James

How strange! I find the dog walkers in Dulwich among the frendliest anywhere... so how come the runners are so moody? Perhaps they are too well fed, due to our generous selection of local restaurants, meaning that running requires absolute focus and concentration?

Sometimes it's more difficult 'doing the right thing' than you think. E.g. the Prius is made by Toyota, which I believe is now the world's largest manufacturer of gas-guzzling SUV's. But they don't want you to know that. I also read somewhere that the extra amount of energy used to manufacture a Prius (with its two power sources) negates the amount of carbon dioxide saved by driving one. Not to mention the extra resources you might need to use to dispose of it in the future. It's a bit like carbon offsets. At the moment we're being bamboozled with 'green this', 'eco-friendly that' etc. At the end of the day we need to reduce our consumption of resources, which entails something much more profound than all these silly fads: fundamentally changing our behaviour. But that's not good for business, is it?

As well as all of the above Huguenot, I think South London's extensive network of trams (until the 50s) meant there was no need for the Tube to come here. Personally I hate the Tube, it can stay away as far as I'm concerned! Who wants to spend an hour plus a day nestled into a sweaty businessman's armpit below ground? You think it's quick but what with all the delays, overcrowding and broken escalators you're often better off taking the bus or walking. I take the bus to work but recently had to go from my parents' place in Bromley instead (train and tube). I was amazed at how much more stressful the journey was.

Lol mightyroar. Perhaps we need a new kind of apartheid to separate everybody from everybody else so we stop annoying each other so much? We could all travel about in little hermetically sealed bubbles so we never have to deal with anyone who isn't like us. I think a primitive form of this already exists - the Range Rover.

Has anyone tried the pizza place in the shopping centre on Rye Lane (not the one with Morrisons in it - the other one)? They're brilliant and totally bargainous - about 3 quid I think for a proper-sized one. And they're proper Italian style thin crust - delicious and not spongy. Only problem is you wouldn't really venture into the centre unless you were looking for some gold shoes or a fake football strip.

Domitanius, what exactly do you mean by "those with gay and lesbian lifestyles"? Are you suggesting that you can just sort of take on a lesbian or gay lifestyle as if it were a jacket or a new hairstyle? Do you have a "male" or a "female" lifestyle? Incidentally, my point that positive discrimination separates people & causes grudges and resentment doesn't mean that we should forget that discrimination exists. It's a question of education and respectful free speech rather than dubious acts of enforced PC folly. I still often hear the word "gay" used as an insult or derogotary term, which proves we have a way to go in some respects. And let's face it, loads of men are crap with their kids (just as loads aren't).

The Dulwish. As in the Amish.

I have to say the new place looks great - a huge improvement. Very welcoming and chilled out.

I hear you Beth. But put simply, two wrongs don't make a right. I personally am tired of the nanny state intervening with a kind of enforced discrimination that is supposed to redress the balance re. our racist/sexist/homophobic/whatever past. The irony is that it actually ends up causing more division and resentment because it makes such huge glaring assumptions (as you just did) about what certain groups of people are like. Just for the record I am a single dad who bathes, feeds, puts to bed and reads a bedtime story to my son virtually every day that he stays with me. But because I am a man I am expected to do huge amounts of unpaid overtime at work (unlike certain female colleagues who are always out of the door at 5 on the dot). So as you can see, it cuts both ways. Incidentally I am also gay. So perhaps I should really be out dancing on a podium to Kylie Minogue or something?

You have my sympathy Domitanius. A few years ago I had the misfortune of having ?1000 fraudulently taken from my bank account after my wallet was stolen. I reported it at the (now closed down) Lewisham Police Station where I was told that as I didn't actually see the person stealing it & couldn't give a description, I had no choice but to report it as "lost." I very reluctantly did this. There then followed two weeks of hell as my bank would not refund me any of the stolen money without a crime number - which the police would not give me because I had reported it as lost, not stolen ("Well why didn't you report it as stolen?" they asked me incredulously). I spoke to a number of officers - most were patronising, lazy, unhelpful and totally unsympathetic. A few were downright rude, treating me with suspicion and contempt. ("How do I know you ain't just given it to one of your mates?" asked one. I wonder if he says this to every victim of crime he deals with.) When I eventually did get the sacred crime number I learned that the cashpoint where I was robbed was No 1 IN BRITAIN for this type of crime. I also learned that a friend of a friend had the very same thing happen to her ON THE SAME NIGHT. The difference was that she was given her crime number instantly and treated with sympathy and respect (she reported in in Central London). Don't want to generalise as I have a friend who works for the police but the fact that so many of them seem so incompetent and unhelpful is quite worrying...

River Island! If it's going to be a chain at least choose one with a bit more class...

Aha! At least you've declared your interest

God, how patronising. Huguenot, please explain what is flamboyantly dismissive and camp about saying "who cares"? Presumably because I'm gay I must therefore be camp and flamboyant. So I suppose if I was black and said "who cares" you might describe me as being a confrontational ghetto homeboy making inflammatory remarks under the influence of rap music? For the benefit of the Friends of Walsh Glazing Society, I don't support small businesses that are CRAP. And let's be honest, people who run any sort of business aren't in it for altruistic reasons. They want to make money! HELLO!! I and several people I know have had bad experiences at the hands of Walsh Glaziers. And they hardly add any soul or character to ED like some of the other businesses on Lordship Lane.

Not my perception at all! Perhaps I just saw the naughty ones.

It should have been a Mecca Bingo hall.

Thanks for your insight Clare. A valid contribution if ever there was one. I assume your point is that that the way kids behave outside school has no relation to what they're like in school?

Who cares? These glaziers are rubbish.

Basically it used to be a bit like Penge. Now it's more like Clapham. I know which I prefer.

A close fried went for a job at Charter once and decided to stay at the school where he was already teaching... the department in question was producing shoddy work of a low standard compared with the kids at his (admittedly strong) inner city comp. He thought the kids seemed undisciplined & lacking in motivation and the staff remote. Whenever I see the kids out and about in uniform they seem a bit rowdy. Subjective I know but worth considering.

Gethin Jones? Phwoar! I'll be there...

Dis goin out to da honeys wiv da Orla Kiely an Kath Kidston bags and organic vegetables, East Dulwich metrosexual man dem in da Paul Smith shirt an pushin 3-wheel designer buggy, you get me blood? Respec.

So is Jade Goody's family. But I wouldn't eat them.

All the local magazines seem to have articles like this: India Frondberry is pleased to announce the opening of a holistic Zen Buddhist thumb-massaging centre (a first for East Dulwich) using the latest techniques and expensive pommades imported from Timbuktu. The former chip shop in a dull backstreet has been tarted up excessively as India has literally nothing else to do and likes pretty things. This also means she has to overcharge hideously but you can get ?1 off with this voucher. India says "Please do support essential local businesses like mine as I need to pay my kids' school fees and I have my eye on a holiday home in Tuscany."

Christ, what a bunch of snobs! When it's all been gentrified in ten years' time you'll all be getting your knickers in a twist trying to buy there (East Dulwich was pretty much indistinguishable from Peckaham not too long ago).

Slightly off-topic but I've seen Helen Lederer (80s comedienne with manic eyes - remember her?) and the ubiquitous (well, not so much lately) Linda Barker in the dire Fusion Gym in ED. This was about a year ago though.