Huguenot

BTW DM, that's a rather peculiar observation earlier - it almosts sounds like you're not helping anyone else's kids, just your own - but they hardly seem to need it (apart from a likely later need for therapy)?? You were, of course, offered the chance earlier in the thread to give my pledge to the local charity of your choice if you don't trust anyone else to do it for you? So please, don't use this as an excuse... HALC are affiliated to Capital Radio, and their terms and application details for grants can be found here http://www.capitalradio.com/Article.asp?id=7024 if you reckon you need some dosh? Maximum request 3,000 quid. They also provide you with details of past donations on request. Similarly you can find details of CIN donations here http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/whoyouhelp/ If you can find anyone in those lists undeserving of your help then let us know, and we'll expose these terrible organisations for the frauds they are....?

Whatever. ;-) Not being the autocratic type I don't feel it critical to push my own enthralling solutions to an evening's entertainment. Nevertheless, there must be some sharp ideas out there for an original pub olympics decathlon? Beetle racing anyone?

Dulwich Mum! So uncharitable! If such a gentle exertion in the name of needy local people is beyond you, then what do you suggest as an alternative? No better way to avoid Lenny Henry than to make ones way (for example) to the cleared back room of the Mag for various sightly pursuits. ::o

I was kinda serious - what are we doing for Comic Reflief? 16th March http://www.rednoseday.com/

Well I've been using it for the best part of the last ten years and I've never noticed a ming as bad as that malodorous funk. It whiffs like some local bad boy has been on a diet of cabbage and lentils and then launched an anti-yuppie dirty protest. Whoever you are.... I'm after you.

Did somebody let one go at ED station on Weds? The pong was still there today and it's making my knees buckle...

I have at least 100 pounds to give to a local charity of their choice if spymum and dulwichmum would resolve their differences in a mudwrestle. Will anyone else support this by pledging cash until it becomes embarassing and irresponsible for the protagonists to turn us down? I note, with some glee, that Comic Relief is fast approaching - and we could (if supporters felt it a positive move) contact them with regards to getting the film crews down to record this moment for posterity. We could also put snorky in the stocks, and have an old-fashioned sing song round the joanna. Go-on, you know it makes sense!!! ;-)

I'm sure a good TV would drive up the value of your house. It's a lifestlye kinda-thing. If you haven't got a 32inch Hi Def LCD then borrow one when you're showing ;-) Back on topic?

Perhaps we could start a petition for La Porchetta - only 4 of them, so they have experience, but not as a chain. http://www.laporchetta.co.uk/top.htm The Stinco di Porco is without doubt the food of the gods.

I like smoking. I know it's wrong. We all know my days of freedom are numbered, I just don't think it's good manners to dance on the platform as I wave my hanky. You'll all get your own way in five months; I can only beg you to save your crowing until you are happily dining on the cadaver of my social life.

Bet you didn't ;-)

Okay, I was only taking the p**s anyway ;-)

Jamie, I've a spare telly you can have?

Watch out all you crazy modern ladies... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6318043.stm You're turning your little boys into little girls. Which isn't to say that I wouldn't have enjoyed it myself ;-)

Jamie, I don't think you'd have to take on something that involves such an unworkable personal commitment to restructure the housing market. The easiest solution would be to ban multiple home ownership. The only problem with the housing crash that would immediately follow would be the the complete collapse of our economy, mass unemployment, riots, starvation and the end of society as we know it. Irritating, but not necessarily a bad thing. Just warn me first so I can go somewhere else? :))

Aha! Snorky - cracks in the veneer. For a man who thinks shoes should cost 20 quid, you're displaying worrying signs of food snobbery. How do you know the price of a Guardian Weekend (or even its name)? Perhaps this grizzled working class hero sups bucks fizz at Davy's of a lunchtime? Long have I suspected that your campaign to clear ED of arrivistes is merely to clear the field for a rampaging property empire of your very own... ;-)

Hi Ibo 1. Young working class (WC) kids being 'priced out' of the area is driven by wider social change. There is no heavy industry within ED - commuter roles that young adults now take are all white-collar service industry and middle-class. If these original WC kids are underqualified then they have to leave to find low-paid unskilled work. That's migration, not being forced out. If these WC kids get qualifications then they end up middle-class. They'd get a better paid job and they'd still be local, but middle class, so you'd probably dislike them anyway. However, I think you recommended earlier that education was a bad thing. It's the working classes that are disappearing, as they decide that white-collar work is slightly more fulfilling than spending 40 years in a car indicator light factory. We can't forget that the wonderful working-class solidarity we speak so fondly of was generated by a shared experience of breadline jobs, poverty, malnutrition, neglected environment and disease. They still have these in China, and I can assure you that the working class culture is still going strong there, along with sing-songs, organised crime and corruption etc. etc. 2. I watched WC ED long-term locals cash in equity in their spiralling house value to buy more cars, whilst many more insightful newer residents were too concerned about environmental issues or too skint to do the same themselves. 3. I'm sure there's the odd wally in all of the parts of the community, but sweeping comments inappropriately attacking vast groups of people is inflammatory and designed to create tribal conflict. It's a dark dark world if people believe that stirring sectarian hatred is a worthy investment of their time. 4. This part of your argument is inconsistent: you can't criticise 'rich newcomers' for investing into the area in a way that you perceive to be damaging, and then complain that they haven't invested in roads where longer-term residents live. By your logic if 'they' did invest in these street then 'they' would ruin them.... That aside, this is borderline paranoid - there is no conspiracy (or even dialogue) of nouveau riche plotting to develop their own streets and neglect the others. Painting one's own house every couple of years costs the same as a couple of pints. Councils invest disproportionately on poorer more run-down streets (like Marsden). If you want them to develop these streets then go to the community meetings.

I suspect Marquis de Sade would be a better point of reference for yourself, my dear ratdog ;-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_De_Sade linguistic, licentious..... [involuntary shudder] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/licentious

24th is good for me Will there be enough room to swing the cat at BC?

Damn. Did they overcharge?

That sounds glorious! Can I be high priest? I hereby renounce the idea of a secular state and propose the elevation of a blobwivwadocracy. How cursed we were before this moment of revelation, this epiphany, this... etc. etc.

I think there was a gloriously overpriced antiques store there.... ;-)

I believe the running shop on Grove Vale also does bikes. They seem to be a bit closer to the enthusiast end, rather than amateur though...

A miranet is a highly reflective device for catching image-conscious fish. They're very effective in our subterranean ED streams. A primping stickleback will risk everything to snatch a quick glimpse of himself.

You never know, it may be a gay kitchenware shop... ::o