civilservant

We flew to Sicily with daughter aged 6 months. She was breastfed so no extra luggage/gadgets needed, and breastfeeding when taking off and landing meant that she had a comfortable flight. While we were there, local people went out of their way to help and be friendly - a baby was the perfect ice-breaker.

His essays may have been double-marked by an external examiner or second tutor, which is why his tutor's assessment was inaccurate. This is normal practice. Nothing to be lost by appealing, but if it was indeed double-marked, the likelihood of the appeal being successful may be reduced.

It sounds as if the rats have been disturbed out of their usual space, so they're fetching up on your property - hence the dead ones and the ones running around in plain sight in daylight(?). The cause could be building or road works nearby or someone else putting down poison to kill them. I can't help but feel sorry for them...

:))

The advice seems to be that you've got to give it four hours of your life! David Sexton in the Evening Standard, Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian, Jason Solomon in the Observer, admitted that it made a lot more sense second time round, although Nigel Andrews in the FT only gave it 2 out of 5.

one nation under a groove - funkadelic

ianr - sorry only just seen your question! Thaddeus was the sole survivor, hence his (her?) name Then he too, alas, succumbed... ave atque vale! he was blood brother to Sue's greedy little sprogs

Tomk, I don't understand what you mean by 'deliberate misread'. You can believe what you like, I have no problem with that, it's a free country and some people believe in Santa Claus after all. But... I was surprised before by your casuistry and am now nearly speechless with astonishment at how neatly you've fallen into your own trap, implying as you do that the Catholic Church is capable of using even school admissions to 'encourage' people into joining its fold.

Tony Rabbit, thank you for clarifying. I think we agree that the problem is the closed-shop that operates at faith schools. I have no problem about non-secular education in general, but the point here is that we are talking about a primary school that does not serve its local community. Any argument about how all classes and communities rub along so well and result in a super-diverse school will fail against the single fact that even if a small child lives next door to this school, he or she will not be able to attend it because its admission policy discriminates against non-Catholics. I note with astonishment the unblushing admission somewhere on this thread that 'St Anthony?s admissions criteria is as fair as, if not fairer than, any other school?s in the area. After SEN/looked-after etc, it is dependent on faith, and anybody can be Catholic. It is not a closed shop.' Eh? was the poster expecting to be taken seriously?

Tony R - I do so laud your concern for extremely poor suffering countries and the pitiful existence of their church foundation schools! I myself, although a non-Catholic, went to one of these charitable institutions, of which you seem to know so much, in a country in the 'developing world'. It occupied a vast and extremely valuable tract of real estate in the middle of the capital city and was clearly lavishly funded and endowed. However, it understood the value of taking in children from a wide range of religious backgrounds - even (gasp!) Muslims - provided of course that they could afford the fees (which were pretty steep for this extremely poor suffering country...). So I'm nonplussed when I see church schools in this country try to keep themselves free of pagan/heathen/atheist heresies by keeping non-Christians at arms' length. Another thing - as for providing millions of children the 'privilage of even basic reading and writing', you might want to investigate the phenomenon of the 'rice Christian' and how churches in the Third World have exploited the extremely poor suffering populations. Anyway, back home in ED, how is this school doing a good job? It insists on excluding the majority of the local population, it insists on keeping its kids in some kind of faith-based ghetto, its policies cause nuisance to local residents. Hardly a local asset!

God is a DJ - Faithless

sugar mountain - neil young

American Pie - Don McLean

I suspect that Tarot's friend is talking about restaurant practice in this country rather than true South Asian cooking, and as Nette points out, the key ingredient in a vindaloo is vinegar rather than chilli. My Sri Lankan friends tell me that pepper (Sinhala - gam-miris or 'village chilli', Tamil - milagu) was the original heat source in South Asian cooking. At some point, it was supplemented by chilli (Sinhala - miris, Tamil - milagai or 'chilli fruit') and Sri Lankans use different combinations of pepper and chilli to create a variety of spicy flavours. But I have no idea what South East Asians used, nor the Chinese (Szechuan cooking is searingly hot as well.) A related question - how did the tomato, also introduced to Europe in the 16th century, become such an essential component of Italian cuisine?

Thanks, Admin! I didn't know Peter of Shawbury Rd whom Brummie was remembering, but it might have meant something to others in ED.

the Sound of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel

or you can ask John at Chener Books to order it for you

are the savings from axing lollipop people being recycled into free school meals for all primary school children in Southwark? a more targeted redistributive agenda, therefore? does anyone know?

not just 'mummies' will scream! very few children have a journey to school that doesn't involve crossings and it's not really about children being old enough and responsible/intelligent enough etc. I - a (definitely) older and (presumably) responsible/intelligent adult - often have trouble getting across roads at school dropping-off or picking-up time, although to be fair, some of the people driving like arses seem to be dropping-off or picking-up 'mummies' and while I'm here - there seemed to be some indiscriminate Lounging of threads around the middle of June, including one of mine. I'm sure Admin had his reasons, but it was disrespectful and inappropriate to Lounge this one - http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?20,686594,686966#msg-686966

for those who - like me - were wondering, diligent Googling has shown that the image behind Morrissey was a still of Tony Franciosa from Senilita (1962) directed by Mauro Bolognini and based on a book by Italo Svevo. The female star was Claudia Cardinale and the film was marketed in France under a title meaning 'When flesh succumbs' - surely some subtext here?

Days - the Kinks

It's always amusing to find Little Englanders finding common cause with French/Greek/Italian/you name it nationalists! But gloating over the rumoured demise of the eurozone has a touch of cutting-off-nose-to-spite-face about it. Staycationers aside, the eurozone (and Schengen) still mean something to those who suddenly found easy access to a whole continent opening up before them at the end of the last century. You surely don't have to be a Euro-idealist to not want to go back to the days that you had to change your currency (and pay charges and be at the mercy of fluctuating exchange rates) every time you crossed a border 'over there' and then come home with a pocketful of assorted loose change?

Heart of Gold - Neil Young

I think sambless may just be trying to be ironic - not true, sambless? junior civilservant has been reading the children's classic A Little Princess, in which one of the few friends that the heroine (aged 10 or 11) is left with after she loses her fortune is a common house rat that she names Melchisedec. Junior civilservant has been been hoping for a tame rat friend ever since...

RIP Thaddeus, lone tadpole occupant of our salad bowl 'pond':'( We had such hopes for you, you managed to outlive your brothers and sisters for so long! Sue, congratulations! may you have see many more froglets frolicking in your tub!