Roulade

Is it my imagination, or have they suddenly changed all the staff in Lidl in Peckham? A lot of the usual faces seem to have disappeared overnight, with only a couple I recognise, and they started quite recently. Everyone else is new. So did they have a clear out for some unfortunate reason (I noticed management types in suits wandering around the place a couple of times recently) or do Lidl occasionally rotate the staff between branches?

Sorry this isn't to do with East Dulwich, but on Saturday morning I went up to Tesco on the Old Kent Road and had to go in via the back because the front was all cordoned off by police. There was their white tape sealing off the area at the front, and police officers were standing guard. I haven't heard about any incident on the news, but it must have been serious to seal off the are with white tape like that. Anyone know what happened in the early hours of Saturday morning or Friday night? As an aside, does anyone else find that this branch of Tesco smells rather badly? I don't go there often, but whenever I have in recent weeks, there's a smell throughout the store which is a cross between sewage, rancid meat and kettle descaler. Still, they're all wearing their colour-coordinated uniforms correctly, so the management are probably confident they're impressing customers...

Eliza.D Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Anything that gets kids out in the park playing a > team sport is great as far as I am concerned. Hear hear! It's great to see so many people out in the park/common these days. You see gangs of youths walking away from the park in the evenings and you'd never think twice to safely walk past them. The same can't be said of the random gangs hanging around which you'd nervously pass (preferably on the other side of the road) when the park/common was less used. Perhaps if they'd spent the day enjoying themselves playing football and being more social, they wouldn't need to act like gangsters and be intimidating to others. It's a shame more can't be done to make the park busier. With all the footballers, cafe, playgroup (which is closing), bowling lawn and gardens, it should be a very safe and nice park for anyone to visit, cycle around or even just walk through whilst commuting.

I couldn't believe it when I saw the brand spanking new island on the corner of Heaton Road and Rye Lane completely pulled up and replaced with an even newer and shinier one. Glad to see my taxes, Council Tax and everything else being spent so wisely. I've lost count of the number of times Rye Lane has been dug up over the last couple of years, most of which I'm sure is down to the relevant parties needing to blow the remainder of their budgets by the end of each financial year, rather than waiting for more co-ordinated roadworks. All of which shows how pointless Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson's ideas to charge companies and councils who dig up roads needlessly. Not only will such charges be a small drop in the ocean compared to the millions they need to get rid of before the end of the year, but the companies would probably love being fined because it's yet another way of depleting their budgets!

the-e-dealer Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > it lists 3 methods that don't suit you As I said, I know all that as I came here for help after looking that very web page. I got help quickly from TopTree and paid the bill, so don't worry about it. And getting a bank card is yet another non-solution from you as it (obviously) wouldn't get this month's Council Tax paid in time, which is what I posted about. All paid, no problem, one month left to go. I'm cheerful.

the-e-dealer Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I just looked at the the website. Although it > doesn't mention Post Offices it DOES offer two > other ways to pay. ONline on the Site or by > ringing an automated service. Since you already > know it can be paid at Post offices I would have > though this was useful information. No, otherwise I wouldn't have left that page to come here and ask about PayPoints (which it also fails to mention). As I said in the first post, I pay by cash, which means the methods you mention aren't useful to me. Anyway, the bill was paid in my usual PayPoint newsagent yesterday, and I'll continue paying it there from now on. If I'd known you could pay Council bills in PaypPoints sooner, I'd have saved god knows how many hours of my life queuing at packed post offices.

I used to occasionally find myself in the Glengall Tavern pub at the bottom of Peckham Hill Street in the early 90s. It was a friendly pub without any trouble, and nice staff. I haven't really been down that way in recent years but in the last month or two I've gone along the canal path a few times and the pub seems to be closed more than it's open, even on weekend evenings. Whenever I've noticed it open, there seem to be lots of very young drinkers outside and a jukebox blaring dance music inside. So does anyone know what kind of a pub it's become, when it changed or when the old people running it left, and why it always seems to be closed? Not that I ever drank there, but I seem to recall that the Heaton Arms, on the other side of Peckham, turned from being a 'traditional' pub into somewhere ravers drank, played Jungle and sold drugs, and it ended up being knocked down not long after that! So maybe the Glengall Tavern's gone down the same route?

Betterat50m Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > it would appear that a > large percentage of people who work for the tax > department at Southwark are incompetent Tell me about it. I had a relative living in a council flat die, and despite the council being fully aware of it, Council Tax demands and eventually a summons kept being sent to them. Numerous phone calls were made, and I got bounced from person to person, many of whom worked in completely unrelated council offices and had absolutely no idea why I was referred to them! On one occasion, the person on the phone said they couldn't talk to me as I wasn't the person named on the Council Tax bill. This was after I'd started the call explaining clearly what I was phoning about. After explaining again I was asked whether the person on the bill could come to the phone to officially give permission for this Council employee to talk to me on their behalf! When I was asked if the relative was with me now, I nearly sarcastically said "No, they're in the cemetery right now", but given how gormless they'd been so far, I suspected I'd only make things worse by prompting them to ask to call back when the relative had returned... Eventually, I did the only thing that gets results with Southwark Council - I walked into the relevant office (Peckham Library) and spoke face to face with a human who couldn't get rid of me or palm me off with other contacts etc. As for my experiences dealing with the housing office... I'll keep those anecdotes for either a best-selling book or inspiration for a new BBC sitcom. The two year delay in sending out Southwark grave deeds doesn't reflect well on them as a Council either...

smartk2 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > its all here on this page. How to pay council tax No it isn't. As I wrote in my first post, that page doesn't even tell you it can be paid at a Post Office (which I already do), let alone anywhere else. That page only lists official Southwark Council payment offices. The fact you've inferred it cannot be paid at a PayPoint (which TopTree does) just highlights how useless the site is. Thanks to TopTree, I'll go to my usual newsagents in the morning. Bit late to go tonight.

In addition to handles, I was disappointed to find that the green bags don't fit the brown caddy properly. Why couldn't they supply bags you can use as liners, wrapped around the rim of the caddy. They'd be easier to use, and the extra height of the bag to allow you to wrap around the rim would then let you tie them up more easily, with more food in the bag. At the moment, the bags only stretch about two thirds the way around the caddy (see attachments), and are prone to collapsing in, especially when you're first putting food into them. You should be able to scrape things off plates into the caddy without having to fiddle with the bags. Walking around the streets of Southwark, I'm noticing all sorts of 'solutions' to the problems of small bags in people's front gardens - including lining the larger brown food bins with plastic carrier bags, or those huge clear bags supplied by the council for garden waste. And if it's true that only the initial batch of bags are free, then you have to buy your own, god knows what countless homes will end up doing. At the very least, they'll start using non-biodegradable carrier bags again. Oh, and as the caddies are intended to be used indoors, with the most likely location being the kitchen, did they have to be brown? Why not plain white or silver, to match appliances and other things you find in kitchens that are those colours.

I currently pay my council tax in cash at the Post Office each month. As I only just remembered I'd missed this month's payment (9:30pm, Saturday 3rd) I obviously can't pay it at the Post Office until Monday 5th. So I wondered if I could pay it at the PayPoint newsagents I pay many other bills. Naturally, the Southwark Council website is useless enough to not even say you can use the Post Office let alone anywhere else, so can anyone tell me what places accept Council Tax payments and are there any charges? And if I pay at a PayPoint or wherever over the weekend or evening, is that any different to the Council from me waiting until the next working day at the Post Office? I think the Council Tax is the only reason I go to a Post Office anymore, and the queues are always long and slow, so I'd love to go somewhere else regardless of my immediate rush.

jctg Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > When was that?!? I had no idea they filmed there either! I just did a search and it seems it was the second episode of series 7, in the scenes where Lucas meets his Russian 'wife' who's been sent to get him working for them. I think he's jogging through the cemetery and she's suddenly there in his path. I've often wondered why people never film at the top of One Tree Hill, where there's that nice view of the city. I assumed it was because it's south London, and TV film crews tend to prefer staying north, or at least rarely venture very far south of the Thames. But clearly Spooks is prepared to go to Nunhead (perhaps because they were based in Bermondsey) so why not One Tree Hill? Even the walk up to the top has the right kind of atmosphere for a shady meeting of Harry's with some Russians or Hugh Laurie or something.

I saw this going on. There was a Rover P6 and one of those old turquoise police cars from the 60s parked on Strakers Road, so my first thought was that they were filming George Gently. But then I saw the rest of the crew over where the old changing rooms used to be and thought it looked a bit big for a TV show. But the day before, I saw a film crew with even more trailers and cars in Burgess Park. Was this the same film or something else? I walked right through them but didn't see anyone famous, and there weren't any period cars or costumes in view.