Siduhe

I don't think retail was the driver - that was surely to modernise and improve access to the station as part of the line upgrades - which it has done as it seems to me. We may walk longer but it's easier to navigate, more open and there's more room certainly when you compare it to the start of the works pre-financial crisis, but then I remember LB in the early 1990s when they first planned to knock down Borough Market to allow the line upgrades for the ill-fated "Thameslink 2000" project - it's miles better than it was then. But retail has definitely become a key way to pay for it in terms of funding and possibility of future revenues.

That?s good to know. Thanks! And this thread inspired me to get off my backside and book Xu (for March!) so I?m looking forward to that.

I've been to Plum Valley and Tao Tao Ju in the last six months. I would say Plum Valley is a bit better for food but the service is perfunctory and they get very keen about you leaving when they have a queue of people. At Tao Tao Ju the food was a bit more hit and miss (especially the dim sum) but the service was much better. Both do crispy duck. Both are at the ?10 per main level. I wouldn't say either is a standout recommendation, but the food was decent. The place I want to try is Xu on Rupert Street, which is Taiwanese food - so no crispy duck - and more pricey, but someone I work with raves about it.

Penguin68 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Issues of quality and value apart, the business > model for this doesn?t work. It was set up for an > area with a high/ high value passing (particularly > lunchtime) trade ? where people would be looking > for a quick and easy lunch (in) or for easily > portable ingredients to take home from work for a > quick meal there ? very much the passing trade of > an area with a high intensity of (relatively well > paid) office staff. This isn?t the LL demographic. > Although the age/ wealth profile in LL is close ? > the sort of passing trade is much more yummy mummy > (long chats over a light lunch with buggies) ? > which it wasn?t set up for. And if you are cooking > partly at least for children the costs/ quality > don?t add-up either. ?6 for pasta for two is fine > for dinkies, but doesn?t make sense for the LL > demographic on anything except an occasional > basis. ? So ? good shop, wrong location, wrong > customer base. I very much agree with this. I loved their pasta - thought it was fair value for what you get, but it was an occasional treat for me, certainly not a regular enough user to keep them in business. I did once get some of their filled lemon pasta for a friend of Sicilian heritage, and he was blown away by it - said it was the closest he had ever got to the pasta he grew up with. Will be sorry to see them go, but just think it was the wrong business model for our area.

Night Film by Marisha Pessi - took me a while to get into it but it was a cracking read by the end. These two don't neatly fit in your preferred categories, but books that have stuck with me and which I regularly come back to include Fierce People by Dirk Wittenborn and Manhattan Nocturne by Colin Harrison (may be out of print).

Lavender27, the owner of the fishery reportedly claims that Eastern European fisherman don't ?catch and release? as they are supposed to but take their catches home with them so the lakes keep running out of fish. No excuse for a sign like that.

Worldwiser - just tested over wifi at 19.59 (Infinty 2). 62.9 down, 12.7 up.

BT - it can depend where you are in ED - some people who've posted on the forum can't get Infinity in ED for example, but we have BT Infinity 2 (Underhill/Melford Road) and it is fast (we consistently get 50mbps download) and connection is rock solid. I think we had one serious crash about 18 months ago with no service for 12 hours, but half the country was affected by that. You pay a bit more but it's worth it, in my view. We only have broadband and telephone, not the TV service.

@rendellharris, I completely agree. But I don't think it's the case that the "courts don't allow it". The rules around jury service are pretty archaic so I doubt they've ever considered the requirements of new mothers - it's still the Juries Act 1974 that governs, right? Anyway, I think we've answered malumbu's question for him/her - "surely there cannot still be an issue..."? Well, there certainly seems to be.

@keano77, there's no legal restriction on a woman juror breastfeeding her baby in trial so far as I know. I can certainly see it might be grounds for a successful exemption application by the mother or indeed an objection by prosecution or defence counsel to her sitting as juror but I don't think there's anything specific prohibiting it.

Wow, I hardly know where to start with this. DF, you are a man of your time, consistent in your thoughts and views as posted on here, and I have an awful lot of respect for that in many ways, but this isn't the 1950s. Women have as much of a right as you do to take part in all aspects of public life without necessarily conforming to your personal expectations of appropriate behaviour and norms. Maybe a women breastfeeding at a bar is trying to stir up debate, maybe she's trying to normalise breastfeeding, maybe she's tired and this is the first time she's made it out of the house in 4 days and she daren't move in case the baby starts crying. In any of those cases, she's perfectly entitled to breastfeed her child where she likes. It's fifteen minutes of your and everyone else's life and I'm really just sad that you and Keano77 seem to think that it's all about you and wanting to make you uncomfortable in a space you consider to be your space, rather than just being able to recognise that it's about a parent and a child sharing the same space and world that you are in.

There are workers/vans parked up on Melford Road/Wood Vale so hopefully the fix is underway.

B&G Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I can't go to a collection office without thinking > about this. Perhaps if we all imagine that this > actually goes on, the queue time will make > sense..! > > That is brilliant. Thanks for making me smile.

Generally, I think parking pressures have increased across the entirety of ED. Our street is miles away from ED Station and doesn't suffer from commuter parking but I've noticed a significant increase in cars, and particularly trucks and vans in the last 3 or so years - having not seen the same increase for the 5-7 years before that. Part of it may be more residential buildings and conversions, part of it (at least on our street) is a local business that parks 3-4 vans on the road, but Southwark has been clear and consistent for a while now that they see the response to parking pressure is CPZ on any affected roads. And once a CPZ comes in one place it pushes more pressure on other areas. So I see the gradual creep of CPZ across our area as pretty much inevitable - not to do with fines or money generation - but just because it's one of Southwark's preferred approaches to managing parking pressures, along with more cycling and walking provision.

I just went past. There are two crews working in the road on the leaks. One by the telephone exchange - one in the middle of the road by the Grove. Looks like it could be quite a job to fix. We are 2 mins away. Still have water but pressure is definitely low.

Lambeth may be one that has - or at least it's finding ways to fine for spitting under the existing laws. http://www.swlondoner.co.uk/spitting-slapped-with-instant-fine-in-lambeth-in-new-tough-approach-to-antisocial-behaviour/

The applicant is a professional event management company so they will be doing this for/with someone else, but you can get a flavour of the previous events they have put on here (no connection, just the result of a quick google): http://www.wearethefair.com/case-studies

Same principles apply to spitting and other anti-social behaviour: http://love.lambeth.gov.uk/not-on-our-streets/

Agreed re reporting. Most meter readers these days work for G4S or one of the other big meter reading services - they carry ID and they should be able to tell you which energy provider they are working for when they come round and details of your meter/account.

If you are on iPad, just download an app like ResizeIt, then you don?t need to use a third party site.

Do you mean a vlog (rather than a clog)? As I understand it, most vloggers use a DSLR type camera, not a smartphone. Some recent recommednations here - not sure if this is the sort of budget you had in mind. http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/gadgets-tech/cameras-accessories/best-vlogging-camera-cheap-with-flipscreen-youtube-for-beginners-a7529386.html

From one of the Times columnists today: Whatever this person says, she's still writing about it, non?

It?s a spam post for the essay service.

Google suggests traditional Japanese - http://www.nickhorntattoos.com/ and http://www.nickhorntattoos.com/gallery/

Understood, although if the deal on the table had a lot more affordable housing and a proposal to make the club fan owned and sustainable going forward, there's got to be a possibility that Southwark would be prepared in return to include some element of Greendale.