blinder999

I thought that might wind up a food snob or two (tu)

as much as I love a 'gourmet' burger - and I don't mean from that shop - I do love the occasional Quarter Pounder with Cheese from McDonald's.

the French seem to survive their bloody steak hache ok

Maurice Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Sort of agree. Truly refreshing would be to come > out with it before cornered by a paper. Many a > politician has plead guilt and redemption once > cornered. But yes, an inspiring tale, now that > it's been forced out. An inspiring tale indeed - and actually, she did in fact post most of it on here a while ago (though she sensibly edited it a bit afterwards)

the lady from Dee Dee's is still there - though they converted the shop a while back - she said the reason they closed down was some change in business rates in the eighties or nineties meant the business was no longer viable.

as has been said before, the burger is wonderful - but do they still do that dodgy 'Eton Mess' dessert? If I could get a nice apple crumble or similar for pud, I would be v happy.

> As my old man used to say to me: > "Son, if you aint of string in your cellar, what > have you got?" This is why we need a Humanist perspective on Thought For The Day.

My regular MOT place is South London Clutch Centre - very good service, honest etc - under the arches in Bellenden.

> the John Humphreys > style of presenting ? all macho posturing, bulldog > stuff. I read a nice description of his interview style: "like a drunk man in a pub car park trying to start a fight"

citizenED Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > All this talk of cycling has made me think I > should update my bike. I currently ride a > Ridgeback Velocity but it's seen better days. I > want another Hybrid type but not sure where to > start. Any suggestions of what to buy for about > ?300? I also ride this kind of thing - the Ridgeback Cyclone's been quite good - though I had to scrap the slick tyres as I kept getting punctures despite keeping them well pumped. There's a good cheap shop in Greenwich - they let me have the Cyclone for the internet price (about ?200, way cheaper than most shops), though I went down to Trafalgar Rd and picked it up: http://www.luvbikes.com/

"never particularly religious"? Here are some quotes from recent Thoughts For The Day: 23 Nov Paul of Tarsus describes God's strength being most evident in his own weakness. Jacob saw God in the night, and the fight, which crippled him. Christ Himself saved us when His body and soul were broken. The whole world is out of joint: God doesn't discard it, but works with it to redeem it. In truth there is no tension, or should not be, between treatment and tolerance, acceptance and cure. Whether those with Asperger syndrome are any more disabled than the rest of us is arguable: I passionately believe not, and that we should embrace such alternative in-sights as a great privilege. But we are all less than the best we could be - physically and emotionally, morally and spiritually. The truth is that, like any parent, God both accepts us and challenges us. 22 Nov In another age, a busy, anxious professional asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. By way of answer Jesus referred to a well-known 'life list', one made up of things we shouldn't as well as should do. The man proudly replied 'check' to each one of the commandments and yet suspected there was more. So he asked what he still lacked. Jesus' answer wasn't "go memorise the Torah" or "white water raft the Jordan" - but "go sell your possessions, and follow me". It was a goal way too challenging for the man and we are told he went away sad and, presumably, unfulfilled. The man was expecting a 'things to do before you die' list; w hat he got was a 'die first then discover your life' list. A preacher I knew used to ask people "Hey, how's life going?" After they'd given their usually glib answer he'd say, with a smile, "do yourself a favour and die", before adding quietly - "to yourself, that is!" It was a serious jest, another way of saying if you really want to live a fulfilling, abundant life then you must lose it first in order to find it. 21 Nov In the Bible's poetic picture of beginnings, God creates not a race or a tribe, still less a mass of humanity, but two individuals. They get their identities because they bear something of his likeness; in their capacity to make choices they reflect him, share his dignity. They make a mess of it, of course, make their unilater al declarations of independence, but that divine image, however obscured, is never obliterated, and it insists on bursting through in some of the unlikeliest of their children. Well that's the old story: and I believe that our uniqueness rests in the fact that we're each made for relationship with God. 20 Nov there's been one further element to Christian marriage upon which the Queen and Prince Philip have been able to draw over the years, it's the love of God, ever forgiving and ever renewing - and it's that love which is at the heart of a good marriage and a good life. May they and we continue to know that love.

Today program in the mornings - though Thought For The Day makes me cringe and want to turn it off to save my kids from the pious spaghetti monsters

haha that's not two near misses, that's two collisions. I've had countless near-misses!

I go to Kensington High St - yes, same sort of distance as Baker St. Takes me about 35 minutes each way. I ride a ?200 hybrid (currently a Ridgeback Cyclone). They last about two years' worth of commuting, then they're no longer worth repairing what with knackered chains, sprockets, gears etc. As I ranted previously, I've had two collisions, both with pedestrians stepping out in front of me. I took the bus for the first time in ages one time this week, and though I feel that cycling is very dangerous and likely to get me killed, it is still much preferable to being stuck on a Number 12 bus for hours.

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In a nation that plays less and less competitive sport at school, and where kids in general are getting fatter and fatter year on year, this situation is not going to improve, no matter what poor sap they employ as manager to take the blame. How big is the playground going to be at the new Academy did they say? Oh yes, there will be no playground. Genius.

yes - http://www.practicalconveyancing.co.uk/content/view/9855/1078?zoom_highlight=%22light+pollution%22 -

"it is entirely subjective and lends no justification to you (I assume you are an adult), as a responsible (adult) cyclist you should be on the road or walking the bike. " I agree completely. I never cycle on the pavement, and would never seek to justify such behaviour from healthy lone adults such as myself.

I don't think there is any > justification for cycling on the pavement and > cyclists who do try to justify it are, in my view, > wrong. how about Home Secretaries of the elected government justifying it (see the quote above)? Or do you think rules and guidelines are for other people and not yourself?

macroban Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Sounds good to me - fixed penalty notices for the > Lordship Lane pavement cyclists. dead right - only a sociopathic moron would cycle on the pavement on Lordship Lane - have you ever said anything to these people? I confronted one on Underhill the other day - he informed me that as he works for Royal Mail, he's allowed!

Horsebox Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > but the motor cars aren't, in most cases, driving > on the pavement. The point of this is that the guy > was cycling where he shouldn't have been and as a > result somebody is dead. one psychopathic guy cycling at 25mph downhill on a pavement doesn't have anything to do with any rational discussion about the behaviour of road users. The legality or otherwise of careful cyclists using the pavement occasionally is not clearcut: If you had a look at the circumstances of all the 3000 road deaths, you'd find plenty of incidents involving utterly repellent behaviour - excuse my rant, a taxi driver deliberately tried to ram me off the road last night as I cycled through Knightsbridge.

That story has already been reported on the forum, and as I pointed out before, it just goes to show the rarity of such deaths that such a big deal is made of it - what about the ten people dying every day, three thousand every year, getting killed by motor vehicles? Nobody bats an eyelid, because it's collateral damage. Pure scaremongering and rabble-rousing to bang on about that one incident here without giving equal weight to the hundreds of other road deaths. I ride a bike to and from work, and not a day goes by without at least one pedestrian stepping into my path without looking, often with a phone clamped to their ears. In all my time commuting I've come off twice, both times caused by pedestrians stepping into the road/cycle lane with no warning. And falling off a bike onto hard tarmac also hurts - I broke an arm once. Remonstrate with people who step in front of cyclists, and they get all self-righteous, because they are unable to take responsibility for their own ignorance and stupidity. It doesn't surprise me at all that some cyclists give up any attempt to follow the rules, because no-one else is following them.

the thing is, they don't know whether it's a scumitsu or an ipod, when they say, 'so, what've you got for me?' - I know, white headphones might suggest an ipod, but I don't think they really give a sh!t.

I don't really think the desire for material possessions is at the root of it. In my small market town, the local working class youth was endlessly kicking the sh!t out of any other youth they perceived as being 'middle class' - they never robbed people - probably because there was nothing to rob, no ipods or phones. It was a power game, just to show that they were in charge. Same thing for these robberies - they take other kids' phones etc because they're on a power trip, and the fact that the police can't/won't do anything about it makes it no risk. The tenner they might get for the nicked phone is a bonus.

"A lot of people claim to love the diversity of East Dulwich and other parts of south London but house prices tell a different story: the whitest bits of central London are the most expensive and the blackest bits are cheapest. " These two facts are not related. Just because house prices are higher in Richmond or wherever (and therefore more desirable to some), it does not follow that everyone would like to live there. I don't want to live there.