malumbu

Not where you change. Nothing beats the change shops in Victoria Street. Rather how bad can it get. It always amuses me the rates in the airport.

When will the rates get better? Will it ever end?? Changing ?1 for .95 Euros in Stansted last week. Clearly I should have put my life savings into Euros two years ago when I could get 1.40. Obviously a first world problem but it does make me weep. Somebody (think it was Hague) said that too easy to blame Brexit. Well I certainly do. At Xmas when it was 1.20 there were some predictions that the Euro was overvalued and 1.25 was reasonable. Now some are predicting parity or worse.

red devil Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Aghhh, I meant to add that video, "What is the blandest thing on the menu...." Was also going to mention the Babur, but boy is it pricey.

They are not Indian restaurants. They are Bangladeshi restaurants serving Anglocised generic food with a nod to the sub-continent. The flavours come out of a huge packet. I am always surprised when people compare Indian restaurants and rate them. It all tastes the same to me. Obviously there are good places in Drummond Street, West Croydon, Tooting, probably Southall, definitely around Wembley and Harrow and funnily enough Gravesend. That place the Cheese Block ran was OK but I expect a bit too pricy and now long since shut. Happy to give my recipes. Well the ones I use anyway. And this place is a bit special http://www.welovehotstuff.com/ Even more so as it is next door to my beautiful launderette/

Generals gathered in their masses Just like witches at black masses The rest of the lyrics are fine.

Going off thread a little I heard a great talk from our ambassador to the Ukraine. She get's trolled by the Russian state to the extent that she can tell what time they clock on and clock off during the working day and when it is holidays. Fair to say a nasty lot. I don't think I am saying anything that is confidential. It's all about destabalisation of Ukraine by any means https://en.censor.net.ua/resonance/380134/this_is_what_its_like_being_an_ambassador_to_an_antigay_country_when_youre_a_lesbian Returning to the subject funny thing that we ar promoting the benefits of joining the EU to Ukraine whilst waving bye bye.

Maybe it would be better to list competent companies. Umhhh. I am struggling. Eurostar are great and have brilliant customer service face to face. Easyjet are superior to Ryanair, and nowadays BA - who did me absolute fabulous customer service in the 90s and 00s I've had a whinge at banks on a separate thread, Santander are certainly up there as pretty dreadful. And a snipe at poor in store service at a nearby carpet shop, and a cafe/garden centre a few miles away - neither seemed to want my money, but others on this site have different opinions. Garden centre in Nunhead is fab by the way, only companies I really want to have a go at are EE/T-mobile shop in Peckham. Sucks. Most of my over the phone with T-Mobile and Orange fine. And Dixons whatever they go under nowadays. Pile them high, sell it cheap. As with original posting I expect most of the time it's fine until things go wrong. I worked in fair trading (oh here I go again) and knowledge on consumer law seems to get you nowhere. No I don't care about the manufacturer's warranty, my contract is with you the retailer. Then get me someone who does know about my rights. Occasionally you just have to give up, my letter to the Head Lawyer of Dixons with notice of legal action got no response. I have taken companies to court before and won, but it is still hassle. In the past it was worth quoting Gerald Ratner https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/aug/22/gerald-ratner-jewellery-total-crap-1992-archive. Well he was honest! (you get what you pay for). On this matter I sometime read the Gruaniad letters page in the consumer bit and think you silly sausage. No such thing as a free lunch, if it is too good to be true then it is too good to be true. Used to have a bit of discussion with one of the journos there but probably started to bore them too - this post finishes soon, honest, dear reader. The recent one about the lack of warranty on the stuff that gets used heavily on the Henry vacuum cleaner, well made sense to me. Sit down and shut up Grauniad. Oh and two tips. Letters seem to get a better response than other means. Yes the things you get in the post. Good as you can reread and edit them so they are not a rant (the dangers of ranting by electronic means and the angry e-mail) Amd do the positive - as a reputable company that I want to trade with I am sure that you want to maintain your good reputation etc without being sarccy.

Quality will vary greatly, some work we have had done looks like they mixed grit into the paint. Helps if you come from a postion of strength so that you can judge, give beedback etc. So have a go yourself sometime. Nowt wrong with using the professionals, some of the quotes make my eyes water which is why a little knowledge goes a long way. But there again I am surrounded by half finished projects so who am I to judge.

I'm not an early riser but should be out of bed by 7.30 in the week. If builders start before 8 I know that I can raise this with the council. But there are regular annoyances from before 6 am that wake me and make me grumpy. The motorbike at 6. You don't need to warm modern engines up any more! So leaving it idling for 2 minutes is infuriating. The guy who'd set his bally car alarm of every morning. Fortunately moved away. Planes - can't do anything about this and not sure if it is the prevailing wind or they switch flight paths as this isn't every day. Brockley has it worse. Skip lorries - always seem to be well before 8. Not so bad recently but the one that faffed around for half an hour one Saturday morning was faffing annoying. And the the irony, the two sources that really annoy me are the council. Bin lorries at around 7.15 (what time do they start?) And the bloke that goes through a spate of Thursday mornings scraping the curb. Why do you do it at the same time? Do you really need to scrape the curb three weeks in a row? Is this job creation? Do you scrape other people's curbs or just mine? Anyway interested to hear other's views. I've had the unsocialbe neighbours before and probably have been pretty unsociable in the past so he without sin etc.

Upper Street is an interesting example - all chains close to the Angel and far more indies nearer to Highbury and Islington. I expect this is something to do with the rent. Yet looking at the queues at Pret at lunchtime where I work to a fraction of the number of people at the cafe over the road (that also does take out) it is us/you as well. Big brands rule sadly.

A timely reminder of the nut jobs leading Labour (which is not the point of the talk, rather that there is no proper political challenge). Well that was a depressing start to the morning (or maybe a dose of reality). Be interested to hear the counterargument - it wasn't obvious to me. I like the notion that Maybot wants to return to pre-Thatcher employment controls. I don't of course like it, I like the irony.

All poxy chain restaurants. Why don't you just add a MacDs, Subway and Pret? What happened to individuality? Only being provocative of course!

Until Seabag's post I thought how positive, we've gone from saying where not to go, and now making recommendations. Many of which I agree with. Including Sue's. I chose to live near Horniman and always see it as a benefit (not perfect but still very much worth having).

Equally conversant in kms and miles, had two grey import bikes in kms and do a lot of driving in France. A bit more clunky to to the litres per 100km (which I do find daft) to the mpg (which really we should have dropped seeing as we buy fuel in the litre, and that didn't hurt too much). Having said that apparently many like the 'how much will it cost to do a set distance'. When I speak to cycling mates everything is by the km now. Good. Used to work with the US occasionally on nucler stuff. What was worse is that they mixed their units. God knows how they ever managed to build a power station. Get really peed off with air travel which sticks to the American way and worse still when BBC kow tows to them by switching to feet for heights on nature programmes for the US audience. Stuff um. That is why I like Canada and Ireland for just going for it. Got a funny response to my letter to BBC for this. And then turned Devils Advocate and wrote an angry of Tunbridge Wells about the metric system to see if they gave me a similar response. Imperial should be left with the Daily Telegraph and the Express.

Irish have adopted the metric system. We are still in the dark ages. Well at least we can converse with the yanks. what? The American gallon is actually four litres? Oh dear we are even further behing than them. (I was taught metric in the 1970s - why we keep this Island mentality of protecting an unscientific system I really don't know, but the little Englanders amnongst you will be pleased no doubt) and I'll get a ton/tonne of postings.

That's a comment on the UK not NI I hasten to add.

I think that this photo says it all. There should be a new sign saying you have just left a progressive modern forward thinking country. All so sad.

I think that this photo says it all. There should be a new sign saying you have just left a progressive modern forward thinking country. All so sad.

Alex pub was waiting for kitchen to be sorted (relatively newly opened). Alex Nurseries should concentrate on selling plants rather than having unecessary conversations with customers (maybe a one off but I wont be going back). Maple Road had some great boozers some selling food - that was some time ago so not sure how its changed. You are an easy walk or bus ride from Sydenham and four award winning restaurants Vegan carribean (yes it does work, and BOYB) http://www.calabash-culture.com/#/about-us/4558013157 The Dolphin Nepalease https://gurkhacuisine.com/ Trattoria Raffaele https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/neighbourhood-italian-crowned-by-tripadvisor-as-londons-best-restaurant-a3187601.html

When I wss doing research I found the the Motorola G4 (now the G5) does virtually everything you need for quarter of the price of a new i-phone. My kid looked at me incredulously and said how could a young person possibly carry a Motorola (well I suppose on the plus side you wont get mugged). On the contrary I checked out a variety of tablets before begrudgingly deciding to get an I pad for the family. On the positive I remember when many raved about Macs - you get them out of the box, turn them on, and they work. And they aren't targeting in the same way as Microsoft. But we have a variety of Apple products, which seem to make decisions for you including sharing data, and break or be redundant in two or three years. I resent the power Apple has, and the market control/distortion this leads to.

Love the bit on tax liability for personal use. I've been subsidising my employer for years using my electricity, IT, broadband, home/heating, cycling on official business (not worth claming back but saving loads on public transport), and crashing a few times over the years with friends or family whilst away on business where I am not allowed to claim vs ?100 and the rest if I stayed in a hotel. And unpaid overtime. Obviously I have to trade this off against toilet paper used when I am at work. Very right that there is a flexible/proportional approach. Yes you can use the organisation's IT and mobile telecoms for personal use, just don't abuse it. No don't thank me. I am just happy sitting here on my moral high ground!

I work for the state. We have shifted from Blackberries (had their time) to I-phones (boo I hate Apple) and Samsungs (my preference) as it is cheaper that having a landline. And wow does it make a difference as I have at last discovered that a smart phone is a mobile computer. Savings in ??????? productivity and boosting my ego too as I am now 'down with the kids' and their big portable telephones. And no longer needing to print stuff out as I can work from the screen. Win win win (win) situation. Celebrate it.

Devonshire Road Nature Reserve https://www.lewisham.gov.uk/inmyarea/openspaces/nature-reserves/Pages/devonshire-road-nature-reserve.aspx Sydenham Garden https://www.sydenhamgarden.org.uk/supporting-us/hire-a-venue/ Both obviously better in the warmer months Dulwich College - pavillion and Trevor Baylis surprisingly affordable https://www.dulwichevents.com/hire-charges/ Have used all three. PM me for my further views.

Better than our crab apple tree then