Applespider

I'm trying to decide between risotto with scallops and baby octopus or home-made fish pie

What kind of place do you prefer? Noisy with music or at a level to chat? Crowded place or more spacious and chilled out? Somewhere that does food - meals or nibbles - or do you just want to drink? Would you rather somewhere with a decent wine list, a decent cocktail list or a decent range of beers?

Was a fun evening and ended up talking to quite a few people. I just hope I remember all those names for next month! :-$ Did get a shock looking at my watch to discover it was nearly 1am at one point. Wow! How time flies when you're having a good time, I guess. And the nibbles were a lovely surprise. Thank you - will definitely be back in to order food again.

I'm planning on coming along too - probably between 8.30 and 9.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. The numbers on the signs are well and truly gone now but at some point early during the first week of the new TCR route, they were still there since I remember wondering whether I'd read the notice wrongly and it was a week later that the change was happening before figuring that it was quicker just to head to the Victoria line.

Started at the beginning of January - there were posters at the bus stops beside the bus timetables for a short while although I agree it wasn't 'promoted' very well. Leaving the 176 numbers on the bus stops along Oxford St wasn't the brightest move on TfL's part. I read something that suggested it was a permanent change since one of the roads is going to be closed for ever more but other notices seem to suggest that it's initially for 2 years and they'll review. Given the current drive to reduce congestion on Oxford St, I'm unconvinced that the 176 will ever run along to Oxford Circus again.

Horsebox, I feel for your guests. There was a point in Bodeans around 1am when we found out there was no public transport when a 6 mile walk back to home seemed a distinct possibility. And no, while it wouldn't have been impossible, I don't think it would have been particularly pleasant. I'm pretty fit (ran a half marathon last year) but I suspect 6 miles or so in thick snow would have been tiring. Friends and I discussed potentially getting a hotel for the remainder of the night and heading home the next day in daylight and if things had improved. I had the day off on Monday so feeling guilty about running around playing in the snow wasn't an issue for me. I don't think though that I'd have hiked the 8 miles to the office though even if I hadn't been. And I didn't on Tuesday since it was still going to be a much longer commute than usual - but I didn't run around in the snow. I connected to the office remotely and did a decent day's graft.

ladywotlunches - I'm with you on the laxness of Saturday deliveries. I quite often get Amazon 'next-day' Royal Mail things despatched on a Friday. If I send them to work (SW3) or a friend (as a gift), they show up Saturday as expected. If I send them to home, no chance. They show up on Monday as a 'pick up from the sorting office' card. Most frustrating! Of course, if I get organised enough to get them despatched on a Thursday, they show up on the Friday and I still end up with the trip to the sorting office on the Saturday morning.

ladywotlunches Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I'm under the forest hill sorting office - can > anyone give me the number to call? My post comes from the Forest Hill Office and we got post today although no idea what time. Given what's been mentioned above about posties not wanting to walk down icy pavements, I was surprised since our pavement is like an icerink.

Siduhe Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Was put in place because Southwark hadn't got > around to gritting Melford/Wood Vale Since Wood Vale is a boundary road - one side Southwark, one side Lewisham - do the councils take it year about to be responsible for gritting it, do they divvy up all their boundary streets equally or do they just do one side of the road?

Hmm, might pull on the old jersey and make it down on Sunday for the Scotland game. Whether I bother with the kilt might be weather dependent. TLS - nice summary ;-)

My office sent an email at 6.30 on Monday morning to Blackberries telling managers to get in touch with their staff and tell them not to struggle in against all odds and do what they could from home - luckily it's performance review time so everyone could claim to be considering their past performance and setting next year's goals for some of the time. A similar mail went out yesterday also allowing people to go early if needed. Everyone is back today though and most are working through lunch etc to make up work etc It is give and take - companies which act like jobsworths in every instance tend not to have the loyalty or morale of those which treat their employees like adults.

There was an accident at the junction from what I could make out. There was an ambulance and lots of flashing blue lights around 8.30

And FIFA do the same in the US attempting to make the Americans like soccer despite it being considered a game that kids and girls play over there. I'm well aware how many Brits are passionate about regular football - probably about as many blue-collar workers in places like Cleveland and Detroit love their NFL games - since I've not lived my entire life in the sheltered environs of ED. I've even been to a few games myself. ;-) What I don't understand is why there's an antagonism that the NFL are trying to extend their market. I don't think there's an serious expectation that any minority sport will overtake the ruling one (be it football, American football, Aussie rules, rugby in its respective stronghold) but surely there's room for other games to be watched and played across the world. The Brits have been guilty of that in terms of rugby and cricket too. It is one thing that I don't like about the British fascination with soccer; there ends up being too much coverage of that to the detriment of other sports in the UK. You rarely see other sports mentioned unless there's some international competition but the papers will report what a Premiership player ate for breakfast and consider it news. That doesn't help the grass-roots level of other sports and the UK's sporting future. Say what you like about American sports but they have a wider range of sports for kids to choose to play and watch than we do. Not every kid is designed to gracefully dribble a ball - at least in American football, there's a position for most shapes and sizes! Some of the little people of Britain might be saying 'No, I'm not interested' but equally, there are some of us who are interested. There will be other little British people saying they don't like soccer, others saying they don't like soap operas, others that don't like ballet, others that don't like cherry tomatoes but no-one's calling for all those things to be put into Room 101 never to be seen again. We just get on and ignore the things in life we don't like and learn to be tolerant of those who like em.

63/363 stops at the stop just outside that Tube exit at E&C. You can 'hover' around the traffic lights midway between the two stops and then head for whichever bus comes first. It's the War Museum exit as opposed to the Shopping Centre one since on the Bakerloo line the exits from the platform are right next to each other. Since the 363 starts at E&C, you should be able to get a seat on it too.

Nor am I. What's with all the haters? It's on at 11.30 on a Sunday night so unlikely to be stopping live coverage of anything interesting and not exactly primetime family viewing. It's not being forced down your throat and given that the BBC showed it last year, they must have got sufficient viewers to make it worthwhile them showing it this year. If you don't like the game, don't watch it and don't buy any merchandise. But allow those of us who do, to enjoy it peacefully and without name calling or assumptions about what kind of people we are. There's a lot on TV that isn't to my taste and that I'd rather my licence fee/advertising cash didn't go towards but live and let live - there are obviously enough people who do like it to make it worthwhile.

I'm guessing that if you have expensive monoblock or rarified slate shingles, then you should use the Maldon crystals. If you've got gravel, sea salt and if you're stuck with concrete, then cat litter which apparently works well but presumably will need swept up or may encourage even worse things underfoot.

Has alla passed the Turing test?

Mine didn't come on Monday although I must say that I didn't expect it to. I'm guessing that we'll have to wait til next week.

This morning's deliveries probably left their warehouse late last night so might have already been in the area before the worst of the snow landed. Post-4pm deliveries weren't likely to leave until this morning so got caught up in the chaos I'd guess. For free deliveries from Ocado, you need to book the late appointments on unpopular days of the week. I can't recall paying more than ?2 or so ever!

Ko Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > why is the sky not dark? Could be a variety of effects. The clouds are white/grey and probably relatively low-level so the streetlights will be reflecting off them. Plus snow on the ground will reflect light back too so seems lighter than usual.

The normal couple of inches that London occasionally gets is one thing that they should be prepared for. The current amount is not normal and would be tough to prepare for. Imagine if the councils did have all those gritters and ploughs to deal with 10" of snow. We'd all be complaining about what a waste of money it is to maintain all those vehicles for the 17 years out of 18 where they're barely used. Probably cost more money than the lack of productivity has caused today. I was inconvenienced by the buses being cancelled last night since I was in town from earlier in the day and had to get home around 3.30am. I was prepared for a long cold walk since I'd bundled up and worn decent boots since I knew at least some snow was forecast but luckily found someone who could give me a lift. But after travelling with someone in a small car who knew what they were doing driving in the snow, I'm really glad the buses weren't running since the roads really weren't in a condition for them. We saw lorries with hazards on, cars spinning their wheels trying to get out from odd angles on hills where they'd skidded. And abnormal amounts for the area of sun/snow/rain/hail/wind cause problems anywhere in the world. You build your infrastructure to deal with normal + a 20% contingency and if conditions fall beyond that, you make the best of it but expect problems.

A few suggestions Go to the Apple store next time you're in town and tell them that you've found an iPod. They should be able to look up the serial number if it's registered and might send an email to say that you've got it. The last bit is the bit I'm not sure whether they'd do. You should be able to plug it into yours and it will warn you whether it's going to wipe the library. Comes up with a message about it being linked to a different library and do you want to switch it to yours. Just say no. I think it should still mount the iPod though and let you navigate the songs on it. If it does, go to Music and look at the Kind column for any Protected AAC audio files. They're ones which were bought on iTunes. If you do a Get Info on that song (rightclick and choose Get Info), the summary tab should tell you the name of the person and the email address that they use on iTunes. Last idea is to go to Extras and then Contacts and see if they use that functionality and call/text/email someone on the list?

I know some Yanks who watch the FA Cup final and some Brits who watch the Super Bowl - both are considered slightly mad by their respective countrymen but are happy. At least the Brits have the advantage that the game starts late so they can at least have a few socially acceptable beers. The Californians I know end up watching the game at 7am which doesn't work quite so well for having a party around. Coffee and muffin anyone? ;-)

Not sure. I don't fancy walking to Chelsea and back from the Horniman area if the pavements/roads are in the same state as they are today. Do-able if it was life and death, otherwise not. I was supposed to be out of the office tomorrow in any case at a conference which has since been cancelled due to the weather so had sent some work home to do in case it finished early. I've got a few things that I can work on at home - performance reviews, initial specifications that I need to think through so as long as I can log into work remotely every so often to check my mail, then I may not attempt the commute. So it might be a snow day in terms of not making it to the office, but I'll still try for the 'professional' actually doing some work. And my boss has already been in touch telling me not to stress about hiking in for the sake of it.