PeckhamRose

How can you guys be sure it was swine flu that you/yours got. I have had a flu jab so if I get flu I guess it will be definition have to be swine flu. But not necessarily. Different variations are growing all the time. I'm not panicking, truly I am not, just trying to start the discussion.

May I turn this thread around and be serious about a swine flu debate? I am not panicking, and I am not paranoid, but I do have a serious underlying health condition with my lungs so I am being actively cautious and not going on busses or tubes unless it is imperative I do so. In September when the vaccines are available I shall be offered one by my surgery Nunhead Surgery. I have a flu jab each year but they are synthetic ingredients. When they were 'live' ingredients they used to make me horribly ill for up to 10 days afterwards so I stopped having them till my doctor said they were now made with synthetic ingredients. I am wondering therefore if the swine flu vaccine will be live at the beginning and thus how I will react. I really ought to have one, but I am anxious! But as for getting the flu itself - what does anyone else feel? Just asking! (But I did like the tone of the original poster, it did make me grin!)

So was it a bus or was it an inarticulated lorry that caused the damage? Who does the council send the bill to to mend the roundabout. Such a shame, I like the roundabout and I like the planting on it.

Thank you, and it is also undermining of people concerned with and conscientous about The Human Condition. However, back to topic, obviously if I saw someone furtively, dodgily*, taking a photo of a kid and it was obvious that he** was not interested in the landscape around the kid, I would raise the issue with him first and use my judgement whether to alert the parent or the police second. *is that a word? ** leave it alone

Being a biological parent does not a caring conscientous loving parent automatically make. Having a womb doesn't guarantee you are going to be a brilliant mother. Those hormones don't automatically kick in. Maybe I wanted but could not have children, maybe I am transgender, maybe something else. But I Care. And if I take a photograph like I did recently of a landscape shot and there happen to be kids in the photo I will not wait ten hours for all the kids to go home and the light to fade before I take the photo. The problem here is common sense. Again, look at the British Journal of Photography link to see the problems ordinary folk are facing. And I am dead pleased for you lozzyloz that the police were polite and reasonable because often they are not.

Ah, the old "Do you have children" question. Of course those of us who do not, by definition care nothing for children, would harm them at the first opportunity, would never think of protecting them if they were in danger, and would automatically pass by a screaming child even if it was near its parent, without a thought. Wrong. I have gone up to crying children when their parents have been clearly ignoring them and calmed them down just by paying them attention, I have taken first aid courses with children in mind, and I am very very aware of protecting children (and adults) as I go about my business when there is danger around. But I absolutely refuse to get on this bandwagon of - if a man has a camera in the street and there is a child in front of him he must therefore be a paedophile. And I do NOT see why the very wonderful Marmora Man should be expected to answer the question, either. Incidentally, the British Journal of Photography has been running articles on the problems people are having just trying to take photographs in the street, if anyone is interested.

Boosboss has done it again. Indeed.

Yeah, Southwark Council REALLY listen. Ha. It just so happens there is a traffic segment in the next Nunhead and Peckham Rye Community Council next Wed 21 July. Check the website for the venue (Whorlton Road). I do not know if the street mentioned is in that area. If it is not,then go to the Comm COuncil that DOES cover it. It's interesting to read but we can't do anything. Another problem may be that the cars that drive down this road may be being TOLD to by the SatNavs. I bet that's what's happening.

Reading about the deaths of two people, a loving married couple, has upset me more than most famous people. The composer and his wife taking the one way ticket to Dignitas has really done it for me. Specially the day after all the news about the fact we'll have to pay insurance or sell our homes to pay for our care in old age. I think I may do the equivalent of the Dignitas thing myself and maybe MrPR with me if he chooses. But I would like to have the choice to do it in this country where my body could be then taken to London Anatomy Office where it could be freshly played with* by NHS Medical students. That couple have really moved me with their bravery and dare I say it, common sense? That's how it came across to me. I can't stop thinking of them actually. They had control while they could and did not wither badly in some underfunded hospital. I was at home and read about it on BBC news online. *studied, of course!

Ohhh good question Huggers. And anyway, no-one's gonna tell ME where and when to walk!

I'll be honest - I did not vote because I did not think any of the titles really told me much about the fact that this was a group of East Dulwich Writers. They were clever and sometimes funny words, but not book titles. But best wishes with the book anyway!

No, Jill Dando had a greater impact than QMum. Sorry. Not a Monarchist!

Coping with Death What to do when Someone Dies Funerals Without God (Don't worry, I'm training to be a Celebrant!)

I had a reply from the SNT (Safer Neighbourhood Team Policeman*) and he said they had indeed had a report about this. So it must be true... *unPC PC term. Hohoho

Elvis I was a teenager visiting friends in MissHippy (is how folks from Mississippi say 'Mississippi') when Elvis died. It Was Incredible. He meant nothing to me (sorry), so talk about being in the wrong place. Every TV station and every Radio Station playing every record. BUT when I flew home, and landed at the Airport and my Mum and Dad met me there, we had a coffee and my Mum casually broke my heart by saying, 'Oh, who was that bloke who died that you liked?' I said I did not like Elvis, and she said no, that other one. Heart pounding, and this teenage girl's heart broke that day when my insensitive Mum casually finally remembered that MARK BOLAN died whilst I was in America. The trip home to Margate was worse that day than any other trip to Margate has ever been. And they're normally not that brilliant. Jill Dando - no, ok. Diana, I'd got up specially early to go shopping at Tescos when it opened at 11 on a Sunday morning and I remembered seeing the headlines on the News of the World and I just thought they were referring to some joke. It never sunk in they were being serious, as NOTW so rarely is! When I came home and heard the news, I put the telly on for the whole rest of the day. Shergar going missing? Was at a Laurie Anderson concert at Hammersmith Odeon when my mate told me Shergar had gone missing. When Tony Curtis dies I shall be inconsolable. But Marc Bolan - never got over that.

Is that the light from the sun very very low in the sky shining up on them? Or the lights from the City doing the same?

I suspect Spacey my cat read the article and laughed her feline laugh to herself this morning. She trained me years ago to get the food out a few minutes before she needs it, thus she'd never wake me up. She never dug tunnels behind the sofa till she saw Eddie Izzard's routine about it. Then she would sit behind me, purring and digging, purring and digging. However, in the last two months we have had scaffolding around our block and as we are on the 3rd of 4th floors, and as she normally never goes out because she is literally a scaredy-cat, she has learned she can go out safely, walk around the boards and come back. I am thinking of tying a webcam to her. A few nights ago I heard a very unfamiliar meowing, and got up realising she was not with me. I went out to the balcony and called her name and she came running back towards me. But she was upstairs. She had taught herself to climb the scaffolding ladder but claimed she was too nervous to try climbing down. Out I went, up the ladder I went, and rescued her and brought her down. Four in the morning. But that type of meowing was new to me, and I am quite impressed she did it, though I bet she can climb down ladders.

Agreed reetpetite. Should certainly be 'nipped' somewhere, if not in the bud...

I've already emailed the Peckham Rye and Nunhead Safer Neighbour hood Team as I mentioned on the last page, but they never reply to emails. It's infuriating!

This needs to be reported to the next Police Ward Panel. Sadly that won't be until 3rd September, but I shall email a link to this very thread right now to the Nunhead and Peckham Rye Safer Neighbourhood Team.

But cutting out biscuits at writers meetings because of costs? Didn't you find that amusing? A payment of ?90 odd for up to 3 days (often away from home) to attend the filming of one's work? And yes, whilst writing Doctors may sound an easy and cheap thing to you, the time can indeed be up to 6 months because the levels of management all want their say in how things are done and so it can take a long time to get back to the writer with instructions on cuts and edits and rewrites. I know most of you above appear to be very unsympathetic about it, which shocked me, but at least I was trying to show the unrealistic attitudes the managements have towards writers, when it is their own levels of management which should be cut and stars payments looked at! Anyway, sorry to have taken up broadbandwidth on this one...

You were right to report it. I wish more people who wrote on here reported the crimes they witnessed. And yes, Huggers is right. This was a crime.

This is an email sent to the Writers Guild of Great Britain and the WGGB's reply. Basically, the BBC has no respect for its writers without whom there would be no drama/comedy/radio shows. The reply is brilliant. Takes a little time but some of you may be interested.

He did, he took me through stuff. I think he was working for BT but on the make. I stopped when he asked me my account number. 'That's a new one', I thought. Anyway, it's all been reported.

I made a complaint to BT about this yesterday (Sat 11th July 09 if you're reading this next year!) and BT rang me back today confirming it was a hoax/phishing call. I am already on Telephone Preference Service. So be wary, guys.