BrandNewGuy

wulfhound Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Next up: smokers are actually doing us all a > favour by creating employment for doctors and > nurses who'd otherwise be scrounging benefits on > the dole? Well, it reminds me of one of the criticisms of GDP as a measure of economic wellbing that, for example, crime and its consequences have a positive effect on GDP. I remember vaguely a figure quoted for the avergae 'GDP effect' of a murder. I think it's in the millions.

Solo - some good songs, but mostly meh. Style Council ? the consensus is they were crap. And I agree with the consensus. The Jam ? started off brilliant, went off a bit towards the end. Saw this the other day on Sky Arts and remembered how great The Jam were live:

Il Mirto seems to be doing fine and, according to the SE23 Forum, it's a second branch not a move. Good luck to them. I suspect their rent on that stretch of Melbourne Grove isn't too onerous.

theboycj Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi Cllr James > > Is there an update on what is being done around > the number of burglaries occurring in the East > Dulwich area? There does seem to be an increase > recently But that's just an impression. My impression is that the trend if anything is downward, with a blip caused by one particular gang which was recently identified. > Please do advise if there is an increased police > presence planned? Increased police presence does little to deter burglary ? vigilance and regular secutiry precautions by residents coupled with police intelligence are how burglary is deterred.

Louisa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > So getting back to the old ED Deli site and Molly > Meg/Anorak impending pop-up closure. Do we have > any idea who or what is interested in this site? I > understand an application to extend the retail > space has been submitted? If it is another estate > agents I will give up the will to live. > > Louisa. I still wonder about maybe Costa, given the apparent success of Caffe Nero over the road. I'd be amazed if anything independent could afford that space.

Saw a thread on the forum for Indian Head Massage. Every time I read that phrase, I misread it as African Head Charge.

It was reduced to one lane to allow for that weird 'bay' for nervous cyclists. Not the cyclists' area directly in front of motor vehicles, which makes sense, but some sort of "beginners' pool" sitting next to the rest of the traffic. Get rid of that and the problem's solved.

And it's easy to say that any particular buildings are 'nothing special', but then, bit by bit, they disappear. Then they do become 'special'. It's why we have societies dedicated to 70s and 80s architecture and so on. They don't want to preserve everything, they just don't want it all destroyed because it's 'nothing special'.

Jesus! "... cleanses your uterus..." My knowledge of female anatomy might be sketchy, but really?? No doubt she also uses organic cotton earbuds that detox her brain synapses.

James Barber Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > So what I take from that is that the E-W green > phase was/is proposed to stay the same length of > time but officers designing a new scheme have the > conundrum of how to divvy up the remaining time. > Also a diagonal crossing implies an all green > pedestrian pahse is longer further reducing the > N-S traffic green phase time available. But with the potential build-out of the corners, the distance will be less, improving crossing without adding time to the pedestrian phase.

And nearly all hospitals/property the NHS 'inherited' in the 40s were paid for by churches, philanthropy or public subcription, but that's what happens when you nationalise something. The current dilemma is: 1. Should NHS Property get the best price it can for land that it regards as surplus to its own requirements - therefore benefiting healthcare expenditure? 2. Or should it have a general social remit, such as offering the land for a cheaper price to provide school(s), to the detriment of healthcare expenditure? I'm not sure that's an easy dilemma to solve.

I couldn't make it along to the Dulwich Community Council meeting last night, but we were promised an update on the future of the hospital site. Any news from anyone who attended?

Montpellier is a lively city and less than half an hour from the coast. Most of that south / southwest coast is far less packed and pricey than further east. Great food and wine too. Cheap flights to Montpellier with EasyJet - and Eurostar are soon to start direct (and pretty cheap) services to Avignon nearby.

'Emotional' solo piano in adverts. Minor key and echoey. S'emotional, innit?

It's possible, but as you say, possibly a great tit ? or more likely a coal tit, which is brownish like a blackcap. Although there are blackcaps (particularly Sydenham Woods) locally and they have taken to over-wintering here when they used to migrate south.

But as with some of these proposals, even a CPZ-lite would reduce the area's overall parking capacity, because of the need to clearly mark out bays, yellow lines etc ? that was certainly the case with the defeated CPZ plans. Add to that the fact that the council will happily flog far more permits than there are available spaces and you'll end up where you are now but paying for the privilege.

JohnL Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Isn't the US heading towards self sufficiency ? No. > Maybe they'll lose interest in the Middle East in > future. Fat chance.

FWIW I wrote elsewhere: Are we junkies who hate the pusher but love the drug? Of course King Abdullah was a ghastly and inhumane leader of a corrupt and vicious dynasty, but I wonder if our fawning politicians and royals (and those of dozens of other countries) are, in fact, a lightning rod for our own hypocrisy. Our civilisation could not exist without copious quantities of cheap fossil fuels, not just for transportation, heating and power, but for large-scale agriculture, plastics, fabrics and a multitude of uses for which there are no viable alternatives ? at least not ones which would keep us in the comfort to which we've become accustomed. And, of course, Saudi Arabia is and has been for some time the world's no. 1 oil producer and will be for decades to come. Not only that, but the UK's massive arms sales to Saudi Arabia means tens of thousands of hi-tech ? and ordinary ? jobs in the UK. So the blatant corruption associated with these deals is seen by politicians, however cynically, as smoothing the way to ensure that these jobs and skills are safe. The UK arms industry is responsible for some 22% of world 'defence' exports, employing some 300,000 people here and constituting more than 10% of our manufacturing industry. Yes, it's horrible, but if we have a hopeless addiction to oil, it's not much use complaining that our 'pusher' is a violent and evil crook. And if we rid ourselves of our oil addiction (never mind our reliance on arms sales), we will make ourselves poorer. Are we prepared to accept that?

Mugglesworth Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What were you drinking grace3? Beer starts at > under ?3 a pint (Trumans) in the Ivy House. Yeah, but as you know there are people who happily ignore differences in beer in terms of strength, quality and so on. Like people who see a ?12 bottle of wine and say, "?12?! I can get a bottle of wine for ?4!" The success of the Ivy House tells you all you need to know about how successful a community pub it is, but there are always moaners who'd preferred that it reamined shut.

JimH Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > BrandNewGuy Wrote: > What? Are you being serious? How ridiculous!! Just > because something is labelled as a ?local? or an > ?express? does not necessarily mean that a) it is > local to people who shop there or b) you cannot do > larger shopping trips there. Maybe more limited > shopping trips but you could easily get enough > groceries to warrant a car drive. Add to that the > need to nip to a shop for a last minute ingredient > half way through cooking something, inclement > weather, kids, living halfway down Crystal Palace > road etc then you can see quite a few reasons why > people might drive to A Sainsbury?s local. Of course I'm not being ridiculous. A quick check on Google maps suggests that it takes two minutes to drive from halfway down Crystal Palace Rd to the Sainsburys Local and five minutes to drive to Sainsburys, Dog Kennel Hill with a car park. So, for the sake of those few minutes, people want to park outside Sainsburys Local in a bus lane at everyone else's inconvenience? Thanks.

bawdy-nan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Maybe customers who need to use their cars to shop > (because of the quantity of shopping, for example) > could use the Sainsburys at Dog Kennel Hill, > during peak hours. where there is adequate > parking. Absolutely. I can't imagine why so many people drive to a '... Local' or '.... Express'. They're designed ? and located ? as walk-in, walk-out local convenience shops. Some customers might have mobility issues, but for the majority it's sheer bloody laziness, I suspect.

A friend was working as an agency admin clerk at Tottenham Magistrates Court. He walked through the snow to work, which took him two hours, only to be told that the court was shut and he wouldn't be paid for the day. He told them to stick their f***ing job. He hasn't worked since.

MrBen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Robert Poste's Child Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > That Monday in 2009 was pretty magical. The snow > came from out of nowhere and took everyone by > surprise as nobody had seen any for years.Buses > couldn't get over Denmark Hill and all trains were > cancelled so nobody could get to work...pretty > special when you think about it. I was in Dulwich > Park for that snowball fight and then the pub. But > after the council got their act together and the > other snow days since haven't had that impact. We'd been in the Golden Lion in Camden on the Sunday afternoon, getting sloshed at the Honky Tonkiin' Sunday club. Looked out of the door at about five o'clock and there were a couple of flakes of snow. By eight it was a blizzard. Scarpered home and got one of the last buses to Camberwell before having to walk the rest of the way. So the Monday lunchtime thing was well-deserved.

Louisa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I can't bare people who won't live and let live > over a snow day. After all it's only once in a > blue moon! Some people are just members of the > killjoy police. Retired here so free to look for > bargains, get angry at the world and drink copious > glasses of wine and pints of beer. > > Louisa. There was a terrific Monday "snow day" about six or seven years ago. There was no traffic, so we walked down the middle of the road to the Bishop at lunchtime for a swift pint. By three o'clock it was packed. Ended up spending all afternoon there.

I always smile at "X is costing the economy Y" stories, as the figures quoted are simply plucked out of the air. For instance, killjoys always turn up on TV whenever there's a big 'snow day' to say how much people skiving off are costing the economy. A quick Google reveals quoted figures of ?1.2bn a day, ?500 million a day and, hilariously, ?679 million a day. It's all nonsense. Skiving the odd day does not "cost the economy".