Brendan

Hath Sean been bestowed with the power to cast that which is errant of topic into the lounge?

I?m not suggesting that motorcars be used or indeed promoted as the chosen form of transport. I?m just thinking about the fact that most families in London do have a car. Most do not need more than 1 and I think that you should be charged to park a second car and even perhaps be taxed higher if you own more than one car per family unless there is a legitimate reason (business use or a disability perhaps) Alan you say that one of the reasons for LL success is that people are able to park. So these people are using cars to do their shopping and would foreseeable need somewhere to park them when they get back home? What I think I?m getting at is that if each household had 1 space where they could park a car permanently for free but had to pay a fair wack to park a second it would stop people from having more than the necessary. If the parking was on the street it would have to be a registered, taxed vehicle and you wouldn?t get a spot if you didn?t have a car. The rest of the parking could be reserved for shoppers/estate agents etc and charged for by reasonably priced metres. Sorry for the tone of my previous post. I?m not really that irate I promise.

Driving on the motorway, back from a meeting in Jo?burg to a friend?s house. He phoned me as the first plane hit. I remember being stuck in a traffic jam for a bit and everyone seemed to be speaking on their phones.

You have every bloody right to park your car outside your house! When will town planners, engineers, architects etc realise that if there is a fair chance the every household has at least 1 car, BUILD IN A BLOODY SPACE TO PARK THE THING! Suburbs older that 50 years obviously can not be expected to have been designed in this way but some kind of modifications can surely be made. If everywhere else in the world can manage surely her majesty?s great kingdom can get their heads around it!?!? I know you were being slightly sarcastic there nutty but then so am I. ;-)

Blegch! Sounds horrible! I?ve been thinking. Instead of having to scrape your best friend?s doings off the pavement and into a bag, which can be quite unpleasant. Dogs catch on quick so why not train them to ?go? into the bag? Perhaps even specially designed paper bags (like little doggy loos) that can be disposed of after a walk?

Donkey Alley is named after the donkeys of the gypsies who once lived there. Apparently.

I for one am suspicious of children. I am convinced they are hell bent on running the world one day.

I too grew up under an airport approach (although considerably further away than Kew) so I don?t even notice the planes. Mrs B does sometimes complain that they wake her up though.

I was in a supermarket recently and was surprised by their large selection of bottled ales. Problem is I can?t remember if it was ED Sainsbury?s or Tesco in Rotherhithe. Sorry not much help there. :-S

You are turning into a grumpy old man James. We all have one inside us just waiting to get out.

Poetry Dulwichmun? Well you asked for it. If on a sunny ED morn or a dark and chilly night I catch the bloody cynophile who thinks it?s somehow right To walk their little poochi poo, mutt or thoroughbred Up the path on which I live to my gate beside the shed And there let it relieve itself in a most unpleasant way That when I?m rushing out to work it fair can ruin my day I will not stop and ask them why or even remonstrate But their cranium and my cricket bat will swift acquaintance make I?ll just be off then shall I?.

I saw people filming something or other along LL near the station this morning.

I?m sure it would have been better than the work drinks I got roped in to. Although I wouldn?t have been going up and down to the Castle Citizen as the place scares me on Friday night!

Pah. Getting through another year without dying is due cause for celebration. As is getting through another week. So roll on 5:30pm! :)-D

I had my 30th upstairs at the Magdala a while ago and it's pretty cool. They have a pool table up there too. I'm not going to make tonight unfortunately.

Half the place is a Lounge. Or so it says on the door. (I think or does it say SALOON on the door into the back bar?) I quite like the thought of people getting relegated to the back bar when their conversations degenerates into rubbish. I think it would get pretty full especially towards the end of the night.

Surely the companies who do all the residential waste recycling must make some kind of money out of it? Am I correct in assuming this? Do they charge the councils more to collect this stuff than it costs to cart off waste to a landfill? If there is a financial benefit to recycling and councils have to deal with a lot less conventional waste because people are recycling more therefore saving more money why hasn?t my council tax gone down? Anyone in the know on this?

He wanted to be a hobo. He was a maverick, a loner who went from place to place saving the world! That?s why he was so much cooler than Lassie who was a possession, born into servitude of her masters. ?Wraarrf! Wraarrf!? ?What?s that girl? You pushed little Timmy down the well because he is a fascist pawn of the oppressive system?? My mind has gone for a bit of a ramble today. Sorry.

Dunno android, but.. There's a voice that keeps on calling me Down the road is where I'll always be Every stop I make, I'll make a new friend Can't stay for long, just turn around and I'm gone again. Maybe tomorrow, I'll want settle down, Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on. So if you want to join me for a while Just grab your hat, come travel light That's hobo style. Maybe tomorrow, I'll want settle down, Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

Of what? Or who?

Looks great! I think visiting the bar would be a good enough excuse to go to Vegas.

I think it?s the being able to sit at the bar thing that I?m on about Sean. I like sitting at the bar especial late at night when everyone well oiled. Many redesigned pubs don?t? have anywhere where you can do so comfortably. The Canning does and the CPT.

Before this goes off on one. I am not trying to suggest that a pub changing ownership is another of the dark portents and omens of the end of our times. An end brought about by corporate greed and the exploitation of the working classes and leading to a state of Orwellain oppression followed by cataclysmic war and destruction. Well maybe I am. A bit, but not really. Why don?t we all chip in and buy the place? A quick audit of the inventory of my pockets reveals ?14 and 23p a mobile phone I?m sure I could get a tenner for and a credit card of questionable usefulness.

One of the reasons why I like the CPT is its design. Pubs used to be designed, back in my day (Which may have been last week Saturday or perhaps September the 23rd 2001), to bring people together. The concept was a room centred around a communal bar where people can sit. It promotes a certain interaction between the punters. Most newly refurbished pubs seem to be a series of separate little areas where groups of friends can sit without having to do anything as nasty as interact with ?other people?. It is symptomatic of our increasingly isolated and suspicious society, the type of society where people don?t know their neighbours. Take the Plough for instance. It is a nice place and very comfortable but you wouldn?t end up having a conversation with a stranger in there would you? It is not exactly a ?local?.

:(