susan_

I popped in to Peckham Library earlier today - seemed to have all the normal services operating. I returned books using the self-help machines, browsed throughout the stacks, saw people studying at the little desks, can?t recall if anyone was using a computer. At the entrance to the building there?s a track and trace desk and hand sanitiser station. All in all I was delighted to be back using library service normally (:

I visited Camberwell library on Saturday and it was open, allowing people all the way in - was lovely to Brose and they had boxes to quarantine books that had been touched as well as a cleaner walking around wiping surfaces down. Delighted to see this small return to normal service (:

I?ll email too, not on Twitter. I just went to check the due date of the books I was finally able to collect a couple weeks back and found that 1-not everything I collected is checked out to me 2-two of the books I returned (when i collected) were renewed instead of marked returned....oddly the other 2 I returned were marked returned I too really want to go inside the library and select books, including on a Sunday...for this click-and-collect I only ever choose books that are available at the library I want to collect from...and some of these are still not ready for me six weeks later. Maybe the availability is out of whack? Anyway really missing regular access to my library and ready for it to be as available as other ?shops?

Nope - no fees for click and collect I emailed on Sunday evening and received a call on Monday late morning that my books were ready at Camberwell (as I had requested). I walked over, used the hand sanitizer at the door, dropped off my returns and picked up my books...took all of 2 minutes inside the library (everyone was wearing masks and it was all very clear where to go / what to do) I miss browsing the stacks but a bit of searching the catalogue found me a few grat options and I?m sure the librarians would offer suggestions! (see their website for phone and email https://www.southwark.gov.uk/libraries/order-and-collect)

I?ve been using the app for a couple weeks now (iPhone) and joined a zoom meeting last week to hear some preliminary findings / update from the scientists who run it. It was interesting and I felt happy to be doing something helpful. I really encourage people to download load it from App Store or wherever you get your apps and to log in every day (it takes a minute or less for me). I know they are keen to have more people reporting and have updated the app so that you can add multiple profiles if you wish to report for your whole household. If you search for it ?COVID Symptom Tracker? it?s the top one and the icon is blue with a big C-19 logo.

Cemeteries will be open again from 25 April- see https://www.southwark.gov.uk/births-deaths-marriage-and-citizenship/deaths-funerals-and-cremations/cemeteries

I really don?t want to lose my daily exercise outing but every time I?ve been out since ?guidelines? came into effect I have encountered someone very blatantly ignoring them. I try to be the one to move out of the way and i try to be on the street or grass side so that i have the space to move myself out of the way. so many people seem to consider 1m or less to be 2m. I have no issue stopping or going into the road so I can proactively manage the distancing with anyone coming towards me from in front. The difficulty is with people who come up behind me and overtake at <1m. I shouted ?Come on mate 2m? at a lady runner and two teen runners who did this to me this morning and one of the teens shouted F*** Off back at me. I?ll still try to remind people and to avoid/manage all the encounters proactively but I really don?t see the problem as a tiny minority currently.

The sign I saw today around 3pm indicated the Nunhead cemetery was closed today for a funeral ( only mourners allowed in for the service)....I had presumed from that sign that it would be open again after, but I didn?t think to take a photo of the sign. I?ll post again if tomorrow?s exercise takes me that way again

I walked up to Ruskin Park yesterday and someone had helpful written in chalk on the pavement in multiple places kind reminders of staying 2m distance and little diagrams showing this distance. I don?t have any chalk or I would happily add similar round the Rye... I go out every day for a walk or a run and try to maintain the prescribed distance. It?s worth remembering that we all forget sometimes (I mean it is a dramatic change from normal life in an urban environment!) so I?d be very glad of a (friendly) shouted reminder if I forget momentarily that the world is turned upside down at the moment. At the end of my run today I saw a lady hurrying on her way pass very very close to an elderly lady with her shopping. I wanted to call out some (friendly with a smile) reminder but nothing sprang to mind. Maybe ?2m please! We?re all in this together??

Hi centra95, we haven?t been meeting regularly anymore. I?d love to be part of a knit night again but at the moment am not in a position to try to reinvigorate this one. Our group was simply people coming together with their own crafty projects (knitting, crochet, embroidery, paper piecing, etc) in a welcoming venue to natter and chat. I think this knit night is ongoing if you?re willing to travel a little https://www.yarninthecity.com/knit-night

Oh sorry you?re sick Jen, take care of yourself (: Anyone else?

Hey gang, are people coming out this evening? I?m delayed on my way home from work due to snow so not sure what it?s like in Peckham/ ED.....I don?t want to wander down if no one else is able to come out (: Nb - I have had votes by PM from Cat who is out of town

Looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday (: Here?s the list for our February meeting on the theme historical fiction The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. All the slaves lead a hellish existence, but Cora has it worse than most; she is an outcast even among her fellow Africans and she is approaching womanhood, where it is clear even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a slave recently arrived from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they take the perilous decision to escape to the North. In Whitehead's razor-sharp imagining of the antebellum South, the Underground Railroad has assumed a physical form: a dilapidated box car pulled along subterranean tracks by a steam locomotive, picking up fugitives wherever it can. Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate Based on one of America's most notorious real-life scandals, in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country, Before We Were Yours is a riveting, wrenching and ultimately uplifting tale. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn In an enthralling new historical novel from national bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women?a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947?are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah Hannah's vivid depiction of a struggling family begins as a young father and POW returns from Vietnam, suffering from PTSD. The Allbright family, barely making ends meet in 1974, moves from Seattle to the untamed wilderness of Kaneq, Alaska, to claim a parcel of land left to Ernt by a slain Army buddy.

Happy New Year bookclubbers!!! I?ve just finished the book and looking forward to chatting about it with you all (: on the 22nd.

We were a bijoux group last night and had a good discussion about the Children of Men. We chose Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty for our January read and will meet on 22 January at 7:45 for 8. Tippler menu has been somewhat reduced and the 3for offer is no more...much as I like this venue, if people will be expecting to eat dinner (I do) then we might want to consider alternatives? Let?s chat when we meet in January. I offered to do the February list if anyone else is burning to do it, let me know)

Hi InthePink01, you?re very welcome and that?s correct- we?re meeting on Tuesday 11th at the Tippler, 7:45 for 8 and we are usually up in the front window section

I?m enjoying the book and may follow Kenneth?s lead and watch the film if I have time before Tuesday. I volunteered to do a list and I?ve picked four books from Goodreads Reader Awards (week, one of them is the precursor to a book on the list)... they don?t really shar any other qualities except being picked as great fiction by readers (: Blurbs copied from Google Books Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty The retreat at health and wellness resort Tranquillum House promises total transformation. Nine stressed city dwellers are keen to drop their literal and mental baggage, and absorb the meditative ambience while enjoying their hot stone massages. Watching over them is the resort's director, a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired bodies and minds. These nine perfect strangers have no idea what is about to hit them. With her wit, compassion and uncanny understanding of human behaviour, Liane Moriarty explores the depth of connection that can be formed when people are thrown together in... unconventional circumstances. Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami A thirty-something portrait painter in Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a strange painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna, a pit in the woods behind the artist's home, and an underworld haunted by Double Metaphors. Beartown by Fredrick Beckman Winning a junior ice hockey championship might not mean a lot to the average person, but it means everything to the residents of Beartown, a community slowly being eaten alive by unemployment and the surrounding wilderness. A victory like this would draw national attention to the ailing town: it could attract government funding and an influx of talented athletes who would choose Beartown over the big nearby cities. A victory like this would certainly mean everything to Amat, a short, scrawny teenager who is treated like an outcast everywhere but on the ice; to Kevin, a star player just on the cusp of securing his golden future in the NHL; and to Peter, their dedicated general manager whose own professional hockey career ended in tragedy. At first, it seems like the team might have a shot at fulfilling the dreams of their entire town. But one night at a drunken celebration following a key win, something happens between Kevin and the general manager's daughter--and the next day everything seems to have changed. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected. With so much riding on the success of the team, the line between loyalty and betrayal becomes difficult to discern. At last, it falls to one young man to find the courage to speak the truth that it seems no one else wants to hear. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green The Carls just appeared. Roaming through New York City at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship?like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor?April and her friend, Andy, make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day, April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world?from Beijing to Buenos Aires?and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight. Seizing the opportunity to make her mark on the world, April now has to deal with the consequences her new particular brand of fame has on her relationships, her safety, and her own identity. And all eyes are on April to figure out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us. Compulsively entertaining and powerfully relevant, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing grapples with big themes, including how the social internet is changing fame, rhetoric, and radicalization; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring for the same dehumanization that follows a life in the public eye. The beginning of an exciting fiction career, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a bold and insightful novel of now.

Nice to see you all last night (: Kenneth graciously offered to provide a list for immediate vote for our December book - we will meet on Tuesday 11 December at the usual time 7:45pm for 8... I?m going to do a list for our January book See you soon

Hi everyone, looking forward to our next meet-up on Tuesday 6/11 - pretty sure I won?t have finished the book....Keith uses an awful lot of words...to not say that much.... See you there

Nice to see you all last night! We chose the book ?Life? by Keith Richards for our next read and we?ll meet on Tuesday 6 November at the Tipplers at 7:45 for 8. Hope to see you there! Nb the 3 tapas deal doesn?t seem to be on anymore but there is still a good selection of small plates. Anyone wanting to join us, you are welcome - just read the book and turn up. We usually sit in the front by the windows.

See you all on Tuesday (:

I?ve got it in the diary

Sorry for radio silence- work has been taking too much attention and I?ve been away a ton for work too. I?m going to be away on the last biz trip of this contract until 26th September so if we could delay one week I?ll be there. Hope everyone is well - looking forward to catching up

Update: a very kind friend came round for moral support and we managed to scoop him up. With this heat he was really decomposing quickly and I?m so glad the deed is done.

I reported a dead fox in my garden to the council yesterday and am wondering if anyone has recent experience of how quickly they come to collect? The website (and email confirmation I received) said they operate 7 days a week 9am-4pm....and they aim to collect within four hours of the report. I realise it?s not a guaranteed response time but I?m kind of stuck at home until they turn up - kind of wondering if the Sunday collection is a reality or if I can go out to do my errands. I can?t find any phone number to ring to check where I am in the queue....