Alec John Moore

MM, there's many a slip twixt cup and lip, to refer to Bill the Quill. If Scotland became independent again it wouldn't be only "independent of England" but but would as you say split the union. Seeing things from a perpetually anglo centric perspective is the thing that pisses the Scots off on a regular basis. However, most intelligent Scots can overlook that innate arrogance and will sensibly agree with you that political and economic independence would be a pointless waste of effort.

Hi You might be interested in East Dulwich Orchard Collective: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?20,547955,549930#msg-549930 It has been dormant for a while but has lots of potential along the lines we've been discussing on this thread. Perhaps it will find its time later this year as the apple "harvest" approaches.

East Fife five, Forfar four.

I googled "pear tree pollination" and come up with this handy little table: http://www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/Pollination-Pear-Trees Your tree may take a while to become established. My new pear tree which I planted last November didn't even flower this year but it looks healthy enough. Your trees may be pollinated by bees using a neighbour's tree but that's less predictable, obviously.

Sounds great, I had a great crop of purple gooseberries last year and the jam I made was good but could have been better, apparently. I've also got an elder tree at the bottom of the garden and if I can dissuade the pigeons from getting the fruit then perhaps a cordial?

We had an IKEA kitchen fitted last year and we really like it. Our builders fix for the fact that IKEA units don't leave room for pipes at the back was to fix a batten to the wall that left room for the pipes and wires. This was OK for us since we had already decided to get a granite worktop which was made to measure, taking into account the extra depth. We used diapol and are really pleased with the whole thing. Our builders would have preferred Howden's because the carcasses come assembled rather than flat pack. We had to spend quite a bit of time helping the fitter interpret the IKEA instructions. We were really pleased with the diapol work top partly because you can calculate the cost using their website. IKEA prices are readily available, for the units anyway, which is unlike Howden's who would only talk terms after they'd come to measure up etc. Hope that helps.

Sorry, no, its on Peckham Rye facing the park on the ED side. Just round the corner from The Gardens. http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

The Gardens cafe on Peckham Rye has a room for hire that may be suitable.

He has to wait until May to get his banana? That's a bit harsh, isn't it?

@John_Fowler said: "In spite of what Alec John Moore states, there is no priority for feeder schools. He may be mixing up sibling priority and distance, the former have a higher priority than the latter." I may have been having a senior moment when I wrote that but it would have been to do with faulty memory rather than confusing criteria. Having been through the process fairly recently I have a good understanding of it. If the feeder schools criterion did exist for Harris Boys ED then it is no longer a factor which is evident from the current information on Southwark's website. So, it helps make John's point about criteria changing. I don't have the time or inclination to find the information about schools for the 2010 entry to check my recollection but my general point is about having to way up a range of different criteria set by schools against the needs and interest of my children including where we live, accessibility of public transport, preference for mixed intake, school specialism, international perspective, sibling policy . . . .

Admission criteria would need to be adapted to meet the aspirations of the parents and their children who live around the Rye. Sounds obvious but the reality for us when we went through the innocuously named secondary school transfer process was that Harris Boys ED was not an option despite it being our nearest school and our child being male. Apart from our son not wanting to go to a boys' school, Harris was only taking children from certain feeder schools in Peckham as I recall. We moved hear from Camberwell and kept our kids at Lyndhurst since we all liked it and didn't want to disrupt their education. It was very clear to us that we had moved to something of a dead spot in terms of our son's chances for getting in to a good school that was within reasonable travelling distance. Our son is now at Kingsdale but not without a lot of work effort on our part. This is Renata Hamvas's explanation of the origins of Harris Boys ED from another thread: Renata Hamvas Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Skyblue, you are correct that 200 children did not > initially get one of their choices (many did use > their six choices). With the movement with school > lists, this number is now lower and will reduce > until the autumn. > > In terms of the Harris Girls and Boy schools, both > EDEN (East Dulwich and Nunhead Education Network, > a group of local parents) and the Labour > administration who was in power until 2002 wanted > a mixed school. The plans were for a four form > mixed secondary with a lower school on the current > boys site and the upper part on the girls site. > The governors of the existing girls school, > Waverley turned this down on the grounds that they > wanted it to remain as an all girls school. In > 2002, Labour lost control of the council, but EDEN > and Labour group continued to support the concept > of a mixed school for ED. A plan for mixed entry > with single sexed lessons (similar to the > Haberdasher's Aske's system) was also turned down > by the Waverley Governors. Plans were then > initiated for a separate boys school,to be built > on it's current site. > > The boys and girls schools are now Harris > Academies, and therefore under the control of the > Harris Federation. I know a mixed sixth form is > planned for the schools once the boys reach year > 12. I have been in contact with admissions at > Harris Boys and I can confirm that the school is > oversubscribed with waiting lists for all bands.

We went for granite when we put in our new kitchen recently having had wooden worktops from IKEA previously. The granite is fab and practical. We got it from Diapol and the service and price were both excellent. There is a cost calculator on their website.

I suppose, strictly speaking, it isn't really a catchment area in that it is not bounded by geographical lines. Rather it is based on distance from school so it depends on who applies as well as where you live. This means that if lots of people from just up the road apply then those further away will not be offered a place. They publish furthest from school stats for successful applicants and that varies from year to year. Living in the Barry Road area we are stretching it a bit but we did put them 2nd on our list. Our son got into Kingsdale, by the way.

EDOliver, you might get an indication of what was on the site of your building by looking at old OS maps. I've got one of the area from the 1860s and one from the early 1900s that show an extensive development of housing in ED. The Palmerston pub on LL is one of the consistent landmarks. Alec

It's a pan-London scheme so you can apply for a place in any borough. However, travelling distance to school was one of the key factors for us to consider when we went through this last year. I think the council tax point is misplaced. A school like Kingsdale if/when it becomes an academy will benefit little from Southwark funding since, as I understand it, its funding will come directly from central government and Southwark will by then add little value due to the reduction of support services to schools it will be able to provide.

scale

Interestingly, if this scheme comes off http://www.desertec.org/en/organization/ then our energy interests will continue to be tied to North Africa. We are also connected, it seems, by an innate human desire for our rights to be respected.

Got back on my bike today for the first time in ages to cycle to work. It being half term and no school run I can go straight to work and be back in time to collect the kids from the childminder. Traffic wasn't bad either around 8.00. I wonder how much of that is to do with half term. I memorised the relevant section of the free cycle route map courtesy Boris but ended up joining Old Kent Road when I intended to connect at the cycle path on New Kent Road. I'll work it out on the way home this afternoon. It was such an enjoyable experience - for a commute to work. The new bike is nice which makes a lot of difference. Hoping to work out the logistics of the school run so that I can do this more often.

I have two maps of this area which I bought soon after I moved to ED about 5 and a half years ago. The first is dated 1868 and the second is dated 1916. The transformation is remarkable. In the earlier map Frogley, Nutfield and Holly Roads are marked along with The Lord Palmerston (PH). There's also a floor cloth factory in the middle of what is now densely packed Victorian terraces. The later map shows tram lines along LL and up Dog Kennel Hill, fascinating.

I read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell recently. From reading the reviews of it on Amazon, it would seem to be a Marmite book - people either love it or hate. I loved it. I could see that it was a critique of slavery in a way but along the way it was a series of entertaining thrillers, expertly written in styles appropriate to the settings of the six, connected, stories. Apparently it was recommended by Richard and Judy but I didn't know that at the time and it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Read it and see.

Before we moved to ED 5.5 years ago we lived on Linnell Road. All our three kids went to Lyndhurst and we liked it so much that when we moved to ED we kept them at Lyndhurst. It's a bit of a pain doing the school run on the bus with two scooters, 2 book bags and 2 lunch bags, as well as the kids. But, we had parents evening yesterday and that just confirmed that we are doing the right thing by keeping our kids at Lyndhurst. The "modernisation" of the school is to accommodate an increased intake and it will be disruptive but it should be all over in the next couple of years.

boast

limes

moist

lifts