Pugwash

The Officers on the Safer Neighbourhood teams are usually very approachable ( well the ones in East Dulwich are)and are usually happy to chat. Why not casually approach the subject with one and judge the reaction you get before going in with full details. I found a gun in my deceased father in laws cupboard and rang up an officer I had known for years at the SNT who gave me advice on how to dispose of it. Was really worried going into ED Police Station with this gun which turned out to be an old semi automatic used during the war. There were some drug dealers many years ago in the flats in Friern Road, local residents informed the police who after watching for some times arrested and charged them.

I am lucky as I know all my ward councillors - I have emailed them, spoken to them in their surgeries/community council meetings/in the local streets, generally would not telephone them. I get very surprised when local people have no idea who their councillors are! James is an exception to the norm by building up an 'on line surgery' I do not know how he makes time for it all with his council duties, full time work and a young family.

In Lambeth, each/or every couple of streets is classed as a seperate zone, so if you are a resident in zone A but cannot with your zone A parking permit park on your street or the next zone A street - you are forced to attempt to go further afield i,e Zone B and get fined. In Clapham whilst working for Lambeth, I parked so far away from the area I needed to visit that I had to get a bus. I am against CPZ

According to the U3A guy who co ordinates this area is that if there are only a very small number of people interested in a subject i.e conversational spanish, they usually meet in someones house as they do not have to pay hall hire fees. larger groups obviously need more space and this is where the costs add up as would expect people to chip in hall hire costs.

My daughters tricked and treated only once - youngest about 3 and with her sister 16, they went with a group of friends with similiar aged siblings and only called on houses of people that they knew. The older ones dressed up the younger kids- I think it was the novelty of dressing up which made it for the kids. They only did it once and that was enough for them. A former neighbour always encouraged her 4 kids to T & T as it was a cheap way of getting their weekly sweets and saved her money!

At the East Dulwich Community Centre we are very conscious that there is a middle group of people who do not fit into the young mums/exercise groupies/have un limited money to pay for private classes in whatever/ not interested in bingo and such. At our recent open day we fully expected to have people in the 'middle' age goup moaning about lack of facilities/groups etc - but no one did. WE are open to the idea of having a University of 3td Age or WEA courses at the centre but only if there is a demand for it.

A recent electrical inspection ( as wanting additional sockets etc) has identified that I need a new service head and earthing upgrade from EDF as the back plate has rotted. Many years ago when I was last rewired, I had a big run in with the LEB ( before it became EDF) about the service head where they tried to rip me off by a couple of thousand of ?s to install a new head but I discovered from the Consumer Council, that this should have been replaced free of charge as the LEB were responsible for the power supply into my house. Does anyone know what the lastest ruling is on this? If I have to pay - what is it likely to cost me and what doe the work entail? All the rest of the upgrading can be done by my electrician but he is not allowed to do this.

Gumboots is a charity and originally had St. Johns and St. Clements and Goodrich schools as their nominated schools- and met at the East Dulwich Community Centre. Goodrich school then asked the organiser from Gumboots to locate at the school. EDCC is used for the St. John's kids. Staff picked up from only these school. Their Summer Holiday scheme is open to all children regardless of school

There is also a shortage of older people's sheltered housing units to purchase and rent. There is room on the Dulwich Hospital site to house a school and a small amount of housing. With Southwark PCT being dissolved (or may have been already) I am not sure who now owns the site - is it NHS London? Having worked in the DH building for many years, we were surprised to hear after we were relocated near KCH that the surveyors found that the floor we were occupying was defective and was in danger of completely collapsing as joists etc had moved away from supporting wall/rotted. The team that were being rehoused in our old office had to wait almost a year until work could be completed to ensure the safety of the floor. Would you really want children to be taught in a substandard building? Being dark building with very few occupants, we were advised that we had to call security to escort us to the car park in the winter as there had been a number of attacks on staff at night. The alsmost empty building attracted many homeless people and drug addicts, some of whom could be very violent.

I help run a community hall which is used by around 60 regular groups and private hirers. Who ever was responsible for the management of ST. TM hall obviously was not regularly reporting back to the management committee of its finances. Our treasuer reports monthly on all income, expenditure and savings for that month. If the income needed to keep the hall solvent was not forthcoming, a decision would be made by the committee whether to put up hire charges or reduce specific items of expenditure. As a charity we are not allowed to run at a loss. If St.THH was losing money- someone should have reported this and perhaps this situation could have been avoided. In my teens I attended the youth club at St.TMH and various weddings and community functions. At one time in the 1980s/90s people used to go every day as the bar served drinks far cheaply than the pubs.

When I had my bag stolen from my car in Sainsburys, I just jumped out and ran to the thief's car and tried to grab my bag back. I punched him on the face and hung onto the steering wheelto try and prevent him getting away - yelling at the top of my voice. He and the bag got away. The police asked me why I punched him, said I was furious that anyone could take my property and I did it instictively.They were amused at my reaction and when they drove me home, in my car, as I had gashed my head on the tarmac where I fell after the car had sped away, told my husband that not many 60 year old women would retaliate and that I was 'brave'. I do not think I was brave - I was just mad.

I keep getting emails from various financial institutions and I ignore them all. I may have accounts with some of them but I have never used on line banking and am unlikley to use such a facility in the near future. Halifax is one I receive regularly and I do not have an account there anymore

The description of the tortoise shell cat seems to match up with one I saw on Saturday outside Christ Church in Barry Road. I was watching her to make sure she did not attempt to cross Barry Road.

Having a clear out as builders undertaking work in the house and found a large bag of silver. Remembered that we found this in my deceased father in law's desk when we cleared out his house 9 years ago! Consists of 'one shilling' pieces with Elizabeth 11 and George V1 heads on them ( more George) amounting to about ?15 in old money. 'Two shilling pieces - George V1 - about ?50 in old money Plus one George V coin. Will the banks take them back to melt down again? Will they give me a small sum of money for them? Does anyone know any charities that will take? Father in law a bit of a hoarder - even found loads of love letters addressed to him from various women he dated during the war, before he met mother in law. We did not tell her about those letters as he was a ladies man throughout his marriage, even my female relatives thought him a charming and attractive man!!

Hubby's mother put him into a bonny baby show where he got first prize, when judge went to present it 'for the bonniest baby girl' mother in law had to admit that she was a he - and got disqualified. Whenever hubby now in 50s is commented on re his looks, he states that his original blond curly hair got him first prize in a bonny baby competition. My eldest daughter has never forgiven me when she was about 5/6 having her hair cut short. We both went to a hairdressers down LL and I asked that hairdresser cut her hair short for the summer (she had a beatle type cut at the time) I was having my hair cut and could not see what the other hairdresser was doing, when I turned around, the hairdresser had given her a short back and sides thinking she was a boy, Daughter being very shy did not speak up and yell for me, it took about 4 months to grow to a 'normal length'. My family were furious - everyone thought she had been seriously ill and lost most of her hair. 30 plus years later she still blames me.

When I spoke with her about 2/3 weeks ago she was remaining in the area as children were doing their A levels and she did not want to change schools. She also asked if I knew anyone who could give her a few hours work i. e child minding, checking in on an older person.

I have lived on Barry Road since 1975 - car parking is a problem unless you have a drive like me. Noisy at times, my daughter who lives in Orpington slept over during the summer in the front bedroom and remarked on the night time noise of police/LAS sirens and flashing lights also night buses. We know neighbours 3 doors down each side and over the back, plus several people in Barry Road within a 5 - 10 min, walk.

Am I odd, when younger, my friends all loved blond fellas, thought I was mad when said I prefered red headed or dark haired fellas. My Dad was ginger, my hair was a very dark auburn between the ages of 11- 23 when became brown, I have a red headed daughter whose hair turned brown in her late 20s, a strawberry blond son and grandaughter and a ginger grandson.( I have always wanted a red headed g/son) When daughter was younger she used to go out with her fella and they were often accompanied by boyfriend's sister and his best friend - all of them had red hair of varying shades

Little Kickers meet at the East Dulwich Community Centre each Saturday morning - ages range from toddlers to upper junior

Having worked with some adults with OCD - I would imagine that it is important to explain to any school how this manifests itself i.e. repeated checking activities/things in certain order etc. How does his primary school manage this? Was the OCD professionally diagnosed? It may help to have a GP or psychologist letter confirming the diagnosis and giving ideas how a school could manage the condition. Haberdasher's is very over subscribed for both boys and girls - 1000 applicant for 100 places when I tried to get my daughter in there.

Hubby in his youth worked in a food producing factory and stated that the same products were packaged for all different companies i.e. Heinz, Nestles, Sainsburys etc. - Paying double the price depending on the packet. Heard the same from a friend who worked in a Birds Eye Factory during University vacations. I purchased something for a community party at icelands and so many people came upto me to ask where I had got the goods from as it was so tasty - (they thought it was an M & S purchase) Shall I stir everything up and suggest a Lidl or Aldi in ED!! They scored highly for some items against M & S and waitrose in 'Which'

I like the idea of having blue, green and brown bins. In Sussex where family members live they have black bins with 'General waste' and 'recycled waste' written on them in white lettering. My step mother was most impressed with the variety of colours here in London as she felt that those residents with partial sight would be able to distinguish colours easier than lettering.

The ED Community Centre were approached to hold the Irish Set Dancing Classes on a Monday evening. However one hall is used from 6.30 - 8.15 by Weight Watchers, the small hall used by another group until 8 pm and then every 3rd Monday from 8 - 10 by the EDCCA management committee. The dancing group were offered 8.30 onwards in the large hall but have not got back to the booking officer. There are a number of day time slots at the Community Centre - ring 8693 4411 for Barbara - Bookings Officer.

My work colleague and I both got parking tickets in Camberwell, outside our work. As essential car users we have 'All Southwark' permits which allow us to park in most resident parking bays in the borough. Both permits were valid, another colleague took photos of the permits in the cars and we sent these to the Parking Shop with copies of the permits. Tickets were withdrawn as we found out that the warden did not know the code for 'all southwark' and thought it related to a specific street only.

From what I have gathered - the Language Class is going to Dulwich Hamlet FC The Set Dance people were looking if the East Dulwich Community Centre had vacancies. I heard that Father Gerry had let the hall to a nursery.