Penguin68

There are very good reasons why many people discourage supporting street begging through donations - not only can these 'beggars' at times be anything but legitimate - but very frequently monies given are then used for purposes which do not benefit the long term health and well being of the beggar - there are numbers of recognised (and very good) charities which address the needs of the homeless and those unable to look after themselves properly - giving money through them both ensures that genuinely needy people get the benefit, but also ensures that the money is 'well' spent in terms of what it buys, including focused help and training to move people off the streets. [big Issue sellers (those with proper ID) I place as part of a proper charitable activity]. I would also except from these strictures buskers - these are people who are offering entertainment in exchange for payment - at least the 'transaction' is more clear, they are looking for a reward for skill, not for just being there. This very unpleasant begging scam (The link to the Threepenny Opera is very relevant) could be readily stopped if people stopped street giving to beggars. There are far more effective (and tax efficient) ways to be charitable to those in need.

This is a terrible story. In the old days, pre hands-free mobiles, seeing anyone apparently talking (or shouting) to themselves was an immediate warning sign - suggesting a disturbed individual. Now half the people (walking on their own) I pass in the street (at certain times of day) are talking or shouting - but into hands-free apparatus. So the old cues and triggers no longer work. You did exactly the right thing in making an escape - and it is an area where disturbed (though by no means dangerous to anyone but themselves in most instances) people can be found. There is a tragic shortage of treatment availability, even around here - much better provided than many parts of the country - for those with mental problems. Most may be frightening but are actually harmless (to third parties, self-harming is very common) but there is no way of judging that at the moment of threat.

You may well be right Penguin68 but why is it being enforced now when it hasn't been for at least 14 years? Good (or at least understandable) point - if you could prove you have been using it regularly without enforcement it is possible that you could argue for custom and practice (particularly as there were no road markings, which were common 14 years ago). On the other hand, failure to enforce a law in the past, doesn't obviate it. I would guess it's being enforced now as part of a general crack-down on non-legal parking - I refer you to the recent thread on the parking of unexpected coaches on junctions. Once you start to enforce parking laws, you cannot make exceptions without that in itself becoming suspect.

But parking across a driveway when a car is in it is different to parking across a gateway that you know is never used. I don't think this is so - if it was possible to prove that it was completely unusable (a wall had been built behind it), perhaps - but otherwise the authorities cannot assume that certain knowledge - even if it had not been used up to that point, you would not be able to assert it would thus never be used. Only if you had authority to park across a gateway from the owner or occupant of the property whose gateway it was could you have some defense in law. You have said that there was junk inside the gates, but on that very day that you parked, a vehicle could have been scheduled to arrive to move that junk (OK, extremely unlikely, but you are not to know, for certain, that might not have been planned). Either parking over a dropped kerb is illegal, or it isn't. Authority (from the property owner) to do so is a point to be argued in mitigation.

I have done so, but in another town. Some private home care companies will offer per diem arrangements. Often to cover a regular carer's abscence.

Food waste Textiles Plastic bags Black bags Interestingly, today, the 'blue bin' men put (into my bin for collection) rubbish from other bins, which included items in plastic bags (including black plastic) bags. I was slightly worried my bin then wouldn't be collected - but no problems on that front!

Ours is on Tuesday as well - arrived and did the business as normal. I have found that the times of arrival aren't always exactly the same, but generally for us in Underhill below Langton Rise mid to late morning for both blue (and alternately green) and brown bins. The brown bins crews (each week) are the same, as are the blue/green bin crews - so if your green bin has been collected last week that should be the same crew as collects your blue bins on alternate weeks. They may not collect the bin if it contains something clearly not dry recyclable - but if that's not the case they may just be missing it. Do you pull it to the front of the property?

Pride of our alley...

I have now had a (satisfactory) response from TFL to this:- Dear xxxxx Thanks for your email on 31 July about a route P13 bus driver you observed forcing an ambulance on an emergency call to reverse back. I appreciate the time you?ve taken to write to us about this and I?m sorry for any concern this caused you. We expect a very high standard of service from every bus driver in London whilst on the roads. If requested to by emergency services bus drivers should reverse the bus in order to allow them to pass through. Poor driving standards or driving without due care or attention is unacceptable. We continue to monitor driving performance, to ensure that high standards are followed and maintained. Every month we carry out over 600 Driver Quality Monitoring surveys. This provides us with technical assessments of their driving skills. Drivers are assessed on acceleration and braking, as well as the use of mirrors and road positioning. I can assure you I?ve been in contact with Abellio who operates the bus route P13 on our behalf and made them aware of your comments. With the information you?ve helpfully provided they?ll identify the driver who'll be spoken to about this and appropriate action will be taken. Thanks again for getting in touch. If I can be of any more assistance please contact me directly..... Kind regards (name) Customer Service Adviser Transport for London Customer Services Amended to say - actually - I wrote to them on the 29th July - but the damn e-mail got caught in my outbox for 2 days!

Presumably a reduction in costs doesn't necessarily lead to reductions to ticket prices You are right, of course it doesn't, reduced costs are an opportunity either to increase profits or (in a competitive environment, which this isn't) reduce prices. My point was that an action which would reduce costs cannot be prayed in aid as a contributor to above inflation price rises - with unions working to counter the cost-reduction seen as champions of working against price rises through their actions. I do not expect that the cost reductions achieved by Driver Only operation will in any way lead to reduced prices to customers - although a regulator with even a single tooth might at least more firmly resist calls to allow increased prices, in the light of cost reduction. The RMT arguments about safety play rather better here - the trains in question do not have automatic cut-outs which stop operation when the doors are jammed open (e.g. by a punter) (unlike tube trains) - they rely on someone (now the guard and driver, in future just the driver) to notice a trapped passenger and act accordingly. There has been at least one incident of dragging recently.

Mr Barber wrote:- Repeated above inflation ticket price rises aren't acceptable. Hence the RMT fighting so hard against Southern introducing Driver Only Operated trains on the few remaining routes. I'm afraid this is a non sequitur - reducing staffing costs would help avoid further price rises - the RMT fighting against this will have the tendency to increase costs above the level of Driver Only Operated Trains (by the wages of the Guard). There are arguments in favour of the RMT action - but not those of economy.

You are Southeastern, not Southern. You do not terminate at, or go through, London Bridge. You are blessed.

Sue wrote:- Their momos are particularly yummy. Absolutely - second that. Take-away can often be disappointing compared to eating the thing then and there - which is what I would advise with this restaurant.

They do have some Nepalese specialities (particularly in the starters area) and the dishes which look familiar aren't quite flavoured in the ways you'd expect. I asked the owner/ manager whether the cooking was fully Nepalese - he admitted to 'about 90%' - saying that western palettes didn't quite take to some Nepalese flavour combinations. They used to stock a very nice Nepalese lager (Khukuri) but when I was last there I think they had another one almost as good. It's just sufficiently different from standard Pakistani and Bangladeshi cooking and flavours for you (well me) to notice a difference. I don't eat there very regularly, but I've never been disappointed. Because it is so small (and quite popular) it is worth booking. Not of course ED, but perhaps close enough. The people there were always nice as well, which helps.

Ghurkas Flavour in Forest Hill (Standstead Road) is good, but only a handful of covers, so no use for a large party. https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186338-d2013723-Reviews-The_Gurkhas_Flavour-London_England.html

If it was more brown than grey it might indeed be a wood mouse rather than a house mouse. These tend to be slightly smaller and are far less invasive of property (they naturally live outside). They are still annoying, but are less likely to colonise. Is the room you saw it in readily accessible from outside (i.e. patio or French doors?). Traps baited with peanut butter are often effective, placed at the edges of rooms where the mice might run (or in the Barbie House perhaps?)

This thread started to go off topic at post 3 - and has kept off it (with some close calls) till this post 66 - even for the EDF that must start coming close to a record.

Apart from the new boundary railings on Underhill - very visible and a very good improvement - most of the area that is being worked on is still surrounded by high black metal fencing - so is not visible. However a great deal of the wilded area is still untouched (I walked through it yesterday) - some is fenced off for Knotweed treatment, but is still very overgrown. The hill on the Underhill road side has been broadly cleared, with some trees left, but the details of the clearing are still not visible. There has been some shrub re-planting along Underhill. A lot of the putative 'woods' remain untouched. Nothing much to photograph, unless anyone has a photo-drone and can fly it over the metal fenced-off portion? There are plans posted to stabilise a number of existing graves. The new entrance on Underhill had been cut through but the gates I assume being planned have yet to be installed, and it is not clear that there is any roadway yet which joins up with anything. It's all still very much work-in-progress. Amended to add that the cemetery management team have again this year kept patches of the cemetery-in-use area un-mown to create a meadow environment - though this is coming to the end of its natural life and I assume will be mown sometime in August. The planting (a couple of years ago) of e.g. dogwood along the Langton Rise boundary is looking established although it may well now need some attention. Some of that planting however has not worked, I imagine, as intended. At the moment (and not surprisingly, given the weather) the cemetery has no waterlogging.

ths0150 - I had the same problem for a longish time - it was only on my third (or fourth?) re-boot that the problem eventually cleared, after a couple of weeks. Switch the Hub off at the back (don't use a software re-boot), leave for at least a minute and switch back on again - was the remedy that eventually worked for me - and yes then ED site was the only one that I had a problem on. I found 3 separate bits of kit (PC, Android phone and tablet) were all impacted - but when it eventually cleared, all the bits of kit then worked normally.

Just to note that the East Dulwich Electoral ward (which is what has been shown on the map, I believe) is a voting, not a societal boundary. The ED Ward does not (Mr Barber notwithstanding) ED make.

Many a driver is pulled in to the office daily to explain a complaint that's come in from joe public either via TFL or the bus company itself. When a bus drove into my wife's car (stationary at lights) at the Plough, removing her wing mirror, it took 18 months for any settlement - the driver claiming, and being supported by the bus company, that my wife had suddenly reversed into him, thus causing her to lose her mirror. At a traffic light. In the end their insurance settled by default, when they wouldn't respond to our insurance. So no, I don't hold out much hope that the bus company will act properly.

I am hoping that the ambulance driver will have reported it - but (curious as this may sound) my locus standi as regards TFL or other arms of London Governance is substantially less than that of an elected councilor, even at Borough level. If either Jah Lush or Nigello (or Mr Barber) actually believe that an ordinary Joe contacting TFL will have any leverage or influence at all, or that such a report would not immediately be filed in the round filing cabinet by the door then they have a great deal more faith in the actions of the apparat than I. I have anyway no idea to whom in TFL to complain (as the regulator of the buses). As far as details were concerned, it happened on the evening of 27th July, probably about 7:30 or 8:00pm on Underhill Road, the ambulance was approaching the Langton Rise junction from the south, traveling towards Barry Road (the bus then obviously heading south towards Melford) - I did not take any further details of either vehicle.

Yesterday evening (27th July) I was surprised to find a stationary ambulance (on blue lights) outside my house in Underhill Road - it was being blocked by a P13 bus that would not move out of its way. In the end the ambulance had to back up to allow the bus to pass. In the past I have heard P13 drivers explain (when they would not maneuver to allow passage of other vehicles) that they could not, or were not allowed to, back their vehicles. In 49 years of driving I have never before seen an ambulance responding to an emergency have to back-up to allow a bus to pass. The ambulance was very visible (blue lights) and the bus could have stopped to allow safe passage further up the road, but there are some P13 drivers who seem insensitive to oncoming traffic and simply surge ahead with a 'get out of my way 'cos I'm not moving' attitude. The hold-up was only a couple of minutes, perhaps less, but, for emergency ambulances, that sort of hold-up might be critical. It happened just into College Ward, on the boundary with ED Ward, but also (being just south of the Old Cemetery) pretty close to Renata's stamping ground. Maybe a councilor could raise this with TFL?

(1) Two thirds of the run up Underhill is already 'protected' by a highish bank - it is a third (or less) of the actual graveyard which is now more readily visible from the road. (2) That third was always visible to those walking along the road on the graveyard side, unless they were of restricted height, by looking over the 4 foot fence. (3) Mourners have always been observable for anyone walking through or around the graveyard (or indeed from anyone looking over the fences on Wood Vale or Langton Rise). (4) The run along the boundary by Underhill is no longer being used to dump odd bits of rubbish (because it is now very visible). And I am informed that a number of people feel safer walking along that boundary because they are not worried about anyone concealed by the fence who might jump out at them (at night that's a genuine worry). (5) The vista now offered by the (quite elegant) iron railing is a deal sight more charming that that of the wooden fence - and the view through to the cemetery is very attractive. [6] Many cemeteries around here are 'open' to view through railings - it is arguable that awareness of mortality is not a bad thing, rather than hiding the evidence away. And grief is not something to be ashamed of.

I had a lot of trouble initially with a new BTHub6 (earlier versions - no problem at all) - although I did re-boot the Hub 2 or 3 times (which strategy eventually worked) but for some time I got intermittently turned back on 3 different access devices - the EDF site was the only one which gave me this problem, and I believe Admin did make some alterations to the DNS pointing. I suspect my Hub (having had a problem once) got locked into it - and it took a couple of re-sets to clear this - but the problem did not present consistently. The BT Hub6 is very new - the version of Apache used on this site was first released on 6th March 2010 - so maybe the age difference was an issue here - but (so far) it is now working absolutely fine with the site. Hard re-set (through the button on the machine and give it a minute or two, not via the software) does seem to clear the problem, if you have one.