malumbu

Does it have a registration number on it https://www.rollinrecreation.co.uk/bike-register If no joy then PM me and I can donate to the Bike Project. Sadly my personal experience is that the police aren't great at reuniting bikes if they haven't been registered.

Yes, very hot composter

Thanks for the advice on the programmes. I'll keep you posted. I also found a programme for a 1998 athletics meet at the Palace that I was going to bin, until I found a certain Mohamed Farah won the under 17s middle distance race. I've got a stack of NMEs too, but see that concert photos and the like are framed and sold for ?20 or so if I can be bothered! Love to hear about other's experiences of decluttering, or even recluttering!

Good idea, arbitration. We could bring that to all levels of the council's activities, no wait a second, all aspects of public service including policing and education. Criminals, as service users, would have their say and parents/carers could be on committees to agree lessons plans, grades and the like. We'd also be able to have referendums on everything. That will create lots of jobs, and as the country is already broke this wont make a lot of difference on the national debt. Representative democracy, pah, who needs it.

As with many we have been decluttering over recent months, using this forum, ebay, other social networks, car boot sales, donating to charity shops and leaving out the front. With regards to the latter also picked up some good things on the street. Good to hear how others are getting on, and a specific question. Inherited several hundred football programmes mainly 60s and 70s. Value is low, even the cup finals and the like as they printed so many programmes. Gone are the days when collecting was all the rage. So (a) bit the bullet and throw them away (b) sell as a complete job lot for few quid © split into smaller job lots and try ebay or a car boot sale. And if smaller job lots how to collate eg a mixture of teams or themes such as Scottish football, internationals. Trying to sell on ebay for indfividual teams eg 5 QPR programmes, 10 Watford programmes, for a few quid but very very little interest. Of the London clubs only have a reasonable number of Watford and Chelsea. Earlier did manage to sell most of the 75/6 QPR programmes as this was the best year in their history and they were the best programmes of their time.

Perhaps it should be rephrased as 'take a hard line on the UK' in it is as much to show other member states the folly of leaving. It's still a folly but we just have to get used to it (some would say make the best job of it).

Our compost heap works fine and we will have a few bags come spring, I'd happily take green waste from neighbours. Its just a standard plastic one, don't put anything in to activate it. Add a bit of paper, egg boxes and the like. Red worms do the job, and at other times of the year fruit flies and the odd slug. Wormeries are fun, particularly if you have kids, where you get concentrated liquid fertiliser. The grey food bins we have just over the border in Lewisham seem to encourage us to waste less food. Some goes to the birds (and bally squirrels)

Stefan Cush RIP

Stefan Cush, The Men They Couldn't Hang, see song for the weekend for one of their tracks https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/feb/06/stefan-cush-singer-for-the-men-they-couldnt-hang-dies-aged-60

Case in point

Reminds me of England matches in the 60s and 70s when Union flags rather than the flag of St George were waved, never more obvious than home internationals against Scotland when those North of the border brought the St Andrew's Cross and royal banner. I expect many in England weren't bothered until racist groups appropriated the St Georges Cross. This bloke goes on (and on and on) about national identity https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/billy-bragg-looking-new-england-9215881.html

Shocking, she is not wearing a tie. Not sure if any of the blokes are wearing heals though. Most of the blokes look old enough to be her father (at their age when the pictures were taken)

Posted early on during Covid about the increased prominence of the Union flag in PM briefings etc, drawing comparisons to 1930s Germany and the NF in the 70s. Was rather shot down but interesting to see there is now a competition between the two main political parties. Personally I don't have any problems that we are not a flag flying country, don't have flag poles in our front gardens and tend to leave the flags for special occasions. Phew I mentioned that without mentioning Brexit. Damn..... I mentioned it.... Although I like what some other countries do having the regional, national and EU flag up, with pride in all three.

first mate Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Agree with legal. Repeated attempts by a handful of posters to frame any objector to current LTNs > as an uneducated, unthinking, physically lazy and rabid petrol-head is now wearing thin. It is not > constructive and does not add to the debate. It looks like an attempt to derail or distract. Trouble is to the casual reader it does look like this: Dismissive of arguments for reducing traffic, improving cycling and walking facilities Jumping on every fragment of data to justify your cause Scathing comments about public servants Always having a reason for people not changing their behaviour The data that concerns me? Global Carbon levels are increasing, the world is warming up, sea levels are getting higher, the weather is becoming more extreme, swathes of the world suffer from either too much water or not enough, geopolitical instability, reduced biodiversity/increased extinctions...... Part of the answer is reduced traffic, not just reduced fossil fuels but less vehicles, less journeys, smarter transport. If Covid is not an opportunity for a reset, when is? I've acknowledged that the ULEZ and some elements of LTNs may be a big stick. I've explained that Road User Charging would be the best incentive/disincentive for reducing car use on a national scale but that this was scuppered (and the environmental cause put back) as this is a rare occasion when people power did influence governments - who see upsetting motorists as a vote loser. I've also shared personal experience of how traffic controls have affected me, but that with time my behaviour changed. Whether I use the bus, car or cycle these LTNs have an impact on me too, I don't have a special pass for driving through Court Lane or Melbourne Grove. Buses still get caught up in traffic at Goose Green Affordable motoring in the 1950s and 60s was liberating. But car is king cannot go on forever. Hoping that in a few years time with mobility as a service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobility_as_a_service our streets will be very different

Back to public transport - it is a bottomless pit, you can increase investment but some will never be happy and the money has to come from somewhere. TfL is effectively broke, and suffers from many years of underinvestment, a medieval street plan in much of London, rail lines that are often not connected and the lack of a New York Grand Central hub. Yet compared to most metropolitan areas, having lived in other UK cities, we are superior. And elsewhere buses are seen as 'poor mans' transport, with patronage reducing in most other cities - hopefully integration and contactless travel will reverse this, but there is an issue over mass acceptance and the "I'd rather be stuck in a metal box on my own that share transport with others". I struggle with understanding the triggers that will get people out of their cars. I used to drive into central London on the odd occasion. Then parking charges, congestion charge and finally ULEZ put an end to that. I didn't feel the need to get up in arms. I used to have some brilliant rat runs/back streets, most of them closed off donkeys years ago. Again this just persuaded me to drive less. I oon't look back fondly on the times I'd drive more. Not sure what you need for some on this thread to switch.

Don't use that old excuse Bickell. Try moving to most other parts of the country, then you will realise how good and how cheap it is here.

Covid-19 - the opportunity to reset the way we travel/personal mobility, not return to the past.

Some good posts. I've tried to post stuff on the bigger picture, no doubt adding to confusion at times, but I feel that motorists have been prioritised for the last 50 or 60 years. Even the active travel agenda focuses on cycling facilities and generally ignores the need to improve the 'walking' experience. Most of us are pedestrians too. Reminds me of being in the US when people were shocked when I walked, but at times there are no footpaths.... The hope is in the near future we will not need so many private cars, which generally stay parked on the road, freeing up more space for pedestrians.

Yes, but the French pronounce 'veepers' much better than 'adders' so that is why I use this term. Vipera berus in old school Latin (common European viper/adder)

Isn't wealth fed by the fixation of carbon produced by the sun in our foodstuffs, energy from fossil fuels, the sun and natural resources, and the manufacturing of things essential for life? In this crisis the world still need to eat, but I expect a move to more simple/primary products, we still need energy but with less production, leisure activities and transport this will reduce too, and less manufacturing. Then there is less wealth, and less money circulating. And the system could collapse. Or is there a magic money tree somewhere in the Gulf that is still overflowing. I never studied economics so help me understand how so much money can be made.

Grass snakes are so big compared to vipers (sorry use viper as only see adders in France). Last grass snake was about 80cm in a compost heap, beautiful. I expect if you are on heathland in Surrey, New Forest and the like, and you sit still on a warm day you will see dozens of snakes.

So what do you think about the articles I attached Rocks? Go on, read them and educate yourself. Happy to debate that sort of stuff, and perhaps a campaign for what you like rather than what you don't.

As said fond memories, jumping on and off, swinging from the grab rail, getting a tow on a bike. The new ones are a silly indulgence.

Thought grass snakes within M25 was pretty rare, certainly within North and South Circs. I've seen one in Surrey near Dorking, and only seen three of them in the UK in my life. Far more in Brittany with vipers and slow worms (lizards) too. Friend lived in Harold Wood, just inside M25, and his charming cats bring them in half dismembered from the nearby rail lines.