njc97

Three options: Train from Queens Road Peckham to London Bridge, then tube Lazy version, if you don't want to walk 10 minutes to QRP: train from Nunhead to Peckham Rye, change to train to London Bridge, then tube Or train from Nunhead to Lewisham then DLR Can't imagine why you'd want to drive anywhere in the morning.

Well I think it's a great idea, but I just took 3 months off work to be a stay at home dad (to a now 11 month year old).

We had a fox in our back garden but given the lack of noise I think he's been scared off by the neighbours' cats. Lion poo might work, ED garden centre sells it (well pellets dosed with it, disappointing it isn't kilos of dung).

Keef - you could always just post on here. How old is minikeef?

Ko, worth taking your car down to Mothercare (or wherever) and trying out the seat first. The maxi cosi on its own didn't fit into our car (fiesta) as the seat belts were too short, so we had to buy the base. Also, iro anowboarder's post abvove, there3 are two bases: the isofix one, which needs your car to have isofix fittings (depends on age and model etc) or easifix, which fits in with just the seatbelt.

I like Naz the butcher (ironically names Bakers) but it's very small and gets too busy at weekends. I always found the other one (Smith?) to be very good as well - butchers are friendly and helpful and meat is good as well (especially the english lamb at the moment).

Of course it may be that the restauranteurs don't want the advertising, like this Chinese place: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2008/sep/05/foodanddrink.restaurants

I think the foodie consensus view is that the best sushi place is a little place in ealing (but I can't remember the name). The best I've had is a tiny place near westminster. Oh and I've had a conversation wiht two japanese guys who were raving about a sushi place near TCR being finally the first place in London to do sushi like you get in Tokyo. After 5 minutes they realised they were talking about different places....

I've got a dell mini inspiron (cost 150 quid when they had an offer on) and a asus eee pc, both running linux. Both v light and v long battery life. I wouldn't use them for running large spreadsheets, but you can surf the web as well as a proper pc and use office software fine. A netbook sounds perfect for what you need.

Chick - PCSOs have led to a drop in crime in London and under 16s are NOT allowed to cycle on pavements. Of course if PCSOs could also give fines for apostrophe abuse then they'd be even better.

Jeremy - the pre theatre menu at arbutus is ?17.50 for 3 courses, so with wine less than ?80. A la carte, 3 courses with 2 carafes of wine would be around ?100 for two, and excellent. Foodstories, personally if the monkfish was very good, then I do think that ?17 is reasonable for that size portion, and not out of line with other good restaurants. Modern cuisine is based on quality and strength of flavours not size of portions. Unfortunately I can't comment on the quality at the Palmerston, but others seem happy.

Snorky, and of course it's the meedja/finance/recruitment types who are the first to say things like "If some twit can?t be trusted to not open the doors when the train is still moving he shouldn?t be getting paid to drive the dam thing in the first place" because they have never made a mistake in their jobs. Of course a typo in an email about cross-fertilising viral communication portals, is much more forgivable than pressing the wrong button at a station platform.

If you peruse your MPs expenses, you'll see that Labour/Tory/Lib Dems don't just use local party workers. I won't be voting for them but their flyer did give me a laugh.

Bob - superb. On topic: if he's using them as permanent advertising, then he is breaking the law and the council should tow them away. But on the other hand, he annoys the Daily Mail, so on balance I'm on his side.

skidmarks - bossman wines on LL does it.

There's a poster in my local for a new one in Forest Hill (?) called the double jab. Website under construction but has location: http://doublejabgym.com/web/find.html

Vallajo - I dont think the problem here was the product. The "original" owners aimed to do decent priced, good quality pub food. 3 minutes walk away the Nuns Head is doing the same thing and seemingly making it work. And the Duke is/was never competing with the Gowlett - their expected market was presumably people who live this side of the Rye, that makes the Gowlett a bit of a walk. The problem is that I don't think there is enough of a market to sustain a gastropub round in the area (or whatever you want to call a pub that concentrates on food) and there are already enough pubs for serious drinkers. The new owners had the right idea when they put big TVs in, booked music etc but kept the food as well. But it seems there isn't enough demand at the moment for that either. Re stockbrokers losing money, it's a case of "how do you make a small fortune in the restaurant business? Well you start with a large one....." Weatherspoons are horrible, but as you say they give the customer what they want, and drinkswise, they do a decent product. The decor may be horrible, they may butcher some lovely buildings, and the food is functional at best, but it's all well priced and as you say, they concentrate on what people want from them, not what they want to sell.

Lenk - yes it was the Nunhead Gazette (or whatever it was called). Was advertorial (90% of the mag was) but under the Polinglish (Englack?) there seemed to be the right messages. But perhaps not matched by reality, given the above. Unfortunately I don't think doing good "pub food" is going to work. The profit margins you can charge on food like that are too small to compete with the wetherspoons of the world "cooking" in microwaves. The previous owners of Duke tried and didn't last long.

EOTR - really? Shame. I was reading an interview with the new owners (coincedentally in the Frog on the Green) and it sounded like they had the right idea, albeit it sounds like they aren't managing to implement it perfectly. I think they were always going to struggle though - the previous owners (also owners of the Gowlett?) served good food and good wines etc, but it was still always empty. Don't think the location can support the sort of pub they tried to run.

Sue - I agree. I had a superb sunday lunch in the mag last weekend but my only gripe were the potatoes. Over boiled and not crispy enough.

TLS - I don't think all of the original posts were honest at all. I think who_cares summarises it better.

Huguenot, I'm not sure spirit did describe these events: * an extended attendance at the machine facilities while she did her accounts * that she unpacked her handbag at the machine * that she wrote her slips with the pen at the machine for an 'number' of cheques And regardless, had she done so I don't think it would have been unreasonable behaviour. I think it's a sad state of affairs when people get angry because they are being "held up" by other people going about their business.

Driving down to New Cross to visit their boyfriend would be traditional.....

I agree with Moos. Do complain and do send it directly to the chairman. Whilst it won't be read by him personally, it will be read and dealt with by someone in his office rather than being lost in the standard customer complaints process.

Hmm, http://images.starcraftmazter.net/4chan/for_forums/obvious_troll.jpg And James - mid-life crisis car? Bike, shurely?