Penguin68

I have had Amazon stuff delivered which was ordered on their last day for free delivery before Christmas - I suspect the PO is dealing off the top and bottom of the deck, most recent and longest waiting together - in fact today I think I had a delivery which exactly exemplified that, as my wife had something which she said she ordered some time ago delivered with my very recently ordered (just a week ago) stuff.

This one from Tower Green?

Where do you all clear the snow too? - into the street (road) simply adds to the driving dangers, into your own garden (if you have one) is possible but a huge effort over walls etc., into someone else's pavement space hardly helps - many pavements are not really wide enough to have a snow mound and a cleared space. I ended up piling a lot onto my daughter's car which I know won't be drivem until there's a thaw - but that's hardly a commonplace solution available to us all. The Canadian requirement which has been discussed assumes a very different street topology than what we have in ED I'm guessing.

I picked up an (Amazon) parcel from Sylvester Road this morning (I'd been out when they tried to deliver) - the whole sorting office seems stuffed with Amazon parcels - all waiting for someone to collect them.

It would be helpful to indicate broadly where you are - if there are people close and they don't have a problem they could help you narrow it down - at the moment loads of people (such as me) could say that we don't have a problem, but that doesn't help you.

...on windscreens tonight. I have just gone out to find snow which fell on my car has already started to freeze. I have scraped clear the screen, hoping for no more snow and no iced up screen tomorrow. Although it doesn't seem to have settled on ED streets I suspect that if it's freezing on the car it will also be freezing on un-gritted roads. So be careful if you are driving.

These are Harem pants

James As the exchange is showing as supporting 21CN (the new network) it may be that SDSL was not seen as being necessary; it also depends on the mix of subs on that exchange - if it's mainly residential then Synchronous DSL (which is more about uploading) is less imperative than for a high mix of business subscribers (who may be served from the Forest Hill TX). BT is talking about rolling out Infinity services (FTTC I believe) in March 2011.

Tony Rabbit - you have got this wrong. There were 2 mobile networks - Cellnet - owned by BT, and Racal-Vodofone - whicb Racal floated off and which is now Vod. Cellnet (which eventaully became O2 before being divested from BT and eventually bought by the Spanish carrier Telefonica) always had its own mobile infrastructure (i.e. cell transmitters etc.) - and the network infrastructure was supplied, as you might expect, by BT. Vod also used (rented) much of BT's cable infrastructure, initially as private circuits - Megastreams etc.. The two networks were broadly comparable in size in the UK. When BT was forced to divest O2 it did so and (in order to stay in the mobile market) formed an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) initially with T-Mobile. Eventually it migrated its services to Vod. Mobile networks (of which there are now 5, shortly to be 4 - '3', owned by Hutchinson Wampoa, Orange, owned by France Telecom and T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom, as well as O2 and Vod have often shared masts/ sites - but not (until the Orange/ T-Mobile deal) underlying cell infrastructure. All other 'mobile networks' - e.g Virgin etc. are actually MVNOs. The true mobile networks all had to bid for and buy radio spectrum in which to operate their systems. The others lease that spectrum off them at wholesale prices, together with the cell transmitter infrastructure.

BT doesn't operate the microwave transmission from cell towers it is true (and does use Vod as its mobile carrier, having changed from T-Mobile, its original partner) - however BT is the major infrastructure provider of cable linking towers etc., so is very much a significant wholesale player in mobile networks, just not in mobile cell transmission. BT does of course use microwave transmission within its own core network infrastructure - so it is very much in the 'beaming' business - just not at mobile cell level.

I am on BT broadband, over a standard land-line using ADSL - with a download (Sunday morning) of 11,920 and an upload of 1,006. The BT 'superfast' Infinity service comes to Dulwich in March next year, I believe. I think my service is advertised as 'up to' 20Mgbs - BT suggests that 13Mgbs is more likely, given the state of my local loop and distace from the exchange.

No, I've been watching too few gritters

I have seen one gritter in action during the snow so far, not actually gritting, and have evidence of at least 2 gritting journeys in my street (which is a bus route) one a couple of days before the snow. How many gritters out there doing their stuff in ED has anyone else seen - including the hand gritters James talks about?

Well what a surprise - most of Southwark (Camberwell north) appears to be running smoothly - but ED and College wards (topologically the most challenged) and electorally the most lost to the current administration don't appear to be getting much gritting support - but then, not many votes to lose here, are there?

James - on the sticky thread at the top they've just reported buses slipping down Dog Kennel Hill - I noted on another post that although I saw a gritter in Underhill last night (19.45 approx) it hardly appeared to be gritting at all, it's back plate was spinning but only the occasional grain appeared to be being spread. We all knew last night was going to be bad; have we run out of grit/ salt already? (I know you will say 'no' to that). Last year's snow was a surprise - this year's seems to be just as much a surprise.

I saw a P13 creeping south along Underhill about 10 mins ago, just past the cemetery - no evidence of any gritting on that road - I saw a gritter at about 7.45 last evening, but it wasn't scattering much/ any grit - looked more like a slow leak than a gritting run.

James Thanks for your response - all the main routes seem good now - there was clearly a problem yesterday for buses in Forest Hill Road and even yesterday evening the 'turning circle' by Wood Vale was still pretty treacherous. I haven't seen the hand gritters, but I must say I haven't been driving around a lot to find them - or walking as the side roads and pavements are still bad, and now it's freezing they are worse.

James - a good question has been asked in another thread about boundaries - the Southwark/ Lewisham boundary around Forest Hill etc. is both, well, by definition, hilly, and appears to be missed out by anyone - or at least buses etc. seem to have inordinate problems around there- so maybe this area needs double dosing. The service plan talks about roads and routes, but doesn't seem to identify topology (at least, if it does, I've missed it). The South end boundaries of Southwark sit in some of the hilliest part of SE London, indeed of London - you would think hills (particularly with bus routes - like Underhill by the cemetery) - might get a priority gritting, but they seem to be treated like any other flat section of road. If the plan is to be re-issued perhaps you could get them to mark it up by topology.

Mrs P68 is on a train from Victoria destined (apparently) for Forest Hill - currently stuck outside Clapham Junction (no I didn't understand either) - but no trains appear to be leaving Victoria for Orpington etc. (i.e West Dulwich)

I have this terrible sense of deja vu

Although it's smowing it is also above freezing - that means that what was compacted snow/ ice earlier this morning can now be easily shifted - by anyone who wants to clear previously compacted frozen snow away from their frontages. It will (almost certainly) fall below freezing tonight which means that anything still compacted will be treacherous tomorrow morning. Garden paths, driveways, pavements - the trick may be to do this as late as possible whilst still not frozen to avoid build up, or when it stops snowing (if it does).

I did post this some time ago, but it maybe worth reviving:- Some years ago I developed the theory of skip equilibrium (based on personal experiences in the late ?80s in SE Dulwich, and some previous observations in Clapham). This theory does not apply to skips used for builders rubble or garden waste. On day one, the skip is delivered and you fill it with household rubbish. On night one the skip is half emptied by scavengers and a quarter re-filled by surreptitious neighbours. On day two you refill the skip by adding a further 25% skipfulls of your rubbish. On night two it is again half emptied and a quarter refilled. On day 3 you add a further 25%, now having thrown away 150% skipfulls of rubbish into one skip. On night 3 the skip is emptied by only a quarter and refilled again. The skip has now achieved equilibrium; small amounts will disappear and be added until day seven, when someone throws away an old, wet, carpet which covers the (now mounded) skip and discourages either further additions or more scavenging. The skip is now collected. The important point is that the skip being used as a public object actually allows you to throw away more than if it wasn't. The only caveat is that you must fill it quickly with your own rubish on the first day.

God but you must be in dire straits to be stealing milk at 3.30 in the morning Or coming back from a great party - I've often fancied a nice cold milk at that time at the end of a thrash - it's just that I wait to get home and drink my own. And don't start me on the munchies...

"Please, I want a CPZ just outside my own house, with me the only person allowed to park in it, please, please...." is generally the way people asked about these sort of things see the question ... it ain't gonna be like that, no way, no how. Your next door neighbour, with 3 cars, will be permanently parking outside your house, you will be parking a long way away and having to get up early to move your car etc. etc. When I was in a CPZ area I found out that many more cars were 'permitted' to park in my allocated stretch of street than there were spaces - and why not, it was a money spinner. As others have said, ED being a CPZ free zone is part of its very real attractions - CPZs ineventably spread and become more demanding - some now set the allowable hours as late as after 8.00 in the evening - apparently to ensure that only residents park there, but actually (as there are also meters - look forward to those why don't you) to raise even more money. Hosting children's parties (or visits), except on Sundays, or other than only with guests living very locally is no longer a realistic option. Any poll MUST include adjacent (and wider) streets to a proposed zone - and (I know we on this site pride ourselves as being the voice of ED) we really shouldn't confuse what we are saying with 'the voice of the people'. A thread was started here by one person - James suggests it comes up in surgery whining - but is there really a groundswell?

James 1. Herne Hill has far fewer pubs, restaurants, shops then LL - hence less of a general attractor (including for people working there) for visitors 2. HH station supports trains to Victoria, Blackfriars, Thameslink (when CPZ was created) hence a much bigger commuter attractor than ED station. 3. Residential streets away from HH station somewhat less congested/ parked up - so less backwards pressure once CPZ was set up to extend it - and by the way far more off street parking in immediate streets around HH station. 4. As said above - actual causes of parking problems less clear - if commuters small element (which I suspect) HH solution won't work here. 5. Any CPZ introduction is always thin end of the wedge - once the principle is conceded then more and more bites out of our freedom will be taken. Paranoid? me? no - just experienced