malumbu

Did Xmas in Southern India years ago, odd having piped carols when there was no actual celebration. Cuba was nice and chilled. Viet Nam before mass tourism on a very quiet beach. Mexico/ Oaxaca was lovely and sunny with a radish festival too. Iceland was exactly that - cold and very icy and we got snowed in. My favourite in Spain was Granada and going down to the beach (and swimming) on Xmas day. Did the same in Morocco. Central Nigeria was a different one with lots of singing and dancing at a three hour church service and all the bright colours. Two times in small resorts in France skiing, once with an absolute bucket full of snow on Xmas evening. Mountain restaurants open. London dull in comparison. Not that I am competing of course.

As Spartacus is paying you can share with me and I can tell you in great depth everything that you need to know. About everything. There's a Christmas offer.

There's probably a bigger discussion on why we celebrate Christmas (pagan/religious festival) and why everything has to shut down. I've enjoyed Xmas days in Spain, Mexico and France where some businesses and restaurants are open, and in a number of non-Christrian countries. In both sets of occasions it has been festive, but not over the top and the Spanish seem to have a more relaxed attitude in a country where the church is probably more important than the UK. A Lounge conversation. I'll no doubt be popping into the Forest Hill Road supermarket on Xmas day for things we have forgotten, with many others in a similar situation who grew up in the Christian faith (I've long since been an atheist).

I'd be far more interested in a discussion on whether small children should be a on a lead. I do see this with childminders and nurseries sometimes. https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5100346-to-think-theres-nothing-wrong-with-toddlers-on-leads

I may be a she, or they, an alien or a bot. Or all of them.

Probably best if you keep small children on a lead. Certainly in pub gardens. That is an amusing comment, not aimed at any tragedy. Although as times move on and many parents are too busy looking at their phones, leads may be useful where small children running around can annoy others.

What's Gails? Is that the global hamburger chain? Never been. And not likely to either.

My nominations are the Goblin Band at the Goose, and the Errol Linton Trio at the Dulwich Folk Club. I'm not sure what other venues we have in the immediate area. I rarely do the big (1000 plus) places any more. Your nominations? And a special mention to Truthpaste, at least one member is local and their video was recorded around here. But I caught them in North London. And please see the link to the BBCs recording of the Copper Family at the Castle a few weeks ago~: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002ng53

You paying! 👍

This is all worthy of a separate thread as it is not necessarily black and white. Profanities are fairly obvious and some (not in any of this and other recent threads) have been quite direct with me. Oddly enough this is easier to deal with than other issues, if you swear you have lost any moral high ground and it hardly warrants a response. However the subject of winding people up is a difficult one, in part as this may not have been the intention as in prose it is often not clear the tone in which the comments are being made - as opposed to face to face, or when you know someone personally (and in the latter case things quickly become 'normalised' often when they shouldn't be). The question here is would you use this language to a colleague? Light hearted comments can be construed by some as offensive/passive aggressive by others. And there are some things that really wind me up but I usually refrain from comment. Emojis could be used to like or dislike comments. Smileys should be for when there is a fun conversation. If someone posts a smiley after I have made a serious comment what am I supposed to feel? Similarly if you find my post confusing tell me why don't post a confused face. I find terms like the "usual suspects", "lobby" or "hee hee" unnecessary and this comes across as puerile/playground stuff. Similarly being accused of being a troll. But not sure if any of these are specifically covered in the forum rules. In all of this we should be more aware of our own behaviour. There are some that I try to avoid anything that sounds personal as it may be misconstrued. Others you can joust with. I've made mistakes, at times though feel I've been criticised unfairly, but rarely feel that it is worth challenging. @Sue I know you have had your ding dongs too on other threads. Hopefully not too many with me 😃 (meant in a self deprecating/jolly manor as I have a smile on my face).

Malumbu did not make a joke about the slippy surface. It was a facetious comment aimed at those who, on this thread, were constantly complaining about the square (and across numerous threads across this site where complaints about LTNs can be shoehorned in like the closure of Poundland). Why is that difficult to understand?

Nope it is just repetitive stuff that has all been said before and is not any sort of discussion.

Do you have view on the article? Like Christmas round robins I generally can't be bothered to read attachments unless there is something of particular interest.

Do you have a view? I would have expected that it is difficult to enforce as bikes don't have, and don't need to have, speedometers. But we've debated that ad infinitum before. It would be good to have new things to discuss. I'll shut up......

Try to report it to trading standards but as this sounds like fraud report to the police as well. Gather as much evidence as you can. What was the issue? There are plenty on this forum including me who can give free advice. Perhaps you have a street WhatsApp too.

What ban? I don't think any road legal car is banned in the UK. Drivers may be if they have been naughty or surrender their license for other reasons. Not really sure what car supporters are. Do they carry rosettes and scarfs like 1960s football fans. Maybe they look like this. Anyone identify with Victor?

Oh, was in only 50? Whoops. It was a silly race track. Which I sillily raced on many years ago. I've long since seen the errors of my ways.

Oh give us a break. So a bus driver or two do not like cyclists. What a surprise. Very selective reporting. I had a fun ride on the 185 one rush hour and it was fascinating to watch the dynamic interaction between my bus and the cyclists on Camberwell New Road. We'd catch up with the slowest cyclist by the next bus stop, when they would pull away again. Essentially the bus was going the same average speed as the slowest bike. Obviously my selective take but I've not witnessed any buses being slower on any of my normal bus routes and my daily cycle rides. It may well happen but not universal. And it's not about robbing Peter to pay Paul. Drivers, usually all on their own, switching to active travel, and/or the bus is much better use of our roads and would help improve bus services as congestion would drop' Total nonsense. Cars do not need to be supersized. Average weight increased decades ago due to improved safety. The increase now is as people are choosing larger cars encouraged by fashion, perceived advantages, and the manufacturers. The lightest popular city cars are under a tonne in weight and you can get reasonable EVs around 1.5 tonnes. We've discussed this on other threads.

Daily Mail? More atmosphere down the road at Peckham FC aka Menace, Good video, sadly they day the Menace were relegated in the spring (Went to a lot of Dulwich games over the years but now more likely on the South Circular)

Some of you may have never been to a post office on a Saturday when one or more people are posting their ebay parcels and you wait yonks. Just one of those things. I'm more concerned about the speed of the Royal Mail. I may start a thread on this!

Don't be ridiculous. I made a facetious comment aimed at people who are always complaining about the LTN. Rockets chose to interpret it another way (no further comment) and now you have just followed what he said. I commented with empathy on the slippery road thread having had my own falls in the past.

Shhhh, Don't mention the Brexit. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right. So it's all forgotten now and let's hear no more about it.. (no prizes for the inspiration)

Labour were not in charge of the country between 2010 and 2024. Growth is mainly driven by national government. @CPR DaveI'm not sure what your particular beef is with the Mayor. Here's an interesting report from the Campaign for Better Transport on increasing bus patronage (not sure if this is for England or whole of UK). Driver attitude and entrenched behaviours remains the biggest challenge. https://bettertransport.org.uk/blog/embedding-public-transport-in-new-developments/

Previous thread has gone down the line of "it's all the cyclist fault" that bus patronage has fallen and journey times are longer Reposted the link to the 2024 data on the number of journeys on all the main modes in London https://content.tfl.gov.uk/travel-in-london-2024-consolidated-estimates-of-total-travel-and-mode-shares-acc.pdf I said earlier that neither my usual bus journeys have been affected by cycle routes, and similarly most of my cycle journeys. The Blackfriars cycle road has changed traffic flows and as said I find Parliament square a mess and avoid it on my bike. But after numerous increases, probably from Livingston onwards there had been a decline pre-Covid, partly blamed on increased journey times. It's of course self defeating that people give up the bus to drive, and then make things worse. The above report also shows that most car journeys in London are single occupancy - shocking eh? Covid messed up the stats as it took some time for people to return to public transport and now there is so much more working from home. Anyway, throwing it open on it's own thread. It's my pleasure

Last report from TFL (a year ago), based on trips rather than mileage. Some recovery post Covid, particularly buses. Walking fairly static. Cycling up. Low utility of cars, ie more than one person. Dreadful. Long term trends difficult to determine particularly due to the impact of Covid and more working from home. Mileage as well as number of trips would be useful - walking would drop and public transport/motorised transport increase as most walks will be relatively short distance. https://content.tfl.gov.uk/travel-in-london-2024-consolidated-estimates-of-total-travel-and-mode-shares-acc.pdf None of my usual bus routes are affected by bike infrastructure beyond the odd advanced lights. There are some roads that I use infrequently that are awful such as the mess around parliament square and now extending to Lambeth bridge with the new junction layout. If I was to drive I'd use Vauxhall Bridge in any case being the main vehicle thoroughfare on the West side of central London. Make of the above what you will., I've lost the will to live on a number of threads and only posting because I am aware of where to gets some of the data.