Penguin68

confer absolute priority on pedestrians - no vehicle/cycle is supposed to be able to cross that line. But it's possible to have badly designed junctions where this doesn't happen, With complex junctions it's also possible for lights effectively to go out of phase, so that pedestrians and motorists - particularly turning motorists - both seem to have a 'green'. For both motorists and pedestrians, whatever the light signal, it is always worth checking that your way is actually clear. You can be both right and injured/ dead. And I wish (all) cyclists were as clear about lights as the rest of us. [by the way twice, last week, a cyclist acknowledged my holding back (in my car) to allow them to proceed safely through a gap - I haven't seen that level of courtesy for a long time].

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14183725_10153662996861854_8784321095230344427_n.jpg?oh=ec6bee3c058249cf82a84c1b86a7112e&oe=58477FCF

Iceland... I stand by my opinion that they specialise in revolting, nasty, processed rubbish I agree that their prepared foods were never to my taste - but as you also note 'and do sell some actual proper food too' their e.g. frozen unprocessed foods (and the other branded goods they sold) were entirely acceptable, good value and consistent quality.

In general M&S has prided itself that the premium you pay on (some) of their own brand items and fresh foods is justified by the quality. This is a perfectly proper marketing trade-off. In a 'perfect' world it would have been the Co-op which closed and was replaced by M&S with Iceland continuing its offer (assuming its sales were holding up). This would have given us a clearer choice. Whilst many might like to see Waitrose coming into the Co-op site (including I must admit me) - this would reduce the range of offer in LL - with two premium high quality outlets and no consistent budget-end supplier. The Co-op's consistency (and value-for-money quality) is conspicuous by its absence.

Packaged branded goods not available in the M&S in any significance for eg I presume? They did have some branded cereals and condiments (Heinz ketchup, Lea & Perrin's Worcestershire sauce etc.) - which is more than they used to. But mainly own brand, or at least own labelling.

If its data links are down or problematical it would be difficult for it to operate. Without them it could only sell stamps (maybe not even that if the tills are compromised as well - everything is data linked nowadays).

You ought to get this checked, it is possible that the cold water feed into your tank has been compromised by grit (can get into burst water mains) - contact Thames Water - it is the sort of thing they are obliged to help with. If you have a system where hot water from your boiler circulates into your hot water tank to heat the water being fed into it than it will be getting hot without anything to heat up - and this might not be good!

The study referred to excludes any analysis of Southwark - and shows that the levels of experienced noise drop off considerably as you move eastwards towards the uncovered area. The 'high' levels of noise which are health effecting are not (to extrapolate from the areas actually studied) over ED. And the fact that by no means all of those at least on this and sister threads perceive 'high levels of aircraft noise' would suggest that this is not an absolute impact - unlike for those actually living close to Heathrow - which was the determinant of this study. The actual title of the study is Aircraft noise and cardiovascular disease near Heathrow airport in London: small area study Again - I do not want to belittle the perceived impact on those who are sensitive to the noise, just to suggest that there may be coping remedies available where the closure of all airports around London is unlikely.

Advocating CBT to a significant minority of the population Not much liking the aircraft noise and it's making your life a misery are, I would suggest, different in scale - and there are techniques, such as Mindfulness, which can offer some succour without having to go down a CBT route necessarily. Whilst there are many who would sign a petition to 'make the noise go away' - I suspect there are far fewer for whom the noise is actually seriously damaging their quality of life (around here, anyway, for those much closer to the airports it is a different thing entirely). I am lucky in that I am rarely bothered by the aircraft noise, or even aware of it unless reading these threads (and my hearing is good) - the low hovering police helicopters we get on occasion are another matter, but hardly frequent enough to want to make an issue of it.

Yes maybe some good psychiatry will help me thank you. Psychological support or psychotherapy might help; I'm by no means sure that a psychiatrist would be of any great assistance - you might find anger management could be helpful as well.

I have previously said on this or a sister post that it is possible to address issues where particular stimuli become points of obsession through psychological supports, such as CBT and Mindfulness. It seems clear that whilst some people find the airplane noise virtually intolerable others (in the same area) do not. Ways of changing your relationship with that noise may be helpful. Where everyone finds a stimulus impossible to live with, then the stimulus should be addressed, but where only some do the most 'economic' solution might be one which addressed the sufferer, not the immediate cause. Just as phobias (such as arachnophobia) can be addressed through CBT, so your relationship to aircraft noise may also be addressable (and no, I am not saying that you are 'mad' or deranged, simply that your relationship to airplane noise, the way in which it captures your attention so that it become unreasonably intrusive may be something which psychological support might be able to address).

Calling them 'Penthouses' is a bit of an over statement.. A small steel framed box on the roof of a super market / offices does not IMHO constitute a Penthouse. DulwichFox Actually, in architectural terms, the definition of a penthouse is 'In architecture, the term penthouse is used to refer to a structure on the roof of a building that is set back from the outer walls. These structures do not occupy the entire roof deck. High-rise buildings often have penthouse structures called mechanical penthouses that enclose mechanisms such as elevator equipment.' On that basis, and on architectural plans, the definition is acceptable, even if, in estate agent marketing terms, they would be a pudding well over-egged.

Ah, journeys - but if you walked to a bus stop, would you class this in a survey as a bus journey or a walk? If you go jogging, is this a journey. This is the whole problem with survey based information, you only get answers to the specific questions you ask. This doesn't tell me about pedestrian miles walked for any reason. It just tells me about primary intentional movement from a to b.

Most importantly, the number of pedestrian miles walked has decreased enormously over the decades - far fewer children walk to school, far fewer people walk to the shops etc - so in simple terms fewer pedestrians are being killed as there are fewer out there to kill. Unless you have figures for this, I am not sure you are right - (1) the population itself has risen (2) many more journeys are now made on public transport - and thus many more people have to walk to/ from bus stops or train stations (outwith those driving to a station and parking) - (3) leisure walking (and particularly jogging) is on the increase. Although you are clearly right about school journeys, I suspect that the loss of these is outweighed by these other factors - indeed I see little evidence that people do not walk whilst shopping - other than those driving to DKH etc, locally. And even those may well walk to some shops. The 'close shaves' I have seen recently have been those in LL jaywalking across the roads without looking for oncoming traffic - however slowly it now proceeds. So I think that the fall in pedestrian fatalities is a function of life being safer, not of fewer opportunities for disaster.

While it may be true that some independents who will be in competition with M&S may have to look at their pricing Pricing is just one tool for competitive marketing - service/ quality and innovation are the other two key levers to gain competitive edge. M&S competitors may offer a wider range (i.e. branded goods) or different service levels - the problems of parking have been pointed out, so allying with a delivery service locally could offer an edge. Certainly price gouging will no longer be a real option - but you don't just have to compete on price.

The 'rules' about competition suggest that when a serious competitor enters a market others in the market will tend to have to 'improve' - in terms of price, quality or innovation (for local stores the latter may well be product range) in order to compete. So the entrance of M&S will raise the bar to others, both those already failing (the Coop) - who may go to the wall, but also those currently perceived to be successful - such as Moxon's. As punters we may thus expect to see better, or cheaper, or a wider range of goods on offer to us (in the market space being addressed by M&S of course) - although there may even be wider uplift on non-competitive stores as well, as customer expectations (particularly in terms of service quality) are raised. Even for those who choose not to shop in M&S the benefits the store may bring to the 'offer' in LL and environs could be marked, as it impacts other businesses around it.

has anyone any idea who it will be Conways

Is 'Eastern European' a code for Romany? This is the only Eastern European group who might be identifiable. Looking into bins (if they are not on private premises) is little different from the middle class activity of 'skip-ping' - many of us have 'rescued' period architectural features in the past (and even furniture) when houses were being done-up. Up-cycling is nowadays actually a positive thing, as re-cycling has always been. As described I very much doubt whether these ladies were identity thieves.

The most useful service sub Post Offices offer today is the pricing and posting of packages and parcels, including registered and guaranteed delivery etc. Most other services can either be offered on-line, via other service providers (such as banks) or through other retailers (stamps). Sub Post Offices are also used as delivery points for PO Parcels, which can be convenient - but other outlets could be as well (as they are for Hermes etc.). The Post Office already does outsource some parcel handling to non-Sub Post Offices. Occasional services, such as handling passport applications, are also useful, but are hardly day-to-day requirements for most customers. For an area as well served as ED is - having a main post office as well as several sub post offices - the economic demand for these is at the margin. It is always sad to lose something you have liked and is convenient for you - but social need has to be a great deal more in evidence to allocate tax funds to maintaining uneconomic sub-post offices in an area like ours. In rural locations where the next office may be miles distant, without very regular bus services, the argument is different.

If you want truly authentic Indian food, you would mostly be eating dhal, rice and nan. In India whether you eat the majority of your starch/ carbohydrate as bread (or breads) or rice tends to be a regional choice - so it's likely, amongst the poor, to be either rice or nan, and for slightly wealthier people perhaps a small amount of one with a majority of the other. And you shouldn't confuse what a majority of people in the sub continent would eat (based on their disposable wealth) as the choice of the middle classes in the subcontinent, which we on the forum would mainly qualify as (yes, even those screaming out their 'working class' credentials). Clearly there are those who for religious reasons will be vegetarian or vegan (Jains, for instance) and there their diet will be much more restricted - but for those middle class without religious sensibilities the range and variety of their food (even if 'only' vegetarian) will be far more varied and tasty than simply dhal and rice/ nan. So an 'authentic' 'Indian' meal in ED terms would not be restricted to what the majority of those living in the subcontinent might be able to afford. It would be a meal as eaten by those in similar circumstances to us would be eating. Which would be damn nice.

I have always enjoyed the CP Lorenzo's (they did a great lunch-time deal as I recall) - I haven't had a bad experience at Si Mangia - they were always to my mind a very old style Italian (like we had in the 70s) - none the worse for that as they delivered what they promised - but I probably prefer the more modern (regional) take on Italian food. But the staff were excellent and welcoming. Let's hope the new ED Lorenzo's can match its CP parent.

Very important to shred anything with any personal info If you have a compost heap, and compost lawn mowings, then shredded paper is very useful to add bulk and air to the compost, and is certainly very secure. Cross-cut (not just strip) shredding is the safer method - cross-cut shredders are readily available and not much more expensive than the other type.

Sub post offices take up a lot of floor space (in a small shop) and require specially (costly) trained staff (without whom they cannot open). In order to be economic they need to generate quite substantial revenues (considering the lost retail space they require to operate at all). The general use of post office services is reducing so that revenue opportunities are almost certainly diminished and further diminishing. Unless they are operating with no competition (this one isn't) their chances of substantial revenues are limited from Post Office business. In addition Post Office Counters have notoriously poor (and well documentedly so) accounting software, which has led to many sub Postmasters being wrongly accused (and convicted) of theft. I am not at all surprised that shop keepers withdraw from being sub Postmasters. Additionally PO Counters itself is continuously reviewing sub Post Offices. It may have decided to withdraw the licence based on the proximity of the Main Post Office in LL - possibly it wishes to boost its revenue figures there to make it more economically viable. That could be of much greater interest to it than customer convenience.

If you buy a ticket and plan around it, then the train company should liable for your losses as a result of any cancellations. Not just the pro-rata cost of a season ticket. If you need to get a cab, in order to make an appointment, then they should pick up the cost. This is what is called 'consequential loss' and many (most?) enterprises aim to protect themselves from such claims by limiting their liability to direct loss only.

The Threepenny Novel is the novelization of Bertold Brecht's Threepenny Opera. The plot is the same with Peachum (inter alia) running gangs of beggars who have to pay him for their pitch. Both are based on the English eighteenth century Beggars Opera (libretto John Gay).