tomskip

I do wish people who want to have this sort of conversation would try and find a specialist corner of the internet where they can garner the opinions of people who can actually make such a choice. 80% at least (yes, even in ED) of parents would not be able to give an informed opinion, more like 93% nationally apparently. It's like coming on and saying "?500,000 house or ?1 million house, which shall I buy?". Quite crass.

My children went to non-leafy comprehensive schools in Lewisham and are doing fine. What do you think private education gives to children other than a sense of superiority (which can be problematic)? Bullying, sexist abuse, drug use - all still apply in private schools.

Sorry, meant to add before I accidentally posted, why can't The Castle deal with the smell from the gents toilets? Then it would be ok.

Dogkennelhillbilly Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It would be nice to have a pub that was just a > straightforward boozer. I used to go in The Castle > occasionally but it stinks, and the Palmerston is > too expensive and bourgeois. > > The outdoor space at The Plough is fine. The > inside is a bit gloomy. I went in there to watch a > big rugby match and there was only 1 or 2 TVs > (both in the main space, and nothing in the empty > side room), and they kept the music on! > > I hope the pub does do well with its outdoor > seating - but not at the expense of late night > noise pollution to neighbours.

I did a batch of internet shopping on 1st March, various household/personal items that are difficult to get hold of in supermarkets. I bought 9 items. For 4 of them the delivery service was Royal Mail and I received them all today - 18 days later. Absolutely terrible service and RM crowing about their great new parcel delivery service is infuriating. All were posted from UK companies.

In an area with so many single sex schools, the sibling policy very often simply doesn't apply anyway! Either it's important that siblings go to the same school for reasons other than convenience, or it isn't. Sibling priority is definitely to be scrutinised if the family have moved out of "catchment" and so they are sending children to school maybe 2km away when a child who lives less than 1km away does not get a place. Also, there are plenty of NT children who get a sibling place because their older sibling has SEN such as dyslexia. Again, I don't see the need for this. If 11 year old siblings are expected to go on a train or bus to separate schools in a different borough for their education then NT siblings or siblings who have moved away could also reasonably be expected to do the same.

20 minutes drive from Greenwich to East Dulwich? I think that sounds unlikely, unfortunately. Have you factored in the additional congestion caused by closed roads through Dulwich and East Dulwich at school commute times? There must be a lovely prep school closer to home?

You don't need to know your NHS number to book on the website. Anyone aged 56 upwards is invited to book now, you can book both appointments at the same time. It's a doddle and very quick. I booked mine several days ago and received a letter today inviting me to book. Bit of a waste of resources but as nothing compared to the terrible amount of waste associated with the pandemic so far.

I've lived in ED since 1996 and I think that shop has had three re-fits in that time. So not all that frequent. The most recent one was definitely more than five years ago.

25th January and hooray! today I received another Christmas card (is this going to be the last one I wonder? been receiving them in dribs and drabs for over a month). I've been totting it up and we received 3 posted Christmas cards before Christmas and 19 posted Christmas cards after Christmas. Also my daughter got a birthday card which should have arrived on 11th January. Again, they've been dropping in one per day or so for the last fortnight to make her feel like she has the longest lasting birthday in Christendom.

If appointments for the vaccine are being sent via Royal Mail then I am quite certain some of them aren't getting to people on time. More Christmas cards delivered here this week.

I imagine English toddlers of parents who own, rather than rent, don't make any noise.

It's not nice but you can see the attraction if you have children who want to be outside in all weathers. Otherwise, I wish people wouldn't, and I wish they would replace the astroturf and re-plant their gardens when the children grow up.

UK birth rates have been dropping for more than 5 years. Not in ED it seems?

3 Christmas cards received today, one of them post marked 14th December I noticed. I would like to send a joint letter of complaint if anyone is interested?

Many parents will not cycle or walk to drop off and collect their children, so an already severely congested road will become even more so. 150 children is a very large nursery.

Oh dear, imagine the traffic and parking.

2 Christmas cards delivered today. Both posted 18 December.

Post received today - small parcel from Chichester dated 21/12, small parcel from Burnley tracked as despatched on 18/12, another small parcel from Newport ordered well before Christmas. This is our first delivery since 24th December, our second since 16th December, I'm pretty sure we only had one or two more in the whole of December.

Post received today: 1 Christmas card for one of the grand children from a loving Granny (she would have also sent a card to the other gc and us as parents but these two did not arrive). 1 card posted in SE24 and a letter from King's dated 18th December. What an incredible random mish-mash. Meanwhile the cards posted from other friends and family over 2 weeks ago still not here. Nor any of the parcels ordered by my daughter which were advertised with delivery dates of 22-23 December.

We have had no mail since 16th December and when we had that it had been at least five days since the previous delivery. I guess we have had post a maximum of three times in December and it's now the 22nd. Although people rarely send Christmas cards in the post these days, we usually get around 25-30. This year 0.

We saw a postman today walking along Lordship Lane (upper part, up past the Plough). It was a rare sight. Still not a single Christmas card in the post here, our last post (received midweek) seems to have been posted before 5th December.

Lynne - no, it's absolutely not right that you should have to walk to the sorting office to collect your own mail when the sender has paid for it to be delivered to you. Well done for doing it though and I hope you got some Christmas cards in your post.

I completely agree with Lynne's message above. Some might say that receiving post is the last thing we need to worry about in a pandemic but there are actually vital items of post just not getting through. Included in this is hospital appointment letters, fines, time-sensitive letters with deadlines (like bills). As an added bonus it would be nice to receive cards and presents in time for birthdays and even Christmas too.

Where does the mail that we post in East Dulwich go to be sorted? Is it not the same place that the incoming mail gets sorted?