Robert Poste's Child

Why did Admin delete my posts? There was nothing offensive in them, unless Admin was driving the BMW in question. At least offer an explanation.

Tactics, my friend. Not bigotry though, bitter experience.

If people do feel strongly that this bit of LL needs traffic calming, you could put it to James Barber perhaps? BMW drivers do seem to be prone to aggression and lack of consideration. It was one of them who followed me down Railton Road Saturday before last shouting at me for doing an emergency stop when he reversed at speed out of a side road around a parked van that he couldn't possible see around. Pardon me for not letting you kill me. They're TK Maxx cars - entry level for idiots who believe that a brand name says something about you (other than you're a d1ck).

Neighbours with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement where their own wishes are involved and f-all consideration for anyone else. Wish I could afford to move.

I think they may be having a customer service drive at the moment too. Was in yesterday queuing for DVDs and while I was waiting two other members of staff came up and asked if they could help. Very nice. maxxi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Another big positive shout for the library - don't > have Sky/Netflix etc. so this week am > binge-watching season 6 of GOT on dvd for ?2.50 > thanks to them - also often grab a book from their > displays, usually something I would not have gone > looking for but can grab on (the slightest of) > impulse(s) without having to consider whether it's > worth the jacket price.

I've always liked the newsagents opposite the Plough and the library, Red Apple I think it's called. It feels like a village shop, they seem to know all their customers and they're lovely with the schoolkids who go in to buy 50p's worth of sweets on the way home.

Thanks very much for your help sorting this out, James, that's great.

Poor you, Taper. Are you OK?

That reminds me of when some kids threw firecrackers at me while I cycled as it snowed. Bit slippy. That was before I'd given up shouting abuse, fortunately. Little sihts.

God, leaves! The cycle lane past Dulwich College is ankle deep in places. Yesterday I saw someone with a leaf blower clearing the grass bit up College Road, and today someone diligently raking leaves inside the college's fence, while the cycle path is ignored. I know it's not the college's responsibility to clear the but plenty of boys cycle there every day and must be at risk. Seemed a bit mad.

Emcook, you may well be a genuine poster but you may want to be aware that if your first - currently only - post is a bad review of a local business, people will tend to assume you're a rival (or if it's a glowing review, someone from the business in disguise).

I swam this evening and the door does seem to have had the weight adjusted. It still doesn't exactly swing shut as you'd expect, but it does seem to move slowly in the right direction, which is an improvement. Still no handle on the pool side to pull it shut behind you with when you go out that way. After the comments from others above I did find myself noticing the level of dirt and general debris in the showers. There was someone in the shower blowing/clearing their nose literally 30 or so times, which was pretty stomach-churning from a hygiene viewpoint.

The water is definitely cleaner, in my experience anyway: the texture feels like water rather than spit and there aren't fortnight-old plasters or obvious particles of poo suspended in it. The walls of the whole place seem much brighter and cleaner. Tue changing room floor can be a bit dirty sometimes but when people walk onto an already wet floor in their outdoor shoes, and when they do their hair afterwards, that's probably inevitable and just needs regular management to stay on top of it. The question of abuse/harrassment may depend on how the women present feel, and on whether the management take action, as much as what the cleaner does. It would be horrible if the cleaner became the focus of this if the real issue is that the management doesn't have the right controls in place.

Yikes, Foxy. Do look after yourself. For what it's worth, there's a department at Kings that can organise the 24-hour ambulatory BP test for you. My surgery told me that when I had it done as theirs was booked up a few weeks ahead. Wonder if it would be worth going back to the hospital and say you can't get a GP appointment and you're worried, so could they help you set it up direct? Or call SELDOC or NHS 24 or whatever it's called now and get them to help? Maybe time to think about changing doctors? Sounds like they're making things worse rather than helping. Let me know if you want details for the surgery I go to as they're better than DMC.

I've had a bike as daily transport nearly 20 years, here and abroad. Never had anyone throw anything at me, bodily fluids or otherwise (only time that happened I was walking along a pavement beside a rural road and someone threw something at the back of my head from a speeding car). Almost all my scary incidents have involved people (mainly men though not exclusively) driving or cycling aggressively, not using their mirrors or signalling, and/or refusing to allow for a slower road user. A few times people, usually pedestrians, have shouted at me, eg about lights not being bright enough (fair point, got some better ones now) or not wearing a helmet (again, fair point but my Dutch landlady indoctrinated in me that if you have lights, brakes or a helmet people will despise you). I don't shout abuse at drivers or pedestrians much these days as it's likely to make things worse. I might shout 'look out'. Also try to do a lot of positive reinforcement when drivers are considerate to encourage them to keep it up. The big irony is that the aggressive drivers and cyclists don't realise that I PREFER them in front where I can see them and I'm delighted for them to overtake - just don't want them to run me over or off the road in the process.

Ouch! How are the ribs feeling this week? Hope the pain isn't as bad as it was.

Abusive and intimidating behaviour towards cyclists is a daily occurrence now, to the point where you wonder if it needs classifying with other abuse based on prejudice. Often the only provocation is the fact you're in front of them, or even just sharing the road. I had two very close together on Saturday between home and Brixton. In the second one I did an emergency stop to avoid a BMW reversing fast out of a side road around a large parked van, both of which made me think the driver hadn't seen me. My back wheel flipped up and round to the side but I managed to stay on. He then stopped and I hung back for a moment to let him go first (hard to read his intentions as all the windows I could see had smoked glass). I didn't say or do anything, literally just waited a moment. As he didn't move I started off again, and he then drove close alongside me with his window down shouting at me for having stopped. In the end I asked him why he needed to intimidate a middle-aged woman on a bike, which just made him angrier. I was afraid he was going to either ram me or get out and attack me. I ended up shaking and in tears at the police station asking what I can do as it seems to happen more and more often. Got a form to report him but still in two minds. Guy on the desk recommended getting a camera. He also said, which I think is a good point, that learner drivers should be taught about the point of view of motorbikes and cycles so they can read the road properly. Worth a petition I think.

Jeremy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > malumbu Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > If the worst thing that that kid does in his > life is chuck piss then society has done OK. > > I find this a little hard to swallow. A child of > barely secondary school age throwing piss at > strangers.. society has done OK? Completely. If a 12yo is (by the sound of it) regularly throwing cups of urine into the faces of cyclists travelling in the dark there's something wrong with him that needs sorting out before it escalates into something even nastier.

I do feel they're trying and things are definitely better than under Fusion but they seem a bit overwhelmed by the long list of jobs to do. That said, whether or not doors close properly they do need to educate their male staff to behave professionally towards women in the ways we've been talking about or they risk accusations of sexual harrassment or - given the changing room is also used by young girls during school visits - insufficient safeguarding.

Cafe Rouge in the village has a 6-course lunch for ?50 a head and you get a nice walk home through the park to work it off.

By the end of the evening very little.

Sympathies. It's been going on much longer than 3 months though as it's one of many things that Fusion never put right. I had a bit of a swear about it last time I was in and a woman walked out to the pool leaving the door wide open, with men passing outside it looking in, while I and others were changing. Shortly before my swear about the cold showers, which I've added to a list that includes lifeguards who only show a sign of life when a woman with a big backside goes past, intimidating behaviour in the pool, lifeguards not making sure people shower before swimming, lifeguards letting people with obvious fungal infections get in the pool...

Perhaps forum drinks would be easier?

Dunno; even if I'd been cycling past I'd have asked if they were OK. Maybe you were just unlucky.

Cazzyr, that's appalling. How are you feeling now? It must have been very distressing; let's hope they catch him. Hope you're OK.