indiepanda

DulwichFox Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Maybe NONE of them actually ever existed. I dont > recall knowingly ever meeting any of them. ??? > Computer Generated. Would make more sense. Auto > reply whenever the Fox posted. :) I've met Otta and ???? at forum drinks in the past and think I've met Jeremy too (I've met a Jeremy who is a friend of Otta's anyway). So they do exist, as does Strafer Jack.

Penguin68 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Many people find that fitting a shower pump > improves things - if you have a shower in the loft > space (i.e if you've had a loft extension) then > you will need a 'negative head' shower as the > water tank is likely to be at the same level or > below your shower head. Because ED is very hilly > mains water pressures can vary, particularly where > the mains flow is compromised (as it so often is > locally) by leaks. > > HOWEVER most showers are run not from the mains > but from water tanks - unless your tanks and hot > water cylinder are also shared the fact that the > mains stopcock is on the other owner's land should > be irrelevant to your water pressure, and > particularly when it comes to shower pressures. No shower in the loft but I am on a hill and talking to neighbours those further down the hill don't seem to have problems as much as we do. I don't think I have a water tank anywhere in the house, usual place would be in the loft right? If there is one it's right the opposite end of the house to the kitchen and bathroom in the remaining eves storage but I am pretty sure I cleared that out enough to have spotted if there was one in there (the old owners left a bunch of boxes and carpet offcuts in there, hence the need to clear out). Maybe it got removed when they converted the loft into an extra bedroom.

bil Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi Indiepanda > > I thought this was a common issue in houses/flats > around the parts of ED on the hill e.g. Dunstans, > Upland, Overhill...Maybe I'm wrong. > > I live in a house (whole not half) and have the > same problem. Most of the time the water flow > through the shower is OK (never powerful) and > during 'rush hour' it can reduce drastically, > sometimes just a trickle as you mention. I > contacted Thames Water about this years ago and > they did some work which improved it but since > then it's returned back to how it was (they've > done numerous works since so perhaps they undid > what they had rectified previously). > > We fitted a system boiler with cylinder but that > made no difference. We will have to consider other > alternatives. Ah, well it's reassuring to know its not just me and also that it can happen even if you don't have a shared water supply. I would have been furious if I had spent out to get the water supply split and then still have lousy pressure. I was noticing the water pressure was especially bad when I started this thread but it hasn't been so bad recently, seems to be really unpredictable when it is going to play up.

Just adding another recommendation for Andy. He has painted my lounge this week and picked up a couple of other jobs that needed doing at the same time, including getting a plumber friend to tighten a nut on a leaking radiator which he didn't even charge for. Very reasonable rates and the room was left nice and tidy afterwards - no paint on the carpet even though he knew it was being ripped out next week after the moths got it. (and good that the leak was fixed before laying and spoiling the new carpet)

I am in a Victorian terrace and if I am being quiet and the children either side are being noisy or if someone is drilling or doing other noisy DIY then I can hear them, but its not bad. Same was also true when I lived elsewhere in a modern semi. Am not convinced any houses with shared walls are build robustly enough to prevent any noise leakage - certainly not at the drum kit and loud parties level.

Mick Mac Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I wasn't really talking about size James. without > checking I feel sure this is a smaller festival > than hyde park or Blackheath in terms of > travelling numbers. and hyde park has these all > summer. > > There were local resident objections to blackheath > festival (and probably every other festival) but > its now perceived as a great success. Surely these > festivals are becoming the norm and we all have to > put up with one being nearby and people enjoying > themselves. > > A minority will always misbehave but I'm sure it > will be fine overall, if for any reason it's not, > I'm sure it won't be happenimg again. Hyde Park is about 50-60,000 attendees per day so yep, a lot bigger than this. Describing this proposed one as "massive" is overkill.

I bought some squirrel proof feeders... they worked well at keeping the squirrels out but I wouldn't recommend as they seemed to keep even small birds out too. Not sure why, the holes didn't look too small, perhaps they were just other feeders nearby that were easier to get into and so they couldn't be bothered with mine anymore. The food in them ended up rotting. I've gone back to feeding all comers now... truth be told I quite enjoy seeing the squirrels acrobatics and the parakeets might not be native to the UK but they are pretty. Still seem to get smaller birds visiting, though have to say the last month seem not to have seen anything much bar pigeons and squirrels.

I reported potholes on Underhill between St Aiden's Road and Dunstans to Southwark last week. Had a response a couple of days ago saying "I have forwarded your enquiry to the Highways Maintenance team and the site will be inspected; any problems found will be dealt with as soon as possible."

This sounds a bit dodgy. I see the rules on alcohol & young people on the government's web site say:- Working in a restaurant or bar under 18: You can serve alcohol in a restaurant if you?re 16 or 17 as long as the licence holder or bar manager has approved the sale. Maybe this is what they mean about supervision - someone needs to approve each time she places an order including alcohol so that makes it onerous to hire her. Completely unreasonable to use her for free labour in the meantime though. Maybe instead of using an app she should visit all the cafes that aren't licenced to serve alcohol and speak to them direct about work? When I was a teenager looking for vacation work I can recall walking along Southend sea front going into every cafe asking for work till I found someone who needed someone. And there was no unpaid trial either. Not well paid mind you, but that was pre-minimum wage and I enjoyed the work and they were happy to have me come back every vacation throughout university.

Yes, I had a neighbour whose dog hated being left and would bark the place down the rare times his retired owner went out without him, he was quiet when she was there. Mind you I am not sure quite what complaining achieved in her case, I know some of the neighbours had complained but it wasn't practical to take the dog everywhere and I think the dog was too old to be trained to stop.

worldwiser Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This is the website for you: > https://www.thameswater.co.uk/My-Account/Billing-a > nd-payment/Our-charges/Assessed-Household-Charge thank you!

worldwiser Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > TW has put us on some kind > of reduced fixed rate tariff for people who can't > get a meter. Hmmm... I wonder if I might be able to persuade them to do this for me - maybe I should try calling the meter team and see if I have any luck that way - did you have to complain to get this or did they offer? I'd still rather have decent water pressure but it would be nice to at least pay less for the trickle I sometimes get. Talking to neighbours today it sounds like our particular pair of houses are getting worse pressure off the main than others along the same row, might be more to this than just the shared water supply causing our issues...

I would dream of getting premiums that low round here. Insurers see my postcode as being a high subsidence risk, plenty won't quote and and the last specialist I tried wanted to put a 40k excess on subsidence claims (despite having seen the survey which says movement is historic), so I am stuck paying nearly ?1k. My house isn't large either - 3 bed half house, but the third is a loft conversion - i.e. the ground floor size is that of a two bed. No exciting contents either.

Just to update in case anyone else is in a similar situation. Whilst Thames Water could do this, it's going to mean digging a trench across the road as the water main is under the pavement on the opposite side of the road. I'd then need to get a plumber to do all the pipework on my property - and our places had gardens deep enough to replace them with parking spaces, so that wouldn't be a quick job either. On the grounds of cost (not to mention the inconvenience it would inflict on all my neighbours and everyone on the P13 bus route) I am going to have to put this in the too difficult box. I can only advise if you are thinking of buying a half house make sure you check the water supply before buying. It never occurred to me I might not have my own supply and it really is a nuisance.

Not sure if this is the right section, but half houses aren't something I'd come across before I moved to East Dulwich so maybe it is. I've got a Victorian half house where both sides were owned by one family until the 1960s and the stopcock is on my side (i.e. the neighbours can't turn the water supply off in an emergency without accessing my house) and the water supply shared between us. Now, I don't mind my neighbours needing to have a key in case of emergencies when I am not around - would be useful if I ever lost my keys and they are lovely people so I don't have any trust issues. H However, I am finding suddenly getting a pathetic trickle of water in the shower just because their family is getting ready the same time as me in the morning (as I expect most of East Dulwich residents would!) really frustrating. Doesn't help my boiler seems to struggle to kick in when water pressure drops - so it's not just a trickle but sometimes a very cold one. The water pressure never seems great round here anyway - (mid Underhill Road) not sure if related to the various issues Thames Water has had with leaks. Is this issue a common one with half houses in East Dulwich? If so, has anyone had the water supply split and how did you go about getting it done / how expensive was it / did you see a real difference?

NewWave Wrote: > All my perfumes come from Roulier White rather > than sending my OH into town to buy in a dept > store. > I personally try to buy and support independent > and local whenever I can Roulier White has a better selection of interesting perfumes than most department stores anyway so it's no hardship supporting them. I don't want to smell like everyone else. I didn't use Bonnie's much as they aren't that close to me and I don't buy that many flowers anyway, but I've had some nice flowers from there in the past and they were helpful in suggesting some combinations of colours / flowers that I wouldn't have thought of that really worked. I think there are powers for councils to bring unoccupied houses back into use, wish there was similar for commercial property. I don't like the idea of having lots of identikit large chains moving in (especially the chain coffee shops) but I like the idea of places sitting empty long term depressing too.

There's some rather hysterical comments about hostels here. I stayed in youth hotels in shared bunk rooms plenty of times in my twenties, it was a cheap option on hiking trips when funds didn't run to a hotel room. We certainly weren't running around creating a crime wave in the towns we visited. We were usually tucked up in bed by midnight ready for the next day's hiking and rarely that drunk as it spoiled the hiking and I don't remember having lots of problems with other guests at the hostels either. My former lodger who is 40 is currently off travelling round Europe staying in hostels and she definitely isn't wreaking a crime wave across the continent or finding herself caught up in one and I have a friend in East Dulwich who is regularly visiting different European countries to see as much before Brexit as possible and I don't think her and her son who she travels with are like that either. I have reservations about whether a hostel somewhere as far out of the centre as East Dulwich would really have much of a market - we are quite a distance out of the centre for tourists visiting central London and it's not like you can say it's a lovely picturesque journey here by bus or walking. I suspect a budget B&B which could be used by friends and family visiting people in the area who don't have spare rooms or for people coming to weddings in the area would be more successful.

I live near the Forest Hill Road end of Peckham Rye and I do like it here, but if I had my time over I would find somewhere the other end of the park to be nearer to Peckham Rye station for the transport links. I do use the station from time to time, but it's about a mile and half and it would make a big different to travel time being a mile closer.

Andy came out at very short notice to put up some blinds and take apart / move and reassemble a bed in a different room for me. He made sure he cleaned up after himself and went beyond what I had asked him to do (has asked if he could give me a hand moving mattresses and he did them on his own - how I do not know as one of them was very heavy!) Am already planning to get him back to do more jobs around the house.

Pretty much all insurance companies punish loyalty, just like energy suppliers, mobile providers etc, if you don't shop around they will hike up the rates year by year. Best rates reserved for new customers (or really stroppy existing ones they think they are going to lose). I got about ?150 off my car insurance (with Admiral) this year by doing a quote online and challenging my current insurer to beat the best alternative. The only thing I struggle to move is home insurance as lots of providers are convinced this area is a high subsidence area and either won't quote or quote silly rates. I even tried a specialist company recommended on here and found they tried to slap a ?40k excess on subsidence and hid it in the small print even though I had specifically said I wanted to make sure I was covered for that given how anxious the insurers seemed to be about it. However, even here I tend to whinge about the renewal quote most years and stop my insurer increasing the premium too much.

I saw a presentation on IT security recently that said the Android system is far more vulnerable to hacking than Apple's as Apple are much better at ensuring updates get rolled out - the ugy that did that talk said he used iPhones for this reason. Was a bit alarmed as I use Android phones, am now thinking about changing my personal one when I get a new one this year. Where I work we are all switching to Apple devices when our phones come up for renewal - and I work for a partnership so the people that own the company are the decision makers as well - doubt they are putting us on Apple just because they think it will make staff happy.

If they are good quality then the Mary Portas Living and Giving shop on Lordship Lane is probably the best bet - believe the money goes to Save the Children. Otherwise the Mind shop or St Christopher's Hospice shops take clothes.

First Direct. Been with them over 22 years, never think of switching. Website is good and on the rare occasions I need to ring, the staff are brilliant.

La Gomera is pretty quiet - have been on a hiking holiday there and if walking is your thing there are lots of great well marked paths. You can't fly there from the UK though - fly to Tenerife South and then get the ferry across, so it makes for quite a long journey - ferries aren't that frequent so you will probably end up having to hang about in the port town of Los Cristianos for a few hours. (As a resort that has little to recommend it)

rendelharris Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > "Remains critical" according to Standard eleven > hours ago. Awful testimony from his friend, > sounds as though the perpetrator was determined to > stab for no reason: > http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/dulwich-park- > attack-man-arrested-for-attempted-murder-after-ita > lian-national-stabbed-in-the-head-in-a3527606.html Yes, this doesn't sound like a standard mugging - if this article is accurate he stabbed the guy in the head before he even had a chance to get out the phone the attacker demanded.