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A few friends of mine and myself conducted a little unofficial study on being ignored by staff in a local wine shop/ eatery that has now changed hands three times. The time taken to be acknowledged seemed to be related to gender and age in the main...there were other factors. There was also a marked difference to attitudes to retuning wine that we said was ?off? or ?corked?, not part of the study, but three of us used the place to buy wine and we all had returned a bad bottle.

Speckled wood butterfly in the garden today...nice.

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Hot air balloon in ED? I used to crew for a private pilot....so very unusual for one to fly ?in town?.

Maybe JAGs has changed, but I was a member a while back and the early mornings were very restrictive for lane swimming. It was also the same price as a place I used to go to when working at the Royal Brompton in pricey Chelsea, but at the Chelsea gym you got a towel, lovely changing rooms and could swim anytime, so I left JAGs in the end as the pool was unavailable when I could go and it didn?t offer enough for the price. I liked the pool though, so if it has changed I might try again.

I love the lido, but didn?t really get on with the women?s facilities- changing area and lockers. Found it difficult for me. Also gets a bit crazy, busy in the Summer and slightly too far for a daily 20 min swim, but it is a fantastic local spot and I?m glad it?s open and thriving. Dulwich is working out fine, so thank you everyone for your comments and help.

Thanks FightingFit. Do you think I should write a letter? If so, do you have any suggestions on the wording and how to frame my concern? Should I grade the sourness from 1-10? I would appreciate further intellectual advice.

Change to another bank. I?m in the process of changing to a smaller bank and leaving one of the internationals. Just so bored of waiting over 30 mins while listening to rubbish music to speak to a customer service provider, getting constant requests to update info to tackle ?fraud? and was convinced to pay for PPI by the same organisation to get a mortgage 25 years ago (I claimed it back but they didn?t give my money back without a bit of a struggle). So after 30 years I?ll take my business elsewhere.

I do like a Peckham Rye loaf, buy one about once a week, but today it was not the same. Usually nutty, chewy, yummy. Today very, very sour tasting (more San Francisco sourdough)and a bit unpleasant. Is this a one off? Changed recipe? Warm weather doing something funny on the starter? I do realise it is a sourdough loaf, but not normally this sour.

2 quid a day..I?ll take that 😀

Thanks both. I?ll pop down there and join if cheap enough. Ta

I would like to swim every morning at Dulwich Leisure Centre, I used to go, but noticed that the cleaning, showers, pool were all becoming dirtier. Is it better now and can you just pay for a swim deal with them or do you have to pay for swim and gym. Thank you for any feedback in advance.

The blood donor service (NHS blood and transplant) sells donated blood to NHS Trusts, all part of the internal market, so it has to be able to fund itself within the budget given by the DOH. Walk in clinics are expensive and seen as inefficient, the NHS spend about 300 million a year buying blood products, so the NHSBT is tasked with reducing the cost of each unit. Personally for me the internal market in the NHS just didn?t work and patients, donors, health professionals all think walk in is great and convenient, but it does come with a cost.

Yea...that?s great. How lovely, I will keep an eye out for them again. Thank you both.

If it is a rented property inform the landlord. I had a few issues last summer and me and three other neighbours complained every time there was an issue (I won?t go into details but some of it was pretty awful, we had approached them directly, but they were vocally aggressive). They are still renting the property but are now reasonable.

I?m pretty certain I saw a pair of blackcaps in the garden yesterday. There was definitely some crazy birdsong. Has anyone else seen blackcaps in ED? It was a pale grey with a black head, the other I couldn?t see clearly and had a sort of uppy-downy song. They were in a tree flitting around and then both flew off. If not blackcaps any suggestions.

Yes - please post address as soon as someone knows it. Simon, Simon?s dog and the paint were all lovely. So sad he has moved.

There are other ways to manage trees and leaf-fall. Coppicing for example. Chopping mature trees down is the cheaper option rather than the yearly management of trees. The trees and shrubs on rail sidings act as a wide life corridor in towns and cities.

? Baby rat, I think mice have larger ears and smaller feet.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/29/millions-of-trees-at-risk-in-secretive-network-rail-felling-programme?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

One case reported ITV - http://www.itv.com/news/2018-04-11/windrush-generation-nhs-worker-lost-job-and-faces-deportation-despite-living-in-the-uk-for-more-than-50-years/ An NHS worker who has lived in the UK for almost her entire life says her rights are under threat as she was unable to provide the Home Office with the right immigration papers. Glenda Caesar, from Hackney, was part of the 'Windrush Generation' when she travelled from Dominca to the UK with her parents at just six months old. Despite living and working in the UK for more than 50 years, Ms Caesar lost her job of 16 years with the NHS as she was unable to provide the right documentation. Without any right to work, she is also prohibited from claiming benefits meaning she has to rely on family members to provide for her. Ms Caesar said: "I'm unable to work, I'm unable to get benefits. If I go to Dominica there is no there's no coming back for me. "The hardest bit is where I've been so used to working, where I looked after me and my family, I have to rely on others now." She is one of thousands of Caribbean immigrants that arrived in the UK before 1971 who are undocumented and could be denied benefits and NHS services, the Caribbean Commonwealth High Commissioners said in a statement. They are calling on the government to resolve the uncertainty over the status of people who arrived in the UK before the 1971 Immigrant Act.

The Trust would never divulge private information about individual workers to the workforce so I do not know what happened to staff unable to prove their right to work. I think a UK or EU drivers license plus other documentation was also accepted, there is a list produced by the NHS as part of the prevention of illegal working. The NHS bought in these ID checks from June 2014 as a right to work check and as there have been published cases of Windrush generation individuals losing their employment due to lack of documentation proving British Citizenship or their right to work, it?s possible that the NHS has dissmissed individuals caught up in this mess, but I don?t have that data.

When I worked at a Healthcare Trust not too far away, we were all asked (I think around 2014/2015) to bring in a passport or a birth certificate to be photocopied by Human Resources if we had been employed pre-2010 (I think that was the year). We were told it was for security reasons. If we didn?t do this we were informed that action would be taken. Staff employed by private contracted companies were not involved. It?s interesting that a passport is now the new ?ID? card. It seems we have to have an ID card to be British and to vote now. Also the comments about children of the Windrush generation who came over with their parents being responsible for getting a British passport and ?refusing? to take this up is a strange comment. They arrived as young children with their parents who were asked by the British Goverment to rebuild Britain after WW2 and they are British nationals as they came from British territories.

Someone far more eloquent than me. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/21/tory-windrush-scandal-theresa-may-derek-laud?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Garlic chives are also a nice alternative for the garden or a window box. Tasty leaves and flowers - just sow a packet of seeds. They grow back every year.