gaylad

After taking these pictures of the brown dead soup that the pond in the Peckham Rye Japanese garden has become, I tweeted Thames Water and they said they would test it this weekend. A few weeks ago it was green and clear with lots of duckweed growing. That's all died. If folks are walking and playing with kids there this bank holiday, best to stop them touching the water.

The new pedestrian zone affecting Adys Road, Ondine Road and Amott Road is probably about to launch as signage is being installed today. I see these are going to use "APNR" cameras, so everyone's number plate can be tracked going into the zone, and presumably fines will be issued automatically. Anyone have experience about how good this enforcement is and what a difference it makes? Consultation with map: https://consultations.southwark.gov.uk/environment-leisure/st-johns-and-st-clements-primary-school-street/

I'm a bit shaken today after being accosted and then followed by one of the younger guys from Rose's Fish Bar on East Dulwich Road. He had seen me take photos of these two unlawfully parked unattended cars next to the junction with Oakhurst Grove. Had he confirmed these were his vehicles and asked what I was doing, I would have explained I often take photos of badly parked cars in the area. I've only ever used the photos if there's a long term pattern of obstructive or dangerous parking. He had black hair, wearing a black apron and kept smiling. However he didn't reply to any question from me, and aggressively wanted to know why I was taking pictures. It then got weird when I walked away, and he kept following me. I then firmly told him to stop, but every time I moved to walk on he moved with me and then started filming me with his mobile. I held out my hand in a stop gesture and more loudly, so that others would be able to hear me for him to "Stop Following Me". He persisted and followed me down Gowlett Road, which was extremely uncomfortable as we were then out of sight of anyone else and I continued telling him to stop, in fact shouting it, with a stop gesture. He was still smiling like he was pretending this was still a polite discussion, it was weird and I really did not want him to keep following me as I headed home and did not want him to know where I lived. At that point two of his shop colleagues came out of the back entrance on Gowlett Road, probably ready to protect him. I asked them if they were with him, and they should get him under control, they didn't answer. I walked off and thank goodness none of them tried to follow me further. Being aggressively followed after being told firmly to stop and that the behaviour is scary, is harassment or deliberately trying to escalate to violence. I've attached the two photos that this guy had such a problem over me taking in a public place. I walk along East Dulwich Road daily, I don't want to feel freaked out walking locally, or taking amateur non-intrusive photographs in a public area. Double yellow, no loading area Double yellow, no loading area

Had a slightly scary experience just before 3pm today on Ondine Road of a cold-caller. He looked about 30 years old, tall, black hair, with north England accent. No badge or offer of ID. Claimed to be an ex-prisoner but never got around to actually stating what he wanted. After a couple of minutes and repeating my 'no thanks', I closed the door to him, which resulting in him shouting that I was a prick. Fortunately, he did not approach the door. We know that cold-calling is frustrating, especially during lockdown, but this was someone behaving in a chaotic way with escalating threatening behaviour. Deeply regret answering the door without wearing a facemask. Attached is a partial photo from my doorcam, anyone else had problems with this guy or know what this is about?

Let's hope the new owners will be an independent rather than a chain/franchise. Though I had some great quality meals in Le Chardon years ago, the staff seemed increasingly unhappy in more recent times. A month ago we dropped in with two friends at lunchtime, and got shown to a table, but the place was packed out and just one waiter was available. After a few minutes we left, the main factor in our decision to leave being how utterly miserable the waiter was. I don't believe in the American-style forced smiles and cheeriness that some franchises require from their employees, but it is impossible to enjoy a nice meal with friends, no matter how good the food is, if the staff act as if serving you causes them physical pain.

Though there's roughly enough parking, it is irritating to be unable to easily park within 10 or more houses of mine when unloading. Deliveries on Ondine Road during the working week from commercial vehicles invariably mean being double parked. I would love to see a cheap residents' permit scheme where some parts of one side of the road were limited to residents, and the other side remained a free-for-all. This would at least be a good experiment if restrictions were at the ends of the road nearest to Grove Vale, without having to charge visitors for parking or some complex scheme for handing out vouchers to visiting friends of residents. However, my professional experience with Council parking departments, is that residents would be charged ?150/year or more for the permit, and every year the Council would be tempted to see parking charges a cash cow that they should milk a bit more from. So thumbs down, unless the Council were to make some firm commitments on how it was to work, perhaps with a residents group to help hold them to account if things start to go wrong.

I have started to approach local letting agents to rent out a house in the area. My family has rented out a house in Cornwall, and I have a friend who rents one out in Nottingham, so I was expecting that "fully managed" meant a fee of 10% and even that may be negotiable. The first two I tried were Acorn (14%, negotiable) and Foxtons (17%, firmly non-negotiable). These percentage fees seem eye-wateringly high and presumably mean that tenants end up significantly more in rent, just to pay these companies for their sales teams as there is no real difference in what "fully managed" would mean outside of London. So, some advice please. As a future landlord is it best to whack up the expected rent and get an expensive letting agent, or should I keep shopping for one that will charge 12%? Some good experiences of using particular letting agents from local small landlords or tenents would be great.

After a couple of years with TalkTalk, my experience gradually went from terrible, to okay when I paid the extra ?10/month for fibre. On ordinary broadband it would regularly drop out on Sundays and holidays due to everyone else wanting heavy use on those days. I have just signed up with Plusnet after realising how costly my monthly bills had become for TV services I never use, and after a call, TalkTalk not doing much to give me a better deal. Basically it seems worth swapping supplier every 18 months to get their new customer offers, in this case I get free broadband for the first 6 months. Anyone have experiences of the difference between suppliers in the East Dulwich area? We seem to have all upgraded BT exchanges, so in theory it should be possible for everyone to have top notch broadband speeds. P.S. I can see the thread about Virgin Media, but as far as I know there are similar experiences with the other top suppliers, so it's the comparison I'm hoping to read about.

Any time is okay if it is a *real* emergency and you are a neigbour. Begging for ?7 is never going to be an emergency and in this case is a scammer taking the mickey. The only time I would ring my neigbour's bell at an unsociable time would be to let them know there is a reported gas leak/burst water mains/smoke coming from their house. Anything else is either my problem, a matter for emergency services, or something that can wait until they are normally up and about.

Ondine Road/Grove Vale - At 6am this morning my doorbell was rung several times, thinking it must be an emergency I answered the door still wearing my pajamas. I was extremely annoyed to find someone trying the classic scam "I'm your neighbour, living at (nearby address but not too near), I woke up to find my electric out and need ?7 for my meter". She was a pale white woman, about 5'5'', 40ish with a lined face and slightly rough looking. I told her this was a classic scam and ringing doorbells at 6am to try this on was unacceptable; she just pretended to be outraged so I closed the door on her. Very annoying, particularly as some of the kind people on my road are highly likely to give her money if they are new to the sort of scammers that try these classics, so this is likely to be a good money earner in my area.

I get BT infinity next to Goose Green with TalkTalk as my service provider. My connection was terrible before (still TalkTalk) and this costs me 10 quid a month more (so my bills are 30 quid per month). The service is a lot faster and more reliable, but still seems to conk out every Sunday (and on some other days) by loosing speed and sometimes dropping out altogether. I would expect they have oversold it in this area and so there are too many users trying to use the same bandwith at the same time. I had hoped for better, but all telecoms companies seem to promise the earth until you are their customer and then they don't seem all that concerned if you are unhappy enough to leave and go to a competitor. The fundamental problem is they pay their sales teams for attracting new customers rather than anything else, so keeping current customers happy is always lower on their business priorities. For the long term it's not a very good strategy...