Penguin68

You can of course have extreme and robust liberals, 'wishy-washy' (apart from being part of what I thought was a well known phrase or saying) is a description of the type of liberal I am - perhaps I should have included a smiley of some sort to flag irony (is there an irony smiley?)

Given that an arms and militaria shop (this close to Peckham) might encourage a 'strange' clientele - and that an element of unfriendliness to unknown customers might be a necessary stock-in-trade, I have generally found, in the few visits I have made over 20 years or so, that the owner is knowledgable and the stock fairly priced (although I have only been interested in the antique items (pre 1900) and not the items from 20th century conflicts). Someone who is interested in arms and militaria (and runs a shop selling it to other interested parties) is likely to take quite a robust view towards the armed services and law and order generally, but I am not sure that sociopath is a happy description of the owner or the majority of his customers - certainly those who form the hard core of regulars - although interest in and admiration for such entities as the SAS could be judged to be evidence of a sociopathic nature by those of a wishy-washy liberal bent - although this wishy-washy liberal is less inclined to think that.

Mobile works best on line-of-sight from the microwave transmitters - one of the problems in East Dulwich/ Forest Hill/ Crystal Palace is hills and being under the brow of them (if the microwave tower is on the other side) - hence people losing signal (I certainly do) coming down Dog Kennel Hill. There may also be a problem where there is a high level of contention for a particular cell (each cell carries only a limited number of conversations at a time - in inner cities we have micro-cells (very small radius) to allow for more calls to be carried - but where someone is actually mobile the call has to be handed over from one cell to the next). I know (because I have had a problem) that Vodafone admits to congestion in Dulwich at times (particularly mid-day) when you may not be able to grab a circuit on a cell (outwith any issues of actual microwave reception). You can also 'lose' out if a car which is making a call comes through your local cell, when a call being made has priority over the regular 'are you still out there' handshake the cell makes with your phone (the 'ditting' interference you can get if your mobile is too close to an radio). Out of interest you need to know, in choosing a mobile carrier, that Virtual Mobile Network Operators (like Virgin and BT) use one of the four major underlying carriers (O2, Vod, T-Mobile, Orange) - I don't think 3 offers wholesale services but I may be mistaken. Hope this helps

Just to copy over the answer to the last question from the now closed 'other thread' - in case anyone else is till interested. The Anatolia has had two incarnations so far - it opened again 2-3 years ago having been shut for about 5 years - when it reopened it was almost unchanged (menu/ decor even prices!). This wasn't a bad thing as the style of cooking (Turkish Cypriot) offered far lighter and more subtle dishes than the equivalent Greek Cypriot, although in the same general style. The (Turkish) red wine and Turkish beers were excellent (for the price), and the welcome was always warm. I am not sure that the style of cooking was actually Anatolian (most of the Anatolians in Northern Cyprus are late arrivals, shipped in to boost numbers by the Turkish government - so Northern Cyprus does not have a strong Anatolian tradition of cooking). The food however was always well and consistently cooked and spiced, and the menu was (relatively) short and very much to a theme, so you did not feel there were freezers full of boil-in-the-bag waiting for an order. It was never gourmet eating, but neither was it gourmet prices, and it was always, in my experience, entirely 'honest' in its cooking and presentation - it delivered what it promised. In both incarnations they never took cards (always cash or cheque). I look forward to seeing what changes are implemented - with the hope that the quality (which was good) still improves, and the prices stay competitive.

The Anatolia has had two incarnations so far - it opened again 2-3 years ago having been shut for about 5 years - when it reopened it was almost unchanged (menu/ decor even prices!). This wasn't a bad thing as the style of cooking (Turkish Cypriot) offered far lighter and more subtle dishes than the equivalent Greek Cypriot, although in the same general style. The (Turkish) red wine and Turkish beers were excellent (for the price), and the welcome was always warm. I am not sure that the style of cooking was actually Anatolian (most of the Anatolians in Northern Cyprus are late arrivals, shipped in to boost numbers by the Turkish government - so Northern Cyprus does not have a strong Anatolian tradition of cooking). The food however was always well and consistently cooked and spiced, and the menu was (relatively) short and very much to a theme, so you did not feel there were freezers full of boil-in-the-bag waiting for an order. It was never gourmet eating, but neither was it gourmet prices, and it was always, in my experience, entirely 'honest' in its cooking and presentation - it delivered what it promised. In both incarnations they never took cards (always cash or cheque). I look forward to seeing what changes are implemented - with the hope that the quality (which was good) still improves, and the prices stay competitive.

bigbadwolf Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Dez Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I think the guy with the old firearms used to > work > > at the Upland pub years ago. > > > I was really pissed off with the gut that > explained the pistols history because I wanted to > know if they still worked but he didn't go that > far. 1. If the pistols had been filled (the normal way of taking pistols like that out of commission) the expert would have commented on that (it would have wrecked their value). He would also have commented if the firing mechanism (the flint lock) was obviously damaged or not working (it strains a gun and can damage it to cock and dry fire it however) 2. They would have been well 'out of proof' and thus very dangerous to attempt to fire. So, they were probably 'in working order' (i.e. nothing done to them to take them out of commission) but anybody trying to fire them would run the risk of the barrel exploding. You also need a licence (I think) for using working black powder firearms, even though owing such an antique unused doesn't require a licence (again, I think).

Out of interest, the reason people stopped clearing the pathway outside their own houses was that a court case demonstrated that if someone slipped on a path where attempts had been made to clear ice and snow, then the person who had attempted (and obviously failed) to make such a clearance (failed because the claimant slipped) was liable for damages - where no attempts had been made the walker was expected to take suitable care and any falls were on their own head (or bottom, or wherever). So, people stopped doing the decent thing in case someone else decided to go for the jackpot. Problem of our (imported) litigation culture, not helped by day-time ads offering no win no fees support from the legal sewers, or do I mean sue-ers?

This is, apparently, the worse snow-fall that London has seen for 18 years - we 'normally' get only one or two even mildly snowy days a year, if that. I, for one, would be unhappy paying for the infrastucture (snow ploughs, gritting machinery for all roads, training, staffing etc. etc.) at the level of Toronto and Moscow for approximately one day's use out of every 600. With train fares at the level they are I would be unhappy to be paying for heated rails etc. etc. again for a minimal use every year. The justification that TFL has is that our general climate does not justify expenditure on snow chains, skid training etc. for our buses and bus drivers. It may well be that we are due to see increased extremes of climate which will cost-justify such expenditure, but snow, in London, is still an extraordinary event. Central London, with its office etc. population, is normally sufficiently warmer than the surrounding countryside that snow rarely has a chance of settling - the fact is that we had a snowfall on Sunday evening - when the capital is probably at its coldest, as the heat sink which is its concrete and pavements (like a big storage heater) has had most time to dissipate. I am very glad that TFL (and local authorities) do still undertake some form of cost:benefit analysis. I couldn't afford their charges if they decided to invest against any eventuality, however unlikely. As it is, for a day or two every couple of years at most, we have a little disruption to our lives, a day off school or work, perhaps, a little inconvenience. And the cities you write of are also disrupted when their weather is (for them) extreme - think of the ice storms that devastated North America some time back, and I can recall reports of hypothermia deaths in Moscow. They had prepared for their (normal) snow, but not for those extremes.

In many cases we (individually) come across something which is frightening or disturbing. We may have misread or misunderstood someone?s signals or intentions, this may be a wholly isolated incident. Or we may not and it may not be. As individuals we don?t know whether we ?ought? to report the incident (perhaps because the person is wilfully threatening, perhaps because they are in need of psychiatric help) or simply let it pass. Flagging such an incident on a board like this allows others to be aware ? if it turns out that others have also been accosted (or whatever) then the pressure to report it becomes stronger; if no one else has had a similar incident then it may well be a one off (in which nothing untoward actually happened, even if the threat of that was real) and can be ignored. It appears, so far, that no one else who reads the board has suffered a similar incident. Good But if we say nothing, give no warnings ? and then something dreadful does happen?

Where residents? parking is introduced the following tend to happen:- (a) Home owners with existing off-street parking gain a windfall increase (in these times a windfall reduction in rate of decrease) of house value. This might be seen as an unintended consequence of no peculiar merit generally. (b) More people pave-over their front gardens, where they have one big enough to park a car, thus decreasing the amenity value of the neighbourhood (cars often less pretty than flowers) and increasing the problems of rain run-off/ local flooding. They may also thus reduce the available on-street parking space (by requiring drive access) thus further contributing to (a) and (b). © Where on-street parking services local shops, these lose out-of-area customers, thus reducing their viability and (sometimes) closing them ? which reduces the parking pressure which the residents parking was initially introduced to manage. (d) Enforcement manages to further ?criminalise? (OK, it?s normally a civil offence but you know what I mean) ordinary citizens, and encourages councils to look at revenue generation from using public streets. ?Amusing? news stories of ambulances and doctors (and other ?vital? visitors) being fined proliferate. (e) People who have out of area visitors (often the elderly, the vulnerable, those trapped at home with young children) discover that visits to them are now either more difficult, or more costly for their visitors. I think you may be able to guess which side of this debate I am leaning towards.

I have just come back from eating dinner there - the menu is quite pedestrian but the chef (Tunisian) can really season well, and may be encouraged to introduce more interesting dishes - we discussed tagines. It was his second day, and I guess he may have chosen a 'safe' menu with predictably popular dishes to start with. He claims to cook from a French tradition; I have no reason to dispute this. I saw a rib-eye being cut - the quality of meat looks good and the steaks were of pleasing width. The service was attentive (but there weren't many customers to put it under pressure). The chef asked whether I had thought about breakfast - clearly they want to make a thing of this. It may be stupidly reassuring to hear chefs back chat in French in the kitchen, but it is reassuring anyhow.