Gimme

Got the 185 this morning for the first time in ages. The driver didn't say anything, drove safely and didn't annoy anyone. I was soooooo disappointed. It can't have been Nasty Nigel. Can anyone give me an idea of when Nasty Nigel generally gets to ED so I can try to get his bus?

tiger ranks Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > i put a thread on this last year while in dulwich > park this man done the same thing but by the time > i questioned the ladys who was sitting with thier > childern he had dissapeared. > Sorry to say but taking pictures of childern in > public without parents permission is not > acceptable and as this man is known if i see him i > know what i am going to do if he tries to take a > photo of my child The sooner people realise the difference between something that is "unacceptable" and something that they don't like, the better. Using over the top language like "shocking", "unacceptable" and the like doesn't really help anyone. Taking photos of people (children or otherwise) may annoy some people but it is only "unacceptable" in the same way that "the council didn't take away my rubbish two days running; that's unacceptable" should be used. Perhaps there are a number of people who think that demonising some innocent bloke (and everyone is innocent until proven guilty), for doing something that press photographers do every day (i.e. take photos of people and scenes without asking permission), is unacceptable. Did the OP and following posters actually stop to think that this guy may actually read this forum and may be completely mortified not just by the fact that he was accosted by the police on the say so of some busybody but also because he is being demonised on a public forum? And no I don't think taking photos of people or children in public without their permission is worse than implying that someone is a kiddy-fiddler for taking phots in a park. The implication is actually much more unpleasant and dangerous. And no it wasn't me. I was off cycling all day Sunday with a number of witnesses. Before anyone starts throwing any more unfounded accusations around.

She lives in Streatham Hill...

I find it totally ridiculous that someone can call the police for someone taking photos at a fair while a fair proportion of people on the "Shocking Site: Boys stabbing wheelie bins" thread didn't think that you should call the police when seeing knife wielding youths on the streets. Since when was it an offence to take photos of fully grown children (and other things) in public, even if it did make you uncomfortable. You'll be off burning down the home of a paediatritian next. This is the effect that tabloids have on people. Apparently anyone taking a photo in Whitehall can be arrested as a suspected terrorist too. The worlds gone mad!

beaver14uk Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Isn't that entrapmeant. Maybe this post should > find its way to the Police. > Think you might have been watching too much American TV beaver14uk...

Don't be put off HAL9000. This thread has caused lots of entertainment. There's nothing like the cut and thrust of a good debate.

Zebedee Tring Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > About three years ago I made a complaint to > Transport for London about a driver on the 37 > route who was very rude to me and among other > things told me to eff off. TfL dealt with my > complaint and indicated that they had taken > disciplinary action against the toerag in > question. So it is worth complaining if a bus > driver is rude to you. But did they actually take disciplinary action against the driver? Or did they just tell you that. I once had a minicab driver who took us to Gatwick on the way to our wedding. He was pretty rude so we didn't give him the tip he requested. This led to him shouting "F**k off you f**king c**ts. I hope you f**kin' well die in a plane crash" plus lots of other abuse. The cab office said they would take the strongest disciplinary action when I reported this On gettingback from honeymoon and following up, they said they'd had a stern word with him and told him not to do it again. Don't believe them. They don't bother. It's all lies. Ask the bus company for a copy of his P45.

HAL9000 - why bother starting this (admittedly entertaining) thread if you weren't that bothered and didn't see it as an issue. Was it merely to showcase your superb vocabulary and ability to write like a sociologist? You don't write a column for the Guardian do you?

People in service industries need to remember that customers are the people who pay their wages. No customers, no wages. What annoys people most are those idiots who have no comprehension of customer service but still keep their jobs. Or where they cannot complain about poor customer service and get any action taken. The difference between the East Dulwich Deli and the 185 bus is that if someone working in ED Deli was rude and unpleasant, it is easy to get action taken (if it hadn't already been noticed by their boss), whereas with the 185 bus, this guy sounds like he's been providing poor customer service for a long time with no easy way to complain and no action being taken. If he was likely to lose his job or be suspended for being a total a*se to customers, he probably wouldn't do it or wouldn't be there. On the other hand, if everything was perfect and everyone was nice and smiley in an American sort of a way, we'd all get bored and have nothing to bitch about.....

Who says the people serving olives at East Dulwich Deli are not working class? And how would you tell? Is it cos they speak proppa? Or is it because you think that no self-respecting working class person would be seen dead serving olives in a deli?

Maybe the thread name should now change to: "Urban bliss: the joy of seeing young brothers playing with garden shears" or "Innocent overreaction: thank goodness I didn't call the police over such a trifle"

Not that I'm stalking you Lenk but I did remember you saying on another thread: "Now I have some kind of wanky media job and live in curtain-twitch, SE London." Observant me... Which explains the media man comment :-)

Or what about 'Man in Media: life not devoid of content' shock :-)

"One thread, even two (I'm sure I've seen reference in other places) is more than enough must we really continue this line of moaning?" If people don't like something then they've got every right to complain. Anyway KK, most of the posts on this thread are from you so you can't complain that it is being prolonged. I'm sure that generally most bus drivers are okay but if this guy is half as bad as everyone says then he's got the boot coming. Although that will probably cause a general London wide day of strike action by the tube drivers so maybe we should just put up with his arrogance for the public good.

I wasn't responding to your post AnnaJ. You seemed to be making a fair point. Poor service = no return visit. But there's loads of people who think that spending over ?5 on a bottle of wine is crazy. One thing for sure is that spending a bit more on a bottle is likely to lead to less hangover. Drunk an entire bottle of Alsace Riesling last night (probably about 9 or 10 quid a bottle) and no trace of a hangover. Better wine generally contains less chemicals, therefore generally, less hangover... God knows what they put in the ?3 bottles of Aussie red! Bit like the difference between turkey twizzlers and a bit of organic turkey really.

How could you get annoyed at someone boarding a bus with a dodgy pass and getting away with it??? You wouldn't know about it. What a daft thing to say! Bus drivers shouldn't be treating people like potential criminals. In fact, they should just get on with driving their buses safely and avoiding ridiculous manoeuvers round corners that send their passengers flying all over the place. I don't give a hoot about whether a few people are getting away with dodging their fares. They'll get their comeuppance one day. When I get on a bus, all I want to do is get on and get to my destination as quickly as possible without total muppets intruding on that simple process. More power to you and your complaints about aggressive or unpleasant bus drivers HelloSailor.

Oops, didn't mean to add much but ended up doing so. Got carried away. Sorry.

Probably cant add anything that Domitianus (great tag BTW) has already said but I was pretty surprised by HAL9000's points that: "However, I'm still not convinced that any crime was committed after reading the relevant law (as cited in a previous post" and "No. I said they didn?t appear to think they were doing anything wrong. Very different. (Incidentally, without mens rea there is no crime of specific intent under English law.) " Do you really think that if someone doesn't think that they are doing anything wrong then there's no mens rea? The mens rea refers to whether they intend to stab the bin or carry the knife, not whether they thought there was anything wrong with it. If the knife got caught on the cardigans of the kids and banged into the bins as they walked past unaware that the knives had been caught on their cardigans then there would probably be no mens rea. As soon as they left the house with a knife they had mens rea to commit the offense of carrying an offensive weapon and as soon as they pulled back their arms and thrust the knives into the bins they had mens rea to commit the offence of criminal damage. And, from your description, yes they did commit those crimes!!! Lets face it, whatever the excuses, from the original thread posted, it sounds like you saw a crime being committed, and you were scared of the consequences of reporting the crime. You are not unusual in urban society. However, the non-reporting of things like this is one the reason why kids aren't that deterred from carrying knives - if they won't get caught, why be deterred. The police can't be everywhere and see everything. They need people to report knife carrying so they can target the knife carriers. We can't complain about our streets being unsafe if we're unwilling to participate in helping to make them safer. Apologies in advance if this makes the thread longer....

AnnaJ - not sure it's scientific but we've got 2 girl cats, our neighbour has a girl cat, and a previous neighbour had a girl cat and they are all much more limited in range than the boy cats in the neighbourhood. Maybe depends how they are brought up. My mother-in-law's small cute grey girl cat (which lives in the country) disappears for days on end and kills anything in sight (with the exception of croissants, which she's very merciful to) but that environment is what she's used to.

TimmyBaggins - if you get a girl cat and make a point of keeping the front door shut and never letting them out the front it shouldn't matter if you are near a road, particularly if you are in a terraced house like a lot of them on CP Road. Girl cats are a lot less likely to head off and roam it would seem. We've had 2 girl cats for years and only on about 2 occasions have they ever been out on the road side of the house. On both occasions we didn't see them sneaking out the open door while doing bins. On both occasions, they were so gobsmacked at the world outside the front door they just stood there and were easy to grab and put inside again.

I once went to the cashpoint and there was ?250 that the guy in front had forgotten to take. I ran after him and gave him it back. He didn't speak English and insisted I took ?20 which I tried to refuse but he wouldn't take it back. The funny thing was I was a bit p*ssed off that he thought I needed ?20 for something as normal as giving someone back something they'd forgotten. Maybe he thought I was a tramp. Made a point of never going out looking so quite so scruffy again :-)

Fair enuff Keef.

Buying wine is like everything. There's a target market. If you aren't the target market don't go there. If you don't like spending more than ?5 on a bottle of wine then don't go to Green and Blue - use Threshers or the corner shop (or if you really don't like wine but like getting drunk go for Somerfield's special offer on Isla Negra). If you really like wine and are prepared to spend ?10 for something that is more expensive to make but should also have more depth of flavour then go to Green and Blue. I don't like handbags and therefore cannot understand in a million years why someone would buy a Gucci handbag for ?400. But I'm not going to slag off people who like spending a quarter of their monthly wage on a handbag as 'pretentious knobs'. Green and Blue has been awarded best independent wine merchant by Decanter magazine readers - who probably know something about wine. Nicolas is universally despised by wine writers (from what I've seen). But not everyone agrees with the views of magazines and wine writers so if someone thinks that Nicolas is 'better' than Green and Blue that's fair enough - it's their opinion. Personally I like Green and Blue for wine and probably wouldn't go anywhere else in LL but that's because I'm willing to pay a bit more for a bottle of wine than some people (but less for a handbag!). Bossman is (IMHO) pretty duff for wine but they have a totally superb beer selection. And the local shop that does 6 cans of strong lager for a ?5 can't be beaten for a BBQ. Let's celebrate Lordship Lane. Something for everyone!

Maybe the police should start patrolling Barry Road as it seems that is the epicentre of all the problems...

Might sound stupid but I've managed to deal with the plane issue for me. I used to get really annoyed and would wake up at 4.30am and stay awake fuming. I'd the impression that all the Heathrow planes were going over our house. After complaining to Heathrow on their website, I got an excellent pack of information showing all the flight paths and where all the Heathrow flights go on their way in. So after realising that all of South London (with the exception of Balham and Tooting it seems!!!) is plagued by flights going to Heathrow, I stopped getting worked up about it and don't notice them that often any more. And not getting worked up has meant that I ignore them at 4.30am. I'm not saying it is great having flights over the house all the time, especially when we're in the garden and a noisy twin engine plane goes over but it's a lot easier to deal with since I stopped getting annoyed about it (particularly since there's nothing we can do about it!!!). If you want more information about flights over S London, there's a flight tracker on the Heathrow website or just send an email complaint saying "why do all the planes go over my house" and you might feel easier about the whole thing.