The Minkey

"True - lived around the corner from the Brixton M&S for a couple of years and often mingled with the 'waiting-for-that-pimply-looking-lad-with-the-cage-full-of-reduced-items-to-put-the-stuff-out-on-the-shelves' crew that assembled around the doors at a certain time in the pm (no I'm not giving that away!)." Snap! I lived in Shannon Grove for 14 years and often nipped in to M&S for the reductions once they started doing them. It was the first M&S in London, I think.

Although there is an Iceland on Rye Lane, the queues in there are horrible so I use the LL one for bargain essentials - it's one of the reasons I come to LL. I don't buy ready meals and a lot of the other foodstuffs M&S do are so overpriced, especially in their Simply Foods outlets, I wouldn't use them for my groceries. Iceland continues to get my vote, if I should happen to have a hankering for M&S offerings, I'll shop for them in Brixton where they'll be cheaper.

Are Iceland pulling out, James?

So, finally got to speak to someone who says it's now been prioritised as a 24hr emergency fix considering how much my friend depends on her phone line for her safety. Couldn't have been more helpful, unlike her colleague who my OH spoke to earlier. Now to see what actually happens..

I really hope it's not your kitten, Fatcats - you must be so worried.

Ah, having run through their automated fault service, I hear they won't even be sending an engineer out til the 9th. I'm fuming and REALLY want to be able to speak to someone to see if I can get them to prioritise it.

There appears to be a problem with BT lines in the Ivydale Road area near the junction of Inverton and Merttins Rd. I went round to see what the problem was with my elderly friend's phone, spoke to a couple of neighbours who've got phone/internet connection issues. Reported to BT - what an awful fault reporting service they have now - who said there's a more widespread outage which they aim to have fixed by the 9th. My housebound and frail friend is left with no emergency alarm in the event of a fall for almost a week :-( Does anyone happen to have a number it's possible to speak to someone at BT? Their fault reporting service seems to be all online..

Let's hope she doesn't take a stagger up Lordship Lane.

The Co-op definitely do free-range chicken, whether LL Co-op stocks a good supply of it I don't know.

Personally, I wouldn't put them out while the weather is quite so up and down as we're still getting hail mixed in with the showers. I'd wait until it settles down a bit and all danger of frost has passed.

I heart Peckham Morrisons ;-)

Yes, it does seem good chicken and produces less fat than other supermarket brands :-)

I've got him back! He was locked in a neighbour's garage. Thanks for the tips folks :-)

Can anyone tell me how to post an image. I've posted a thread in the Lost & Found about my kitten who didn't come home yesterday evening. He was still using the cat litter so I think he would have come home by now if he could get home. Just want to post a pic of him and I don't know whether I can do that from an image on my hard drive,

It's an LG bought a couple of years ago - HD ready with built in Freeview. I suspect it's a case of diminished signal strength. I'd swap all the new porn channels to have BBC back any day.

I have retuned several times - still no BBC.

Looks great but I'd rather have my BBC channels back.

Sometimes you can't believe what you're seeing because you are in shock, so you don't react straightaway because you don't know how to react, you're still trying to make sense of it. Glad you got it back. These situations can be useful wakeup calls - don't tempt thieves, keep expensive kit out of sight.

Thanks for the heads up :-) Good to know who's legit.

How different people are. I can't imagine the mindset of anyone who could let an animal they were responsible for get into that state. She's emaciated, poor, poor girl :-( Let's hope her luck has turned and she finds a good family be rehomed with when she's feeling a lot better. I really hope you get a lead on her previous owner and they are prosecuted.

"Fifteen years life expectancy for an indoor cat, five for an outdoor cat". Ah, but what a life ;-) Trouble with a lot of those google figures, imo, is they take stats from all over and other countries may have a lot more natural hazards for a cat to deal with, snakes etc. My old outdoor cat - a very street smart dude - lived most of his life in Brixton central, reached the grand old age of 19 and died of ill health related to old age. No doubt about it, I'll be devastated if either of my current two come a cropper outside, but I'll always be glad they had a much more exciting life than they would have had indoors with me. Yes, outdoor cats face more dangers but we let our kids out (eventually), don't we, and they are infinitely more precious to us. It's said that most road traffic accidents involving cats happen at night, so we can mitigate against the risk by only letting them out during daylight hours. This also helps reduce bird fatalities as a lot of kills occur when the birds are most active feeding at dawn and again at dusk.

Hi Simon - that's great you've got her back. I can imagine how worried you must have been as I recently let my kitten out at 5 months. The first few times he got to go out, I let him out just before he was due to eat and kept him close to me by playing games with him, attracting him back through the door so he got the route back in to the house firmly established. After a few days, I relaxed it and he started goinging a bit further. He'd also been trained to come to my whistle so the first few days he roamed further afield, I'd whistle him back every now and then giving him a treat for his trouble, which hopefully helped imprint the route back from gardens further away. They do get so excited, don't they. If she's anything like Kato, she'll have been spending her time hunting and leaping for flies, easy to see how they might lost track of where they've come from.

Seen a rat once around here - last summer - never seen one again. I figured the foxes were doing a good job.

I go there for bloods about 4 or 5 times a year. Time it to be in the waiting area about 20 mins before they close for the best chance of a non-existant/minimal queue. I've been there in the mornings and it's really busy. I've had some really botched bloods taken by inexperienced staff at various clinics in the past, and until using ED Hosp, had been left with the impression I had 'thin veins' which needed several stabs to get a draw, but the ED staff have all been really good and get the draw in a single attempt. With regards to the bruising, it can happen that you continue bleeding after the needles out which is why they get you to press on the dressing to staunch any flow. If you are taking anti-coagulant medication, fish oil or ginko supplements, you will be more likely to bruise more. I always have a bit of bruising after a draw, but nothing like the 6 inchers I used to be left with where people had repeatedly gone straight through the vein and out the other side - ew, used to make me feel sick :-(

I think you're right about the new times, Gidget. I got caught out the last time I went to get bloods done there because I turned up as late as possible, which usually means there is either no queue or you only have one/two people in front of you, to find the times had changed and they were closed.