Huguenot

When I access the forum home page (not using the back button) it tends to prioritise a version of the page cached on my PC rather the collect an updated one from the server. However, when I access other sites (such as the BBC homepage) it'll take a fresh version as a priority - is this a setting for the site that it might be worth altering? Incidentally, did you ever get any designs for the page headers?

Uurgh.. Laura! "Dulwich does not need to sell itself, the fact it is..." well hopefully not the kinda place where people rap each other on the nose with a pointy finger! Surely the best bit about ED is the charnimg residents? I'll see you crazy kids in any watering hole you care to mention ;-)

Batdog, I love you dearly, but you're beginning to disturb me! I assumed that your earlier excessive use of full stops... was a reflection of your geriatric gasping for breath before the stairlift finally churned its way to the bottom step. But now you've aquired *Bob*'s enthusiasm for inappropriate "quotation" marks. DM's argument that (s)he was nary a student in the heyday of the Penthouse in the early 90s only deserves concern if it exposes Batdog as 50 something to date, and possibly demonstrates that BD was in his 40s all those years ago at the Penthouse when he was surrounded by students scratching at the door of their virginity!! Pervy?? DM I respect the earlobe tweaking you're exercising with the ol' bra quip, but have you considered the potential damage you may be wreaking if BD is massaging his hand against his right knee?

Sure Nutty, I know it - it's probably just joining the list of vacant lots on LL. Currently Hindwoods Hunter Payne are listing one of the Walsh units, the Unwins shop, the old mobile phone shop and even Anterior Trading on North Cross Road as up for grabs. Eliz's is smaller and less flexible than most of those. Some of the proposed rents would require big balls from a local trader to take on - several thousand pounds a month. These can be easy to cover in the medium term as a loss leader for national chains, but that's not economic for nick-nacks unless we've have a massive increase in transient visitors. I don't think Eliz's is big enough for a chain unless it's a pizza delivery place or equivalent.

What about the Constituional Hall/Bowling Green place on East Dulwich Grove (next. to Matham Grove)?

One bed flat went recently for 275,000 - so assuming that a raid on a Sydenham speakeasy could net you the minimum deposit of 13,250, the cheapest mortgage you could get would be a 25 year interest only mortgage still requiring payments of over 1,500 per month. Michael mate, if that's what you're paying for your internet connection I suggest exchanging for two cups, a bit of string and shouting boop boop down it.... ;-)

I bet ten pounds that batdog was wondering if he could make some money out of it.... ;-)

Surely that can only be a source of contentment?

Facebook isn't the same kind of beast as youtube. At core it's a networking site with blogging and photo facilities. It has more in common with myspace. However, it's huge, and since it opened up to the general public only a few months ago, it's anticipated it will grow very quickly. Previously it was a college campus network only, but as such it had a strangle hold over a very attractive audience for advertisers. Despite this fact, rumour had it they were only generating $50m a year in ad revenues (twenty times less than a Yahoo! or a Google). Thus you have a huge commercial opportunity that's currently underperforming - that's takeover gold. Both Yahoo! and Google are painfully aware that they don't have a social relationship with their users, and tend to be perceived as tools. As such they remain very vulnerable to competitors who may generate a technological advantage. Having a networking property locks in their audience by acting as a facilitator for their social life. Such was Yahoo!'s desperation to make the buy that it was rumoured they offered $900m a couple of months ago.

Good heavens, they bring up children in greenhouses?? Grow-bags?? That deserves debate! On a more relevant note I can highly recommend http://www.streetcar.co.uk/ although I suspect I'll regret it because now everyone'll all start using it. On the cherry tree angle... erm... I can't guage your tone... is that boasting? ;-) Is there insufficient damage to the environment from running a car that now we need to take it on with a brutal finality?? Happy New Pedalling Year!

Hee hee. As you stroll around these hallowed grounds you'll discover that in liberated ED cheeky local businessmen offer services to all creeds and colours, and we've even offered the vote to women!!! Outrageous. I think you'd agree that it would be a retrograde step to promote segregation in the community, even if it does increase your chances of pulling. I have yet to identify a particular class of individual interested in my puny physique, or talking about the things I like to talk about, but I can assure you that if I did I'd still reject proposals to open a bar that only welcomed them. Actually, maybe, now I come to think of it... 'The Huguenot Bar' [dream like state ensues]...

Hmm, a quick back of the fag packet calculation suggests that at 80 quid a year it wouldn't be a profitable venture for a council, so it couldn't be a 'lucrative new revenue stream'. There are probably 5,000 bays in total across ED, of which say a quarter might be in vulnerable areas near commercial streets. That would generate 100,000 a year; not enough to fund the workers, vehicles and various overheads needed to enforce the scheme. The point about your parents is fair, but circular; my Dad doesn't find it easy to visit because he can't find a parking space near my house since it's jammed with people who've driven the 150 yards from Uplands Road to Lordship Lane when they can't be arsed to walk! Parking permits would resolve this and I'd be quite happy to pay the tenner to a council who could do this for me. As for the suspension of bays - well this happens because of roadworks etc., and applies whether there was a permit scheme or not. You'd still get towed any which way. I think the main issue is whether parking is for locals, or for visitors. We're probably not going to get the quality of shops and services we'd like if it were only funded by residents, so if we were to move for a permit scheme we'd need to get visitors here another way. That would have to be either uprated public transport (which Camden clearly has), or uprated alternative parking facilities. Maybe we could propose large underground parking facilities as part of any deal for Sainsbury/B&Q at the Champion Hill site?

Good one on the 7.40-ish train, I remember that used to wind me up no end! Two others should be generated from commercial interests: Being a snot-nosed yuppie I'd like to see the return of the EDComedy or another cabaret act, possibly to a modernised Constitutional Hall on East Dulwich Grove. I've never seen that place busy and I'm worried that if it isn't used for something socially popular the planners will allow its migration to accommodation. (Yes, I know it's used for minority sports at the moment but it seems to be elitist and exclusive to no doubt vociferous Daily Mail readers). On the same lines how about upgrading and modernising the Thomas More hall into something that can be used for everything from workshops and art exhibitions by day, to entertainment by night (ED Cinema Paradiso???). Finally I'd like to see North Cross Road pedestrianised on Saturdays and an expansion of the market. I think the argument that it would damage other local businesses is a bit daft - I'd be astounded to meet a local trader near another market venue who would argue for the market to be shut down: it would decimate local traffic and destroy their business. It's clear that ED already has a reputation for quirky arts and crafts, and bringing more money into the area from the liberal kind-a-crowd that enjoy arts and crafts and organic foods would benefit both traders with their revenue and locals with increased and better funded services. Despite the sometimes violent campaign against parking restrictions on Lordship Lane there is every evidence that this modern tranport planning has driven commercial and transport benefits to all locals. We should try not to be so reactionary: well-planned change is rarely bad and generates great energy and desire to succeed.

Why don't you try calling this lady...? Nancy Wells, Community Involvement and Development Co-ordinator for East Dulwich and Champion Hill estates. Address: 1 Felbridge House, Quorn Road SE22 8BY 020 7978 9462; [email protected]

Didn't we actually have someone on here before from the leasing agents confirming that White Stuff had signed the contracts for two of the Walsh units? Incidentally I quite like White Stuff clothes and I'm confused how I could find them dull unless I were a Vivienne Westwood / Bjork hybrid - don't most people wear jeans and t-shirts most of the time? Is that what's dull? It seems to me that we're projecting a particular kind of customer on them against whom we have a deep-seated and rather unpleasant prejudice. In practice I'd bet we'd find a remarkable cross-over between M&S and WS customers. If any brand was to reflect dull middle-class snobbery I think M&S would be in the running. However, I like them too - they do great food. Is there going to be a store underneath those new flats opposite the station?

Is this where Batdog is justifiably offended, and then where Quaywe raises his hands and says 'what me, I didn't say nuffin'??

Are you his nephew? Robert Elms likes Spandau Ballet and speaks Spanish. He cannot be trusted. There is a wet fish van that rocks up on North Cross Road on a weekly basis. There is also a superb fish shop in Nunhead. Haddock surprise is a brilliant dish, it involves being sent out to buy halibut and well, you know...

On another note, how can we go off topic on a Kiwi soapbox? Surely it's all about pointing at the man with the funny hair whilst we slap our shoulders for our rationality? One should never throw tomatoes with righteousness, that way goes David Koresh. Talking tomatoes, my problems this year were that they were too small and my girlfriend proved how sweet they were by eating them all. Quaywe, what solution do you propose?

I love Quaywe, it took me a day to work out your name... kway-wer, kewie-yoooer... I smunkle daily that you still sign off as Kiwi to ensure that we recognise the wit ;-) Georgia, that was naughty. We use humour to blunt the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. It doesn't mean that we don't care. I'm going to tell your mum.

Uplands Cafe is on Uplands Road just along from the Uplands Pub... What else have we got - there's that one a couple of doors down from The Green on the north side of East Dulwich Road, and one 50 yards further east on the south side of the road. There's the one almost next door to Sea Cow, and the one next to Apollo video. What about the one sort of opposite the station? They should give them names...? ;-) Does Blue Mountain count if this is about a fry up - I like their Full Monty?

EDKiwi, as an outsider who has come to understand and love our highly inclusive and class-mobile society, what insight can you offer us on the scandal of Princess Di and the extermination of the Dodo?

Well I originally acquired mine for a second class stamp with a picture of Loughborough on it, and I've just been offered a whole mule and an arse in part exchange. They didn't have a box for the arse though. Bah humbug.

Sorry, just realised I wasn't clear - the second location for the Waverley project would be the site you're referring to.

That's a massive one, check out this recent link... http://education.independent.co.uk/schools/article324225.ece . Seems to be a bit of a row over who's going to fund it. With ED as a putative independent secular state I support EDEN's campaign to keep out the god-botherers, but the alternative as a City Academy experimental school isn't particularly attractive. Surely in the meantime we can turn it into a battery chicken pen of over-priced yuppie flats, and then let cowled 14 year old youths with no school to go to prowl the streets with blades and relieve them of their wallets? Share the wealth, learn a trade and all that? Yes yes, I know that I too am arriviste.

Have they been eating cake again? It's not nutritious and there's always the threat of type 2 diabetes, do they need to make work for themselves these days?