david_carnell

I was there on Sat for a rather scrappy 0-0 against Hendon and the atmosphere was cracking. Will be going again soon.

Le Deux Salon in Charing Cross? You can get a private room or large banquette areas. Great food. Not sure what sort of Sun lunch they do though....

Mick Mac Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I can just picture your missus now DC, with her > big beer gut, beard and CAMRA tshirt. I know her > type alright. Two out of three Mick. She doesn't wear tshirts.

I love that pub!

Ah - Normal for Norfolk.

Now I really want to know where you're from, Flora. It sounds a hoot.

Franco Manca are doing well to be nominated somewhere where they've yet to open.

We've had the same problem on Maxted Road with massive continental coaches from Peckham Lodge cutting up through Bellenden Road and along Maxted to try and get out onto East Dulwich Road. With cars parked on all sides when they get to the junction with Nutbrook they often get stuck and perform increasingly balletic maneouvres to try and get out. I mentioned it to James Barber some time ago about asking the owners of Peckham Lodge to tell coaches not to go that way but not sure it had any effect.

Whites will be more reasonable than Dulwich DIY. They supply the trade more too.

Corona and Sol taste of nothing. Like, actually nothing. You have to drink them icy cold and stick a lime in to find it even palatable. Bonkers. I'll drink a lager from time to time, mainly when the temperature rises, but I'd challenge even regular drinkers to tell the difference between the major brands. The only difference between Fosters, Carling, Carlsberg etc is marketing. A good pilsner can be pretty decent though. The Brick House micro-brewery in Peckham do a good one. And just as cheap mass prouced lager is crud, so is the ale equivalent. Anywhere serving John Smith, Boddingtons or Tetley smoothflow should be avoided like the plague. Yet travel 200 miles north to Yorkshire and genuine hand-pulled, well kept Tetleys is a thing of beauty and joy. It converted my missus to ale drinking.

A fascinating and frightening take down of Putin's economic strategy as well as the geo-politics of oil. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/11181297/Oil-slump-leaves-Russia-even-weaker-than-decaying-Soviet-Union.html

Dulwich DIY do it.

Indeed she is. Broke engine mounts, a faulty auto gearbox, bald fron tyres, an MOT due next week and tax due in Dec means she is simply more expensive to keep than buying something better would be. A Volvo is on the shortlist. I've also got my eye on a mid-90s 5-series touring. Thanks for the tip PGC - will give them a call.

El Pibe Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I am thinking that I'm finding myself using the > gerund too much. I am loving that.

Yeah, cos that weird hybrid they're gonna get now won't be a problem AT ALL ;-)

Roast potatoes on the bar on a Sunday. Traditional opening hours? Closed between 2pm and 5pm. But with lock-ins for regulars.

The old motor has to go to the great car park in the sky. Anyone else sent a car to the knackers yard? What's the process? She's driveable for the next week or so till the MOT expires so I can get it there myself if needed. Any local scrapyards people would recommend (or not)?

They had strippers everywhere in the 70s and 80s. Mainly at the BBC.

Heh - whatever happened to her eh? Never went to the Patch. Never felt it was worth the schlep for the money they were asking but sad a local business has failed. It's a good size but a bad space and the location doesn't help.

I'm afraid I agree with oimissus - underwhelming. Firstly, it's massive. Huge. So getting anywhere with kids takes ages and they're knackered or complaining. Second, it's still very new and immature. The planting is yet to really bed in and it still feels very "artificial". On the plus side, there is a Giraffe at Westfield which caters well for kids and is bearable for adults and the water play park was good fun. Probably not at this time of year though.

Seriously - it's great. The weather is the only factor. We had hail in June at one point and took shelter by breaking into a farmers barn! There are companies who know the routes and will ferry all your luggage for you from one B&B to the next so you just carry a day pack. There are even companies who arrange the whole thing and book all your accomodation too. We found it was much cheaper to book ourselves if you can deal with a few eccentric Yorkshiremen on the phone.

West Highland Way is midge-tastic. Steveo, why not combine walking and drinking with the Inn Ways. http://www.innway.co.uk/ There are a few that vary in length and in different parts of the country. I did the Yorkshire one and both the scenary and pubs were great.

I can't see vids a work but has anyone recommended Jenny Jones by the Clash?

clockworkorange Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Wow. Over a coffee shop. > > Can I just ask, at the risk of adding more froth > to this hot coffee school yard scuffle, how do > local shops, by contrast to the nasty multiples, > pump their profits back to the local community? > Never heard such toss in my life. > > Please enlighten me as to how local shops for > local people are so charitable? Surely they're > businesses there to make profit, just like the > neros of this world? I've not met a successful > retailer that runs their business for the good of > the community although I have worked with big > nationals, including supermarkets, that take > social responsibility very seriously and pump > millions of pounds into charitable causes. > > As an aside, Nero employs more people in east d > than say the chandelier. That's more "locals" with > money to spend "locally". > Chain stores, whether they are supermarkets or coffee shops or places selling topedo-shaped sandwiches are a way of doing business that has a particular model for the society and local economy that grows up around them. Because of the way they are linked in to remote supply structures and with remote investors they have little to no knowledge of that local economy. All the demands and the pattern of business focused on those sorts of franchise models are fundamentally uninterested in the overall health and wellbeing and vibrancy of the local economy. They are interested in one thing only. Sucking in consumer spending to then be extracted from the local economy, sent off to a head office to pay for centralised logisitcs and the expectations of shareholders and investors. They are extractive industries. So the difference between, say a Cafe Nero and a locally-owned and run coffee shop, is that whether it is to do with who does their accounts each year or who cleans their windows every week, local businesses are much more likely to recirculate the spending that goes into their business back into the local economy which then brings otehr social and economic benefits. Local businesses whose, for want of a better phrase, DNA is intertwined with the local community bring more benefits. Not just whatever it is they are selling but a social glue. They provide financial resources from which more vibrant and more diverse and thus more resilient communities can grow. Lastly, and for me most importantly, they give a sense of place. A feeling of distinctiveness and uniqueness. They aren't clone towns. I recently had to go to Northwich in Cheshire. Walking along the High Street there was not a single indicator of where I was. It was the same as a hundred other high streets in Britain and incredibly depressing. We are really lucky in East Dulwich and Peckham and Nunhead to have those distinct shops (butchers, bakers, whatever) that bring an identity to the area. Chain stores destroy that identity.

Under floor?