Huguenot

Naughty fisker.. you know it only ends up in tit for tat fisking and threads full of junk that are no pleasure to read ;-) Please don't rise to the bait...

I don't know how people manage to create and sustain this myth of the orient. There's nothing particularly western about materialism, acquisitiveness, tyranny and spite. There's nothing particularly eastern about mystical healing powers making blind men see again. A lack of economic resource has more recently left sizeable numbers of people sitting round all day with nothing to do in the east rather than the west, and the west suffered less recently with military superpowers trying to keep us stoned into acquiesence under threat of artillery attacks. Nothing to do with pointy beards and pictograms. Get a flight (or a train) and go see for yourself. It's shockingly 'real'.

Hmmm, best we keep you guys in ED, by all accounts you're a bit of a liability when you slip the leash What a week... :D

Aha! A faith based philosophy traced back to a messiah from a far off land... whilst ultimately sourced from the stars we are fortunate that there is a 'book' detailing knowledge otherwise lost to mankind. We are lucky to have both apostles and gospels. There are 'versions' and 'translations' and open to 'interpretation' but not unlike the treaties of Nicea they are currently being rewritten to meet the needs of the modern world...

The herbology stuff's quite interesting - to poo poo 'western' pharmacology is also to poo poo 'eastern' herbology and funky chinese teas. Aspirin is after all derived from willow bark. etc. etc. Cannabis - pharmacology, herbology or mysticism (never did much for me)? When I was in my early teens there was a geriatric local vicar who used to lay his and on my head and bless me as a replacement for the sacrament - as I hadn't undergone the necessary rituals for a glass of plonk. Wow, amazing feeling! Nothing ever got me closer to going all religious - isn't that something to do with chakra?

Reiki's only a hundred years old - it's a bit rich to lay claim to thousands of years of effectiveness. Drawing parallels with eastern medicine as a definition of merit is a little tenuous, unless you support powdered tiger tonker as a cure for brewer's droop, or bleeding bile from a live bear's gall bladder as a cure for insect bites. Yuck eh? Mind you, I believe in the power of positive thinking - there's no better faith-based cure around!

With that in mind, thought this was fun

Are there any places that sell burgers that don't use frozen buns? I hate that sort of cotton wool crap that cleaves to the roof of your mouth. Bumbalina, I might add, things that the crappy frozen buns are the best. Canadians huh.

I'm guessing our dear cloak actually wants to be friends, but doesn't want to appear vulnerable as underneath he's quite shy and anxious. Hence his cloak. ;-) He has produced a burger recipe as a kind of votive-offering? The random Keef insult came in the wake of two '*yawns*' on other threads, and a request for information on football so long as we only talked about what he wanted to talk about. He probably regrets it now, but thinks backing down is a sign of weakness and has decided to escalate instead, as that seemed to work when his mum told him off as a kid. It's all kind of attention-seeking stuff, he just needs a cuddle really. Come on, cloakie, tell us a joke (but not a nasty one):))

A rather bizarre late night insult - I'm guessing they may know each other?

Can you guys remind me what your monikers are on isc? I've scrambled my way to to 588 and I'm ready for the quickening...

*plenty of love*

*pffffft* *glances around, coughs, and studies colleagues* *glad to be back, but....*

Nope. I've been running with a manbag for decades. I may even *sniff* lay claim to ownership of concept. *scratches thigh* harumph. I have 6 to7 white stuff items, and I'm still lovely

Love and hugs to all, especially Louisa. A special Singa Sling to you xx What would you guys do without me? ;-) Paleontologist, we all know why you have one BIG ski...

Perhaps negative reactions to White Stuff seem to be inconsistent with the other stated views of the critics because we haven't yet hit the nail on the head? I reckon a lot of the dislike stems not from the store, the clothing, the success or the owners, but simply a perception of the kind of people who shop there. White Stuff kinda reminds us of young wealthy people who take two ski holidays a year. From their own point of view, despite reaching their late twenties and early thirties these customers still dress like students because they like to perceive themselves as young, fun and active. Their clobber reminds them that despite their age and responsibilities they can still have an open mind, and still be happy and carefree from time to time. They swap jobs at will, move home to experience new things, recognise their own value, and earn well by generating wealth for others... For outsiders looking in these guys look irresponsible and spoilt. Their unwillingness to succumb to the depression of the daily grind is seen as arrogant stupity. Their quest for new experiences and new environments is perceived as putting two fingers up at those people for whom the local community is the foundation of their life. Their apparent wealth is twisted through the lens of envy to a mental handicap... "they have more money than sense". Worse, their apparent 'quick victories' implicitly question the strategies of those who have invested a lifetime of toil and hardship (and scrabbling to make ends meet) only to emerge at the end in a changed world, and to find the life they worked for - sing-songs around the ol' joanna in a quiet retirement - no longer exists. It feels 'stolen' from them by 'the others'. Hence when these young wealthy types have a bit of fun with their marketing, it's seen as rubbing the noses of the 'outsiders' in the dirt - even when it's not intended. So is it really White Stuff that's resented, or the lifestyle and freedom they represent?

*Glances around the room* *Bloody time zones, I'm ready to party and you guys aren't even out of bed* *Trips over trailing root and splashes into the apron of the mango swamp* *Okay, well for those of you who've asked, I dropped another note onto the blog, and I promise to do three a week from now on. I've let you down, and I will try harder!* *Leaves bottle of Baijiu on the table with a note for passersby: serve in 25ml shot glasses at high velocity until prone position is obtained* *notes there is a down side...*

Well I imagined than Don Pablito had been mickey-taking at the expense of the White Stuff thread, no? What is the comparison with the gallery next to Willis B - we bought some good stuff from there by some South London artists. Is the Gallery in the same theme - or has it a more limited range? Flooding's gotta be a shocker for a gallery, the stuff would be irreplaceable?

Photo please, you pixies you :D

Fzzzzzzt *left leg clad in Jesus creepers and plus fours appears.... right foot winks in and winks out...* Fzzzzt... click *disembodied voice curses Skype international teleport calls: they may be free but they can't keep a bloody connection* Pfffffft... krk shzz *Singapore Sling appears at waist height, hovers uncertainly then accelerates in the direction of the Afghan at 9.8m per sec per sec* *Damn, now the buggers have got my dr....* Final click and then silence

Nah, they're too old... ;-) I did source some data here, that shows ED to be more 20s/30s than the general population, although a leedle more old folk than Southwark in general. From what I gather most folks in West Dulwich didn't fill in the census because it was 'below' them..... :)

I imagine that the money quota thing wasn't set to irritate or maliciously ticket - but to ensure that traffic wardens don't go and sit in coffee bars all day. It would, after all, be a tremendous opportunity to abuse a job? I don't see that the police control would change matters, unless it gave the general public the chance to complain that the police should focus on 'proper criminals' instead of traffic, and then stop ticketing people who selfishly park in disabled bays, across access ramps or block traffic by double parking on key roads? This is the punishment meted out to them for speed cameras after all? Incidentally I wasn't recommending lynch mobs earlier, but if a guy can do ten star jumps, twenty burpees and read the FT all share page at 60 metres then the blue badge should reviewed. I love the idea of a group called 'they' who are out to steal and harass motorists, as if there is a group of individuals whose very existence is defined by their hatred of the population - no doubt with blood under their fingernails and acid in their saliva. They're really just common or garden bureaucrats like us whose job is to issue tickets to peeps who break motoring law. Sometimes they make mistakes, big deal. They generally don't like grey areas and extenuating cirucmstances because if everything was negotiable all hell would break loose. They have to draw the line somewhere, and as in rugby, just over it is 'out'. Incidentally there's something in there for football players, in whose world so much squealing has taken place that the ball has to be 'fully' over the line before it's out. What silliness - the rules allow for metres of flexibility in the width of the pitch anyway! ;-)

Hi CWALD, my imagination fails me, what actually happened at this non-competitive sports day? Were there races or just jumping up and down?

*Looks sadly around the deserted room* *An owl hoots quietly in the corner and scratches at crumb of toast* *A loose corner of the swimming pool cover flaps gently in the wind, disturbing a convocation of dead leaves gathered on the concrete apron* *A trail of hoofmarks leads out the door surrounded by a constellation of yellowing splashmarks* *A discarded sombrero gathers dust where it was left behind lonely in the dash to the sun* *Is this then how it ends?*

Nah, that's my evil twin! *Glint in eye, youtube on mobile phones....*