Penguin68

What amazes me about some posters on here, is the utter contempt for long established and successful local businesses which have weathered various storms, and the eager anticipation at the arrival of something new. Why can't we be happy that these independent places are thriving here still, whether they've been here for 60 odd years, or are new additions to the neighbourhood? Sometimes businesses no longer serve (enough) of the local market to drive sufficient revenues - even where their continuing customers are still satisfied - sometime business owners or managers wish to retire, and cannot find someone to take on the business unchanged. I'm not sure any real 'contempt' has been shown, although I would condemn businesses unwilling to change to meet changing customer needs. That a business has survived so far gives it no 'right' to survive into the future. Many places are still thriving - well good on them. Some for whatever reasons aren't - I'm sad if they are sad - but sentiment alone doesn't drive revenues.

Hay meadows (which are where wild flowers grow) will be mown once the grasses etc. (including wild flowers often) are seeded and going over - when clearly varies by how far north you are and what the summer has been like so far - but mid June (good summer) to late July (wet summer) is a good range. So something being mown in early July isn't unreasonable. When mowing for forage/ silage you won't be wanting the grass too green at all (it won't keep) - but that won't be an issue in London parks. You want to mow in good time to allow the grass to start growing again before the autumn.

If it is, the owner is now, and probably was even then, in clear breach of the law. As the owner would be if not paying the minimum wage or not taking 'legal right to work status' details from the job applicant. At least one owner/ manager of a LL enterprise (now closed) was certainly in breach of the last 2 elements.

I suppose, Sue, the bad news maybe that this links to another of your posts - I can remember, as a child. having a very bad asthma attack (with accompanying hay-fever) after walking in a hay meadow full of wild flowers - I learned to dread the sight of poppies in the fields as it meant I would be confined to the house for the duration, until that season had passed. At this time of year pollens can blow in from Kent meadows and precipitate histamine responses. My childhood summer asthma was triggered not by pollution but nature.

It's just that the vitriol in my other thread, where I dared ask if any one else was considering leaving Dulwich, because of the poor transport links, shocked me. Cognitive dissonance again - if one's views (or decisions) are called into question one takes this as an overall attack on oneself (obviously it's actually just a disagreement about one aspect of 'you'). If I decide to stay in Dulwich (despite the transport links) then you challenging this decision undermines my faith in me. And I can't be doing with that!

Yes - the materials sold are generally of poor quality - these tend to be run by gang-masters who send out their 'boys' - who will receive only a fraction of the 'profits', from a van parked up somewhere. They are not (in any way) any form of any official 'ex-offender' scheme. Some (but not all) of the salespeople can become quite overtly aggressive - and they are often implicitly threatening to the vulnerable. Avoid. If you want to support ex-offenders there are good (and validated) charities - a google search throws these up https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ex+offender+charities+uk&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB747GB747&oq=ex-offender+charities&aqs=chrome.4.69i57j0l5.11212j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

because it would mean acknowledging that they chose to live in a far-from-perfect location, right? Almost all locations can be determined to be less than ideal on one criterion or another. SE London has always had transport issues (lack of a tube, for a start) - at the moment these are exacerbated by the failures of management, and the intransigence of unions (and possibly the malign hand of government) as regards the Govia-Thameslink Franchise. It is unlikely that the particular problems will actually be never-ending, despite appearances. Other areas have other problems. You must decide when a problem becomes so important to you that (outwith an area's benefits) it is game changing for you. Which doesn't mean it is game changing for others, who may have different priorities or solutions to the problem. Cognitive dissonance demands that others will share your priorities (which helps validate them). But even if you are the only one thinking something, that doesn't mean that for you it isn't right.

There are both Overground and Southwestern services (West Dulwich)- both more reliable. Dulwich, even East Dulwich, isn't made or broken by Southern alone.

I think, that in writing We're excited to open our second shop on Lordship Lane and... he may have meant to write We're excited to open our second shop, on Lordship Lane, and... for clarity. A bit prodnose but that is why, sometimes, old-fashioned use of grammar can avoid misconceptions. I wish them well in their endeavour and am pleased that the public environs (and history) of Le Chardon are to be respected. I suspect that the more informal approach of their restaurant may be more to the taste of the new public in LL than the more old fashioned '3 courses and coffee' vibe of Le Chardon - much though, at times, I enjoyed that.

I'm not sure subtlety's going to cut-it...

Supporting existing good value local businesses isn't a joke, it's important for the survival of our high street. Without wanting to be caught in the back-lash (some chance) - 'good value' is in itself a value judgement - something I don't want, at any price, is not going to be good value. Local businesses that address (albeit changing) local needs at an acceptable price will continue to flourish - where their market contracts sufficiently that there are not enough customers left for their offer to be a commercial success, they will fail (or will change their offer to meet changing customer needs). It is inevitable that (unless you are able to continuously surf the zeitgeist) you will find that shops which still cater to your needs have insufficient local customers and will start to fail. That is sad but it is not 'bad'. I have waved goodbye to many shops over time in LL which I would have wished to continue, if only for reasons of sentiment, but I do recognise that I may have become a minority fan of such enterprises. LL is still commercially vibrant, business are replacing each other (and not leaving empty gaps) and that surely is a broadly good thing?

The fact that this problem occurs at a regular time (and as far as I gather isn't an issue at other times) may suggest some local timed contention issue - do you have back-ups to the cloud scheduled then (perhaps just happening then, if it's scheduled to happen after so many hours of inactivity) - if something is happening in the background in your network that could do it - as in fact could something not in your control - maybe your computer is part of a bot-net which operates 'out of hours' so as not to be noticeable? It is quite unlikely that this is a symptom of 'regular early morning BT maintenance' - although I suppose if there was a major back-up going on at that time it could be eating bandwidth - but not I would have thought on your exchange line specifically. I wonder also - is this a wireless thing and do you have a smart-meter installed which might be competing for bandwidth at that time? - maybe you are hitting wireless signal contention - if you have a dual router it may be worthwhile trying a different wireless band. Remember that, in so far as it tells you anything at all, the full strength signal on the task bar is telling you about the signal you are getting to your server, it tells you nothing about signal clash, nor about any issues 'on the other side' of the server, nor indeed what else the server may be handling.

When you're not popping grockles in a wicker man...

An English Tart is sweet (in the main) a continental one more likely savoury, Pie's have lids, English flans are savoury tarts and/ or tarts with a college education, a quiche is made with a set egg custard filling (with additional items - so a quiche Lorraine is with bacon). In England tarts and flans will be made in a dish, pies either in a dish or (raised pies with crust using a hard paste) self-standing. All these are oven-cooked. Puddings are made with a suet crust or in a suet dough and can be savoury or sweet, and will be boiled/ steamed to cook.

How is 8am-9am "overtime" for anyone? It probably depends on how you operate and time your shifts. In a 3 shift (24 hour) system anytime could be overtime for someone working in another shift. As it could also be for staff working on a 7 day week (as trains operate) when any day over 5 counts as overtime. As it could be on a two shift/ split shift system. What the train operator is probably dong however is re-allocating trains so that the same number of trains is running each day as they have staff employed (without overtime). My guess is that to achieve seven day operation staff are often working 6 days a week, not five. So you could have staff on 'overtime' working at any time on a particular day.

Yes, it's not like a campaign to get people paid a decent living wage, but it's more about fighting staff cuts rather than wages, isn't it? I think it's a bit more complex than that - driver operated doors would allow trains to run when there was a driver present but not (always) an additional train operative - but it is not clear that it would be the intention to phase out that staff member (yet) - just make sure that trains run even when one staff member may be missing. In fact many trains could be run without even a driver on a number of lines. It is true that some main line rains have a different sort of door cut-off than, for instance, do tubes (when the train will not run if the door is blocked open) - but this safety feature could be (and on some rolling stock has) been retrofitted. It is always socially unfortunate when technology removes the need for certain types of job, but this does not mean we should demand old and failing technology to be kept just to keep people employed. Particularly where this leads to services being more expensive to customers (or taxpayers) than they need to be to provide equivalent (or better) levels of service. We have coped without firemen (stokers) on trains for many years, and clippies on buses - also jobs lost through technology and system change. These things happen. Of course people can fight against that, but 'preserving jobs' is not, in and of itself, always or necessarily a good thing. No particular job carries an enduring moral imperative.

I would encourage East Dulwich residents to join the Dulwich Society and get involved lcoally In which case it would be nice if the Dulwich Society, on its website, in any way acknowledged this transfer of engagements and the widening of its remit - it still looks very focused on Dulwich Village (the road) and its immediate environs alone. It seems at the moment to have received ED's assets and members, but none of its interests or concerns. I am glad it has a special focus on its 400 year old burial ground and 144 burials - but the wider ED has rather larger interment issue on its doorstep (for instance).

So the unions wanting better pay and conditions makes them first world problem It is fair to note that train drivers are actually quite well paid - by stopping overtime they will be reducing (some of them) their pay to well below the ?70k that some are able to earn with overtime. They are in a very different place than e.g. Picture House staff. Of course workers should have the right to earn whatever they can squeeze out of their employers (which, given the very curious deal that Southern did with HMG turns out to be us, if we are taxpayers) but let's not confuse them with people on the bread-line.

Or Timpsons in Salisbury's DKH.

What price patient confidentiality?

House alarms are meant to run for 20 minutes maximum and then stop. Constant starting/ stopping is more likely to be a faulty car alarm. Eventually it will run the battery down and stop of itself. It is worth actually checking - a car alarm will also have flashing car lights, many house alarms also have a light associated with the bell box. Then a message on a windscreen/ through a door may help avoid this in the future.

Everything tastes 'a bit like' chicken apparently - I've heard that said of snake, some types of grub, etc. etc. That may just mean that much chicken is virtually tasteless - though that wouldn't be true of chicken eaten in the past, which was (unless you were very rich) mainly old layers now past it.

seconded

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