Mark

We did the Gowlett pub quiz last night which was nice. At the start 2 grey bearded men came in and I think I remembered them from my last pub quiz in the CPT a few years ago because they scored 98 out of 100. And yes they were the same, they won and they're known as the Brainy Bearded Brothers or something similar. Do they go to every pub quiz in the area and win? Have they ever been beaten...?

I don't know if it's East Dulwich but: "In the first half of next year, Majestic [Wine Warehouse] plans to open new stores at Dulwich, Aberdeen, Colchester and near Reading" Full article: Profits sparkle at Majestic 08.10 Mon Nov 13 2006 The Majestic wine warehouse chain has revealed a 17 per cent increase in half-year profits. A demand for fine wines priced at ?20 and above saw average spend per transaction up ?6 to ?121. The group, which has 133 stores - eight more than a year earlier - posted profits of ?6.5 million after total sales rose by ?7.5 million to ?88.3 million in the 26 weeks to September 26. Like-for-like sales showed a rise of 6.2 per cent in the period, before slowing to growth of 4.3 per cent in the subsequent five-week period to October 30. New sites have opened at Bicester, East Molesey and Cheam and a store opened at Leamington Spa in September, followed by two more this month at Lincoln and Huddersfield. In the first half of next year, Majestic plans to open new stores at Dulwich, Aberdeen, Colchester and near Reading. Chief executive Tim How said: "I am very pleased with our first half performance and the rate of new store openings."

It's Monday, the poll closes at midnight Wednesday. Have you voted in the award for the Best Bar in East Dulwich 2006? It's going to be close. The Black Cherry is currently in the lead with 21% with the Bishop (17%), the EDT (13%) and liquorish (13%) closing in. The rest of the field are still in with a chance but they have some catching up to do. www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/vote ok, I know, it's two and a half days left, I just thought I would round it down

I did toy with the idea of Google ads for a nanosecond, but like most people I generally don't like adverts especially as they take away from the main content. I want to keep the East Dulwich Forum as simple (on the eye) as possible. Ok, adverts might become a necessary evil but if they do come onto the site I intend for them to be 1) subtle and 2) locally relevant or to promote the forces of good.

There's a good government website (I think so anyway) for finding out which council department deals with which issue and providing contact details. However, a few times now I have emailed [email protected] about various issues (rubbish not being collected, recycling not being collected etc) and never heard back from them. Never ever. I have even phoned them and been told that someone will call me back but nothing. A courtesy reply would be lovely (and I don't mean an automated one). Has anyone ever heard back from them or do my emails and phone calls just go into the virtual bin? Do they act on emails or just file them away to be dealt with later when they can be bothered?

The discussion that follwed this posing has now been move to here

I am currently a member at Fusion and I have to say if distance was not a consideration then I would definitely go to JAGS. Yesterday at the Fusion gym 5 out of 5 headphone sockets available on the running machines were broken. The TV's are not tuned in properly (and haven't been for about a year). The one and only water machine dribbles out water. The floor area by the weights machine is roped off. Oh, and you can't hear your own music when there's that aerobics session going on (Monday night I think). Apart from that it suffices. Anyway, does anyone know what the squash courts at JAGS are like? Are they busy at peak times? [edited 06 November]

Keith I commend your honesty and I'm glad that our voting credibility stands up to your expert security opinion. Yes it did show a flaw in our system so thank you for bringing it to our attention. No harm done, although you had us worried for a while that we may have had to reset the whole poll but it came good in the end. You are forgiven and thanks for using the forum. Mark

Hi EDKiwi I'm looking into adding the 'in body image facility' but it's a bit tricky. In the meantime you can add pictures that are elsewhere on the web by clicking on the picture and entering its URL (you have to be registered to see this) I'll try it below with a photo of East Dulwich, sorry, Sipadan:

The Herne has now been added to the vote, I was going to say no as it's not in SE22 but I checked, and it is, so it's now in the running (well, there's some catching up to do...) As I've mentioned on the poll page there's been some cheatin' afoot, so only registered users can now vote. It's a shame but someone who works at NatWest plumped up the Vale's vote. There was also someone registering using various fake email addresses so we've had to introduce increased security to the registration process i.e. when you register you receive an email which has a link in it, you click the link and bingo, you are one cool registered cat.

Fortunately it's not the case, the cheating was spotted and the false votes swiftly removed. As a safeguard against further deliberate attempts of vote fixing we have now introduced 'registered user' only voting.

Hi Abby Your argument would have more validity should those be the reasons for the 'women only session' on Thursday evening, however the reason given by Fusion is that the female only environment is set up to cater for ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs. I must confess my lack of knowledge here but I would be curious to know the religious and ethnic details so if someone could let us know I would be grateful. I'm not saying don't have women only sessions, I'm just assuming it's a majority (men and women) who would like to use the pool on Thursdays after work rather than a minority (women who only swim in 'women only sessions'). I don't want to ask for a 'men only session' as that would be a tit-for-tat argumentative response which is not conducive to a good outcome for all. To me, a good outcome would be for both sexes to be able to use the pool prime time Thursday, how about a women only session from 6-7pm then adult lane swim the rest of the evening? Mark

***** News Flash - Friday 2nd November ****** Yesterday, as the voting deadline for the presigious Best Bar in East Dulwich gets closer, people were abusing the website with false registrations and fake votes (which have been removed). We have now had to make the poll open to registered users only to ensure fairness. Register here ***** OK, so just to explain, you now have to be registered to vote because someone decided to get round the system and add lots of votes to the Vale. These votes were swiftly removed, unfortunately during the 30min removal session this evening no votes would have been counted. I can understand that bars want to win this prestigious award and will go to any lengths to get their hands on it but please play fair. Only registered users can vote please click here to register and vote for the best bar in East Dulwich May the best bar win.

Thanks Ng9 Designs, I like your sales pitch. Can you show us any samples of your work?

I agree about the pizza option, I did look into it myself and taking over the old pizza place on Northcross Road but was pipped by the flower shop. What would be a good import from Clapham would be Alba, the small pizza restuarant next to Clapham North tube.

Hi Our small advertising budget (?20) is coming to an end soon and it's time to ask you for help with promoting this site. All we ask is that you please mention the East Dulwich Forum to people, whether they be friends, family, that bloke down the pub, the nice lady in the shop, your angry neighbour, the person behind the bar, that chap who's always complaining about the state of the street or just a random stranger. Next time someone asks you something about East Dulwich or when it next comes into conversation, say "Have you checked out the East Dulwich Forum? It's a great website where you can find out information about the area and you can discuss local issues as well as find out what's going on. Go to eastdulwichforum.co.uk and have a look, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how useful it is." We would also like to put up some small posters or postcards in local shop windows, saying something like: "Got local issues? Get help using The East Dulwich Forum" "Get it off your chest on The East Dulwich Forum" "The East Dulwich Forum - The Forum for East Dulwich" (a personal favourite of mine) "Why should you put up with it? Share your frustrations on The East Dulwich Forum" "Where can I find a local cleaner/builder/enlightenment?- The East Dulwich Forum of course!" "That &!*?%!@! builder ripped me off, if only there was somewhere to warn others about him? There is - The East Dulwich Forum" Do you have any decent ideas for what we can say on a small poster? Do you know where we could put up a small poster or postcard? All help is greatly appreciated, such as SE22 magazine who are doing a small piece on local websites in November's issue and we're mentioned in there, which is nice. Oh, and if you can link a website to this website that would be brilliant. Anyway, it's going well at the moment (161 unique visitors and 1,460 page views on Tuesday 24th October 2006) so thanks to everyone who uses it. (747 unique users and 24,630 page views on 24th April 2007, 6 months later - blimey! - Mark) Take care Mark The East Dulwich Forum Just a note about me, I live in East Dulwich and, as I work with the internet, setting up this site this has been a bit of a fun self-teaching session for me. I've spent ?20 to advertise on Google Adwords (plus I got a free ?30 voucher from Google). This site's intention is not to make money, it's to give people round here a place to be heard, to discuss things and to hopefully make life a little better in East Dulwich.

Best roads eh? I live on East Dulwich Road and I really like it, it's 5 minutes to East Dulwich train station, staggering distance from Lordship Lane, a (big) football kick from Peckham Rye, close to convenience stores and has Goose Green next to it. It can be a bit noisy because of cars, but then again, it's London innit.

During a rare visit to a Lordship Lane take-away late on Friday night I asked a policewoman if she knew about this, she said "yes there was a shooting and no-one was shot". Concise.

Congratulations to the Black Cherry, officially the Best Bar in East Dulwich 2006 as voted by you, the users of the East Dulwich Forum. Look out for the trophy in The Black Cherry in a week or so after it's been engraved. Hopefully they'll be overwhelmed and will put it pride of place somewhere prominent. Thanks to all of you for taking part, there wouldn't have been a result without you. So once again, congratulations to The Black Cherry on Lordship Lane, officially The Best Bar in East Dulwich 2006

I see the EDT has a blackboard outside saying they offer free, wireless internet access

Thanks for the update James, please keep us posted on any other developments. By all means if you get someone independent to recommend you I can certainly put you on the Business Page. Please get them to email us at the forum directly (click the link at the bottom of this page) or post it in this http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/list.php?9 section of the site. Thanks again, Mark

Bruce Am I right in thinking you're refering to this junction: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=534414&Y=175473&A=Y&Z=1? Can you expand on "kamikaze manouvers needed to turn right"? I thought there was a right turn lane already...

I'm more than willing to hear a decent, intellegent persuasive reason, but saying "get over it!" does not persuade.

Kind words Gaz, thanks. We noticed the new lights (that haven't been turned on yet) on Adys Road last night on the way back from the Gowlett, they're the silver Triffid like ones aren't they? In geek speak they use silver halide gas so therefore give off the white light rather than the old sodium ones that cast a yellow glow. And yes it's part of the 10 year Bellenden renewal project. It would be nice for East Dulwich to have it's own unique, designed street lights with white light (not yellow) that don't shine up into the sky and cause unnecessary light pollution.

Four of us had Sunday Lunch in the Green yesterday. http://www.greenbar.co.uk/index2.htm I really liked the food, it's not a huge amount but it was well cooked and satisfying. I had a smoked fish starter followed by the Lamb with seasonal vegetables (2 courses ?12.95). Sorry I'm not the sort of person who can go on about the fine aromas of the slowly cooked meat whose flavours trickled through the roasted honey coated roast parsnips, but I can say it was good food and good ambience. If my folks came up to visit I would probably take them to The Green for Sunday Lunch, it has a more panach? than a pub. Sunday Lunch essential check: They do have a selection of newspapers on the bar and a comfy sofa. I would say the staff need a bit of people interaction training but don't let that put you off. Bridget re. you question about a quiet place, I would say that inside at the front of the Green, where we sat, was nice and quiet although slightly chilly with the doors open. Out the back was extremely popular with families (i.e. busy) so avoid that if you want peace.