DJKillaQueen

Hmm..and I've just come home to find a drum abandoned by the bin outside my home. It's not a snare drum but the next size up. Coincidence perhaps?

Soup maker? Would that be a pan with a lid then :D ?

I lived on Overhill Road for about six months 22 years ago. The only thing I really remember is the damage done to my knees walking up and down that hill every day (didn't drive then)...... :)

Get into a pilotless plane? No chance.... Have a small list of people I'd happily put in a pilotless planes? Absolutely :D

Yep, we use vodaphone for our TRA mobile number and reception has been nada for a couple of weeks now.

Dave Carnell thinks he knows everything about someone he's never met shocker. I do know what I'm talking about David, some my friends are publicans and THEY definitely know what they are talking about. I've met no-one in the pub trade locally who thinks the projected revenue is achieveable in that pub in that area. But we shall see in time. Only then can you suggest I go have a cup of tea or maybe I'll be suggesting you go eat some pie, of the humble kind.

I'm not confusing anything Honeybee. My view is based on looking at the revenue figures the business plan presents (nothing to do with profit margins whatsoever). No local pub off Lordship Lane, that I know of, is taking that kind of bar renvenue every week. ?3k on food revenue each week is wildly optimistic too. I've managed a bar (which is the cheapest in the area by far) for five years that has no ties with breweries, freehold or anything like that. I know what profit margins are achievable and what local people spend. The people who have bought shares are not going to each be spending ?45 every week in the Ivy House (which is what they need to spend on food and drink there every week to achive the projected revenue targets). I think people believe in and like the essence and spirit of the venture, but that's not going to be enough long term. Fox is spot on regarding the pubs location. The local residential population don't go there. There are no business sectors locally to provide a vibrant lunchtime trade. That's why it had to be an events based pub, attracting a wider based clientel going there for the comedy or music nights etc. This idea that it can provide some kind of community space that isn't available elsewhere locally is a red herring too. There are several church and community halls within spitting distance of the Ivy house that already provide cheap (and free) rehearsal and group space. I fully expect a revision of figures to be needed once the intial buzz of the reopening has waned.

Honeybee, whilst I want the pub to succeed I think the business model is just not being realistic with the projected takings. The last people running it were putting on music nights, comedy nights etc and working very hard to bring people in and they couldn't even get close to 6k every week. The pub would need to fill the place on Friday and Saturday nights with 120 people spending on average ?30 a head to get anywhere near that, and that's just not going happen week in, week out, unless it becomes a night club or party venue (and the local residents won't allow that to happen). High spend days here and there are not going to be enough. It's nothing to do with freehold etc.....it's from looking at the figures of the pub's business plan. I haven't yet found a single person in the bar business who thinks the pub will achieve those targets. But as you say, we'll see.

It's just an investment scheme Fox to raise start up costs. Not a share ownership scheme as such and I think a lot of people are buying shares to give it a chance to get going rather than expecting any return. I still don't think it'll make the expected revenue (of ?8k per week on the bar) predicted in it's business plan. Spoke with someone who was going to buy the pub when it was up for auction until he saw the books and decided not to buy. It was taking 6k for a couple of months at the height of it last being open (which is what I would have predicted its optimum range to be from the kind of events based pub it was), with an average of 4.5k weekly, and then a sudden drop off towards the end. And no-one in the pub business locally thinks an expected revenue of ?3k per week from food is realistic. From a business perspective I think it's going to struggle, under its current cashflow projection. Having said that though, there is 20% leeway on running costs vs predicted revenue so if it can bring in revenue of around ?6k a week then it should break even, but that would have to be every week.

Orange merged with T-Mobile which are both now under EE (who are responsible for delivery of connectivity). I had some problems last week (for the first time after getting 18 months into a two year contract). But things seem to be ok now. Two masts were reported elsewhere on the forum as being down, with repair to one imminent (and I'm guessing that one has been repaired, hence return of my connectivity). I also found out that where T-mobile and Orange had masts next to each other, EE are removing one, and that has led to some problems. Also they have been changing some of the mast technology and that has led to problems too and where there are problems it seems to be primarily with 3G connections and below. G4 customers have seemingly been spared all this nonsense. My view is that in a capital city that's not good enough and we should complain. Still it could be worse....we could all be vodaphone customers!

'Over 90% of accidents can be avoided by the person whose fault it isn't.' Amongst all the arguing over who has right of way and who should and shouldn't be on the road etc, this is something people should remember.

There are no dangerous dogs per se, jusr irresponsible owners. So the question for me is one of how do we stop the wrong people from keeping animals? It's the same as with children. Some children grow up to kill, and maim, and attack others. But the vast majority of them don't, just as the vast majority of dog owners are responsible too. Southwark has a policy of requiring social housng tenants to notify them if they keep a dog and the dog is required to be chipped as part of the tenancy agreement. Edited to add that social housing tenants means council tenants.

With respect Tillie, many forum users are passive readers. They WILL repsond to direct requests in genuine situations and there is plenty of evidence of that in the forum's history (it's one of the best things about this forum). Like Aquarius I thought the mother must have come back. The advice on that day offered was that (and it was the right advice), along with a request to keep the forum updated. No updates came though, either way. So someone like me assumed, no help needed. Also a simple google search will bring up wildlife rescue centres. Yes they are mainly in the outskirts of town. That's because most of them are run on farms (which makes sense) by volunteers. What we don't know is how long after May 4th the cubs died but I find it hard to understand why somewhere during that process the OP didn't come back to the forum with another update and request for further help. Sadly, it's too late now to do anything. There is no blame to attach to anyone, just advice on what might be done differently in the future.

I always get a sense of when I'm goig too fast on a bicycle. It's the same sense I have when driving. Approaching blind bends, not being able to see ahead or just any situation where my speed will make it impossible to react if something happens. Look at this guy for example.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mypFV_tQSrc As annoying as watching other cyclists jump red lights is (while I wait patiently on my bicycle), nothing worries me more than the sppeds at which some cyclist filter through traffic (both slow moving and stationary). Where a cyclist is hurtling down the inside of stationary traffic, even if there is a cycle lane, they need to be looking for the right turning car ahead that can't see him or her. The only time I've ever had a collision with a cyclist while driving was in this scenario. I'm turning right on a yellow junction box which traffic has correctly left clear. At the head of the traffic is a bus. As I turn a cyclist comes zooming at speed from undertaking that bus and goes straight over the bonnet. Not my fault and thankfully he and his bicycle were ok. But he was careless in undertaking a high stationary vehicle at a junction box at speed and assuming the box was clear for him to cross. You'd never see a motorcycle do that for example. Cycling in London is a challenge at times, and I have as many tales of near misses and poor drivers as I do poor drivers when I'm driving. But with experience you learn how to see those situations coming a lot of the time and my attitude is to just give way. Life is too short for me to be getting wound up to the point of bike cams and reporting arrays of number plates to police (who won't respond unless there's an accident anyway).

If it happens again, then firstly I'd say to keep the forum updated daily. It's always a difficult call with wildlife, but once it's clear that the mother is not coming back for the cubs then you need to let people know that. Also it depends on the age of the cubs too. Young cubs will need formula milk like Lactol (pet shops sell it) or goats milk will do in the short term. There are several wildlife rescue centres in London and the South East that can advise on and will take in foxes.... http://www.londonwildcare.org/ http://www.helpwildlife.co.uk/southeast.php

If you had posted a couple of days later to say the mother hadn't returned, then yes, I would have offered transport to take the cubs to a wildlife rescue centre and would have helped to get them, along with giving some formula hand rearing milk to rehydrate them etc. But you never came back after the original day of posting to say the mother still hadn't returned.

I was one of those watching the thread to see what happened. Many people read threads on the forum without posting. But after May 4th there are no posts to say that the mother hadn't returned. The next post isn't until three weeks later, to tell us the cubs died!

I wonder as well if that's partly due to cycles not having speedometers fitted. It would be hard to expect a cyclist to adhere to a speed limit (especially lower ones) if they have no device for telling them how fast they are going.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qacLW2NSmi0 I see what you mean!

I agree with LD on VED. Roads maintenance and infrastructure is NOT paid for from this. And we all pay taxes that are spent on things we don't directly benefit from too. So people who don't use the roads at all, are paying for them as much as any tax paying cyclist is. But even if for one moment we do entertain the idea of taxing cyclists....there are other problems. To enforce tax there needs to be a registration process. Numbers plates have to be of a size and in a certain location for ease of reading. Bicyles are not designed for this. Also cyclists can be of any age. As already stated VED is designed to tax emmissions, which is why some motor vehicles pay no VED. Some motorcycles pay as little as ?17.00 per year. Making cyclists pay VED would actually create a system far more expensive to enforce than the revenue raised by the VED on them anyway. Insurance I have mixed feelings about. I now have cycle insurance after having had an accident which was my fault (mechanical failure on my bicycle) and causing damage to a vehicle. I broke my arm too. The driver had to go through his insurance because of the damage and was very good natured about it but after that I thought it perhaps fair that I cover myself. So I think cycle public liability insurance should be encouraged (for lots of reasons) but would stop short of making it compulsary.

I was going to do the same analysis Loz but couldn't be bothered finding the figures and doing the maths. Glad to see you weren't as lazy as me, and it definitely provides food for thought. And there are as many videos on youtube of cylcists doing stupid things as there are drivers causing accidents.

I agree with TE44. Atrocity exists alongside religion as much because of it. Culture is a more accurate descriptor I think, and the question is one of how we discourage the kinds of culture that lead to violence and hatred. A muslim commentator on the radio yesterday made the point that accross the globe, more muslims kill each other than non-muslims kill muslims. Her belief was that's it's a nation state problem, where violent nations (be that through government tyranny or civil unrest) export cultural violence. And at present, many of those kinds of nations happen to be Islamic ones. The export becomes possible because of disaffection in non-muslim nations amongst certain kinds of, for example, young men (and helped by global media technology) and so it goes on from there. She further went on to make the point that converts to Islamic jihadism by say British born nationals, are believing in a fantasy of Islamic orthodoxy. That if those converts were to go and live in the kind of country actually enforcing the kind of culture they are supposedly fighting to defend, that most of them would run back to Britain having changed their minds (and she knew of several cases of that through friends). Extremists often claim to their followers that their views are the answer to all the world's ills. But what followers often hear is 'the answer to all your ills'. Whilst I think it is important to understand why a British man, born to a respectable family, turns to an extreme belief system (and acts on it), we can never prevent it. The same questions were asked of the predominently middle class young women that followed Charles Manson and murdered Sharon Tate for example. There are dangerous people who influence impressionable or disconnected young minds. Those are the people we have to target and keep out of our society.

Thanks for the update LadyD. I'm hoping the return of the dawson mast will restore my signal. I'll struggle on til then.

Good article from the Independent... http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/woolwich-murder-they-killed-then-they-performed--these-men-should-be-starved-of-our-attention-8628664.html Raises some poignant questions about our reaction as a society.........

Hmm, Santerme, Otta.....I've made a total of three posts on this thread (four with this one) all relevant to the topic........not sure how that makes me anything but restrained tbh ;)