yorksgirl

Hi Stalent Hope you do get some response. I was reading your post and thinking, why does central and local government not help people with long term illness, by identifying types of work / tasks they could take on, and prioritise those people for that work? For example - not something you mention, but there is loads of minute-taking to be done in government and associated third sector organisations. Something people with mobility issues / older people could do, joining by Teams or Zoom. Also going to be plenty of editing work and other types of work which you do mention. Seems to me this would be so doable for government to get to grips with. Instead they are exhorting the over 50s to take on fast food-type delivery by bike. When I heard that I suspected it would be more about reducing the over 50 population through being mown down by trucks or having heart failure while trying to make manic schedules designed for 20 year old males. Have sent you an idea by PM, may not be appropriate but just a thought. Best of luck in your search.

Hi I forgot to ask please, what time should sellers arrive?

Not unless you're at least 100 years old. I'm 62, PP, and when those promises were made I was 30-ish. Blink of an eye, and I remember it all perfectly, thanks. (Quite a few members of my family have made it into their early 100s by the way, and all sharp as a pin to the end...centenarians aren't unusual these days).

Do I remember, that there used to be a very pleasant swathe of Metropolitan Open Land (supposedly protected), where Sainsburys, and the giant Sainsbury's car park, private sports club etc now sit. Do I also remember, how Southwark Councillors and officers swore themselves absolutely blind at the time that if only this 'one-off' huge loss of MOL took place, there would never be any further loss of the remaining amenity land and they would defend with their dying breaths the remaining MOL? Do I also remember that some of those very same Councillors are still in office in Southwark? Not the officers of course. Long departed on lovely pensions to spacious homes in very leafy, high amenity greenery of Surrey, Kent etc.

Also if you have problems that come up as B-vitamin related when you search for them, but the GP does a B vit test and it comes back normal - you may want to get a test for vitamin B2, riboflavin, which the NHS never tests for. B2 can't be tested for directly but you can get an indirect test - EGRAC test. B vit injections can help although don't fix.

If anyone gets bugs that regularly last too long, or gets frequent bugs - for instance if you are always catching things but notice that your partner never does, when you have both been pretty much in the same places, it is worth getting a test for Primary Immune Deficiency. Ask for test for Immunoglobulins. Most GPs have never heard of it and never test for it but is cheap and quick to get done commercially. PID is a spectrum, can be more or less serious but you always need to know if you are affected.

Please does anyone have direct experience of a computer repair place that's open on Saturdays? Need to retrieve contents of hard drive. I needed this once before, over a decade ago and a local ED bloke royally ripped me off, charging 3 hours at £90 per hour. I work in the NHS for close to zero pounds per hour and have to find someone that won't charge me more than I earn in a week for basically pressing a button.

Thank you for raising AylwardS, it is taking off again as people are acting as though there is no longer a threat. A lot of Clinically Extremely Vulnerable people have had to go back to work on site, and very often they will not be mildly ill if they get the current COVID variants, even after vaccination. Lot of people whose funds are low after COVID already and wouldn't financially survive weeks of being off their feet, not to say long COVID. Maybe Khan could bring back 'Coughs and sneezes spread diseases' on the tube, together with some decent-sized fines, it is not fun to be sprayed with snot and phlegm every morning by the lovely hankie-less travelling public.

Think this is an excellent idea. The IQAir filters are the ones they use in Ebola wards, they are the only ones that take the smallest viruses out of the air. Maybe they would do a deal to supply schools? They can come will filters to take out the tiniest particles down to 0.003 microns, they also do gas filters to take out Nitrogen Dioxide. Even in non pandemic times, would be a small investment to lessen the bug-go-round that happens at the start of every term after kids go back. Would easily repay the layout by saving lost time and NHS costs. Think all classrooms in London should definitely have them due to air pollution, in any case. They are not cheap but having bought one second hand can testify they make a huge difference, it is quite a shock to be reminded what it's like to breathe clean air. If they could only get this technology into tubes and trains. Meanwhile, would it be ok to shoot men who stand on the tube excavating the contents of their noses and flicking it all over the place? Or wiping it on the fabric of the seats, as a lovely gentleman was doing on the Jubilee at Stratford. What is the etiquette when you see some of it land on a fellow passenger, are we supposed to tell them or let them walk off with e.g.a giant lump of snot on their shoulder?

Seenbeen, have experienced the same problem, it unfortunately only ended when the drug user moved away. I wouldn't hold out for any help from the police. We had drug user who started smoking heavily in the closed basement well of flats, at the back, causing heavy pollution in couple of flats above him. When asked about it, he said he used to smoke outside at the front, in the basement courtyard there. He was keeping it away from his own 6 year old kid. Police were passing one day and told him to do it somewhere less obvious. There's a wide road at the front of the flats, and a large open space opposite, and when he did it at the front, no one had noticed. So what the police did was to cause the activity to move to where it became a problem for several people above and also must have affected the drug user's child. I can highly recommend the IQAir air filter, these clean the air beautifully. It's like breathing country air and I'm really glad I got it anyway, you soon realise the effect that breathing polluted air has been having. They are expensive but I got a perfectly good one second hand on ebay for ?200. Then ?250 a year for the essential filter (if you have the money you can add other filters).

Does anyone know what vaccine is given at St John's Medical Centre SE13 pls? - you can be sent there if you live in Nunhead

Barclays at 8 Oct 2020 has a recorded message saying that they are aware tbat recent transsactions are 'not showing' on customers' accounts.... but they hope to put the situation 'back where it was' by 'tonight'. So hardly any branches left, hardly any humans in those few branches, which in any they are still closing at 2pm using COVID as an excuse and where they have further reduced the already reduced services, again using COVID as an excuse...and still not answering the phone, just the tra la la waiting music. Meanwhile my incoming funds are held, somewhere, by Barclays, but I can't access the money. Suggest all Barclays account holders check accounts v carefully if and when Barclays tell us that they have sorted out this ginormous mess.

katanita Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Can you share your cycle route to those > @melissavf? I couldn't find one that looked very > nice but that would make a big difference! Would love to see your suggested cycle route too please. The only way I know that I find safe is to go through Lewisham and Greenwich, take the Woolwich Ferry and double back. Sadly my electric bike can't do there and back without a charge. Going north of the river - as far as I know- means using the cycle route through Stratford which is definitely not safe, cyclists regularly mugged and bikes stolen. Good to see some tips on wild swimming rather than open water swimming which is what Royal Docks and associated places do. The Open Water places are all very regulated, you can only swim a set route and you have wear a wetsuit. No pottering about.

Friernlocal Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Beckenham Hall Place closed soon after it opened > as the pool isn't supervised and so a risk. I was > there last week and it's still fenced of. Did you pick up whether anyone has thought of starting a group to run a volunteer lifeguard rota or fundraise for guards? Not the biggest challenge to fundraise for. There are people who will find a way to use it, by hook or whatever, but still, a terrible waste that it can't be open to all.

Suppose we all have our own definition of wild swimming and with it possibly our attitude to the idea of fences.

Beckenham Place Park. Don't recommend Royal Docks, the swim club people are lovely but place is horrible, City Airport planes usually overhead. Also you have to wear a wetsuit and it's ?8 a time. Beckenham is lovely, much more like 'wild' swimming.

exdulwicher Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If you're genuinely concerned for their welfare > (as opposed to being concerned that this person is > potentially lowering the tone of the > neighbourhood.... > If they're not causing any issues like using your > garden as a toilet, they're not doing anything > illegal. Well said. If the economy goes like it's supposed to, aren't there going to be a lot of people living in cars (if they are lucky enough to have a vehicle) in the coming months / couple of years? Maybe we should be thinking in advance about whether we could decide to befriend people and if we feel comfortable, e.g. build a relationship and at least let them have occasional use of a toilet or take them a hot sandwich in the morning? No point wondering why we have a country where it's just accepted that people sent nearly to hell by the blind winds of chance are offered nil help by anyone.

Should you choose the Gardens (not recommended here), would say, if you have had blood tests done. always, always, always insist on getting a hard copy for yourself. Check it is actually yours and not someone else's andn then check all the results yourself. The blood test results come with huge asterisks and markers on them, if it needs following up they say SEE GP or ACTION or HIGH RESULT. This I think is because Kings knows there are GP's who haven't a clue what the results mean. So it is spelled out for them. Even so, they still manage to get it wrong. It is hard to pick one's most outstanding Gardens GP memories. Is it the doctor who thought that ratios are the same as fractions? So even when GP was looking at a blood test result that had !!!!***** HIGH POSITIVE SEE GP kind of comments from Kings on it, just as a hint, GP announced that a result of 1:1256 is the same as 1/1256. As though talking to a child, as though I were the idiot...and not GP, GP told me that - look, here is a quarter, it is 1/4. That is smaller than 1/2 isn't it? So 1/1256 is very small and that means there is nothing wrong with you. I reply, "It's not a fraction, is it, does it not mean that even when they dilute your blood over and over again, the antibody can still be found. That means there is a lot of antibody in your blood and it is a very high result, not a tiny one". I knew the difference because we did it at primary school. GP however looks at me blankly. God knows how many people they have killed over the years. Or how someone with no understanding of maths at all, could even get into a medical school, let alone graduate. For anyone who lives in Nunhead, down I think maybe as far as Peckham, very much recommend Honor Oak GP practice. The guy who ran it for years, Dr Neal, retired not long ago and should get a spot on the 4th plinth. Other actual decent docs there but I am not telling who they are because too many people waiting to see them already. Not perfect but you can tell they actually care and are doing what they can given cash starvation of the NHS, and I have found also, just much better informed and organised.

In effect you can only use the parks if you live within walking distance ( the individual's personal walking distance), or a short drive (and have a car).

jimlad48 Wrote > > Having read a few astronaut books, the 'ingenious > device' they use is an adult sized disposable > nappy! Now have much more respect for astronauts. Clearly the most heroic thing they did. I hope the Council is supporting its staff to clean up the resulting mess that is being left by caught-short parks users especially given the knowledge that the virus survives a long time - 14 days? - in poo.

It is an awful moment when you realise that there is nowhere, absolutely nowhere open. Didn't they invent some ingenious device for astronauts? Or would you actually have to wear a space suit for that to work?

James thank you for looking into the lack of hot water in parks etc. It is good to know that all the Council public facilities except East Street do have the capacity to provide hot water. If we find that there is only cold water them, we just need to ask for the hot water to be switched on. That's really helpful.

rahrahrah Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > @James - are there any plans for temporary > extension to pavements, or pop up bike lanes, so > that people can get around whilst socially > distancing, without having to walk in the road? > Yes, there are fewer cars, but there are also > increased speeds. Or maybe even better, when relaxation starts but distancing still needed, make Lordship Lane totally car free, let the stores and cafes expand onto the pavements and let people walk in the road - so they can actually keep enough distance apart, this being otherwise impossible when there's traffic. Copying this - which looks like a fab idea - see The Guardian 28 April - - Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe .

As savvy experts are saying that will most likely be a number of waves of COVID 19, what can you do please to ensure there is hot water in all publicly-used toilets so that people can wash their hands adequately? Can you do this in all Southwark parks, and can you do anything with licensing laws re the pubs and supermarkets in the borough that currently provide only cold water in their toilet handbasins? Hand washing with hot water is a lot more effective than cold water washing. That's because you need hot water for soap to lather adequately but also because people are far more likely to keep washing for an effective time if there is hot water. Rather than just freezing their hands. The trend to have only cold water available has only appeared in the last decade. When I asked a while ago about why it had happened, the answer from a supermarket manager was that otherwise they got homeless people washing in the toilets. Somehow, this seems to be the wrong response to homelessness?

How many schools in Southwark, Lambeth or Lewisham still have playing fields? Most have been sold off over the last 40 years. Are we really expecting Dulwich College to let the proles through their gates? I seem to recall Harriet Harman justifying sending her own son to a public school in outer London partly on the grounds that it had large playing fields (and other facilities) that schools in her own constituency did not have. Sorry, but that does not make her a "wonderful woman". Perhaps if she had ever opposed loss of open space in Southwark? But I don't recall her ever doing so.