oimissus

Bravissimo do good bikinis etc (should you be bosom-tastic).

Blah Blah Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This is certainly true for southwark property. not in my house it's not, we own the right hand fence, it's quite clear on our deeds.

there's a BBQ area in Burgess Park.

that's fantastic! We're just back from our hols on the 14th but we'll (or me at least) try to get down there! xx

I'm sure the chap on this week's Kevin McCloud Wild Places, or whatever it's called, had made his money doing just this, so it's clearly a) not new and b) in demand. My mum couldn't clean out her wheelie bin by herself, she may well feel it's not something to ask the neighbours ( and neither my sister or I are local) and as she's not destitute it's simply easier to pay someone to do it for her. You may as well say that paying a window cleaner is a sign of gentrification, or using a car wash, or...or...or...

museum? One of my teachers sorted out 2 weeks at the Museum of London for me. He does need to have a bit of an idea as to what he wants to do, I would have thought!

Celia Hammond Animal Trust in Lewisham. They probably won't want to home a single kitten though, they normally house them in pairs or a single kitten with the mother. But they have plenty of cats and kittens needing good homes, unfortunately.

I'm not a huge fan of either M&S or Iceland, so don't have any particular axe to grind. However, I do think that Louisa makes a good point in hoping that the Iceland staff get to keep their jobs in the new M&S - a shop with lovely, friendly staff who've been working in the area for a long time and know lots of local people is surely a good thing? Even if the stuff they specialise in is generally done better these days by Sainsbo's, or Tesco or Waitrose, or just about anyone else with an 'upmarket' range.

look at your deeds. Our neighbour (via a surveyor friend of theirs) is insistent that the fence on my left is theirs (or their landlord's) but in fact our deeds state it is ours, and we replaced the fence a few years back and are going to replace it again soon as it's falling down. If your neighbour won't maintain it and you think it's a risk, can you mend it yourself? Or maybe put up a bamboo screen on your side so at least it's safe?

sorry, is James saying that it's illegal to drink in a park? (not a playground specifically, but a park?) Really? I had no idea. I take Miss Oi to the park in the early evening on occasion, as she's a bit of a night owl. I really don't see anything wrong with wandering down with a single bottle of Becks to enjoy in the evening sunshine in the park. And I very much doubt she takes the slightest notice of what I'm drinking.

well, I thought so too, Jeremy - that was just on a Ford dealer's site, I guess if I go through AutoExpress it should be cheaper. My Ka is the only car I've ever owned so I'm a bit in the dark - it was a long time ago!

My car is on its last legs so I'm looking into this. I bought it new in 2002, it's a bottom-of-the-range Ford Ka and has lasted us very well. Is this because it was new when I bought it? What I don't know is whether to bite the bullet and fork out a similarly low-spec but slightly bigger car (probably a Fiesta) or get something a couple of years old? I've seen that you can get a new Fiesta for about ?11K, but a 3 yo one for ?8K - but would it make more sense to spend the extra money for a car that will last longer? Money is quite tight at the moment but longterm does getting a new car make more sense? If anyone has any recommendation for make/model that would be great too? There's just me, the husband and our daughter so it doesn't need to be big, just a bit more legroom and a bigger boot than the Ka. thanks

I don't see how looking after a child with a beer in one hand is any harder than looking after a toddler with a bottle of water, or a cup of tea, or another child, in one hand is? I don't know, on a nice sunny afternoon or evening why not take a beer to the park? Lots of children in the park won't need handholding anyway, parents are there to just keep an eye on things. Probably not a great idea with very small ones, but again, no different to getting a coffee from the coffee van that's often parked up by GG playground. It's not something I've ever spotted myself in my 5+ years of going to the playground, but I really wouldn't care less if I did see it, in fact I'd probably be annoyed that I didn't think of it myself.

I can see that declining female fertility is more of an issue than male, but given that most people have a partner of a similar age to themselves, this needs to be addressed to both men and women, and it would be better if programmes and articles looked at both sides instead of just dumping this at women's doors. I know that my husband (who I didn't actually meet till I was 29, and given both our past relationship baggage we weren't about to leap into parenthood just like that) would have run for the hills had anyone suggested he start a family in his 20s. But apparently having a child in my 30s (and his, of course) was more my bad than his? Sod that for a laugh. I would like to think that ITV would have men whose partners have had IVF in their 30s on too, to hear their point of view, but given that emc is only looking for women, I assume they won't. Which is a pity, as well as being rather irresponsible.

what about men delaying starting a family? Because most women don't have virgin births. Yes, women are the ones having the baby and whose decline in fertility is at issue, but please don't make this yet another rod to beat women with when, most of the time, they are not in this alone.

I think Southwark Gymnastics hold classes (at Brunswick Park School?) at the weekends.

Devon lanes, yes! My god, even my brother-in-law who lives in deepest, darkest Cornwall thought they were weeny. Don't ever go if you're precious about your paintwork.

I know this isn't anything to do with having a family (unless that's the cause...!) I've now got to the point where I just can't ignore all the grey hairs, but the amount of hair dyes out there is leaving me boggled (I haven't dyed my hair since I was a goth in 1989). Any recommendations would be very gratefully received. If it helps, I have short, curly, very very dark brown hair. I was thinking of having a midlife crisis and dying it pink or somesuch, but apparently my hair is so dark I'd have to bleach it first, which sounds like a hassle too far. cheers all.

given that a primary school is due to open up in September right by the shops, I would guess that Southwark are taking a look at this anyway. Personally I've never found it too bad, and have stopped there to pop into the Payless on a number of occasions, but probably not at the busiest times.

nobody's suggesting banning anything, just to use a bit of common sense when burning stuff in the garden - do when you're neighbours (not just the ones you can see either, bonfire smoke is far more pervasive that BBQ smoke, I couldn't even see the bonfire that was seeping into our house the other day) don't have their windows open or their washing out. That's all.

Grapes. No idea why, just never have and can't imagine ever doing so.

I really don't see how this can work. Yes, people eating smelly takeaways on the bus is horrible, but you would also be penalising those eating, I don't know, a croissant or a cheese roll. I've given my young daughter inoffensive food on the bus many times, if a journey has taken longer than expected and she's getting hungry and whingey. Unfortunately some people are just anti-social, inconsiderate twats. And how on earth would this be enforced? There are no conductors and bus drivers have got enough to do without dealing with this.

Ruskin Park. Lovely park, good playground with proper paddling pool and delish ice creams. And we saw a Chinook land there once, about 3 years ago, which was most exciting.

can I take this opportunity to have a moan about people who have bonfires on lovely sunny days when windows are open and washing is out? Drives me nuts. Bonfires are for cold, miserable, autumn evenings. My dad always said so, so it must be true :)

GBK's been around longer than beardy hipsters, though, hasn't it? I must say (though I haven't been in a while) that I've never felt it's a smug, sneering place, just somewhere to get a filling, tasty burger and chips. I'm not averse to MacDonald's but they are just so unfilling, 10 minutes after you've finished you're hungry again, which I find a whole lot more annoying than some free nuts.