i*Rate

smartie1 Get real- anyone wandering around in that playground at night is not going to be reading the forum and deciding that they been rather unreasonable in not closing the gate quietly. Pop down one night if happens again and have a little chaps in hooded clothing and have a few firm words with them. Cheerybye!

There are some great greeting cards of Franklin's Farm Shop available inside - just ask if you can't see them.

Sue, Yes, I remember those poor 'Art Students' with those shiny foil paintings strapped to their backs knocking on the door for money. I can't remember what I said to them at the time but I later saw several of them being given there 'works' from the back of a big car by their boss. Funny really, but we did not think much about Eastern Europeans pouring in from the EU at the time, but they were not local people. Just a racket to sell junk pictures for top prices, I suppose. I had the 'Ex Offenders' around last week - a bit unnerving. Be Alert!

treehugger, In reply to your question (sorry, a while ago now) my comment is made because 'classical art', like classical music is always treated as the highest form and most highly regarded at an intellectural level. So for example, the contents of the National Gallery and Dulwich Picture Gallery are at that 'high' level. Other (Modern) art schools seem to take second place. Compare your average opera fan to someone that likes Tom Jones, for example. I just think it a pity that that form of art dominates the area. Having typed all that, I would like to apologise to anyone that felt that my comments were disrespectful to Ingrid Beazley and her family. I have no idea that she had sadly lost her life to cancer when I posted my rant, and no idea that she(obviously worked very hard) to organise the works. My comments were purely about ED culture and art culture - which I find fascinating. Cheers all.

Dulwich61, Yes, the noise really started up around the early 90s, before that it was a quiet area (from 1980 onwards as far as I know) with hardly any flights at all. There used to be just one very loud Concorde flight around 5.00pm everyday and that was loud! Interesting about the height, which isn't much. Watch out for the big airliners dumping fuel on a clear day and consider where that all goes. Also, there was some very interesting emissions figures for airliners in the papers recently. It seems that an average plane dumps around 1 kilo (!) of CO2 into the air flying just I mile over our heads, plus of course all the other gases and particulants - so pretty bad stuff.

The aircraft noise got worse on Sunday - deafening - so I emailed the Heathrow complaints website (again). This time I got a free number for the public relations department. So I am going to give them a call and have a chat in the garden next time the 'Motorway in the Sky' in at full volume! They can have listen to what have to put up with then. Fasten your seat belts!

Hi, Can anyway recommend a walk where none of he Street Art is based on highbrow classical paintings in Dulwich Picture Gallery? Just shows how snotty the area has become. There are a few other pieces though, some good wheatpaste portraits to look for and some stylish tagging. I went to Brighton at the weekend and there is more works there than ever; stuff based on cartoon characters, pop stars, etc. Great stuff. What ever happened to 'The Writing on the Wall'? Pip, Pip.

Thanks everyone for your comments so far. JohnL, yes, I see, 1Gbps (shown under Local Network symbol) is only the PC speed. rendelharris, I'll go to that site, thanks. As for you PeckhamRose, you're trying to confuse me with sophisticated English Language terms (my worst subject at school). I was best at art and metalwork but I do no what a byte is by the way, probably a lot of people don't. NO MORE COMMENTS NEEDED.

Hi, We just paid BT for upgrading our broadband package and are very pleased with more TV channels and better picture, but the speed on our PC is still the same - 1Gps. When I called up the helpline and queried this I got nowhere; I just ended up explaining how the upgrade was carried out (new hub and fibre optic connection) and talking through all the connections. They ended up making no comment about the current speed whether it was good or bad; is this average/maximum speed around here? Cheers and thanks for any comments in advance.

Sorry be a bit of a wet blanket, but shouldn't these adverts for paintings be on the trade or sales section? When I did Open House, I didn't think I could us this section to promote my work I thought that I had to print flyers, for example. Good luck with sales anyway, the commercial art world is a tough game.

Helen Hayes - typical 'new' labour, white middle class MP; she knows best for the people of the UK - we should stay in Europe because of all those wonderful holidays in France and Europe that 'we' love so much (yes - I have met her). The majority of people in this country voted to leave the European union, so she should respect that. We live in a little cosy part of Britain, not like the other areas of the country with no jobs, terrible housing and many poor European people over here seeking a better life which we do not have the capacity to provide for them. I voted to stay, by the way, but I respect democracy. Cheers everyone.

Hi Pop Pickers, Just had an email stating that I had been billed ?31.29 for a Led Zeppelin album, from iTunes. I am a Led Zeppelin fan but do not order downloads - so a bit odd. Then I noticed the link 'If you did not authorize this purchase' Click here for Refund. Sure enough, I rang my bank and there has been no debit of this amount, so it was just someone trying to get me to put my bank details on line as seems to be the latest scam. Watch out! Go and buy some vinyl albums from Sainsbury's instead

We used to have some very noisy (early) blackbirds in our gardens, some years ago now. There was one that we nicknamed 'Joey' that had a great, loud tune that he had learnt somewhere or other - as they do. Annoying in a way, but a very beautiful thing to experience. Sadly, no blackbirds now, just the racket at 4.45am of the first batch of airliners grinding in before the daily 6am to 11.00pm roaring flypast. Ho Hum.

Sorry to sound like Scrooge, but think about all the years of natural resources that went into growing those trees, just to be cut down, dressed up for a few weeks and then shredded. I suppose its one way of making chippings for the parks though? Have a green New Year everyone!

Yesterday, Boxing Day, we heard a loud knocking at our door at 6.45 in the evening and when my wife went to see who it was through the door panel she saw a young man, around thirty; before I got downstairs he asked her to open as he had something to tell her. He was very aggressive, so I started to raise my voice and ask him what he wanted and his reply was that me was 'Mario a window cleaner'. I told him that we were not interesting in a polite manner.He had, maybe, an Italian accent, dark haired. Well, it does seem an odd day and time to drum up business and in a pretty nasty way; so maybe there's someone to watch out for! Cheers and seasons greeting to all.

Many thanks for your advice, Rotherhithe is too far away unfortunately. However, the lonesome person, who was at a loss as to what to do this year, did get through the day reasonably well then had the company of her family later on. It was surprising to see how little was available around ED on Christmas Day, London can be a big lonely place! Very kind regards for a happy Christmas to all and best wishes for joy and peace in 2017.

Does anyone know of somewhere locally (withing walking distance of ED) where a lone person can go for Christmas lunch, and some company, this year? I know that you do have the option of the expensive pub lunch, but if you are a pensioner this is no good to you, nor may a pub atmostphere be for you either. Nothing seems to have been advertised for Christmas Day, that I am aware of, is there anything out there? Seasons greetings and thanks.

Interesting difference between Cafe owners (business people) and ordinary folks, like us. Back in the 80's anyone could form a food Co-Op and go and buy basic commodities in bulk, share it out, and get by, then they changed that so that you could not buy unless you were running a business. Now businesses can help themselves and bulk-buy from our shops without having the inconvenience of travelling to a wholesaler - that's progress for you. They don't go to the Brickhouse Bakery though, at ?5 a loaf, they'd be off their loaf - Gettit!

Message to George Orwell, You pompous prat! Sorry, no offence meant, old chap. My wife slipped on the leaves a couple of autumns ago and injured herself; she was trying to get from A to B as carefully as possible. I am a (tax paying)pensioner, but I don't have enough time to go around the streets clearing them myself this year, to help out the council I've just reported to Southwark the same problem again on Crystal Place Road and got a response within a couple of days. I do have faith in the council but not in the government in these times of budget cuts -'Age of Austerity'. By the way, seen the latest figures for vital tax-payer-funded repairs to Houses of Parliament -?3.9bn, Buckingham Palace - ?369m. Pip,Pip.

fazer71, Thanks for your comments above; I have posted a few times on this thread. I know that the noise has got worse in the last ten years or so and it was a very quiet area when I moved to ED in 1980. I have written to Boris, Helen Hayes and now our new Mayor just to get some sense of being able to to do something about my home and garden being degraded by this pollution. Why should I move when I am settle here and 20 miles from Heathrow anyway?!. There has been a couple of interesting items on the radio about the subject lately. One was about the Climate Change conference where it was admitted that airliners are not included in the global warming calculations, but the scientist, etc, are now thinking about how they may be involved. Couldn't make it up - as they say - considering airliners burn around 10,000 litres of fuel an hour at high altitude. Mmm, I wonder if they do have an effect? The other one was a call-in on You And Yours, the BBC Radio 4 programme at lunchtime today about the building of a third runway at Heathrow. The last caller was and ordinary lorry driver who asked a very interesting question: where will all of the extra lorries park when tons more freight arrives at Heathrow by air? He said that at the moment it was almost impossible to get to the loading bays as so much comes in by air. Something to deal with - maybe double the width of the motorways to the airport as well? By the way, I tried earplugs too. Maybe an mp3 player with headphones and a continuous supply of heavy metal music would work? Anyway - fasten your seat belts, we're in for a bumpy ride!

Fellow sufferers, Absolutely sick to death of continuous aircraft noise and have written to Boris Johnson in the past about not wanting the third runway at Heathrow. Have sent off a similar letter to our new mayor, but just read somewhere that he's for the expansion of the airport. I also read that when the development does go ahead the increase in business and tourism will 'make every family in the country ?24,000 a year better off' Well that's all right then. Although things will be much worse, at least I will have a nice big check coming through the post! Hooray for Khan- saviour of the common people of London!

jo1973, Keep up your good work as a volunteer; the shop is an asset to Lordship Lane and there is a great range of designer clothes there. Unfortunately, after emailing the management of the chain of shops about how much money was spent on them, I cannot see how there is any profit left for Save the Children at the end of the day, unless your shopfitters are volunteers too? The rent there must be high and utility costs plus business rates. If there's nothing left, is it just PR for Mary Portas? Sorry to be cynical, but after what went on at Kids Co, there's bound to be doubt. Cheers.

aerie, I agreed about the ML&G shop showing us their takings/profits. I recently received an annual statement from the St Christopher's Hospice charity showing me how much my donations has raised including the VAT claimed back - a very satisfying result. I did register with ML&G, last year, but never got details from them of what they made from my donations. Is it all just a lot of PR for Mary Portas - who knows? Cheers and happy shopping.

The shop is now open but I did contact the Save the Children charity about why so much work was being done to the shop after only two and a half years of it being opened. Obviously, more running costs, expenses, etc, mean less profits = money for the needy. It seems that they have been caught out by the landlords and say that they have to carry out 'structural work' required in their contract and are making alterations to improve staff facilities. I told them that, personally, I was wary of charities after the scandal of the decline of Kids Co, for example, and hoped that they were 'doing a good job'. My wife and I have given our most valuable second hand items to them in the past, but not sure if we will from now on. What finished it for me was learning that Save the Children had contrived to give an award to Tony Blair to boost his image when he needed it! Cheers.

There has been trouble with air con' in that building for at least five years from my experience. Must be an incredible difficult thing to deal with - although we did get to the moon some how! Oh, I forgot, that was the Americans.