Applespider

Lady D - I think you are wrong. Unless the pavement is specifically shared use, I don't think you should be on it while riding; get off and push if you feel so unsafe on that stretch of road - or find another route. While you may never have hit a pedestrian, you are likely to have alarmed them. No motorist has ever hit me on my bike but those who go past on a narrow stretch when I'm not expecting them, do give me a fright - and a cyclist going past a pedestrian unexpectedly is scary for them. For less confident or new cyclists in general, it's worth mentioning that there is free one-on-one cycle training available (look on the council website) which can really help with how to ride assertively on the road, how to find good routes for your most common journeys and how to deal with nasty junctions/stretches on those routes. I did it a few years ago before starting to cycle to work regularly and it was really helpful.

It's not all the accurate since it works out part of based on your age and sex rather than anything scientific. If you tell it you are younger than you are, you'll find your body fat % drop further. Tell it you're a man and it will drop again. It's also drastically affected by how hydrated you are or if you're retaining water. If you measure at a consistent time, then you can track progress on it but I wouldn't rely it for much else. If there's any chance of getting a properly done caliper BF test, you could compare that to your scales one and then get an idea of accuracy.

There's another good butchers in Forest Hill - The Butchery - opposite Sainburys. Has a wholesale business in Bermondsey and then the shop (open Weds to Sun) in Forest Hill. Specialises in small breed cattle. They held a BBQ evening a few weeks ago showing off their wares and v tasty it all was too - a gorgeous flatiron steak and ribs amongst other delicacies. His pork and kim chi sausages are gorgeous too - and they do Scottish black pudding which I love.

Public BBQ areas can get a bit grotty but as a flat-dweller (with friends who are also flat-dwellers), the chance of the odd burnt sausage would be nice. A dedicated area would be good to avoid the smoke irritating those around - although that doesn't seem to bother my neighbours whose BBQ pours smoke straight through my living room window... lovely. The public braiis that they have in South Africa would be a great compromise - it's a metal 'table' with a cage underneath. You can bring your own braii grill to put on the table or hire one from a hut nearby - and they hire out gas canisters (which sit in the cage) and you can BBQ to your heart's content. Less mess since the cost of cleaning the grill is included in the hire (or you take yours home).

Good luck. They screwed me over about 8 years ago over e-tickets that magically turned into paper tickets that didn't arrive before we travelled. All the documentation I printed before we left said they were e-tickets until we got to the airport. And then when I went back to look at the webpage, Expedia had changed it. We had to fork out for new airline tickets (thankfully it was a US internal rather than the transatlantic) and they wouldn't do anything about it. Prior to that, a friend had a problem where Expedia's system got two Holiday Inns confused and booked us into one on the other side of Berlin. Thankfully Holiday Inn sorted that one out for us. Now, I avoid them and their subsidiaries like the plague - I told customer services that I'd never use them again, and I've stuck to it. I don't hold out much hope for you but wish you luck.

malumbu - overall, I agree. There are far more good drivers out there than bad - it's probably why the bad ones stick out so much! I've had some really good HGV drivers too who have stayed well back and only passed when there was acres of room. I've emailed their companies on most occasions to thank them for their driver training!

titch - I see them too. And occasionally, when I choose to wait behind and get sworn at for my timidity (read common sense) wonder why the message doesn't sink in. But, not all the deaths are caused by that. I seem to recall one (near Oval?) was the lorry driver driving over the cyclist who was in front of him (and had been there when he pulled up). My two close shaves with HGVs have both been where they chose to overtake me at a dangerous point and then had to pull back in suddenly. Thankfully on both occasions, I was riding defensively and had braked hard to let them complete their overtake - if not, I'd have been swiped by their rear wheels without having done anything wrong (I was a good metre out from the kerb on both occasions so hardly hugging the gutter!)

Help-Ma-Boab - I think you've recommended all my old favourite haunts! I'll second the Doric Tavern and the Guildford Arms. What kind of restaurant are you looking for? Upmarket? Cheap and cheerful? Something in between? Any particular cuisine to stay away for or any favourites?

It was the school run that started me cycling to work... well, at least, trying to avoid getting stuck on a bus in school run traffic. There was a commenter on there who made a reasonable point though. Why stop at kids - why not force all adults to park 1/2 mile from their work? Or charge for car parking at supermarkets with the furthest away bays being free (disabled bays excluded). I have a neighbour who gets in his car to go to the local Tesco Express for a pint of milk and the Sunday paper. It is 6 minutes away at a saunter - and the lack of right turn from the South Circ means a circuitous route home but would he think of walking it?

Leaving at 7 isn't too bad. If I end up with a Gatwick flight before 8 though, I tend to stay over at the airport. If it's a ridiculously early flight, I book the Yotel by the hour for 5-6 hours which works out at around ?40 if you do it ahead of time. Or there's now a Premier Inn across the road from the South Terminal (walk out front door and up escalator ramp to shuttle station) which was ?53 last time I used it.

Was at HRC too and Bruce was amazing - nearly 30 songs in just over 3 hours. It was a strange end finishing with My Lucky Day - I was expecting Thunder Road too. Born to Run was amazing though as was the Born in the USA album. Lovely to see him dancing with his Mum in Dancing in the Dark... awwwww! I thought the sound was better for the Black Crowes than it was for Bruce... definitely seem a little off at times.

Louisa Wrote: > Fits perfectly into the demographic then, because > Dulwich Village already has a Gail's. I know... I cycle past on my to work and have been known to stop for a lovely warm treat (cinnamon bun or a muffin) on the way. It does make me chuckle when I'm standing there in bike helmet etc ordering a takeaway muffing and they offer me a coffee. Um... not entirely convinced how safe it would be cycling down the road drinking a latte!

More upmarket than Greggs/Upper Crust and less upmarket than Gails/Le Pain Quotidien

The 185 route does have DKH though which is a bit of a monster if you are new to cycling. Excellent hill training though! I take Camberwell New Road occasionally but while I don't feel unsafe on it, I find it less pleasant than the South Lambeth Road route to Vauxhall which is wider and feels airier somehow!

I go through Vauxhall most days. From Herne Hill, I go down Railton Road to Brixton, then up to Stockwell and down South Lambeth Road to Vauxhall. From Brixton to Vauxhall, it is main roads but they have bus lanes as snowy says - and they're a fairly pleasant as those roads aren't manically busy and are wide enough to feel safe. And it's pretty flat... you'll just have an uphill bit to get back from Herne Hill to the library. If you're reasonably new to cycling in London traffic (which I'm guessing from you wanting to avoid main roads), then take a look at the cycle training that Southwark provide (I think they still do so). They'll take you out for a couple of hours and give you some great tips on assertive riding etc. I found it really useful when I started commuting and it gave me a lot of confidence.

I've seen a variant on the 'paper tower' idea which was to build a freestanding pineapple out of paper/sellotape. That did take quite a bit longer... Alternatively, there's a good one for communication (although again it might not last long enough) where you put them back to back and give one of them a picture. Then you hand out paper and pens to the other and tell them to start. They have to figure out what you want them to do by talking about what they are holding and then figure out that the one with the picture is going to describe it to the other who has to try to draw it. But I suspect you can only really string it out for 10 minutes or so. I realise that you are saying one is barely literate but could they come up with a presentation together that has to be entirely visual/aural (i.e. without words)?

Thanks for that Burbage. Looks like a lot of it will now be 2014 or even 2015. I too was looking forward to the southbound route at Vauxhall being better before that!

Annette Curtain Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Last night I ate at Bruno Loubet's new place The > Grain Store in Kings X > Ooooh... I hadn't realised it had opened. For some reason I thought it was next week. Must go!

Had to laugh tonight. I'm sitting at the lights at Stockwell in the right hand lane so I can make a right turn when the filter comes on. All the lights at the junction are red. Immediately behind me is a police van. Cue - an idiot cyclist who comes up and decides to jump the light and cross the junction. The police van toots but he ignores him. Just then a second cyclist does the same. I turn to the police van and shrug. The two policemen in the van nod back to acknowlege... and then turn on their sirens and lights and chase after the two RLJers to pull them over. Mwa ha ha! They looked very very sheepish when I passed them a few moments later. Let's hope it stops them doing it again... although I don't expect they're that bright, doing it with a police van alongside!

Sadly the blog for the redevelopment died a death last July. But the main fencing has now come down as they're landscaping and wow, the house looks amazing. It's so lovely to see it restored to its former glory. I do hope that there will be a chance for interested locals to have a look before it gets sold on. Well done colin.s if you're still involved!

That's a great offer, Edith, and I'd love to do it. Unfortunately, I have tickets for Springsteen on 30 June and after disappointing my mother twice before when plans to see him fell through, I have to do that first. Pity though - I do hope someone takes it up. It's a great experience and a great cause!

As a cyclist (no car but with driving licence), I think there's room for a crackdown on both bad cyclists and bad motorists. I'd like the motorists revving through the ASLs penalised and I'd like red-light jumpers of both varieties (blatant - usually cyclists - and those just going through after accelerating through an amber - usually motorists) to be done. I'd like motorists who are clearly going over 30mph in a 20 zone to get tickets. And I'd like all the ninja cyclists without lights to have their bikes confiscated until they show up to collect them with some lights. And let's chuck in some warnings for those motorists who pass within inches of the handlebars - and for those cyclists barrelling down the pavements. Hmm... stop those things and the roads (and pavements) would be a better place for all of us law-abiding types.

sally - do you like eating lots of filled pasta or lasagne? If the answer is yes, then a pasta maker is great. If it's more for making linguine etc, I'm not sure I'd bother. I inherited my nonna's pasta machine and I use it occasionally for special occasions - probably once or twice a year. For comparison, I make bread (by hand) several times a month but for some reason, making pasta dough feels like much more effort.

Should there be a lower speed limit on cyclists? That is, if they can't get to 10mph on a flat stretch of road, they shouldn't be on the road? That, however, leads to the question of where would they go within the current infrastructure I do take your point DulwichFox about being able to stop and the dangers of both hitting pedestrians or going over the handlebars. But, on DKH, I'd be prepared to stop while approaching the lights and be cautious if the pedestrians included kids playing with a ball or a dog or a jogger. Any other pedestrian on the pavement, I'd assume was going to stay there or that they'd take a look before stepping out onto the road. I don't think any driver (motorised or not) assumes that every single pedestrian is likely to throw themselves into their path. Besides, that 'wheeeeeeee' factor going down a hill on the bike is the reward for having got yourself up the other side!

Both my neighbours have them. One has a small set which aren't too bad. The other side has a monster set (a couple of feet long) that are horribly loud. I dream that they fall apart...