malumbu

Democracty in action? Well it was democracy in that your elected representatives made a decision. If you can do any better then I suggest you stand for a councillor. I've experienced great frustration with numerous issues at a local level. But then occasionally stand back and think that there is a lot of hard work for little reward. If you really are a solicitor then you will know all about the avenues to complain and how to escalate this. Sounds like you just want to have a good whinge. In fact whay are you even troubling us when the Russians are running amok in Syria and we are helping to provide the Saudis with indiscriminate weapons that are causing hell in the Yemen? And we have a monkey in charge of the Whitehouse in the New Year. As a non-solicitor my advice is if you are unhappy serve them with pre-JR notice - loads of good templates on line. OK I have some crimbo cards to write.

WTF is Patrick Collinson on about in Grauniad money saying all is OK https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/dec/17/investment-funds-bumper-returns-ftse-100-2017-predictions No doubt he lives around here as all Guardian journos do so must post on the site

You can make your own - get some proper turpentine and then heat in in a pan, in a second pan filled with water, and add lumps of bees wax. You can seal first with acrylic and rub down with some fine sandpaper if you don't want to get dirt into the grain - I think it adds character though. Mylands in West Norwood do a good range of wood finishes. www.mylands.co.uk Or Whitten Timber in Peckahm stocks Osmo, although Catford may have better advice.

Is this the silly season? Has anyone found LL Carpets to be surly and rude and turn away a grand's worth of business or am I the only one? Is anyone else shocked at the rise in the cost of samosas at the Cheese Block? What happened to the nice Ghanaian lady who used to have a stall in Northcross Road doing salads?

Umhh I've been driving for 30 odd years and yet to have anyone hit the front or back of my car. Loads of dents from doors being opened on it in supermarket car parks. I hit a car once when parked. Just been on an errand and someone had parked behind me in non-parking space. I reversed without looking and the tow bar went through their number plate. They demanded a fiver. It was a long time ago. Last night I parked in such a tight place on a very rare drive into town (Holborn), got our to find bumper against a Merc. If you own a ?70k white Merc it wasn't me. It was funny and no damage was done (and car quickly moved forward). It was bloody impressive parking, just not quite as close as I had expected. My best one was almost reversing into a Lotus that had parked half in half out of a space and was so low you couldn't see it. I also crashed into a car that wasn't there once in Crystal Palace, came up on my nearside. Bloke just says- don't worry (must have been dodgy). Someone then lightly rear-ended me a short time later when a blue light made me stop quickly. I decided to do same (don't worry mate). Who cares, they are just tin boxes made to get from A to B. Get a life, or more importantly get a bike!

I once went for an interview for the paper mill that produced tea bag paper on the Scottish borders. Wonder if it is still there. Switched to tea bags probably around 1971, the same time we changed from cups and saucers to mugs. You'll also find that men stopped wearing hats and more women wanted meaningful careers leading to the collapse of civilisation. I digress. The caddy was still on the wall (think we all had a plastic one with a push button on it) when my mother moved out of the family house ten years ago, with tea in it from the 70s. We kept using tea pots (although I rarely do nowadays - but the sign of a good cafe is a big aluminium tea pot). As a young child I couldn't understand how tea bags got into the cups (from the pot?) at the local Chinese restaurant. We were really cosmopolitan/progressive in my upbringing!

We can to an exchange for Ricky Gervais. They seem to quite like him.

Thank you Jezza. I can now sleep in peace.

The purpose was to do the sort of things you talk about Rendell. Doesn't help that the real ones don't think much of them. There could be a good debate here but I would not wish to reveal my source.

Been drinkng the stuff for years. Tend to buy the cheap stuff as I am a tights rrrrss. Thing that pees me off is that the small supermarkets (Tesco and Sainsbury's light) only stock the sweet stuff. Then again these places that seem to spring up every day don't have a wide range, and tend not to have the cheaper ranges. I digress. So in the spirit of either being mean, or amusing, I will choose the light side. My daughter used to refer to it as soil milk when she was two or three. Well it amused me anyway.

fourcandles. I'll keep posting until somebody acknowledges me!

Wow. How has my well worded thread attracted knee-jerk posts? Grok just insults them and Uncleglen goes off on a terrorist angle. Not that helpful for my letter to Sadiq. Can I have some more objective views please?

Fourcandles

Thinking more of this. As a pragmatist less developed parts of the country doing well out of the EU irrespective of a democratic deficit is a good thing. Noting that much of the above is infrastructure or supporting business thay may not instinctively appeal to the masses. Great to have a more considered view.

A serious question. Was chatting with a friend yesterday who was very involved in introducing them a few years ago, but disappointed with the outcome. I approach them from time to time to point out a motorist who perhaps deserves a talking to, and they show no interest and seem to be pretty ignorant (Highway Code etc). I say don't stand on Lambeth Brige North side roundabout as there is nothing happening. Go and do something useful and sort out the traffic on the South Side. And they look at me all confused. A cut out of a copper with a fluorescent vest on the North side roundabout would be just as effective. The full sized cut out of the middle aged copper in the shop in Peckham is great (easy to scoff but this does have an impact on reducing shoplifting). So before I write to Sadiq great to have views. Am I being mean or a moaning Minnie?

Exactly, harebrained and unwanted.....

Hardware shops have pleny of candles, but they may be rationed due to panic buying. I understand you can only ask for four candles.

Info on powercuts can be found here: http://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/ Only found it when we had an annoucment in my central London office that we may have a powercut due to exceptional levels of demand. Funny as it wasn't a high demand day - no international sport, royal wedding or significant plot line in Eastenders. There was me wondering whether we were having a return to the three day week. What I suspect is that there was a local supply problem. Which happens. Rather than a collapse of the National Grid.

Why all the ranting when there seems to have been an injection of common sense in recent times? My simplistic assumptions on many parts of the country who benefited from EU support, or had the low levels of immigration seem to be countered by those, well at least one on this forum, who has awarded them hero status, whilst tarring most of us in London as champagne socialists. Its still all poo I hasten to add, but I have to grab the odd crumb of comfort. Right back under by duvet. By the way ranting refers to those who are so angry about recent events, rather than us whingers/moaners.

I was enthralled by the wonderful Monkey Planet on BBC last night. But one bit sent me into panic. The Battle of the Apes series of films in the early 70s prophesied a future time when apes would take over from humans. (I am not sure if the remakes did similar). I recall one scene when they were talking about how it all happened. There was a great plague that wiped out the cat and dog population so people adopted apes as pets. But they were much more useful and did work to support their human captors - and there was a clip of an ape cooking and preparing food. Imagine my shock when they showed yesterday a gorilla that could build a fire, light it with a match and toast marsh mellows. Now all we need is the evolutionary leap with a human like voice box so apes can talk too and the future of the human race will be under threat. I am sorry to spread panic and alarm but somebody needs to. What should I do to prepare for this?

All sounds quite exciting - as long as there is some attempt to retain characteristics of the ares. Everyone in the restaurants I pass by seem to be under 30 and white. Anyway I digress. More relevant is changes to the Peckham Platform arts space, and some redevelopment of that area. Heard about it on Robert Elms but I was only half listening. http://www.peckhamplatform.com/news/whats-next-for-peckham-platform

Am I the only one who keeps reading where to go for for a root canal? Bolney Court in Sydenham.

Sharing economy should be a great thing. AirBnB was about letting out a room, or house, when you don't need it. Now commercial letters are using it, which (I understand) has driven up rents as you can get more renting by the day, and is not in the spirit it was designed for. Anyway my take from a few articles I have scanned and my experience in looking for places in a Spanish City.

I quite liked a few of them (what they weren't allowd to do). Surprisingly progressive (my take on rules that are probably anything but). uncleglen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > They are not allowed to study psychology (mmmhhh > says it all imo), biology and they are not allowed > to do any of this > http://truthrundown.net/jehovah-witness/141-things > -jehova-witnesses-cant-do/

Well, what a thought, I may (depending on my gender) have fathered everyone in the world who is 12 years or so younger than me. Reminds me of an old joke about a bet, a man and a dog, two wheelbarrows and a naturist beach. Was tempted to tell it as it is not offensive (in terms of against another group) but I am sure I would have been told off. So, in the old days of bumper stickers there were only two that amused me. "Retired, spendng children's inherentence" And "diver self pleasuring, no hand signals"