PokerTime

Wow, you know a lot Foxy. I learned a few things. I used to have a sweet tooth when I was younger Nigello but as I've got older I can't eat anything suger filled, so your taste buds can definitely change. Someone earlier though mentioned getting the last teaspoon of sugar in tea or coffee to 0. I too have never managed this. Getting it down to one small spoonful was fairly easy, but beyond that there's a bitterness that I can never grow to like. I don't like lager/beer and coffee for the same reason. I taste the same bitterness in those things. Olives are a funny one though because as much as I love olive oil, I always struggled with raw olives, because I find the same bitterness with those. But I can eat filled olives.

The only mention on twitter is for a bus diversion due to a road traffic collision. I suspect that's all it was. If anyone had died there would be something on twitter...there always is.

After 20 vodkas, the moer sugar the better ;) I thought the really nasty stuff in red bull was the taurine?

JagerBombs...now we're talking :D

I'm a big advocate of GI based diets.

300k for those custom built buses Otta is quite a good deal. A new coach will easily cost that. HGV lorries cost around the 200k mark. A basic farm tractor will cost 80k. These heavy goods vehicles are expensive to build.

In my experience, the best way to avoid the sugar of processed foods and drinks it to not buy them, but make your own equivalent. Make your own bread, make your own fruit juice and smoothies. Make your own pies and so on. A lot of stuff that is home made can be frozen too. Fizzy drinks can be replaced by carbonated water and fruit juice (that's a good one for kids as well).

Yes, there are good sugars and bad sugars, just as there are good fats and bad fats. The human body needs good sugars as much as it needs good fats. Carrots are extremely healthy, and they also contain a lot of slow release sugar.

I think that's fair comment John. I've owned three vehicles at one time before, and it's not unusual to find a household of four adults owning four vehicles - mum, dad, and the kids!

I agree mickey.....it doesn't say anything positive about this forum, or the Administrator of it, if that post remains. I've hit the report button. We'll see if that prompts any action.

I can't see how parking four vehicles outside a residential address does that. Self employed people are allowed to trade from any prperty they own, even if it's their primary address. I dont see any evidence in the OPs thread that suggests anything more inconvenient that he/or she not being able to park outside their home sometimes.

Nobody has said the station should not be redeveloped - not a single person. Why don;'t you read the entire thread, where you'll see what the real issues with the redevelopment plans as they stand are. Network Rail plan to flank the station forecourt with two high rise residential blocks, that will be higher than anything in the Lane, boxing the forecourt in. This is not complimentary to the surrounding area. They plan also to displace the businesses and galleries and bars at the back of the staion and all along the arches in the adjacent roads, and for what?...more residential blocks they can make a fast buck from. Now given that Network Rail themselves, aren't paying for a lot of this redevelopment, I think it's perfectly reasonable that the same people that lobbied for the station to be opened up (and improved), make sure we get the right plans for the surrounding area too. At the moment Network Rail are simply seeing it as an opportunity to make a fast profit. They have completely missed the point of why opening up the station forecourt was proposed in the first place.

It has to be said, that reading some of these comments and some of the threads on this forum don't show East Dulwich in a very good light. Whether it's people venting outrage at scruffy doorsteps and a whole bunch of other inane stuff, to displays of outright rudeness and the outrageous comment by PrunellaG on this thread. I'm dismayed that there seems to be no logical moderation by the admin.

I don't know about Dulwich Van Hire, but there is no regulation to stop any vehicle that is properly taxed and insured from being park anywhere on a public highway. Many businesses, like taxi firms and car hire companies park their vehicles on the highway.

If the vehicles are taxed and insured etc, they have a right to be parked anywhere on the public highway. You may not like it but the owner is not breaking any regulations, so there is no abuse in law. Commercial vehicles (which includes vehicles for hire) pay much higher insurance as well. There is no guaranteed right to be able to park outside your home on a public highway.

Uncleglen, clearly leaving things to country folk has led to a whole raft of cruelty to animals, from battery hens to ripping live animals apart for sport. No thank you. There is no place for that kind of cruelty. There is no more cruel and destructive species on this planet than mankind. We are the only species that inflicts widespread needless cruelty on other living things. We kill millions of our own species every year for no acceptable reason. So I think it's a bit rich to paint any animal as somehow being more cruel than the humans who think cruelty for sport is a fun day out. And TED is right. There are plenty of country folk who are anti-hunt.

Yes it's a chicken and egg scenario. People need disposable income to spend to regenerate local business. And in turn we need business to provide the disposable income. There are however, larger comapnies that could pay more, but choose not to. I think government could do far more to facilitate small business, and far more to help some people to work for themselves. In unemployment terms, there are two groups that face particular difficulty. One is the under 25s and the other is the over 45s. Many of those over 45s are extremely knowledgeable and experienced people. It's only the prejudice of employers that keeps them out of employment. They are often people who have worked most of their life only to be made redundant. Some of those people would be great at starting their own business, and it's those kinds of businesses that typically can offer first jobs to under 25s. I think it would be worth government investing in grants to (not loans) to get some of those people working for themselves. There's too much focus on big business imo.

The problem is that the minimum wage isn't generous by any measure. A min wage will just about get you by in the poorest areas economically. It already is set at the low end of the bar. It only equals an annual full time salary of 13k BEFORE tax. So regional tiering would actually see a need for stronger increase across the more expensive areas of the country. To give some idea. Two adults with two children, both working full time and on min wage would bring home around ?325 a week after tax and NI. Their rent in the North would be around ?150 per week for a three bedroomed home. That leaves 175 to cover food, clothing, toilets etc for a family of four. Travel costs to and from work/ child care. Untilities bills and telephone. It's not a great wage. And for a single parent it's an impossible wage to get by on without top up benefits and/or child tax credits. A single parent would pay around ?110 for a two bed property - more than half the take home pay. I actually don't think a lot of people with decent incomes really understand the squeeze that ordinary working people have to manage under. That's why policies like freezing utility prices are far more helpful in real terms. We have to find a way to close the gap between wages and living costs, otherwise the economy is never going to recover.

You could try reinstalling the touchpad and cursor drivers. Go into control panel - device manager - mouse and pointing devices. Right click on touchpad - unistall. The touchpad will then show with a yellow triangle - right click again - install (or it might say search for drivers). That should work.

I'm an advocate of land tax over labour tax. That would be a far better way to tax the wealthiest anyway.

I agree regarding works, but only because a leaseholder has no say in who does the work and how much they can charge. That does seem to be extremely unfair. But you can't begrudge the tenants. They don't own anything. That's where I lose sympathy with leaseholders. At the end of the day you know what you are buying. 40% of people who buy their council homes do so because they can do so cheaply, and then move somewhere else and rent out the council property to fund the mortagages. You ask the tenant of a leasehold property how much rent they have to pay to their private landlord for example. There are many flaws with the whole 'right to buy' system. Governments telling Local Authorities they can't charge market value being one. A better option for first time buyers on that scale are affordable new builds, but we are not building enough of those. Not suprising when local authorities are not getting market value for the property they already own.

Exactly and what is it that makes things a struggle? High cost of housing, energy etc. Given that most people aren't earning anything near that, it really falls on deaf ears when Osbourne says things like 'the economy is recovering' or 'we are creating more jobs than...'. There does seem to be a real disconnect between MPs and the reality for many ordinary people.

I don't think anyone is an enemy of public sector workers really. But I do think it's not true anyomre to cite the public sector as underpaid as a whole. Whilst some positions, epecially at entry level are still poorly paid, there are plenty of jobs within the public sector that are not. Senior nurses, train drivers, etc earn decent wages. And that is backed up by all the data. The public sector has caught up with the private sector. But I still have conversations with public sectors workers on 40k salaries who think they are hard done by. The reason being that they have become used to year on year generous raises etc and now expect that to continue forever. They don't stop to think who is going to have to pay for all of this. I think also the partnership with private companies in some public sector realms has helped being some salaries in line though too. Where animosity does exist I think stems from that gap between poorly paid private sector workers and better paid public sector workers. Everyone works hard, but some have state provided and paid for benefits whilst others don't. And that's becoming true within the public sector itself, not just in comparison to the private sector. I don't know what the solutions are. There aren't enough jobs. Many of those that do exist aren't secure or stable and many more don't pay enough. If we don't do something to change those three things, there'll be no money to give any of us pensions, state or otherwise :(

You are getting a home at half the market value and you are complaining about a ?500 annual service charge? Really?

I think that's right. Interesting solution from you there ????'s but you are right in those with most to lose would never let it happen. Public sector pensions are already being forced to change. The public sector workers of the future won't be getting anything like the pension gravy train they receive now. Enjoy it while you can. I think the future will see people having to release equity in their property to get by, but then, that's why the housing market has been allowed to boom out of control.