RosieH

the perfect outfit - although I bet Jenny's way too classy

brilliant, I would like to come along and play if you'll have me

sorry, should have used a punctuation face but I don't like them (that's another thread) - Alan it was your reference to her being indiscreet personally I like both Jenny Eclair and red lipstick PS - red shoes is no knickers

red lipstick? slut

or Richard Madeley

it's like "you say we pay" - only without the payment..?

what is this Articulate? been meaning to Scrabble for ages but illness has prevented me - now I find it's all something new and exciting

point taken

hurrah, excellent news. that's going to be some succulent chicken come December. are there any girls on here to talk about who's hotter, Stringer or McNulty?

I'd always thought they were on a par with dotting your i with a luv heart, and frankly despised them. I have come to see the error of my ways (particularly in light of Keef's friend's misunderstanding - lummy!!!) but I still can't quite bring myself to go on a date with a man who uses them - am I missing out?

Phew, what an ending. I felt emotionally shattered (and a bit sad and very wondering too) - what's going to happen in series 4, how can they possibly follow this? it's all I can do to resist looking online, but I don't want to know

I've just been off work ill for the best part of a month and watched series 1, 2 and 3 straight through - am utterly obsessed. Brilliant brilliant brilliant. When series 4 comes out, am planning (with a couple of other obsessives) to hold Wire evenings, where there will be viewing in awed silence, enthusiastic wine / beer drinking and quite possibly chicken eating. Anyone feeling like a group experience very welcome.

Louisa, for shame you don't know who Lee Ryan is - he's brilliant is who he is. Used to be in Blue, and he's just made more of a name for himself by walking out of Hell's Kitchen. His mum's a hairdresser in Greenwich. I think a Mark One is exactly what East Dulwich needs - something to take those White Stuff shoppers down a peg or two - and conveniently located very close to Iceland!!!

Stoke Newington

I was at the National Curry Chef of the Year competition in Bournemouth. My then-client forced me to phone BBC Asia and see if they were going to cover the curry chef story anyway (under pain of sacking). I was fairly junior in my PR career at the time and naively did what she asked. While everything was going on in New York, India and Pakistan were amassing troops (and I think something nuclear) on the Kashmiri border. The journalist I spoke to was kind but genuinely appalled, and asked me if I didn't realise that the world was never going to be the same again. I realised he was right and so anaesthetised myself with gin, and lost the client anyway.

Linda Robson from Birds of a Feather once ran over my foot quite vigorously with her pram in selfridges with nary an apology, and she's proper common. However, I'm sure there is something in the fact that, rightly or wrongly, when it's an ED yummy mummy guzzling chablis while little Tristram runs riot, the perception is that she feels a smug middle class sense of entitlement to behave without regard for others. In that situation, I confess I'd probably judge her more harshly than I would a mum struggling to get her pram and three rowdy kids and all her shopping onto the bus outside Morrisons before the driver shuts the doors. Not in the least to do with envy, more thinking she's got all the time in the world to sit on her pilates-toned arse, but none to teach her children good manners. Manners cost nowt, as my old nan used to say.

can I ask a question here, because I've often wished for a child-free zone, not because I don't like kids, I really do, but because some of them seem to be allowed to run riot, which is possibly what grates for us hung-over non-parents. I went to restaurants from a really young age and was always really well behaved because my parents made me (that may have since changed) so I was wondering is this riotous behaviour just kids' normal rambunctiousness, or are there a few mums and dads who just can't be bothered to make sure their kids behave? and do other parents among you sometimes look and tut and think, mine would never act like that, or do you sympathise because it's probably knackering?

Ok sorry, this is a really emotive subject and I didn't mean to piss anybody off. I in no way intended to suggest that you don't care about children and apologise unreservedly if that was your interpretation. I'm talking about the media nonsense. Also I'm not calling anybody a murderer, but I think your comment that those parents are not murderers demonstrates a little bit of what I'm talking about. How on earth can you know that? What have you based that bald statement on? Gut instinct? The fact that we really "know" the family based on page after stomach-churning page of media coverage? The fact that it's unthinkable that any parent could do such a thing? Newspapers exist to make money, not for a public good. They're about whipping us into a frenzy to increase advertising revenue. They do that by making their stories bigger and bolder than their competitors. We all know all of this, but it's easy to forget in the middle of a story as emotive as this. If they really were about the greater good, they wouldn't have pushed for a UK equivalent of Megan's law, when studies have shown that it would do more harm than good. There'd be pages 1-11 devoted to the outrage that around 2 children a week die at the hands of a family member, not instead of, but as well as coverage of more high profile, "stranger" cases. But there isn't, because it doesn't sell papers. And we buy the papers.

excellent thanks. I'll give it a go, even if my knowledge of Alf Ramsay or canals and waterways of the north east are a little below par: I get the feeling the forumites have it all sewn up...

are you kidding me? you don't think it's a all just a little bit out of control? No I don't buy the media I'm referring to, but I'm very aware of what's in them. and the page 12 thing - that really happened - pages 1-7 devoted to speculation and grisly details of a mystery child murderer; page 12, single column, 12 year old girl stabbed to death by her father. it makes me pretty mad and wonder where our priorities lie

Does anyone know where he went? He was great. I don't know if the quiz was pulled because not enough people went, but I really enjoyed it the couple of times I went down there. Failing any further information, does anyone know of another good local(ish) pop quiz?

it's all just horrible, but the ghoulish media / public feeding frenzy only serves to hype the horror to a state of unfathomable hysteria. I make no comment on the involvement or otherwise of the parents in this case, but the fact is that most murdered children are killed by a family member, not an opportunistic stranger. And that's what we should all be up in arms about, but we're not, because all too often such stories are buried in a single column on page 12, because they don't wield such a frenzied grip on the popular imagination. and yes, some parents will lie for each other to cover things up. the grotesque and quasi-titillating exploitation of this little girl's tragedy says something nasty about our desire to believe in a mythical bogeyman, and not enough about genuine concern for the welfare of children

i went to Sainsbury's pharmacy to speak to the pharmacist about something rather personal. they have a little room for just such personal conversations (or so I'm led to believe). The pharmacist invited me behind the counter (i thought to go into the room) but then proceeded to discuss my question rather loudly from my new vantage point of next to the till, piquing the interest of the many ladies (and a few surprisingly bearded gentlemen) shopping for Rimmel lipsticks. they've got a room people! I have never been embarrassed in such a manner when buying steak from William Rose - not even when the rather dashing mediterranean looking one made some kind of well-hung gag - and that is why I shall continue to shop there, and not at Sainsbury's pharmacy (unless it's Sunday and the only place open)

well le chandelier encourages parents with kids into the middle section, so up front and upstairs you should be ok (they're also currently working on a more extensive evening menu if you're looking for the full-on dining experience) Franklins is usually pretty good - it's not 100% child-free, but the menu isn't that kid-friendly so that might be what keeps them out...

maybe we're all so uptight about chip shops that even our nasal passages have contracted and we can no longer smell the delicious chip fat mmm, chip fat. might nip in for a takeaway tonight