civilservant

erm, I can't believe I'm the first to post about this entry in today's Guardian diary http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/15/esther-addley-diary-david-cameron. ED and the EDF have achieved undying fame nationwide. Let's all fiddle to celebrate the imminent arrival of Waitrose on LL while the rest of London burns. ? No community is rejoicing more in the return to relative peace following the riots than the residents of East Dulwich in south-east London. Like frightened citizens across the nation, they took to the internet at the height of the disturbances to exchange potentially lifesaving information. On the East Dulwich Forum website, one can still follow the frantic messages of last Tuesday evening. From user thebestnameshavegone at 6.18pm: "I'm expecting Ocado literally any minute ? does anyone know if they've been able to get through Rye Lane." Just over an hour later, Alex K posted. "This sort of thing just pushes further and further into the future any decision by Waitrose to open on Lordship Lane." Thank God it's over!

I think the 'I love Waitrose' thread ran to many more pages. If we added in all the anti-Coop and Somerfield threads, we'd have something that rivals War and Peace for length and complexity, if not sheer excitement. Whooo! We did though on other posts discuss the riots with much vim and vigour (and lack of the forum equivalent of politely holding doors open for others). See where that got some of us - booted off to lurk in Sydenham and other bits of darkest SE London.

No, I don't think Damian H is a troll, he puts too much misguided effort into his posts. In an early post, I agreed that he had a point in the case of the behaviour of some ED residents, but I rapidly lost sympathy when he made a breathtaking inductive leap and extended the accusation of bad behaviour to all ED parents. I'd be quite happy to find common cause with Damian H if he increased his hate-set to include entitlement abusers such as people who sit alone at a table for 4 tapping at a keyboard and sipping at a solitary coffee while others queue and queue and queue for a table (just as bad for business owners as snotty kids with their 'Tommy Tiptrees'), people who sprawl all over the pavement outside pubs and bars with their drinks and cigs, people who insist on sharing their musical tastes unasked etc. Howvever, he's chosen to bash a bunch of easy targets, and complain about their use of a facility that he himself doesn't use. Rational? I ask you.

I am a speccy four-eyes myself, but have never been tempted to have the cut. The main arguments for are convenience and cosmetic, neither of which is close to a life-saving criterion. I've also heard people say that very few actual eye-surgeons undergo the process themselves (but that's not proper evidence, I admit). As Salsaboy points out, long-term outlook is poor, and there may be impacts on night-vision and hence night driving etc. The technique is hard-sold by high-street providers, but see http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/mar/26/laser-eye-surgery-risks-consumer-affairs

I voted against Sunday opening, but really like the food offerings on the market and would be very sorry to see it close. My votes go to the Blackbird cake stall and the Frog on the Green cake stall, when they set up at the top of the road -there's loads of demand for them as they always seem to sell out before the end of the day. Miss Dumpling's dumpling sarnies with cheese get the thumbs up from my daughter - and the hog roast, of course. And we've bought some decent stuff from the furniture stalls. agree that you never get much change from a fiver after a walk down there (and why on earth would anyone want to refrigerate cheese or chorizo?)

when you put it like that, it's easy to see why some people might envy us parents our instant access to childish laughter and other small joys - poor old Damian H

no, MP, that was two examples, but thanks for helping to clarify

Doesn't look like it - judging from the posts, he's found a little friend but he's already cruising perilously close to a bruising He's got a family? My heartfelt sympathies to them.

there are worse - the ones which demand extra-wide parking spaces for when they go shopping with their mangy cubs

Dear ED parents, do you think that Damian H might be placated if we were to go home NOW and execute our children because they are the unique cause of our wicked sense of entitlement and greed for extra-wide parking spaces? After all, it's been done before e.g. massacre of the innocents, Rwanda...

light my fire - the doors

welcome back, Sue, hope laptop better soon agree that John's map is fascinating TM, sorry to hear about your hedgehog near-miss. I must admit I've only ever been near one on two occasions - once when I thought that one was hibernating in the box in my garage and another time when I heard strange sounds coming from my elderly neighbour's overgrown garden. There seemed to be a thing or things charging around through the long grass making the most extraordinary loud grunting noises. After a lot of peering into the grass from over the collapsed fence, I discovered that the hullabaloo was coming from a quite small pair of hedgehogs, who were getting to know each other rather better...

Damian H, I thought about replying But frankly, your sad one-man crusade against pram pushers just isn't worth my time.

Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash

ok - maybe 'serious problem' was a slight exaggeration, although I do find it hard to get down NXRd if I'm in a hurry, say to catch a bus. Maybe I should use another (longer) route. but the smell and fishy waste water from the fish van IS disgusting, and it is positioned at a particularly awkward bottleneck bit of the pavement. I do too love your argument, which can be summarised as "it's been disgusting there for 20 years, so it should continue to be disgusting for ever".

Damian H, I too do not drive and I too do my shopping on foot, and yes, I too "end up with plastic bag handles cutting into my hands, sore feet and do my shopping at busy times frequently because, as you correctly observe, I earn a living during the day." But unlike you, I have a small child. so in addition to working full time, I have the additional burden of ensuring that she is fed, clothed and properly 'parented'. I suspect that you do not have any children yourself, as you don't seem to be aware of exactly how much hard work that is. (I admit that I am lucky enough to have a partner who does drive and who does much of the family shopping. But he has no problem with parking in an 'ordinary' space, because he knows from experience how much they are needed by people with very small children (or people with a disability, for that matter). Yes, at times, ED can seem like a hideous amalgam of Nappy Valley and the Stepford Wives. I know exactly what you mean. But I'm not going to insist that everyone with small children be banished to some sort of kinder-ghetto or be made stay at home because of the inconvenience that prams and buggies and babies might cause to the child-free. My child is now just old enough to be a good and caring younger member of the ED community. What helped to make her so was every little bit of help that I had from the community when I too was pregnant or pushing a buggy. So there is a return on your investment of patience and sympathy, but it's a long-term one, and you've got to be prepared to wait.

wow, flapjackdavey (sue???), immortality beckons - the Flapjack Map of the ED Valley no less!

> Where Do The Children Play?: Cat Stevens Suffer Little Children - The Smiths

You'll find there are a load of other threads about this elsewhere on the Forum I'm all for having stalls facing the road - it eases the congestion on the pavement which has been a serious problem for non-market going road users. That's the whole point of blocking off the road, isn't it, that people can stroll and browse? and I wish that the fish van would turn around to face the road - the pavement there is unspeakable after it's been. but agree that Southwark needs to put a lot more into it if it wants to turn the market into the hoped-for council revenue generating cash-cow

love the irony, TM, wonder whether they renamed it Ratgrove I'm not for a moment calling for foxes to be put down - you might have seen from some of my posts on other threads that I'm all for allowing our local wildlife to find its own balance, including foxes and rats. My concern is about the unnecessary human impact on wildlife. I hear from the experts that the main threat to hedgehogs is human tidying up of the environment. The main problems are 'habitat fragmentation' i.e. roads and unbroken fences between gardens that hedgehogs (who need to range) can't cross, barriers such as netting that hedgehogs get trapped in and tear their limbs on, mowers and strimmers that can injure hedgehogs hiding in long grass, poisons such as slug pellets and insecticides, and of course bonfires and terriers and other dogs. Hedgehogs are not very bright. They are fazed by most man-made obstacles. They pose absolutely no threat to humans - even their fleas are hedgehog-specific. Their response to danger is passive-aggressive i.e. rolling up into a ball. I can't think of any other British animal that is so helpless in the face of the march of urban/suburban tidying up of the landscape. http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/images/new%20image/hedgehog%20being%20hand%20fed.jpg I'm going to be finding about what we can do and will share info as soon as I can.

not sure that would stop him,and hedgehog babies aren't very prickly...

apparently they prefer beetles and worms the problem with slugs and snails seems to be that they carry lungworm and other parasites which can be fatal for mammals, including dogs but my dream of persuading the neighbours to help set up a hedgehog sanctuary across our back gardens has taken a bad knock - it turns out that there's a major hedgehog peril actually living in our house i.e. our little ruffian of a terrier!

John's post sent me back to look at the hedgehog website. It appears that I was wrong to suggest that hedgehogs eat frogs - and also wrong to think that they relish slugs and snails. I didn't see the info about fox population density, but suspect that we've got a few more than 6 fox families in our valley.

thirded, buggie

sweet! but alas I suspect that hoglets eat froglets... when I lived in Surrey, I supplied a hedgehog with a comfy cardboard box to hibernate in and took care not to disturb it all winter long, only to find in the spring that the occupant had moved out some time earlier without leaving a forwarding address!