Huggers

a few years back, a Securicor van was nicked full of dosh. The thieves drove it down into Sydenham woods via the gate at the back of the modern houses and hid it inside the tunnel where signals from it's tracker device couldn't be detected while they blew the safe open.

The Village Store until recently was a basic quick-save kind of little supermarket, It found itself surrounded by very smart shops, including an organic type grocery store - ''General Stores'' with very smart front next to it. The little supermarket, which has always been useful, has risen to the challenge, smartened itself up, given itself a retro front makeover, changed its name and started to provide more interesting veg and provisions. Therefore not losing out to the newcomers. Talking to the guys who have run it for years, they are very pleased with the response of local consumers- they still provide for basic Peckham necessities but are also giving the new posh deli type places a run for their money. I think it looks great. They will also get veg in if you ask- I was asking for swedes. Isnt this the kind of smartening up you all wanted for Rye Lane? and before you mock, the little retro parade of shops on ST Johns Street in Islington was just such a row of scruffy shops that took a united decision to give themselves a retro makeover with old fashioned matching awnings...and the rest is history. Bellenden Road looks very pretty now.

my neighbour did this- the council owned the original freehold and so therefore owned the loft. They bought it for about 30k and converted it into open plan living quarters leaving their bedrooms on the first floor.

yup I got them. I used Gigs and Tours website, had my hand hovering over the page, then realized I prob needed to 'refresh' it as it hadn't done anything, then I was in a queue but it refreshed itself. I already had the day selected and went for a middle priced seat as thought prob more of them, then hit the button. I think I even had a choice of which circle block but panicked and the seating plan was unintelligible to the naked eye. But phew. yes. I heard more tickets trickled through. People who were in despair still getting them later. Sorry probably far too much information but it was exciting and perilous at the time.

yup

a confession that it was the most addictive thread ever and I was quite in thrall to it, 17 pages and all, yes RPC.

is it us doing it?

is it the one recently nicked?

They just need a pregnant- woman- smoking- so -I- told- her- off thread to kick it off properly.

inspired by this thread I went to the Flying Pig last night for first time- even though it's hundred yards from my house. I had the yummiest beer- Ridgeways?- and delish potato wedges.

aha! Flying PIg! of course!

Sorry, but which is the FP?

isn't Rye Lane/East Dulwich Road/Peckham Rye a diagonal crossing?

no, the husband of the woman who was doing the shagging!

This 'friend' is probably the husband. Or even a stalker. It sounds thoroughly nasty and controlling to me- someone naming and making vulnerable a person to complete strangers. I'd take something like that straight to the police.

I tell cold callers I do all my research of companies, comparing them and choosing deals on the internet and if they are not there then they should be. Why on earth would I want to buy something without having initiated research or indeed actually formulated the idea in my head that I want this service. If I wanted this service I would have looked for it. Today I got a cold phone call about 'compensation'. Besides being on the telephone preference service I told her I didn't believe in the compensation society. You know it didn't shut her up.

wow Lozzyloz what a lot of gorgeous stuff!

Papa Bear on Nunhead land sell lots of lovely Danish wooden stuff of a similar ilk if you are still feeling bereft.

The children play in the alleyway that accesses the station- the problem is getting through the entrance of the alley which has bollards and the children. They are very little children, I think they are the children of people having their hair done or of the people doing the hair, so I don't think it's after school play out. You do get scooters charging up and down, footballs and boisterousness in what is a tiny narrow and extremely busy space. Personally it doesn't really bother me, except when I am rushing late for a train, but they are unsupervised children who look under 5 which is a bit odd.

Rape and putting your hand in young girls pants wasn't endemic. Neither defendant used the 'seventies culture' as a defence. Sexism, patronising women and being over familiar was endemic, and they could mask other activity.

Plumpstead has all the potential to be a great place to live. Lovely old pubs, the clubhouse on the green, a village green, plenty of green space, excellent transport and good housing stock. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40251280.html?premiumA=true http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42607415.html

Local park could be the small nearby Warwick Gardens, or a further walk to Peckham Rye Park, a bus ride to Dulwich Park.

Re what Louisa was suggesting about Planners deliberately clearing communities, if you watched the amazing 6 part documentary The Secret History of Our Streets on telly last year, that is exactly what happened in Deptford. Whole viable old communities were cleared after being 'condemned' by a council that had development interests. http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/qyj4r/the-secret-history-of-our-streets--series-1---1-deptford-high-street As comedian Hattie Hayridge used to say, architects who's drawings were rejected as cold clinical landscapes devoid of human warmth just resubmitted the drawings, but this time with some stick people and plant pots superimposed on the original.

I've had VW's my last three cars- all bought second (or 4th) hand with at least 60,000 miles on clock, two Passat estates and the latest a Polo Estate which I got on ebay nearly ten years ago, intending to just keep it a couple of years. They go on and on and on, and if you service them at a non-VW garage they are economical. Strangely my Passat's were much better on petrol than my Polo. My Polo is as scruffy as they come and I keep looking to upgrade but it is 18 years old, 110,000 on the (petrol) clock and has only ever let me down once, and that was when the radiator thermometer got stuck and told it it was overheating.

Debenhams is usually an umbrella for lots of other outlets, see Bromley Debenhams. Arding and Hobbs was brilliant.