bawdy-nan

best to travel around 7am when the roads are pretty clear.

I don't mind the delicious bread from the stall on Northcross road being a bit more expensive than the soft pap from the supermarket. Its a totally different kind of food. I'll usually buy one loaf and we'll eat it over the next couple of days and feel its a delicious treat, or I'll build a meal around it with some salad or soup or cheese or something. If it lasts beyond total freshness that kind of bread is fantastic for toasting. I much prefer the fruit and veg from Pretty Traditional to the supermarket mostly becasue there's often seasonal surprises and its very fresh. Chris simply won't let you out of the shop with something ropey. On the very few occassions one of his staff has bunged us a dodgy bag of bobby beans we've mentioned it the next time we've been in and got a replacement. I think those kind of shops are best when you can get there everyday - you get bargains and get to work out whats good and in season. Same with the butchers and the fishmongers. Obviously, thats very tricky when you can't get there during the day. Sometimes food from those shops are more expensive than supermarkets but it really depends what you buy and how you build your meals. You can live much more cheaply and gourmet style by looking at whats good value that day or by buying something you mightn't be able to ge in a supermarket. I've never got free fish bones to make stock from Sainsbury's, or mixed game, or ham hock r excellent advice about whats good that day. If I shop well rather than skedaddle round the supermarket panic buying I get better value and don't throw stuff away. Thats probably as much down to my hatred of shopping as much as anything else.

I love Franklins and I've found the service, on the whole, to be great. Occasionally a bit ditzy but warm and, bizarrely, kid friendly. I don't mean in a its ok to run around the restaurant way - rather in a we'll bring bread quickly and make sure the kids get something to eat fast so they're not fractious and be a bit flexible with the menu (we'll cut the lamb's tongue up) and be kind, kind of a way. A real treat especially for a naughty mid-week lunch and totally splendid for a big slap up celebration meal (limited menu but thorougly gorgeous.)

... or is Emily Maitlis the new mahogony David Dickinson?

Even if Boris manages to take up the oyster on trains baton and actually get it working I'll be delighted. Edit: ER, I mean, even if Boris is only taking up Ken's baton ...!.... I'll be thrilled to be able to use oyster on the trains.

More on Bojo's odd dalliance with the Revolutionary Communist Party ...

Angela I'm sorry. I can see that a massive amount of effort went into organising the event and I think you and whoever else was involved did brilliantly. As I said I think its just my taste which is, in any case, better served in other bits of the festival. What I was clumsily trying to say was that the bits I enjoyed most were the things like the donkeys, the singers and even the police - who dressed my small children up in riot gear (without batons...). Really well done and thank you for doing it.

Yes - you're right - the fair in Dulwich Park usually has more of the fete / activity type thingees. I do like the fair on goose green though but it could have a little bit more of a community feel. I don't know - maybe invite some of the community groups to host a stall as a fundraiser with a game or something. There's plenty of room.

It does sound pretty hopeless. I'm not against being able to speak to a doctor on the phone. I've done this a couple of times and its been very helpful. Once when I had a sick child, didn't wnat to drag them in but wasn't sure it warranted a home appointment - I really wanted some advice and an idea of when to make an appointment if things didn't get better. When I've done this with NHS direct its been pretty hopeless and I've pretty much always been refered to casualty. Once, to my horror, they sent an ambulance even though I insisted we didn't need one, could get to casualty easily and I was very clear it wasn't a life or death situation (my baby had bronchiolitis). Another time I'd been to the GP with a fever and bad cough. We'd agreed to postpne anti-biotics in case it wasn't necessary. After a few days it was getting worse and worse as was my fever - I was able to speak to a GP and arrange a prescription to be collected. From my perspective this worked really well and saved mine and the doctor's time. On the other hand its sometimes totaly inappropriate and the approach you describe sounds wrong and not at all patient friendly. It surely favours those who can make a strong case for why they need to be seen. I'm sure some people must just get fobbed off and those with things difficult to describe or that they keep putting of will fall through the crack.

That's awful Cassius. Is it worth making a complaint - to them or to the PCT? I know that doesn't help you inthe first instance. It sounds as though they are really getting it wrong there.

Lots for sale - not a lot else really. Donkeys were lovely and I really liked the posh ladies do singing. I could have done with a bit more live music and a few more fete style things. But then maybe what I really want is a fete.

I totally distrust the cabal involved in institute of ideas / spiked / manifesto club / culture wars etc. I certainly find their challenge to the received ideas useful and contrarians are good for a laugh but their idea of a debate often involves filling a panel with people whose views already align and intimating that there is a range of views around the table. The debating competition for school children is carefully structured to direct lines of argument and I'm suspicious of them already so that doesn't sit well with me. My statements about mm and her associates weren't supposed to be a devastating argument against her and her chums. I was just trying to give a quick sketch for people who may not have come across them before. I've come across them a lot and I don't like them one bit. I'm interested to see how they'll reconcile their association with Bojo. They published an article recently lamenting his move away from pure libertarianism. Sourcewatch.org is illuminating - in a conspiracy theory stylee - on this. Its "shockingly bad news" in my opnion, given what I know of that gang and given my own feelings about them. So, of course, its an overstatement on my part!

Boris is apparently likely to appoint Munira Mirza as "cultural adviser". She's described as a "glamourous young Muslim woman" and she's heavily associated with Claire Fox and the Institute of Ideas / spikedonline. (The online phoenix risen from the ashes of LM). They're a weird bunch (dodgy mc-dodge)- libertarian but ex Marxist. Generally contrarian and self styled promoters of the "enlightenment" - they still deny there's a global warming problem and insist science is the way forward. They run "debating" competitions for schoolchildren and debates for grown ups on science and ethics sponsored by people like Pfizer and Monsanto. She says that the problem of racism is overstated in this country. Personally I thinks its shockingly bad news. Munira Mirza, who argues that racism in the UK is greatly exaggerated, is to serve as a cultural adviser to the mayor.

Its been great when I've been. Nice for a wander around, lots to do - tea cakes etc and for me, the absolute highlight, beautifully turned out goths in full funeral regalia.

Asset I think you are being very naive, or, perhaps, very optimistic in your assesment of opportunity. Thomas seems like a very articulate and confident young man and good for him. But he should also look around him a little and realize that whilst much of his acheivement is down to character he had had a huge leg up and head start. There's no doubt that the likes of dulwich college provide a high quality of education. There's probably things to be learned from that sector but it seems almost inevitable that they also reinforce a sense of entitlement and the idea that wealth is the same thing as value and worth. That some fantastically well provided for children of the very wealthy do well isn't newsworthy or something to be celebrated. Of course they do well.

I wonder, do they now have online debating societies at these bastions of privilege? Perhaps we're being used as a lesson plan. My problem with you, thomas, is that you have acquired your elevated sense of entitlement because of money. Whether you were a bursary boy or not the foundation of your education is dirty cash and lots and lots if it. Not only that but your school enterprise is supported through its charitable status. I read some bleatings from the private sector about how they are being harried into sharing their facilities with the local community. Don't see a lot of that round our way do we? I don't doubt that the education you received was marvellous but celebrating success grown from such rich, ripe compost hardly seems worth it. Of course you do well. Of course you should be pleased with yourself just don't expect the beggars at the gate to give you a further leg up and three rousing huzzahs.

Ah-ha! That's fantastic news! The cashpoint I mean - thank you for the info...

yikes - boris has brought in the ex editor of the sunday telegraph to "audit" the London Development Agency. Maybe there's a role here for Dulwich Mum. Could've been worse I suppose. Perhaps he'll get the Daily Mail to reconfigure Ken's strategies on race and equality...

I have to say that I have just had the most splendid experience in Au Ciel. Yesterday at gobsmacking rush hour the card machine broke down leaving me picnic-less and cashless and marooned in non-cash pointed Dulwich Village. After much hanging around I was preparing to depart empty handed when the woman behind the till - (who is, I agree, not always super-sunny in a have a nice-day maccy-d-stylee) solved the problem by agreeing that I could write down my details and pay the next day. She didn't have to be so accommodating and I'm not a regular but it made a massive difference to me. Personally I'd prefer a bit of trust and flexibility to automaton perma-grin.

I read today that Boris has announced a ban on all alcohol on tubes and buses. Pretty good idea I think but I'm not at all clear about how this is going to be enforced...

But that's the game isn't it. Cynical politicking... Cllr Thomas surely wouldn't suggest that he and his cohorts at Southwark Council don't machinate with the best of them... There have been some interesting planning decisions recently. Some Southwark funded capital projects have met with resistance from cllrs on the executive at planning meetings. These meetings happened to take place just a short while before announcements were made about budget cuts that affected those very capital spends. If the planning had been approved the projects would have steamed ahead. As it is their budgets can be cut. A cynic might raise an eyebrow at that and infer ulterior motives. Someone else might baulk at conspiracy theories. I'm not sure what I think. But I know that politics is a rich bouillabaise and you can't blame a fish for smelling fishy. Its part of the deal.

We got a polling card for someone who has never lived in our house. I rang the council concerned about identity fraud. They said you can just ring up and say you live somewhere in order to get yourself put on the electoral roll but its quite tricky to get someone off.

or we could fabricate the webbiest Fon network if all the by people signed up - awwww go on - stretch my access

As I've been mooching up the lane my attenae flickering I@ve been tickled by some of the names chosen for wifi networks. My favourite has to be "ishitonfoxtonsminis". I urge you - give up your faceless "bthomehub***" and embrace network nomenclature with creative abandon...

That Father Christmas was superb - very gentle and a really lovely experience - beautifully done grotto as well. We visited two years in a row and last year he had up the christmas card we'd made for him the year before.