ponderwoman

Be warned, I have a MPV and the rules are now that if you take the seats out, or even fold them down to avoid getting you garden/house rubbish over them then you will have to apply for a trade waste permit. Bonkers excessive interpretation of the rules to prevent trade dumping. You would hope they could allow some leeway if they felt you were not trade, but that probably depends on what mood they are in. Sometimes extra helpful, sometimes extra grumpy.

Feeling bad for 3 weeks is dreadful. A McTimony chiropractor (but not local) adjusts my neck vertebra and my headaches stop. I need this done perhaps twice a year, but it is bliss being migraine free. I try all the other suggestions first, so visit the chiro as a last resort. Good luck.

A driver from the company with the franchise for hospital transport told me (in 2012) they were charging the NHS ?300 for the 10 minute trip from KCH to Dulwich. This carried just my mother in a 10 seater transporter from and to Dulwich- ie ?600 for the round trip. The driver was told not to take one of her neighbours from the same road, as they would be charging that journey on a separate bill, thus leaving exhausted sick people hanging around the transport waiting room. We never used the transport service again. Also it would only have cost ?30 for a cab. This company has the franchise for several hospitals. At another hospital they are installing 20 Dyson 50 watt led uplighters at ?1000 each to light up a ceiling that they have just painted black. A tiny glimpse at NHS costs before healthcare begins.

Well folks, your perseverance may have paid off. There's me thinking a fence will never work, they'll just lob it over the top which will make extracting rubbish more difficult. However, the 8' fence going up will be a bit of a challenge - all they have to do now is electrify it. Place your bets on the new location for society's unwanted crud.

You may find this is privately owned ( it is quite elderly for commercial use). Perhaps someone is planning ahead for Glastonbury next year.................

Its worth dialling 1471 to see if their number is available then report it to TalkTalk (tedious) who will follow it up and block it. If you are a TalkTalk customer then ask for the code so you can block the last number you received even if it is a withheld number, I've blocked 9 of these calls. The scammers all have my account number but are otherwise rubbish at their job and get rapidly crabby, demanding to know why I am wasting their time when they realise I have moved on to messing with them. Pointing out it was them who phoned me doesn't cheer them up. cheers me up as my challenge for the day to see how long I can divert them from more vulnerable prey.

Try The Fox Project they have a 24 hour recorded helpline 01892 826222. Their aims are to help you solve your problem, with additionally a solution for the foxes. Never used them but hope they give more than lip service to their aspirations. Good luck.

DaveR are you really trying to suggest that LL is being brought to its knees by one 'interesting' ex shop not having a compulsory makeover which, if it had, would then make people 'want to visit or live here' and 'locate their businesses here'? I thought this building was a tiny representative of the diversity of the human condition which in itself deserves respect before needing to worry about the neighbours. I'd be happy to live next to it, but then I've never had a hankering for a 'managed' gated community. Some of you are really scary.

Cherry or plum, same family, and they both throw up prolific numbers of suckers. I have transplanted both and have a mini suckering forest of fruiting plums. Wild cherries are HUGE trees and I have recently removed one which was beautiful, but sending up suckers through walls and next doors driveway. If you dig down, not very far under the surface you will find the root the suckers are coming from. Follow it back as far as you energy allows and snip it off. If the originating tree is in a neighbouring garden they will be having the same problem, perhaps you can discuss it with them. Plums are smallish trees and I would be happy to keep mowing the suckers off. Good luck

Non honey bees do not survive over the winter as a colony. They make lots of queens which will hibernate and start a new colony somewhere else in the spring. As summer goes on and they have produced lots of queens their colony breaks down, so if you can hang on in there they will disappear of their own accord. Good luck.

In an interlude to the wind a swarm of bees moved into the vacant hive I had provided on election day . They are piling the pollen in so the queen is laying. 'A swarm in May is worth a load of hay' as they say...... Great. A better democratic result for their species.

Well I suppose the companies must evaluate how much they gain from upping the charges for their loyal customers against the bad feeling it engenders. Saga was a very good insurance company for the over 50s, with customer service staff sounding like your great aunt. It was taken over in 2004 and worked in very different ways. As you can imagine, some of the 'older' clients became considerably older. I felt they used the fact that from their particular customer base, they might be in with a very good chance of slipping in some rather larger premium increases which might go unnoticed by some of their not neccessarily so on-the-ball loyal clients. My mothers(in her 90s) renewal(with Saga) was eventually going through at over ?1100. LV gave the same cover for ?350. Interestingly my car insurance with LV has actually gone down by ?3 over the last 6 years although the car and risk has stayed the same. And I do still check every year but no-one could match their quote. So not every company rips off its previous customers.

After no service for 3 days in Oakhurst Grove, engineers today said the amplifier in Kelmore Grove was broken. They also said they are having a lot of trouble with rats in the conduit. This evening it is running again at half speed, which exceeds expectations.......

Sounds like a hand reared crow to me. Crows are extremely suspicious and profoundly wary of people. I've been trying to photograph the abnormaly high population on Peckham Rye by feeding them frequently. They now recognise me from the other side of the Rye and flock to see whats on offer but will not go anywhere near a pile of food next to a small running camera- even when I move well away. I have reared and released many corvids, take away their natural fear and they are too intelligent for their own good. Perhaps it wasn't aggression and you looked like a food supplier it knew. Otherwise it is going to be a problem.

This tower does look like ED baths, but the arches in the photograph are pointed, not flat.. However there were advertising hoardings in ED Road and as a bomb dropped very close, could the tower have been rebuilt? If any one is going along North Cross, look at the photograph of the baths and check the date and the tower. Have you any reason to suspect the photograph was taken locally?

Yes, I've long since given up the inclination to sign on the dotted line for anything official. Forgot to mention, you can be feeze dried then vibrated into tiny particles which you can incoporate straight into the topsoil, without the need for large hole digging or cost of tomato fertizer. This will be appreciated by anyone concerned who was also planning on attending your outgoing do without a back thats done some extreme digging. This is motivated by my severe lack of fondness for all the usual arrangements.

Unusually obvious for government bureaucracy, you apply to the Register of Births and Deaths. Useful info on the Natural Death Centre.

You do have to apply and register the site, otherwise future ambitious gardeners would be getting the police far too excited. I fancied a 'bring a stick and bottle' party for a home cremation (rurally, bearing in mind greasy smuts on the neighbours washing) but apparently thats a no no. Left on a hill for the vultures lunch, (I like being useful) but sadly that wouldn't work here.

If you are interested in art, you may get a useful insight to the area and some of its residents in the Open Studios week the first week of July. Many long term residents who love it.

Everyone seems to be missing the basic point here, that Rye Lane is a fabulously dynamic and successful retail road. As an ED resident it is also happens to be my shopping destination of choice. (apart from the crowds) There are no unoccupied outlets and only one charity shop. 7 days a week tens of thousands of shoppers use Rye Lane. Are you suggesting they are all ignorant to the fact that there are ?nicer? places to shop? They buy astonishing amounts of fish and meat from retailers whose shops never smell of ?off? produce.. I don?t eat either so I don?t like the smell but it is fresh. The ?stupid number of nail bars? are employing loads of staff and have a roaring trade. It seems incredibly bizarre to suggest that the Council should step in and ignore market forces. Should they also prohibit anymore independent coffee shops in ED in favour of something ?more useful?? Rye Lane is a long road with many shops I have no use for. The ones I do use, have friendly helpful staff and sell a vastly more diverse range of products than you could ever buy in ED. Many of the shops have been there for decades. I enjoy all ED and Rye Lane have to offer, both very different, but long may they continue.

As far as I know it is OK to park in front of someones 'driveway' if there isn't a dropped kerb. A council official called when I parked my car on a non dropped kerb driveway to say that it couldn't be used as a regular driveway as damage to the pavement would occur. You could put your car there if it was a one off. Having parked my car there once again to charge the battery I had to accept that I was blocked in by someone parking on the road. I beleive it cost over ?1000 for a dropped kerb to be installed, but for this the council remove the paving slabs and install a deep hardcore base and replace the surface with drivway pavers which will not crack, and cut and replace the kerbstones. It would be nice to not have cracked and uneven pavements(I was careful how I drove so as not to crack the pavement myself)Especially as I had a very unpleasant night in Kings with concussion from a head injury after tripping on a broken pavement. As a response to KidKruger-I wouldn't personally ever block anyones access, but there is a risk that not everyone has the same viewpoint, especially in an area under parking pressure.

Yes, I'd call that pretty major for the trees concerned. Two young plane trees, so whats that about?? Southwark lumberjacks training course? Don't remember them being diseased.

I'm with you there Hare. What a lot of cynics out there. For all the random acts of kindness I have received from strangers I feel that the few times I have clearly been conned have very little significance. For example I was in Bogota airport without any money, not realising there was an exit fee to leave the country. A German traveller overheard our dilemma and offered to pay the fee for us all- about ?30. This was despite being robbed at knifepoint on his first day in Colombia and losing everything he had.(I of course took his address and repaid him). Someone paid my bus fare when I thought I had lost ny oyster card - I hadn't- very embarassing as I didn't have any cash to repay them. I can see that that would seem like a pretty basic scam to all you cynics, fortunately the person offering wasn't similarly cursed and just thought it was very funny. I very happily offer what I can when the situation arises. What goes around comes around.

Collecting bees off a traffic light camera was a first for me and I've prised them out of some awkward places. No, I didn't have any equipment so got stung a few times on my hands(does make your eyes smart, but only for a couple of minutes) cos I was poking them into a box. Unpoked they wouldn't have stung anyone and would have left when their scout bees found somewhere to live. Has anyone got a photo? I will post one of swarms I have found. I would really appreciate it if anyone contacted me if they see a swarm of bees. Thanks to Plough Homecraft for their loan of the amazing traffic light high stepladder, mine wouldn't have been high enough. Bees are now enjoying new frames and wax in an improvised temporary hive. I also phoned Southwark council to ask what their policy was on swarms but they failed to return my call. The bee equipment suppliers in Blackheath also said it was illegal to destroy them.

Hi, HeidiHi, I'm the Lucky person who got the swarm off the traffic lights-sounds to me like you've also got a swarm of bees- only bumble bees are furry! I could come round now to check if you wanted, will pm you. Incidentally folks, wasps are much more sensible than bees and spend all summer eating tons of flies and rarely can be bothered to sting anyone. More of a nuisance in the autumn when they die off (except for queens).