EPB

It belonged to a housing association. I had a nose round it during one of the open days and there didn't seem to be anything major wrong with it (the roof looks as though its been sorted quite recently). It just needs the usual - new bathroom & kitchen and general smartening up. Nice little garden.

32 North Cross Road has just sold at auction for ?630,000.

You may well be right about interest rates, Jeremy, but do you think that wages will rise at the same rate?

The Duck Egg Cafe on Northcross Road is very popular with our 3yr old grandson, and Sorsi&Morsi on Lordship Lane would be worth considering (Italians are invariably child-friendly). The food at both is very good (Duck Egg do lovely Sunday Roasts) and the Italian one has a gorgeous terrace at the back.

A hooded sweatshirt with the school logo, size 11-12, has been hanging on the railings beside the Thai Corner Cafe on North Cross Road for the past few days. It seems to be almost new.

I've remembered the name of that smelly lily. It's called Crown Imperial (Fritillaria Imperialis).

I believe there is a variety of lily that has a most unpleasant smell (though a lovely flower).

Still bubbling away at 1.30.

Apparently the water board were called at six this morning and expect to arrive at about ten o'clock.

One factor that doesn't seem to have been mentioned is the cost of moving. Twelve months ago our move to ED would have paid for a loft job: Stamp Duty, estate agent, solicitor, and the move itself cost us over ?30,000.

I'm puzzled by the description of the development as 'commercial". Many village halls, sports clubs and the like let their premises out to playgroups or scout groups as a way of covering their costs, not to make a profit, which is what commercial enterprises do.

We've been with Virgin (full broadband/TV/kandline package) since it was NTL and have invariably been delighted with their customer service. Whenever there's been a problem they've always fallen over backwards to solve it, and manage to do so very quickly. Maybe we've been lucky, but its just as good here as it was in Norwich.

We only take our grandson to the Duck Egg Cafe if we've got plenty of time to spare, because it's so difficult to prise him away from the play area.

When you have the privilege of owning a listed building you are, first and foremost, the custodian of a piece of our history and, however sympathetic the local authority may be, their main concern has to be the well-being of the building. The best source of advice that I've come across is Period Property.co.uk. It's a rich source of information, and has a very lively forum where you'll meet people who are (or have been) working on a huge variety of old buildings, together with some real experts - even a few Conservation Officers!

Will any buses be running on Boxing Day?

Alice - you forgot to mention the third cause of damp (particularly prevalent in under-ventilated and double-glazed homes): condensation.

Hawley's chap seems very good, and totally independent. I'd try him, if I were you.

Send a pm to Hawley - he can put you on to a really excellent (and totally independent) damp expert. PS. a useful rule of thumb: if someone offers 'free advice' it's probably because they're going to try to sell you something. Truly independent experts will charge for their services.

Bump.

But the hot-dog stall was there on Sunday.

Somewhere you can buy knitting yarns and general craft supplies.

The maps only show where bombs fell between 7th October 1940 and 6th June 1941. Perhaps that explains some of these apparent omissions?

Another vote for North Cross.

The Crown and Greyhound has a very strange way of handling bookings. To be sure of getting a table for a special birthday Sunday lunch, I booked by telephone on Wednesday. A table for five at 1.30. Was assured that we could bring our own birthday cake. All very friendly and promising. But on Sunday (today) when we turned up, on the dot, we were told that they had no record of our booking and we'd just have to join the (very long) queue. It was quite clear that they were just too busy to bothered about our predicament. So we tried Rocco, which was also crammed full, with a queue. It couldn't have been more different, or more delightful. The maitre d'/manager said he'd find us a table if we were prepared to wait for a bit. A waiter spotted me holding the heavily disguised birthday cake and offered to put it somewhere safe until we needed it. Ten minutes later we were settled at our table, and had a delicious meal, and at exactly the right time the cake arrived, candles already lit, and all the waiters joined in a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday To You. All this at a time when the place was manically busy, yet they made us feel really special.

A friend of mine had a similar problem and tried all the recommend courses of action with no success. So she started getting up early every morning and doing a lot of very noisy diy in the adjoining rooms. It worked a treat. (Putting up bookshelves was the most effective - it's impossible to sleep when someone is drilling into the party wall)