DulwichLondoner

Google maps can give an indication (it lets you calculate straight-line distance) but it's just an indication. The website and admission policy of each school should detail what system is used - typically the council's. Many councils will tell you the distance between an address and a school if you ask. Not sure about Southwark. Do post back on what you find.

@TE44, First of all the fact that parents mean well is totally and utterly meaningless. A well-meaning parent can still cause considerable harm. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, they say. You talk as if these were some kind of generic philosophical beliefs, where everyone is entitled to an opinion and no one can really be proven right or wrong. It most certainly and categorically is not, far from it! First of all, do you agree that single cases are irrelevant? Yes or no? If no, care to explain why? Like I said, I still struggle to understand why the statement ?my unvaccinated kids are doing fine? should be any more reasonable, relevant or representative than ?I let my kids do something really dangerous but they?re fine? or ?I played the lottery and have become a millionaire?. There exists such things as scientific truths. In every field, there is debate and a lack of consensus on the most recent advancements, but, equally, there is consensus on some well-established theories, a consensus reached over the decades, analysing tons and tons of data that prove the very same thing. How to cure a very rare form of cancer may be an example of the former: different doctors may easily propose different treatments; vaccines clearly fall into the latter category. They do so because they have been studied for decades, all over the world, on millions and millions of people. Studying a very rare disease is very difficult, also because there are few cases to study, and with few data points it?s always hard to conduct a thorough epidemiological study. Not so with vaccines. You ask how I know what I know. That is how. You say that ?experts battle over different opinions? ; well, not on vaccines. Unless you want to include homeopathic doctors who quote newspaper articles and online comments from random people as their ?sources? in your definition of ?experts?. You beg to differ? Fine. Then please explain what experts battle over vaccines. Can you possibly explain that the concept of herd immunity is wrong? Can you possibly explain that vaccines have not contributed to a substantial increase in life expectancy and to the eradication of a number of previously deadly diseases?

@loz, you?re right, I shouldn?t have said ?less likely?, but I hope the gist of what I was trying to say was clear! @JohnL, Without any information on price by square foot, which is commonly tracked in other countries but not, AFAIK, here, it is very hard to understand how representative or comparable these statistics are. For example, when they say the average price went up by x% between 2015 and 2016, what does that mean exactly? The average price of all transactions? But how comparable are the transactions of those 2 years? To what extent is the increase driven, say, by a higher number of bigger and more expensive properties sold in one year but not in another? If I remember correctly, property websites track the asking (asking, not sale) price in a given area by type (flat/house) and number of bedrooms, but it is not uncommon to find 3 beds with almost the same square footage of some two-beds. I receive a weekly email from RightMove, and 50 to 80% of the properties I am notified about tend to be price reductions, either explicitly marked as much, or new instructions of the same property to a new agency at a lower price, but without the ?reduced? tag. This has been going on for a year at least; none of this happened 4-5 years ago when I bought. This suggest that insane >10% year-on-year increases may be a thing of the past; it doesn?t necessarily mean there?s a house crash, and it might not even necessarily mean that prices are coming down: it may even be compatible with a modest year-on-year increase in price, just not by as much as some sellers were hoping for. Finally, building standards in London are abysmally poor compared to other countries; leaving aside the Greenfell tragedy for a moment, I have seen properties, even relatively recent ones, with crooked corners and ceilings, incredibly poor insulation, and a number of other things which would cause German builders to lose their licence. All of this to say that I wouldn?t be surprised if the right property, in the right location and with the right characteristics, could still command relatively high prices. Of course capturing this with some summary statistics is effectively impossible.

So no one can ever be wrong because anything is a legitimate opinion? So if someone says he thinks the Earth is flat do you say: ?I disagree but I respect your opinion? or do you say ?Well, you are wrong because undisputable evidence proves the contrary, and you have not proven that centuries of knowledge are wrong?? I?m off to making animal sacrifices to ensure a good harvest. It is my ?opinion? that this works, and everyone must respect it :)

We had ours repaired by the shop on Peckham rye lane, near the Asda. I don't remember the name but it shouldn't be hard to find. Worth calling first. There's also a store on Northcode road, not far from Clapham Junction, which probably repairs buggies.

If you know your way around spreadsheets you could run some numbers to get a feeling for the cost of renting vs buying. I have come up with some random numbers just for the sake of argument. Let?s say you have ?80k of savings for a new property, and you can use ?65k for the deposit and ?15k for stamp duty and other fees/expenses. Let?s say you are currently paying ? 1,500 in rent every month. Over 2 years the cost would be ? 36k, less the interest you?d get from the ?80k (let?s say ca. ? 1,600), i.e. ? 36,000 - ? 1,600 = ? 34,400. You want to buy a property worth ? 400k; you need ?10k in stamp duty, plus you?d pay at least ?5k (probably more) between legal fees, cost of moving, new furniture, etc. If you find a mortgage at 1.3%, you?d pay between ?8k and ?10k of interest and fees over 2 years: ? 8,710 if it were interest only, less if you?re repaying capital, plus fees etc. Let?s say ?10k for the sake of argument. If prices in 2 years are the same as today, the cost of buying is ?10k + ?15k (stamp duty and fees) = ?25k vs ?34,400 cost of renting. Capital repayments are not a cost ? that is money you are repaying to yourself as it adds to your wealth. If prices are 5% down, that?s a loss of ?20k over the ?400k price, so buying costs ?25k +?20k = ?45k, ie more than renting. If prices are 5% up, that?s a gain of ?20k, so buying now costs ?5k (?25k cost less ?20k gain) vs ?34,400. This is just a very simplistic way of looking at things, but I?m hoping it can give you an idea. Of course, as others have said, the longer your horizon is, the less relevant these comparisons. There are also many other factors which are hard to quantify. When you buy you?re more likely to maximise the available space: a 2-bed with bespoke furniture may easily have more storage than a 3-bed poorly furnished by the landlord. If you own you?re less likely to be kicked out for no reason ? I know cases of families who were given notice just after they had applied for schools because the landlord had just decided to come back to the UK. No one has a crystal ball. My impression, based on about 1 year of assiduously following the local market, is that 2-beds still sell relatively quickly and have not gone down in price much, but properties of 3-beds or more have become way harder to sell, and I have seen many which get reduced multiple times then pulled from the market. Of course these are just my impressions ? I do not have enough data for any ?scientific? conclusion. Also, properties are not commodities: things like how they are marketed, or simply the luck

? Anyone is entitled to say and think the Earth is flat. This doesn?t make it true. Just like someone is entitled to write here that the Earth is flat, I am entitled to write that it is unsubstantiated nonsense, and that there has been irrefutable evidence for ages that it?s not flat. This is not about debating, say, whether X or Y would be a better Prime Minister. This is about scientific truths. When someone draws inference from a handful of isolated an unrepresentative incidents (my unvaccinated kids are doing just fine) I am entitled to point out how and why this approach is wrong. Beg to differ? Great. Then explain why. Vaccines are more complex because individual choices affect the rest of society (herd immunity), and because a parent?s anti-scientific approach causes direct harm to helpless children. Individual rights are not absolute. You have the right to think that 70mph would be a better speed limit for urban areas, and are entitled to point out the merits of your case. You are not entitled to drive at 70mph in the city centre, not because you might get hurt (Darwinian selection) but because you might hurt other people. It?s the same with vaccines.

This is not about disagreeing, it?s about stating banal facts. One can think the Earth is flat ? his thinking it doesn?t make it true. There exists such a thing as a scientific truth. If someone wants to challenge and dispute it, he should do so applying the scientific method, not saying ?I think?? or reporting one or two isolated and totally unrepresentative cases.

Reading some of the replies here, it seems not everyone appreciates how utterly irrelevant single cases are. ?My little Johnny was totally fine with it? or ?My little Rosie was not? are both equally meaningless statements. Pros and cons of a given treatment are not studied by asking a few random people what their experience has been, but by conducting thorough epidemiological studies, i.e. by analysing statistically a sample large enough to be representative. Whatever your opinion, it cannot be based on one or two unrepresentative cases. @TE44, that?s why I don?t know whether to feel angry or disheartened when I hear statements like yours , about how your non-vaccinated kids are doing fine. There are children who were brought up in households where everyone smoked in front of them. There were times when car seats were not used because they didn?t exist or were not mandatory. There are countries where parents take 1 or 2 very young children on motorbikes with no helmet and no protective gear. For each of this example, and many more, one could come up with cases of children who did those things and survived. Yet this doesn?t make these behaviours acceptable nor safe. Also, how is the system corrupt? On Dr Carolyne Frost, the mere fact that she lists things like newspaper articles and generic comments by random people on the internet as her sources is very worrying. Contrast this with the American study of over 2 million people quoted by the Oxford website mentioned above. Not to mention that homeopathy is not science ? there is no proof whatsoever for it! @Te44, you worry it becomes mandatory to vaccinate. I very much hope it does, and worry it is not mandatory at the moment. I am usually quite libertarian in my approach, and am a big fan of Darwinian selection. If an adult refuses ordinary medical treatment in favour of homeopathy or other voodoo science, well, it?s his choice, and his choice does not affect the rest of the population much. With vaccines it?s different, though, because the choice of not vaccinating does affect the rest of the population big time. Ever heard about herd immunity? It means that having a large % of the population immune to infection (as with vaccines) protects those who are not immune, e.g. the very few people who cannot be vaccinated because of rare medical conditions. Plus, of course, an adult?s right to make stupid choices which endanger himself should not apply to helpless children.

I can think of: The children centre in the Dog Kennel Hill estate, opposite Sainsbury?s Gymboree The soft play in the Peckham gym and swimming pool, next to the Peckham library Any more suggestions? We would probably not need animation if we do it at the soft play, but would consider it otherwise. I am not religious so I?m not sure if churches would let me use their spaces; I would have no objection renting a church venue, if they are fine with it.

Townleygreen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Shops that sell PCs are obliged by the government > to take them though - PC World? Not really an option. I prefer to have a custom built PC put together by guys like PC specialist or Cyber Power Systems, which then ship it to me. Even if I did like one of the PC World or John Lewis PCs, I'd still need to take my old one there to have it recycled - not straightforward without a car.

Penguin68 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Even where the overall > performance is flaky there may still be components > which can be re-used as-is, although most would be > quite old technology, I'm guessing. Well, IT obsolescence is not what it used to be when I was a kid. The problem is that I am afraid only few parts may be reusable, and I'm not sure how to donate them. The case, the CPU and its cooling fan should still be reusable, but it's hard to donate just them. 2 of the 3 hard drives should still work - I might be able to sell them on ebay after wiping them. A PCI wifi card still works - but new ones are so cheap anyway. The RAM, I suppose, but I'm not sure about the exact specs (frequency, etc). The motherboard is faulty. The video card died years ago and I didn't replace it - just using the integrated one.

Thanks. Yes, it's SATA, and in fact I already have a USB sata docking station. I'll test it as soon as I have the time. My point is I wouldn't know how to wipe the data from the disk if the disk is broken and I cannot connect it to a PC.

@RedDevil, do you mean for a pushbike waiting to turn right? The smaller strip may be crossed by vehicles turning right, but not the bigger one. Without any sign, I find they just create confusion. I ride there almost every day but I admit today is the first time I noticed them. Older street view images show they were not there in March 2016.

@Penguin68, when I donated a fully working PC in the past, or when I sell a used mobile on ebay, I always use software which wipes the data, overwrites it with random data, and wipes it again. I do this multiple times. Maybe spooks from MI5 or GCHQ could still retrieve something, not sure about that :) The problem I have now is that one of my 3 hard drives (1 ssd to boot up the system quickly + 2 data drives) is throwing a tantrum. It disappears and reappears randomly. If it's the motherboard controller, I can still wipe it. If it's the disk itself, I'm not sure what I could do - other than smashing it with a hammer! :)

@rendelharris, had I wanted to rant about dangerous cyclists, trust me, I would have posted about way more outrageous behaviour. My daily riding through London provides me with plenty of examples of suicidal behaviour by all types of road users. I should set up a youtube channel called "Darwianian selection"! I am not infallible, the fact that I couldn't find it doesn't necessarily mean much. I certainly didn't find the document posted by uncleglen. @uncleglen, thanks. I read in the document that "2.6 Green or red is commonly used to supplement prescribed signs/ markings to highlight an area of the road for use by buses or cycles [see Paragraphs 2.17 & 2.18]. However if coloured surfacing has already been applied in the locality, special care should be taken to minimise conflict". So do you think the intention was, what? To tell motorists: please leave this space for cyclists? Given the road layout I am not sure I understand. A bus lane is ahead; cars could interpret the green strip as an invitation to position themselves on the second lane before the bus lane starts, but motorcycles, TFL buses and black cabs can enter the bus lane at any time. The pictures in the document show cases where the purpose of the coloured strips is quite clear, but don't show anything like what I have posted.

Thanks! I had no idea. Taking the 176 to the Sydenham library seems the most convenient solution. I'll call to check, but do you know if I can take it there even if I am a Southwark, not Lewisham, resident?

??? I asked a genuine question about what on Earth those green strips mean. If you can answer, I shall be forever grateful. If you want to get into a flame on which category of road users is more dangerous or obnoxious, do it with someone else, please.

Is there any way to recycle an old desktop PC (no monitor) locally? Other than taking it to the council?s recycle centre near the Old Kent road ? I don?t have a car and carrying the whole thing there is not particularly straightforward; I haven?t weighted it but the case alone is 9 kg, so with all the parts it will be at least 11 Kg. By recycling it I mean getting rid of it in the least environmentally harmful way, not donate it; I can?t donate it because, long story short, many parts have developed hardware faults so I suspect the thingy will not last much longer. There are ads for people collecting all kinds of rubbish; it would be more convenient, and possibly cheaper, than taking a taxi to the recycle centre, but how do I know these chaps won?t just dump everything in some abandoned field? Do they need some kind of licence and, if so, can I check it (eg confirming their registration with the council)? I will probably get a custom-built PC at PcSpecialist or CyberPowerSystems; however, neither recycles old PCs (which makes sense as they deliver with a courier like UPS). PS I know I should do a secure wipe of the hard disks before getting rid of them.

Is the green strip in this photo a ?cycle lane?, or does it somehow indicate that that space should be occupied by bycicles only? https://goo.gl/maps/A5cwsepJo3u It?s near Oval, so not East Dulwich, but not too far, and in a location many ED residents are likely to drive/cycle/ride through (so I hope it?s not considered off-topic). If it means for pushbikes only, where is it in the highway code? I couldn?t find it anywhere. If not, is it even legal to paint a green strip like this? Streetview shows another similar strip at the previous junction just a few yards back: https://goo.gl/maps/ZKYKEXpSRHJ2 While on my motorcycle, I had an argument with a cyclist, who undertook me while I was turning left to enter the bus lane ahead (which is open to motorcycles). The roads were very busy, and I was going very slowly (as proven by the fact that a pushbike managed to undertake me). I had seen the cyclist in my mirror, but would have never imagined he?d undertake me at a bend. I braked, honked, and at the next traffic light pointed out that it is quite stupid to undertake a motorcycle like that; he told me I should not have been on the green strip as it?s a ?cycle lane?. Note that any vehicle (regardless of the number of wheels) coming from the left, as I was, must cross the green strip ? there is simply no way to avoid it. The two metres or so of green strip before the pedestrian crossing can be avoided, but, coming from the left, there is no way to avoid all of the green strip. PS Even if he?s right, undertaking like that is still stupid because it is more dangerous for him than for me. I speak from direct experience: as a motorcyclist I am a vulnerable road user myself; if I see, say, a truck in a bus lane that?s open to motorcycles but not to trucks, I stay back, I don?t undertake while the guy is turning left arguing that he shouldn?t have been there!

The Camberwell Grove residents beg to differ, though!

This seems like saying that taxes are what people richer than us should pay, with the threshold defining "rich" moving in line with our earnings! Lyndhurst grove, which then changes name to McNeil road, is a half-mile relatively straight stretch of road. Why ban it? Because it's not an A road? But wouldn't banning most traffic from non-A and non-B roads cause even more congestion? Btw, NIMBYs will be affected too, because they might see less congestion in their own road, but worse congestion down the road means more pollution - even for them. Also, the structure of roads in London is extremely irregular, certainly very different from the orthogonal structure of other European cities. Closing a single road may mean long detours, which, again, mean more congestion and pollution, even for those who don't use a car. And, before anyone accuses me of being an evil motorist, let me say I do not own a car, and that I started commuting by motorcycle when the Southern Rail fiasco made my commute by train impossible. The dispute between the residents of Camberwell grove and those of Lyndhurst Grove seems a dispute between two sets of NIMBYs: no one wants traffic on their road, but there is no consideration whatsoever for what might be best for the city as a whole, nor why...

Typical NIMBY attitude. The same attitude of those people who opposed railways in the Victoria era. Noisy ambulances drive near my property towards the Kings College Hospital. How dare they? Maybe I should campaign against them...

Penguin68 Wrote: >It is unlikely that > the particular problems will actually be > never-ending, despite appearances. People have been saying that since problems started at London Bridge, around December 2015. Will it all end in two months? In two more years? No one really knows. After all, two months ago, lots of people were quite sure that the Southern situation had improved. Then the overtime ban kicked in. And, bham, we're back to 1 train per hour during rush hour, like last summer. Yeah! > Other areas have other problems. You must decide > when a problem becomes so important to you that > (outwith an area's benefits) it is game changing > for you. Which doesn't mean it is game changing > for others, who may have different priorities or > solutions to the problem. Of course, that's quite self-evident. I am well aware that not everyone is affected the same way. I never said everyone should flee Dulwich, after all. It's just that the vitriol in my other thread, where I dared ask if any one else was considering leaving Dulwich, because of the poor transport links, shocked me. I fully appreciate that not everyone is as affected as I am by SouthernFail; it is however beyond me why some people fail to accept that I can be more affected than them. My theory is that it all goes back to the fact that certain people need to convince themselves and others that wherever they live is the best place on Earth. I cannot explain otherwise the rather ridiculous statements I keep hearing, like "Peckham is better than South Ken", "Bromley is only 10 minutes away from central London", etc.

remuneration (n.) c. 1400, from Middle French remuneration and directly from Latin remunerationem (nominative remuneratio) "a repaying, recompense," noun of action from past participle stem of remunerari "to pay, reward," from re- "back" (see re-) + munerari "to give," from munus (genitive muneris) "gift, office, duty" (see municipal). But, fear not, post-Brexit we'll get rid of all these pesky non-Celtic words from the English dictionary!