-ordinate their efforts. We had 3 separate calls within 1.5 hours last night from 3 separate lads all selling the same thing. If you're going to sell things door to door then at least have some kind of strategy!

Top 3 Matt, Rebecca, Cher Bottom 2 Wagner, One Direction

We had our doorbell rung repeatedly for a number of minutes just after 2am on Saturday morning (Goodrich Road). We tried ignoring it as it was so late at night but eventually my boyfriend went down to see what all the fuss was about. As soon as he turned the main hall light on and shouted 'Who's there?' the ringing stopped and when he opened the door there was no one there, although he didn't venture out into the street to see if there was anyone running away. The same thing happened again at 5.20 this morning. The rational side of my brain thinks that we may just be on the same doorbell frequency as someone else on the street but it's slightly unnerving that both times the ringing stopped when he shouted through the door :-( Any thoughts on whether this is the sort of thing that should be reported to the police? It may be malicious but could equally be a dodgy doorbell so I don't want to waste anyone's time!

I used to live in Herne Hill and regularly took the 42 into work. Every day a family got on in Camberwell that never failed to amaze me - a woman and 4 children aged between about 5 and 10. 3 of the children would run onto the bus shouting, then swing on the poles, step on peoples feet, swear and generally cause mayhem. The 4th child (a little girl of about 7) would sit quietly and read a book. In the 18 months I got this bus the mother didn't once tell off the 3 boisterous children. However she regularly took the book from the little girl, hit her over the head with it and told her she was boring and read too much for someone her age. She would then be encouraged to run around with her brothers and sisters. I was younger then and the woman looked a little scary so I didn't say anything to her but it struck me that that poor little girl really didn't stand a chance.