rendelharris

Yes I saw that, I had a look today inspired by your excellent article but couldn't find a picture of the AH. Brought back memories of my grandparents (well grandmothers, the grandfathers were overseas) talking of the fear of hearing the engines cut and wondering if it was coming down on them...gives life some perspective, like the poor widowers in your piece. Being a grumbler I'd say it's notable how our ancestors had their pubs blown to smithereens and rebuilt them as soon as possible, whereas now big business just closes them down and nothing's done; a comparison of how many pubs were destroyed by the Luftwaffe in the forties and how many we've lost in the last two decades would be interesting...

You are the absolute mutt's nuts, apb - the Daily Mail in human form. Most amusing. You must be doing it for fun though, you know, like your post blaming foreign aid for the leaves not being swept? You can't really be serious?

Is that film available online anywhere b-n?

Georgian and early Victorian biographers did not hold themselves to the standards of modern biography, possibly because there wasn't an army of crabbed keyboard critics hovering waiting to pick any conceivable nit available. Nobody's claiming to know the exact location of Blake's vision, does the fact that for convenience people use the modern location of Peckham Rye as a convenient spot to celebrate Blake invalidate the story? Not really. If you look at this 1766 map http://maps.southwark.gov.uk/connect/Includes/Historical%20map%20scans/200dpi/John%20Rocques%20A%20Plan%20of%20London%201766.pdf, almost exactly contemporary to the Blake story, although Peckham Rye does indeed lie where you suggest, Peckham Rye Common lies pretty much exactly where modern day Peckham Rye lies, at the end of the road which runs east from Goose Green. Perhaps Blake mixed up the areas when telling the story later in life, who knows. Who cares, quite frankly, it's a nice story about one of our greatest poets with a local connection (and I take it you don't dispute at least that he used to walk round here?).

"On Peckham Rye (by Dulwich Hill) it is, as he will in after years relate, that while quite a child, of eight or ten perhaps, he has his " first vision." Sauntering along, the boy looks up and sees a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars. Re- turned home he relates the incident, and only through his mother's intercession escapes a thrashing from his honest father, for telling a lie." Apart from that. You may say no reliable evidence, you may say no direct evidence, you may not say no evidence. The "in after years relate" clearly implies he told this story to people who told it to his biographer.

I've tried several - Kobo, Nook and Kindle on iPad - and for me the Kindle Paperwhite wins hands down, robust, lovely text (no eyestrain after reading all day) and the backlight is a Godsend for those with different working hours to their partners - no more arguments about leaving the reading light on! The amount of classics available free is staggering, basically anything good that's out of copyright you can get. One little known feature is that you can "lend" Kindle books, once you've read it you can let a friend read it on their account for, I think, up to three weeks, in which time it's disabled on your account. Not available on all titles but a good feature.

So no evidence apart from the evidence of his contemporaries as told to his first biographer. Blake claimed to have had visions of angels etc throughout his life - he was certainly having them when he worked in Westminster Abbey at the age of fourteen - so it's perfectly possible the story's true. And if it isn't it ought to be. Brideshead Revisited (from memory so apologies if inaccurate): "You believe in the ox and the ass and the stable and all that?" "Oh yes, that's a lovely idea." "But Sebastian, you can't believe in something simply because it's a lovely idea." "Yes I can, that's how I believe."

Great article, cheers - the image of you playing croquet with a caned Womble will linger! Didn't know pints were available from Belair House, definitely one for the summer.

Penguin68 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- And I wish (all) cyclists were as > clear about lights as the rest of us. . Ten minutes observation of driver behaviour at any light controlled junction round here and I think you'd change that to "some of the rest of us."

No route on there but you can create new ones, that's your chance to get to top a leaderboard. Go for it.

Just found a 60 day free trial of Strava premium - it's 3:12 for 45-54's. If anyone wants to know similar stats and hasn't got premium, happy to look them up for you for the next 60 days!

Lozellen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 1:42 Ha! Thanks for the attempt to depress but one can see the leaderboard on Strava, just not the age categories, and the overall leader of all categories is on 2:27... ETA if not having a laugh many thanks but think might have got the wrong place...

apbremer Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Foreign aid ?1BN per month, thrown amongst others > to China and India. Madness. Not only are we now > borrowing to pay the interest on the National Debt > we are even borrowing to give unbounded largesse > to others, much of which is to corrupt regimes. > Road to bankruptcy and ruin. God help our children > as the politicians won't. UK no longer gives direct aid to either India or China. It's not actually them foreigners who are responsible for the leaves not being picked up. Suggest if you want to wail about something then rather wail about the ?7bn p.a. which goes to help the poorest countries in the world (many of who we were instrumental in making poor) you complain about the ?100bn+ of taxes evaded or avoided every year by the richest corporations and individuals.

Again, only going on how we used to react to such reports! I rephrase my last sentence, "Let the school know, they honestly SHOULD thank you for it."

Your truth is not everyone's. Blueskye, apologies for hijacking, I shall leave this alone now - once again the very best of luck and ignore the haters.

You're not really very nice, are you?

Good God. No recommendations I'm afraid but I'd like to take the liberty of wishing you the very best of luck as a counterbalance to the previous. Best thing I ever did, don't know if the Mrs agrees of course...

pop9770 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > rendelharris > > Really every time I've been through EC it's been a > nightmare especially while they were building the > cycle lanes. > > GG roundabout is a shocker though. As I said, since the works were completed...if they rebuild GG roundabout that'll be a 'mare until the works are finished, nature of the beast.

pop9770 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Look at Elephant and Castle what a mess. Since the works have been completed I've found Elephant far better on a bike, in a car and on a bus; ten years ago I'd walk home from Waterloo rather than bother getting a bus that was going through Elephant, it was a proper mess then.

uncleglen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Baron Harris of Peckham is probably very well > aware of what the boys are doing in public- since > he used to be one himself. > Taking schools out of local authority control when > the politics of the council is not the same as > central government is the only way to go impo Yes, I can imagine the lads about to have a tearup on the street corner and saying, "Hang on, we're no longer under local authority control so we'd better not." And Harris Boys Academy East Dulwich is an academy (clue's in the name!) so is already out of local authority control, can't really see your point.

Don't think so, unfortunately - when we did our kitchen at our old flat they took away the units etc but rejected the floor and wall tiles as "builder's waste" so I doubt they'd take rubble.

Henry_17 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Rendel, > > Examples of corporate cosying? https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/28/petrosaudi-tony-blair-emails-oil-company-chinese

But to use your own analogy, Otta, if Harold Shipman offered me medical advice and gave me a prescription now, knowing he's a serial killer I wouldn't take it! Similarly knowing Blair has proved a liar of psychopathic proportions in the past (I'm not using the words lightly, one of the defining characteristics of a psychopath is the inability to accept any version of reality other than his own as true) then I'm not prepared to take what he says now on trust (even though thus far he hasn't really said anything I disagree with - maybe I'm a psychopath too....) Actually it's not the Iraq issue which makes me distrust him in the current debate, it's the fact that he has a track record of cosying up to and giving advantages to (and being paid by) large multinational corporations, and I suspect he's far more interested in what Brexit means for them rather than the person in the street.

JohnL Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > We actually forget how popular he was at the > beginning of > the war - remember those shirt sleeves pulled up > meetings > with troops. > > But then we found out how dodgy his dossier was > ... There were nearly two million of us who marched against him before the war started, the largest ever demonstration in the UK - not that popular!

Hi all, Hope this isn't too cheapskate, but is there any kind person who could look up something on Strava for me please? I'm trying to find out the best cycling time for the College Road Dulwich segment in the 45-54 age category. I've got the free Strava but as that's the only stat I want to know it doesn't really seem worth taking out a whole year's premium sub to find it out! Many thanks, Rendel