Twirly

The slip being delivered with no doorbell being rung has happened to me too, more than once - very frustrating. I've also had the slip for things that they seem to be able to get through the letterbox one month but not the next, despite it being a magazine that doesn't seem to change in size from month to month.

I assumed that she thought they were on sale too early, but November 5th is less than three weeks away now - how early is too early?

KidKruger - I would be very careful about judging by appearances. It's not always obvious who is best able to stand - you can't see the bad back or the sprained ankle (I've suffered from both myself, and felt guilty about sitting down on a crowded bus, as I usually give up my seat to someone elderly, pregnant or otherwise incapacitated). I have never asked for a seat, even when on occasion I could really have done with one. I think I worry to much about the response that I might get, particularly if it?s aggressive.

Kels, you may want to get registered with this organisation if you?ve had your driving licence stolen: CIFAS I had my purse stolen a couple of years back. I cancelled all the cards and applied for a new driving licence. About 6 months later I got a bill from Marshall Ward for a mobile that I?d not ordered. Called them up straight away, and it turned out that they?d used the details on my driving licence to get credit and order the handset. Luckily for them, MW hadn?t despatched it as they were suspicious as the billing address was different from that to which the mobile was to be sent. However, I was furious as because they?d not lost anything, they refused to report it to the police, and the police when I called them to report it refused to do anything as I wasn?t the ?victim? in this situation ? despite the fact that MW probably had the address of the person who had stolen my purse (or at least the person who had bought my driving licence and attempted to commit fraud with it). MW forwarded my details to CIFAS, who called me up and we set up security questions which I now have to answer if I ever apply for credit.

[pre] HAL9000 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > We have made great social progress over the > centuries but there is a danger that going further > (in the here and now) may disincentivise the > workers - tax-payers have long complained about > those who'd rather parasitise the benefits system > than oil the wheels of capitalism. There is a > limit beyond which the system breaks down - and > the recent crisis has redrawn the boundaries. > > My evil twin is playing Devil's Advocate, of > course. [/pre] Is this discussion about those on benefits, or those on low wages? There seems to be a danger of lumping them both into the same group. The low pay issue is connected to how we value certain work in our society. Whilst some roles take a long time to train for well as their degree of social usefulness being higher and there can therefore be some logic in them being paid more (e.g. doctors, lawyers), for others (e.g. advertising execs, some of those in finance) it is harder to see what justifies the high salaries (I am not even sure how "market forces" can be used to justify it, personally). And yet we pay others who have extensive skills that are useful to society (teachers and nurses being the obvious examples) a pitifully low wage by comparison despite the fact that we all depend on them. And yet they'd all be royally f*cked if the poorly paid cleaner withdrew their labour! Those who "chose" to live their lives on benefits are in a different situation, and a different solution is needed. For example, I heard on the news this morning that the Conservatives were saying that people should take responsibility for the number of children they have and whilst they could have as many as they want, they should not expect the tax payer to pay for them. Now in principle, I have sympathy with that. But in practice, there is no way I would want to see a child go hungry through the irresponsibility of the parents and cutbacks in benefits. Or anyone else go hungry, thirsty, cold or unhoused. However, I have no idea what the solution is.

DulwichFox Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > People are missing the point. > > In the case of my 83 year mum. The lad DID stand > up > but was told my his mother to sit back down. > > It's about parents. Actually, your story cheers me, as it sort of proves that it's not all about the parents. Clearly the son had better manners than the mother - I wonder where he got it from? So some kids can have rude, inconsiderate parents, but still grow up with good manners - that's fantastic!

I often find myself thinking this. One of my few vivid memories as a child is being made to stand/forced to sit on my mother's knee (which I hated!) in order to make way for adults (whether elderly or disabled or not), but this just doesn't seem to happen any more. What seems far more frequent is that the nipper gets the seat whilst the parent stands (and takes up more space than a standing child/child sat on parental knee). Although the way that the buses accelerate and brake, I can quite understand why parents might not want their children standing, as they'd get flung from one end of the bus to the other if they weren't careful.

True Sean, but it's not usually positioned very well - it's often where the pavement is quite narrow near the LL end of NCR. It was more easily avoided when it was up the other end of the market.

Yes, DulwichFox, but I suspect that the market won't function Monday to Friday as it does on a Saturday. In theory, it could operate like that now, as it is approved Monday to Saturday, but there simply isn't the demand midweek so stall holders don't bother (at least that's what I'm assuming).

I think that increasing the number of stalls substantially on a Saturday is a great idea as it would draw more people to the area to shop generally. However, surely this would only work if the road were pedestrianised that day, as presumably with 30-40 stalls, you would have to use both sides of the road? It's bad enough with stalls just on the one side to get a car through there (tried it on a driving lesson once - nightmare!), as it crossing the road as a pedestrian. I agree about giving the local residents peace on a Sunday as well. However, if there is an increase of people coming to the area, and potentially a road closed, how will that impact on traffic and parking in the area? Luckily for me I live far enough away but close enough to walk, but I can imagine people coming from neighbouring areas (or further afield) though might be inclined to drive, and clutter up the local streets even more when parking. Also, how is it decided what sort of stalls will be trading? What direction will the market take in terms of style?

Be thankful it's just bell ringing. Some little oiks decided to put superglue in our locks a couple of years back!

Probably not relevant here, but Mr Twirly had a similar problem a few years ago before moving down south and in with me. He lived near a beach, and they were doing some work on it, moving tons of sand around - resulting in the flies being made homeless and moving in with him (and other people). Maybe there have been some sort of excavations near where you live and they've been made homeless from there?

Mr Twirly and I saw a rat ambling across the road in Peckham a couple of weeks ago after getting off the bus, think it was on Bournemouth Road. It didn't seem in the least bit bothered by the lack of cover or the number of people that were around - confident little critter.

You have my sympathies. We've decorated 90% of the flat, but had to stop to do something else - and can we get back to doing that last 10%? :-S There's probably only a couple of solid days work left to do, plus trying time, but there's far more fun things to do in the summer than paint skirting boards. So whatever you do, make sure you finish the job!

SimonM Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Supermarket "bread" is just unutterably vile. If > buying I like the walnut and onion from Blackbird > and almost anything from Kindred. Mostly though we > use a breadmaker - a ?90 Panasonic bought from > Amazon 3 years ago which has paid for itself > several times over. A day-old home-made loaf > tastes fresher than a fresh shop-bought one. > Blackbird flour is nice and the EDD sells French > bread flour which makes amazing white loaves.... I agree with the general comments on supermarket bread, though there are some granary/seeded varieties that are OK - I tend to keep one in the freezer for emergencies. Agree about the Blackbird onion and walnut - it's delicious, but horribly expensive (think it was ?2.95 for a large loaf last time I bought one - I also noticed earlier this year a price hike of almost 20% when it went up from ?2.50 which I already considered a bit pricey. It's now become an occasional treat, whereas I used to buy one most weekends.It has encouraged me to get back to baking my own though. Artisan bakers are great, but not everyone can afford their prices on a regular basis. Thanks for the tip about the French flour in the EDD SimonM - I will check that out.

Regardless of how customers arrive in LL to shop, once the car or bike is parked, they become pedestrians like the rest of us who arrive on foot. So a pedestrian crossing outside the Co-op is going to be just as useful to them as to anyone else. I regularly cross the road there, and it's a nightmare. I don't want to have to keep traipsing up and down between the lights and the crossing at the roundabout to get across LL.

Out of curiousity, how to people feel about buggies on buses at peak times? The sign clearly says that pushchairs should be folded at busy times, but I was on a rammed 484 this morning, and there were two mothers with buggies, one child each and the children were awake. If the buggies has been folded, there would have been much more room for people to stand comfortably, and you could probably have fitted an extra couple of people on as well.

A 45 minute gap in the service of a bus that probably runs every 20 minutes is quite big, though I have known worse. Surely it would take pretty major traffic disruption to knock two buses out of the timetable? The problem with buses is that you simply don't know if it's worth hanging on to see if it'll turn up - the fear is that as soon as you step away from the bus stop, it'll come sailing past you, so you keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting... I thought that the Countdown system would improve matters, but it never seems to be on the bus stops that I wait at.

I can see where both SMG and berryberry are talking about. If I'm coming from Camberwell, then I really like to get the 484 as it drops me at the end of my road. But I will also get the 176, 185 or 40 and get off at Goose Green and walk. But if the weather is foul, it's late or I'm laden with luggage or shopping or just plain knackered, then I'll wait for a 484, and sometimes you have to wait ages. I imagine it was something similar with the P13. I actually find the 484 fairly reliable on the whole (and always have done, even a decade or more ago when I used it more than I do now). I'm using it more at the moment, and what is annoying me about it now is watching the bus sail past the stop in the morning as it's packed to the gunnels with school kids. As I whinged on the grumpy old women thread in the lounge yesterday, it was fine in the summer, but now the schools are back, commuters can't get on the wretched thing half the time. There is clearly sufficient demand for an increased frequency of service between 8 and 9am on weekdays during term-time.

Oh no - I love the Brockwell Park fireworks and have been going there for the last 12 years! Aren't there usually some in Burgess Park run by Southwark?

The bus sailing past me in the mornings as it?s full of school kids... it was bliss all summer when the bus was half empty. Now I can?t get on the d@mned thing!

I now remember one of the advantages of living in a first floor flat :))If anyone rings the doorbell, I open the window to see who it is and if I want to talk to them. Generally speaking they are rather surprised to find the answer their summons coming from above them, and I can assess the reason for their calling (it's usually pretty obvious) and can politely announce that I'm busy, before rapidly shutting the window on their stunned silence. It's also about the only way to catch the parcelforce delivery people as they leave nanoseconds between ringing the doorbell and shoving the "sorry you were out" note through the letterbox (though often they don't actually bother even ringing the doorbell these days (6)). But I digress... John, can you please explain why the persecution of JW's by the nazi's now gives people from the same group the right to ring my doorbell and interrupt what I'm doing? I am quite happy for them to follow their religion, I just don't want to hear about it. If you are trying to make a point about religious intolerance, you've missed the point, as most people don't have a problem with private religious practice. But they do have a problem with proselytising. They are quite different things.

womanofdulwich Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > i think it was 1989 i remember having to drive to > streatham and pick up 2 secretaries and an > engineer at 6.30 am to drive in-those were the > days... And didn't they turn all the central London parks into car parks and actually encourage everyone to drive in? Don't see them doing that these days...

Jeremy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Twirly Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I've had a couple... > > > > "We get on really well, and I think you're > really > > attractive, and that's why I can't go out with > > you..." Eh??? I thought that was the entire > point > > (?) > > Was that me? I used a near identical line once. > There was supposed to be a "but..." near the end, > but I stopped short. LOL - I have no idea! Did you deliver this line in a bar on the south bank and then get back together with an old girlfried?

It's not like it used to be in the old days though... I remember when the tubes AND the trains went on strike, must've been late 89 or 90. I lived in East Ham at the time, right by the start of the 15 bus stop. Was the only place you could get on it! They caused true mayhem back then... Don't think there is anyone missing from our office today (though Mr Twirly reports major absenteeism in north London), although some people did have a bit of a walk to get in.