P.O.U.S.theWonderCat

This made me very teary. Sorry for your loss xxx

Average price per window?

Removing the fence and replacing it with something that gives too much to provide a satisfying rebound or even something that might puncture the ball is not a bad idea - assuming you own the fence. And for what it's worth, I think mynamehere was making an ill-judged but innocent attempt to make the point that the only thing you really can control is your response to this. As someone who has been made so miserable by neighbours that I nearly moved to deal with it, and having had the ball-kicking hell as well, I do empathise, but you also need to be wary of how this trauma affects your outlook. The fact that you are anticipating being accused of making trouble by your other neighbours before you've engaged with them points to this situation potentially making you assume the worst of avenues of action.

Tangental to the bin raiding threads, has anyone else had an upsurge in people dumping rubbish in their front garden? Admittedly mine appears to be worse when I'm storing boxes out the front or have building rubbish there, so people just seem to assume it's their own personal dump, but it happens even if it's spotless. Do external CCTV cameras work to deter?

I'm struggling to believe I am still arguing about this. I'm beginning to wonder if you work for Southern's PR department. A con does involve a deception. Southern continue to hold up the compensation as a method of accountability, but when the rules mean that a large chunk of their customer base are disauded from applying for compensation owing to, inter alia, the circumnstances I described above, that representation is misleading and therefore deceptive. And thank you for going to the trouble of bolding the words "train journeys" but in doing so you are demonstrating that you misunderstood my point. I have paid for a train ticket. Thanks to Southern's poor service, I can only get compensation for the ticket I have paid for if I'm prepared to wait risk waiting more than 2 hours to get home. I am being put into a position where the diminishing odds of my trains running at all mean I have to suffer the loss of the train fare if I want some certainty of getting home within 4 times the usual commute. I am not suggesting that any company does or should offer compensation for a service that I have not chosen to pay for, so please use take your straw man elsewhere. You may not mean to be patronising, but you're doing an excellent impression of it.

Otta, sneer all you like, but the abuse I've been dealth with because of lazy stereotypes and assumptions made by people because of where I work has been genuinely nasty and upsetting. Snobbery is lazy, bigotted and repellant no matter who is the target.

Oh, I agree that 30 minutes is completely > unsuitable for defining delays on suburban > commuter journeys, but it is what we're stuck with > and everyone knows in advance what the criteria > are. That's why I don't see it as a con. Sorry, just saw this. I can only assume that you are equating a con with lack of foresight. That is a very limited definition by any modern standard. Any system that purports to compensation passengers for their losses and to hold train companies to account which fails to do so because neither of those things occur without people being prepared to stand around and lose yet another hour of their day to a horrendous commute is, manifestly, a con.

@ Cardelia. Say my train leaves at 6:00pm. If it runs, I get to my home station at 6:15pm. If it gets cancelled and I look for an alternative immediately, I should be able to get home by around 6:50pm. I'm forced to wait for the next train scheduled to leave at 6:29pm, and it leaves on time, I get home by 6:44pm, so waiting around seems the better option in theory. However, if the train is delayed by more than 15mins (which happens most of the time these days), I get home later than if I'd cut my losses at 6:00pm and if it is cancelled (which is alarmingly frequent as well), I get home nearly 2 hours later than when I should have left the station. The reason it is a con is that most people I have spoken to no longer have any faith that waiting for the next scheduled train will leave on time, or at all for that matter. They would prefer to lose the chance of compensation and get home quickly rather than wait around for 30 minutes only to get screwed over again. A friend who used to work for a different train company said they are well aware of it. Hence the train companies get away with murder. The same friend told me the comp is paid by the government.

" Yes yes I know rules are rules and all that crap, but no harm would ever come of that particular situation; no one was gunning it through the lights or anything." It's this attitude that fosters dangerous road use by both vehicles and cycles. Rules are rules. End of.

Agreed on Fosse - and you can get them at The Butchery in Forest Hill

Anyway, I actually came on to post this: https://s10.postimg.org/7edgxyt4p/image.jpg

What Jeremy said. There's some appalling snobbery on this thread.

We should be able to claim that every morning with the sardine tin I normally face.

@Cardelia, except that that means that I have to wait around for another 30 minutes only to be told that they next train has been delayed or cancelled, when otherwise I can just go and find some other way home and get home in 1 hour rather than 2. Besides, the TOCs don't pay the comp, so I'm not convinced they care.

Very impressed with Aston. He fitted my job in at short notice, and did a very thorough professional job for less than what well-reviewed handyman on this forum have quoted in the past. He also gave me some honest advice on how I could have other work done more cheaply rather than taking advantage for himself. And he was a nice chap! Having been let down by several other handyman from this forum, I'll definitely be getting Aston back next time.

messageRe: Loud garden party new Posted by Louisa Today, 03:49PM There's just no excuse for it. And I hate to sound like a broken record, but certain young incomers seem to be the main culprits. I don't think the age or the length of residency has anything to do with it. The most antisocial pains in the arse in our block have been here for a long time, some younger and some older.

Andy didn't bother sending me a quote after spending a considerable amount time arranging to get him around and talking him through the options. He also made a couple of comments that took me quite aback. I was very disappointed as he'd seemed a really nice guy and I'd invseted so much time trying to book him!

I still think everyone on your block having one or two late night parties a year is not that much. Having said that, the law means that you can't have loud noise after 11pm and, if you didn't get any warning of the party, I'd definitely be knocking on doors in your position. I just wish the law protected me from look-at-me parents and out of control kids, but apparently little treasures running up and down uncarpeted floors from 6am doesn't count as noise pollution. :( I hate summer.

It would depend on frequency to me. If it was once or twice a year and they warned me first, I'd be fine with it. I find it more irritating when one of my neighbours have loud gatherings during the day most weekend during summer. It might not break the law in the same way a late night party does, but it does mean I never get to enjoy my garden without braying hipsters and screaming kiddies each summer. Respect is a two-way street, and it also means respecting someone's rights to enjoy their own space within reason.

Have you sought legal advice about this? If not, let me know and I'll see if I can find a recommendation for someone to speak to.

The 30 minutes point is a bit of a con IMO. If your train is cancelled, your train is cancelled. The fact that an entirely different train might be leaving on time within 30 minutes should be neither here nor there - particularly given 9 out of 10 times the later trains are being delayed or cancelled too. I had an argument about this with a Southern operative who in the end conceded that a train that is cancelled is by definition more than 30 minutes late, but have given up claiming dosh back these days.

messageRe: Man searching through wheelie bins this morning new Posted by VOXPOP Today, 08:30AM Don't put stuff people might actually want to re-use in the bin. Leave the shoes (or whatever) on your front wall with a note saying 'please take' if no one has within a day, put them in the bin or take them to a charity shop or offer them on free cycle... (not directed at you, dirac!) What, and risk the curtain-twitchers complain about how you're ruining the neighbourhood? http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,1705761

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/15/rail-minister-claire-perry-resigns

Why aren't you using the government petition website?

Oh look! The first post on this thread by someone with more than 10 posts. Most of these have very similar language and are written by first time posters, so I was beginning to get very suss.