reenie40

I had a similar problem when my son was doing his GCSEs a few years ago - he received death threats from a former 'friend' who thought that he was coming on to his ex girlfriend. The boy had a drug problem at this stage, having been expelled from school and as his dad was a reasonably well know South London 'gangster' we were really concerned as we thought he would have the means to carry out his threats. The school were great, with some of the teachers giving up personal time to escort my son to and from the bus stop etc after school, however we went to school one day for a meeting about it and while my son went outside to catch up with his friends the boy turned up unexpectedly and beat the s**t out of my son. His friends tried to help and one ran home to get a neighbours dog. My son kind of let him get on with it and didn't put up much of a fight as he thought it was something the guy needed to get out of his system, and sure enough he left him alone after that, his anger seemed to be depleted. It was a horrible time for all of us, but I think we were more worried than him. I'm not saying your sons should take a beating, but maybe them being away will give the guy some time to calm down - it is often bravado. The boy contacted my son about a year later to say that part of the problem was that he was jealous that my son had a home, and people who care about him, whereas he was left by himself most of the time. It did have an impact on his exams though and he did under perform, so it's important that you don't let that happen. I hope it all sorts itself out.

'grow the business' - makes me irrationally angry every time I see it written down or hear someone say it...

We had lovely coffee and pain au chocolat from there at about 8am on the first day it opened - the first hour was obviously just a bit difficult. I've been in a couple of times since and think the prices are good and the staff are really friendly and seem to want to make an effort to get to know their customers. I really hope it does well.

Although female I tend to follow Mr Bens fashion of last years shorts, pallid skin and hairy legs. I can't really do Summer although I do enjoy looking out of the window of a cool room at Sun...

My girls (9 and 5) love Wimpy - not really sure why! I can confirm that the spicy beanburgers are as good as ever...

think he's actually the Somerfield delivery van driver - or he used to be if it's who I'm thinking of. Once sold him an Elvis mug at a school fair - easiest sale ever.

Got my new card from First Direct yesterday following the cancellation of the other one Monday morning - great service.

I had a call on Monday morning to say my card had been cloned -someone tried to take money from a cash machine at about 11.30 Sunday night and as I'm not usually out an about at this time they stopped it. Apparently late Sunday night is the most common time for attempts of this type. Only spent at Somerfield and Sainsburys over the past couple of weeks (what an exciting life I lead!), never buy petrol either as I don't drive, so I would just assume it was done a while ago.

Hi we recently moved to Derwent Grove from a fairly quiet cul-de-sac and haven't been bothered too much by the traffic - as Muttley said I think Melbourne Grove gets the worst of it. Although the parking looks horrendous we usually manage to park not too far from home.

I think even though many SE22 residents would be seen to have a decent income if you have more than one child, trying to find the extra for private education is really difficult. My daughter will transfer to secondary in two years from one of the really good local state primary schools and I find most parents are crossing their fingers and hoping that if enough kids who go to a good primary and have good parental support go to the local state secondary schools, then these schools will get better. Agree with the banding thing being frustrating too - when my son applied to Haberdashers many years ago it was suggested to me that he would be better off being at the bottom of the top band, or the top of the middle band. I didn't ask him to dumb down and we managed to find another school that we liked.

As no one seems to give him any money you would imagine he would try to find a more lucrative spot - he can't be making enough to feed any kind of habit. Although I did bump into him in Peckham yesterday afternoon and he was carrying a few Sainsburys bags :)

Peckhamgatecrasher, sodabread is much nicer made with buttermilk rather than the milk/lemon combo. In Ireland you can buy cartons alongside the 'normal' milk, but think I may have seen some with the cream in either Sainsburys or Somerfields recently..

I have been approached by this guy several times in the past few months, both on Grove Vale and in Sainsbury's Park and he has always moved away quickly and politely when refused money. He has never been aggressive and I haven't felt threatened by him but obviously would avoid him if I could, simply because it's not nice to be approached on the street. It was him that was surrounded by police at the bus stop yesterday, but it was hard to tell what was going on as he was standing quietly by the fence and they all seemed to have their backs to him.