DulwichLondoner

If you have ever been to Italy, you will have noticed that Italian high streets are not exactly filled with home-made pasta shops. There may be some, but more typically you can find home-made pasta in stores that also sell other stuff. Also, home-made fusilli or tagliatelle are IMHO good, but not exactly on an entire different planet vs their cheaper, not home-made counterparts. The real difference is with ravioli or other pasta filled with fresh ingredients; for example, the ravioli filled with fish that I tried at Burro and Salvia reminded me of what I ate at a classy Italian wedding. But that's expensive stuff, which you don't exactly eat every day, so it's hard to achieve the kind of footfall that would justify the cost of a shop on the Lordship Lane high street.

It depends. Not all trains from Victoria to Denmark Hill stop at Peckham Rye. Not sure about Thameslink - worth double checking. Peckham Rye is not accessible - if you plan on reproducing and using the station with a pram, good luck! And the station + the area immediately outside the station is much more, mmm, scruffy in Peckham Rye than in East Dulwich. Of course different people will attribute different importance to these points.

I haven't done it in a while but my recollection is that it can take longer to get from the London Bridge rail platform to the tube platform, than from ED to London Bridge. This is typical of other London stations, too. I prefer the bus from London Bridge to the City. YMMV. Or maybe the Overground to Shoreditch then a bus?

I am biased: I am moving away from ED because I find the train service has worsened materially over the last 2 years. Not everyone agrees with me, though. Up to you to make up your own mind. http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,1765183,1888656#msg-1888656 http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,1797543,1837614#msg-1837614

Have you tried other combinations of phones/sims, maybe borrowing those of friends and relatives, or swapping sims across phones (if unlocked)?

You could also look into wifi calling. It means that the phone gets the signal from a wifi conenction; it's all seamless, you don't need to do anything other than enabling it once. It typically works with most phones supplied by the network operator directly, and with some phones bought unlocked elsewhere. The EE and Vodafone websites have all the details. I have both the femtocell and wifi calling on EE; they're OK, but they're not perfect, and call quality can be a bit hit or miss at times.

Well, a big difference is that in many European countries you can ride a 125cc scooter or motorcycle with your car licence. Whether that's fair, I'm not so sure - I'm inclined to think not. My impression is that London has more motorcycles than scooters, whereas in Madrid Paris and Milan it's the opposite - but it's just an impression. Another difference, pointed out to me by an English police motorcyclist, is that, while in many European countries pretty much everyone, even those who don't ride themselves, knows someone they do, here there's loads of people who don't know a single motorcyclist. This contributes to the feeling of bikers being a "separate group", something completely different many people find it hard to relate to. I found the explanation a bit too metaphysical, but there may be some truth to it.

But was the announcement from the loudspeakers in the station, or from those in the train? Because I can guarantee that no one in my carriage heard a thing!

Aren't we ungrateful for the opportunity to visit such lovely destinations instead of getting home to our loved ones...

@rendelharris, in theory I couldn't agree more! For once, ha ha ha :) In theory it would be great if HGV and car drivers were forced to spend some time on two wheels, motorised and non-. Practically, I don't see this happening, but at least introducing something in the exam to 'educate' them on how different the perspective is when you're on 2 wheels would be very very useful.

micromacromonkey Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Us and Them. > > Why don't we have a standard forum template for > this type of anger, then we can all save ourselves > a lot of typing time? I agree. Indeed, this is why the point of my post was not to present one category as inferior or superior, but to convey that all categories are (almost) equally guilty. My gripe with cyclists is that: 1) without a plate, they can easily get away without getting caught, unless they are stopped/fall/etc. No realistically feasible alternative here. 2) no training is required. No, having a car licence isn't enough, just like it isn't enough to ride a motorcycle. A 'pushbike licence' isn't realistic, but at least some compulsory training in schools might go a long way. Sure, there are car drivers who behave like idiots despite their 'training', but, still... I know the forum is full of sensible cyclists who always behave responsibly and don't need any kind of training, but unfortunately London roads are full of way less sensible cyclists.

andynic Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Really good of you to indicate when you're turning > left. There's probably even something in the > Highway Code about it. Please forgive my typo. Clearly I meant that, in addition to signalling with the indicator, which of course I always do, I often signal with my *hand* because otherwise cyclists tend to ignore the signaling light. I am not aware of any obligation to signal with indicator AND hands. I would however suspect that accelerating furiously to undertake a vehicle which has clearly indicated its intention to turn left would most likely be classified as dangerous driving or dangerous cycling. Not to mention utterly stupid when the cyclist has more chances of hurting himself than me. > From a cyclist's point of view you wouldn't > believe the number of car drivers who don't > bother, or who indicate once they're half way > round the corner. Oh, no, I do, I totally do, hence my comment about all road users, of all categories, including motorcyclists.

EE sent me a small femtocell for free because they recognise that the signal is poor in the East Dulwich area. This was about a year ago. A femtocell (signal box) is a small box you connect to your router with a LAN cable so that it sends a 3G wireless signal. Vodafone used to charge for this (no idea what they do now). EE doesn't charge if they recognise the signal is poor. This thingy has improved the signal, but it's still not perfect, i.e. sometime I still get issues even when calling landlines.

The first thing you learn as a motorcyclist, which, AFAIK, you tend not to learn as a car driver, is to ride defensively, which means riding assuming there are only 3 categories of road users: 1) those who want to kill you 2) those who want to kill themselves 3) those who want to kill themselves and you And by road users I mean everyone, pedestrians cyclists other motorcyclists car drivers cabbies lorry drivers bus drivers etc. Yes, I know, it sounds self-righteous, pompous and arrogant, but riding keeping this basic principle in mind ensures Darwinian self-preservation. It should be applied to driving any kind of vehicle. If I am about to turn left and there is a bicycle behind me, I signal with my end to make sure the genius has seen me and doesn't try to undertake me the moment I slow down to turn left (a constant occurrence). If I see pedestrians running towards a crossing, I assume they'll ignore the red man and jump in the middle of the road. If I see a motorcyclist filtering like crazy, I let him overtake and do his thing without the risk of hitting or involving me. If I am riding along a residential road with lots of cars parked on both sides of the streets, I always assume there will be a child or an idiot adult ready to jump from a parked vehicle without looking. Same if I am overtaking a bus which has just pulled over to let people get off. Etc etc etc.

I can think of a very simple solution: force the railway bosses to eat their own dog food and to commute daily on their trains! I suspect the Southern services would become excellent if the bosses were forced to commute from Brighton to Victoria. Every. Single. Day. :) :)

So someone heard the announcement, someone didn't - it makes sense but doesn't make it any less infuriating. How were you told? Was it an announcement in the station only? In big stations like Victoria they're not particularly useful. Aren't there loudspeakers on the train themselves, too? Were they used?

No worries, I understand. The fact that I wasn't the only one affected, but that at the same time we weren't an army of people taking the train from Bromley to Denmark Hill might suggest that the displays changed after I had checked them and/or an announcement was made but wasn't heard in the whole train. Let's just say that yesterday I wanted to buy a punchbag to vent some anger!

I recommend https://www.photograface.com/ near Wandsworth Town. We hired her for toddler photo sessions (not newborns). There was another one near Upland road who advertised at Gymboree; can't remember the name.

rendelharris Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > ETA Looking up a geek train website (too much time > on my hands) What website, out of curiosity?

"a few minutes late" may have been 12, not sure, didn't count that. What I do recall distinctively is that I checked the display on the platform: it did report 'calling at Denmark Hill'. I then checked the display that's inside the train: it reported the same. You're welcome to have doubts of course, I appreciate memory can play tricks, but two clear and vivid memories which are so recent? I wasn't the only one affected. Other people in my carriage saw the display reporting a stop at Denmark Hill, and they hadn't heard any announcement. I wasn't wearing headsets or headphones, in case you're wondering. As you might recall from other threads, my contempt for the trains (not) serving the area is huge and I have, in fact, been househunting elsewhere because I have had enough. Like I said something similar happened 2 months ago. And also a year ago: the train was supposed to go to Denmark Hill. Then there were two contradicting announcements, one saying the train had been cancelled, the other saying it hadn't. We asked a SouthEastern person on the paltform, she said it would go to Denmark Hill, and we ended up in Herne Hill, where we had to wait about 20 minutes for the efficient bus # 37.

Yesterday the 19.34 Southeastern train from Victoria to Gillingham did not stop at Denmark Hill as planned; it went straight to beautiful Bromley South. I had checked that the display on the platform and that inside the train both reported Denmark Hill as the first stop. The train was a few minutes late, then ... magically went to Bromley South without any intermediate stops. I asked the other people in my carriage and they hadn't heard any announcement, either. This is the second time this happens to me on that line; two months ago I ended up in equally beautiful Lewisham. Now, while of course Bromley South and Lewisham are terrific locations, possibly the top 2 touristic destinations in London, and I am very happy to visit them whenever I have a chance, ending up 6 to 8 miles far from home, and taking 90 minutes instead of the ca. 13 the Victoria to Denmark Hill journey should take, is not exactly how I prefer to end a working day. The fact that this crazy **** continues to happen on the commuter lines of the Denmark Hill / East Dulwich area beggars belief.

Opening car doors with the "Dutch reach" should be taught here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/the-dutch-reach-how-opening-car-door-like-the-dutch-could-save-lives-cycling/ It's about opening the left door with your right hand, and viceversa, as this forces you to look at the oncoming traffic.

I'd also guess that 2-bed properties sell more easily than larger ones. Quite banally, 2-bed appeal more to first-time buyers, for whom the alternative is renting. 3+beds tend to be bought by people who are trying to upsize. It is easier to find arguments in favour of renting over buying, than in favour of upsizing vs staying put! It will also be interesting to see if there will be waves of forced sales as amateur buy-to-let landlords struggle to refinance their interest-only mortgages, with the new rules on affordability, new tax rules etc., and may be forced to sell.

Thanks. It will be a cold day in hell before I use gmail, mostly because of the privacy considerations outlined here: https://androidforums.com/threads/email-which-apps-keep-it-private.935578/ but of course YMMV and I appreciate I am a minority, since gmail is so widespread. AquaMail recognises the link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kman.AquaMail&hl=en_GB and is privacy-friendly. Thinking about it, I wonder if removing the "<" characters might cause the text to be broken across multiple lines in other clients. Mmm...

PS K@mail hasn't been updated in over a year. I am trying Aquamail, one of the few privacy-friendly email clients for Android, and it's displaying links correctly.