Pierre

So glad this isn't a post about That Shop - love the snow though :) : P

All Saints Peckham (the big church next to Peckham Rye station) always has a great one by candlelight. Theirs is on 14th December this year, according to their website, and it's always got good mince pies and lots of mulled wine. Which is nice. : P

Another one I can actually attend! Will try not to bring my singing voice, it's for the best... : P

I think it's quite amusing, and it's certainly in the interests of the people who _make_ the show, if not those who appear in it. People are talking about the show; people are debating it on forums (fora?) entirely unrelated to SCD; it's even been on non-BBC radio news (Planet Rock this lunchtime, of all stations!) - that all means ratings ratings ratings, and for next to no investment. THAT is why the people running the show are happy to let it continue, even if a couple of real dancers are grumpy. After all, the show's not about _them_... ;) : P

Yowch - sorry to hear about your experience Carol, glad you didn't lose the bike (and, more importantly, that you're OK!) I was attacked cycling across Burgess Park after dark a couple of years ago. Two guys swung a scaffold pole at my face and tried to steal my bike. I think it's only because I was "clipped in", wearing shoes with cleats that attach to my pedals, that I didn't come off the bike immediately and rolled into a better-lit section of path, where they didn't chase me. It wasn't a pleasant experience and I needed a bit of surgery to put my nose back together. After that I kept to the roads: I'd rather be able to see the dangers I face when cycling! I guess that sh*t happens, people with ill intent can be anywhere and even in places other people have cycled happily for years one may still get attacked, but I hope this story makes everyone a bit more aware when they're riding. Wishing you a swift recovery Carol! : P

BlueOne Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > In that case why would you inform a public forum > read by local people about "what could have been > an innocent mistake"? > Because whether it was an innocent mistake or not, Sue didn't get her cashback. Therefore she's warning people to make sure they get the cashback they've asked for. Anything you infer beyond this is your problem, not Sue's. : P

I think the baby on board signs were originally used to inform the emergency services that a child was in the car in a crash situation. I have friends who work for the emergency services and although they say this may have been the original reason, they will _always_ look for ejected passengers or check the less accessible areas of a damaged vehicle in case there are babies or children on board. I think one of the reasons they now do this is because people tend to leave those signs in their cars when they don't have the baby on board, so that used to leave the emergency services desperately searching burning cars for babies that weren't there in the first place. Thus they're now viewed as irrelevant by the emergency services. : P

- Cyclists who jump red lights. I'm a cyclist myself and when I saw a woman pedestrian hit a cyclist with her umbrella because he'd jumped a red light and nearly knocked her flying, I felt myself siding with the pedestrian. - People who tell me that because I don't have children I don't understand*: this is usually bleated to justify what in any other circumstances would be an incredibly selfish, inconsiderate or rude act, for example taking up most of the pavement with an excessively large wheeled vehicle (why the hell don't small children _walk_ anywhere now? Why must they be pushed or driven?) or shattering other people's Sunday afternoon pub relaxation with unsupervised badly behaved spawn who think that wheeled toys either belong underfoot next to the bar or should be driven at high speed into other people's shins. - "Baby on board" signs. Why on earth does anyone need to know this? It's not like anyone thinks "oh, thank goodness they've let me know there's an outside chance that huge off-roader with the bling alloys may contain a child - I'll now drive much more considerately around it so I don't damage it." - people, and this is not gender- or race- specific, who refuse to correctly pronounce the words "ask" or "text". - The Daily Mail. Actually that's not a petty annoyance, that's all-out disgust. Anything who had "give them something to hate" among its founding principles is despicable. There are lots of others, I could probably rant for pages given the time, but I'm not actually a bitter person! : P (edited once for grammar infringements! ; ) * I actually would like to have children in the next couple of years, God and Mrs. Pierre willing, but I'm really worried this is going to flip some switch in my brain and turn me into that kind of inconsiderate arse who thinks that everybody else should feel as disproportionately and irrationally protective of my offspring as I do...

snorky Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Please dont use the term "drug dealers" > > I much prefer the term "pushers" - was this a joke? : P

what's the point of this bit? To warn others about what can, to some people, be a real turn-off for a pub. did you take steps to deal with the danger at the time? Apart from the hasty few steps to avoid going AOT, I also nudged the toys out of the way with my foot. An irrelevant action, it turned out, because the darling delinquent decided to replace it just after I got back to my seat. Thus the warning to others. Please don't let it detract from the recommendation of a great Sunday lunch. And, I think, only ?8.50 a head. : P

(Should this be in the Recommendations area?) We went to the Nun's Head yesterday and the roast was once again excellent. Not too busy, great non-intrusive live jazz from double bass and acoustic guitar duo in the corner, good friendly atmosphere and only a minor gripe*. At our table: several roast beef, all superb; a couple of roast pork, very good but no crackling; a couple of nut roasts, delicious with great veggie gravy. Yorkshire puddings all spot on, good veg and lovely parsnips. Possibly the most indulgent chocolate brownies ever for dessert! : P * a couple of parents who aren't grown-up enough to realise that it's not a creche and that leaving their wheeled children's toys in the turning-around-with-newly-bought-drinks space immediately in front of the bar is at best innattentive and inconsiderate, at worst arrogantly rude and dangerous.

Good to meet you all (OK, some of you) last night - sorry Pim for the hasty exit! Another post of praise for the Duke. The food was excellent. Slightly embarrassed that I tasted a warm, fresh Scotch Egg for the first time in my life and thought "oh, _that's_ what they're supposed to taste like!" : P

There shouldn't be any "froth" on a cappucino. It should be stiff even steamed milk... : P

What sort of coffee will you serve, and how will you serve it? Sorry for being a pedant, I've become a bit of a coffee snob and tire of people selling stewed gravy stuff as "fresh coffee"! However, good luck to you. : P

Lizziedjango, I sympathise. I'm not fond of the creatures either. Good luck getting rid of them and please let us know on here if / how you do! Of course, if you want to see "MadWorld74" stopping his / her "bloody winging" (sic) and "ridiculous moaning", you could always look here: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?20,159540,page=1 and the following pages. Some wonderful comments from him / her about how unhelpful other people's snappy responses along the lines of "get a grip" were... ;) : P

no cyclist likes to be at the bottom of that hill staring upwards first thing in the morning? Fair point, but once you're at the top you can more or less roll all the way down to Camberwell Green, jaywalking phone-talkers permitting. And I agree with AcedOut - the quickest way on my old commute to Fulham was on Mrs. Pierre's Vespa. Public transport was anywhere up to about two hours, usually around 90 minutes; cycling took around 35 minutes; the Vespa took about 25 if the South Circ was clear. : P

I accept that most journeys will be quicker by car but it's a lost battle if car drivers delude themselves with costings like that I've had to drive into the middle of London a few times recently during rush hour and each time it's taken me longer than it would have done by bus, train or bike, and it's been more frustrating and tiring inching through traffic at a crawl. Of course, I wouldn't have been able to take a portable workshop-load of equipment by any of the other methods, but I'm working on a cycle trailer for it! Also, car drivers delude themselves that they're only paying the cost of petrol and the Congestion Charge - annual VED ("road tax"), insurance, servicing and breakdown cover seems to get conveniently forgotten when many people try to justify the costs of driving. Don't get me wrong, to quote someone else, I'm not anti-car, I'm pro-bike. : P

Another vote for commuting by bike (not just because I have a vested interest!) - as long as you assume everyone else on the road is deliberately ignoring you, I always found it much less stressful. There are all sorts of other debates about stopping at lights, riding on the pavement and sundry other law-breaking activities, but just pootling along the myriad cycle paths linking East Dulwich with most of the middle of London can be a much more enjoyable experience than standing in a packed tube train with your nose in someone else's armpit. Now's a good time to take up cycle commuting, while the weather's still not too bad. It does get colder and soggier at times (although your main enemy is not hills, traffic or cold weather, but wind!) but you can always spend some of the money you save on nicer waterproof clothing. JohnL, I know quite a few people who get the train in on Mondays with a change of clothes and a couple of shirts then cycle in from Tuesday to Thursday (not needing to carry extra clothing on the bike ride) and commute by train with the bag home on Fridays. Seems to work for them. Also, as long as the journey isn't too long or arduous (and you don't become a Competitive Commuter), you can usually afford to take it relatively easy on the ride in so you won't need a shower when you get there and if you're super-keen you can hender it home at the end of the day and shower then... : P

Hang on, you're not about to tell us you've found revelatory freedom on BinMingle dot com or whatever they're called, are you? ;) : P

Sorry, my fault for the deviation from original topic. I'll be giving the new Magnolia bar a try, I enjoyed the quizzes at the Magdala and liked the shape of the place. I guess it can still be called "the Mag", however its new identity doesn't sound like it would like that sort of vulgar abbreviation. : P P.S. meridiem is Latin for middle of day, meridian is a physical dividing line between two areas.

I don't know about Mind specifically but some other charities have shops which specialise in different goods; a friend of my mother's volunteers for Help the Aged in her home town and they have different shops in the area for adult clothing, children's clothing, books, CDs and DVDs, that sort of thing. So although you have taken it to one shop, they may have bagged up all the children's clothes and sent them to another shop. You could always ask in the shop, I'm sure they'd be happy to tell you. HTH. : P

It gets worse: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12-hour_clock#Confusion_at_noon_and_midnight ! : P

candj Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > EDOldie, 12pm is 12noon no? And 12am is midnight? > I could be missing something!? Pedant alert: p.m. is post meridiem - after noon - and a.m. is ante meridiem - before noon. Therefore noon and midnight cannot be am or pm as they _are_ noon and noon's opposite. "12am" is the same as, and as ambiguous as, "12pm". Sorry... : P

I know last year I renewed my tax disc online and it took ages to arrive. I ended up sticking a print-out of the confirmation page from the DVLA website in my windscreen (with the order code but of course not my full credit card number) with a note of explanation. I got away with it for the 10 days or so it took to reach me, but I'm not sure whether that's just down to luck... : P

I'll be there, not recognising anyone and being uncertain whether we all refer to each other by forum names or real names! : P