miga

SE6 (I'm an intruder round here). In my house the mobile signal is rubbish, but it's not a huge issue because of all the internet based apps like WhatsApp, Viber etc. + the landline for any work calls. I'd check with your neighbours to see if any of them use O2 and what their signal is like, if this is likely to be an issue. In my old office the O2 signal was pants, in my new office it's great, but people on EE suffer - I'm not sure there's any network that will have excellent coverage everywhere. As far as Sat Nav goes, I've rarely had problems with the signal on the road. I believe there's an "offline" mode in Google Maps, anyway, which should allow you to download the maps beforehand (how old fashioned Sat Nav devices worked, more or less).

Oh Yeah - they have these eager beavers with too much time on their hands racing to answer any support questions on their forum (incentivised by GG credit), so I found support to be pretty good since I never had to call anyone.

GiffGaff uses the O2 network underneath, so the reception will be as good as the O2 network. I'm on it - I dislike intensely the idea of credit and interest for a thing as trivial as a mobile phone. Very pleased with it - it's "free" to msg other people on GG (my wife is on), and msgs and calls to UK numbers are unlimited on their ?10 plan (I think). The other thing I like is that the data allowance is pretty generous. O2 reception in our ends is pretty rubbish - not much of an issue really because of WiFi, WhatsApp and Viber, but would be worth checking.

Yeah, the fact IKEA kitchen units are flush against the wall seems to be the most common quibble with their offer, and that's only a hassle when installing as far a I can tell, so possibly driven by installers rather than customers. My brother has a 10 year old IKEA kitchen and things still work, the moving parts creaking a little. We got Howdens, which is fine so far (18 months), nothing's creaking yet. It's cool the way modern units can squeeze all kinds of storage into corners and around them - I imagine you can get that stuff from any supplier TBH. Howdens a bit more expensive than IKEA, supposedly better quality, but I guess we'll know in 5 years or so :-) also a model where it's your fitter that buys from them rather than you, so price varies according to who fits. Can't comment on the others - I imagine it's all much of a muchness at this end of the market. I think the real difference probably starts coming in with the very expensive kitchens - 10k is considered fairly budget as far as I can tell, and you can spend multiples more.

Almodovar's films are quite beautiful, Volver, Talk to Her, All about my mother, and as a bonus made around the right time frame for what OP was after. I find his earlier ones a bit more difficult to digest, he's smoothed out the edges over time.

I got the ?40 ones off Amazon. Will report back with tales of woe...or otherwise.

It's a lovely day outside so, "Stalingrad" - (the 1993 German one), "Das Boot" and "Come and See".

DaveR Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > "Either way, it shows how bean counters and > lawyers should be held to account on the outcome > of their limited imaginations > > It's a nice village, why not put something very > nice there too" > > I'm with you, 100%. Unfortunately, in my > experience big firm lawyers and accountants are > perfectly happy with their limited imaginations, > hence the huge number of identical shiny black > Audi estates in the Village (or a Porsche Cayenne > if you consider yourself a bit more 'thrusting'), > and the continued existence of Boden. So it sounds like they got exactly what they wanted on their estate, then, and it's only really an issue for people who live nearby who'd have preferred something more exciting or "nice" in their more expensive neighbouring area.

What about the idea that a cool pub would be a much louder and more raucous place than a middle-of-the-road chain hotel with attached restaurant? ETA: As a reason why the Dulwich Estate might prefer one over the other.

Is it underrated though? Lots of stuff going on, green spaces, great transport, nice houses...and commensurate house prices.

Dunno - I'm not in the hotel business, maybe they've missed a trick. For mine, this is actually kind of useful for visiting relatives - fairly inexpensive (by London standards), nearby, clean, decent part of town.

Maybe a fancy boutique hotel somewhere that's a fair track from London's major attractions, the City and Canary Wharf, but with no tube and a reasonably long walk to the nearest train stations, may not have been a great business proposition. As nice as Dulwich is as a place to live - I wouldn't want to stay in its equivalent in another major city as a tourist or for work.

I've just changed a couple of registry settings on the other half's laptop which should in theory blat the incessant upgrade nagging. Instructions here http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-block-windows-10-upgrades-on-your-business-network-and-at-home-too/. There are also official windows support instructions saying much the same thing that are a tad harder to read.

If you get the cheap ones and they warp under weight, then a roof bar on your roof bars is out of the question. So somewhat related.

Are cheap roof bars a false economy? I note on Amazon there are fairly well reviewed ones for 40 quid, but Halfords are at least twice the price for a well known brand.

I've actually been operating a rival event to Movember for some time. It's called No-vember. The thing is you have *no* moustache at all during the month of November. It's proven extremely popular, with almost the entire female population participating, for example.

I was 19, it was 3 years old, 3.6L V6, and it fucken burrrrrrned.

maxxi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Beauty? Attraction? The Gridge* is hideously ugly > - like a couple of tupperware cake-stands. That's a matter of taste. The intent was to build something beautiful for the edification of the masses, with this infrastructure justification bolted on. My comment was more general on the subject of public spending needing to address acute social need.

*Bob* - I agree people need beauty, as well as the basics. It would be a sad world if we lost orchestras, galleries, public parks etc. even if sometimes these things seem like fripperies in the face of housing shortages, the failing NHS and so on. However, I think the Garden Bridge is a poor example even in this category. Our general part of London (SE) suffers from unmaintained public spaces, crumbling listed buildings and so on. The area where the garden bridge will be doesn't need further attractions. Why not make something beautiful in Plumstead, Catford or Penge? Just a thought.

I don't know about SE London in general OP, I'm pretty sure there are houses round my ends (SE6) that have been around for weeks. Perhaps an ED specific issue?

Jah Lush Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Joggers always look ill to me. If you continue to > run on concrete you'll bugger up your joints and > suffer terrible arthritis later on in life. That's not really true though. Just Google it and you'll find it's subtler and quite different than running->arthritis. > > Oh, and Jim Fixx, the fella who wrote The Complete > Book Of Running and helped to popularize jogging > across the world died of a heart attack aged 52. > When? When he was out jogging, that's when. Yeah, my old man used to roll this one out to uproarious laughter when his mates would come round to play chess, drink spritzers and chain smoke. On the face of it an indictment of jogging, but there were genetic (his old man died of a heart attack at 42), and stress related factors in play with Jim Fixx. And as for breathing fumes in, well, you know, it's London. The best way to avoid them is to stay indoors. Like I said, I hate running, I'm not built for it and I find it dull. But I'm pretty sure the health benefits of a couple hours jogging a week, even on London's polluted streets, outweigh the negatives.

Yep. A shower helps. I don't see the problem to be honest; health benefits (in a society that's getting fatter and unhealthier) and fewer people on public transport. Same category as cycle commuting, but with less equipment. If I didn't hate running so much, I might even give it a shot.

Jedward.

Only if the workers own the means of production (a co-operative or some such) and reinvest "profits" into local community. And of course everyone paid according to their needs.

I think the piece makes some decent points too, and Owen Jones has been interesting, especially with the Chav thing a few years ago. I just found the tone maudlin...