Pierre

Well trolled Louisa ;) Thanks for the information, Jennyc & Eileen. : P

Another "well said Mark." - good to have a bit of perspective. I'm still generally with Loz on this, tired of disproportionate fear and suspicion, but I'm also completely behind your last point - why the hell did no-one go and talk to him about what he was doing? "Pierre, people probably don't confront because not everyone is comfortable doing that," - the implication there is that they are relatively more comfortable doing nothing about it, and that concerns me. : P

Ganapati, I wasn't seeking to defend the man filming. If people suspected him, they should have aproached him and asked him what he was doing. It concerns me that no-one did. What bothered me was the knee-jerk reaction that then assumed he was one of the countless swarming hordes of predatory paedophiles just waiting to eat our children if we let them out of our sight. The "one can't be too careful" clich? summarised why Social Services, the Police force and anyone else who works with children or vulnerable people are drowning in paperwork instead of actually being able to do their jobs. Incidentally it's quite common for people to film others without their permission. Ask any moderately famous person who's ever encountered someone with a mobile phone. AFAIK it's still technically legal to film someone in public without their consent if it's for your own purposes. That said, I don't mean it's not creepy. : P

One can never be too careful when children are involved I think that's absolute crap. One can be far _too_ careful, far too fearful, preventing them ever being exposed to any kind of risk. And that's not healthy for anyone. : P

I must say I'm with Loz on this. Fair point KateW, filming them is a bit odd, but not _necessarily_ sinister. "Paedophile", like "terrorist" is one of the few remaining knee-jerk taboo words that tabloids and sensationalists love, principally because it is instantly synonymous with The Enemy, or Not Us. Worse still, it carries such an instant stigma that it's possible to build up a huge culture of fear around it, use it for political or personal manipulation and even worse justify all manner of acts on the spurious clich? "there's no smoke without fire." : P P.S. "I didn't want my daughter filmed so I moved her from the climbing frame. I didn't bother saying anything to the guy" is precisely why it appears a lot of silly people would rather hide in fear than actually deal with a situation and confront someone. On the other hand, possibly also the reason that someone keen on filming children for his own awful fantasy life might reason that he could get away with it for a while - after all, who's going to stop him?

I don't have any children, yet. I like to see children playing. I think it's great when children play, when they are unashamedly children, not growing up too fast and not trying to be the little adults that all children's advertising seems to be telling them to be. I think it's fascinating to see how they play, how they develop their own characters and experiment with imagined situations. I suppose if I wasn't married, was thirty years older and had never married, was lonely and knew I'd never have children of my own, I'd probably continue to get some sort of joy from watching children playing. As far as I can see, nothing of the above is sinister or sexual. While I know I'm going to get the tired old "until you have children you won't understand" blather wheeled out at me, but I'd actually counter that and say that just because you _have_ children doesn't mean you have to stop understanding others. Not entirely sure what my point is, just playing devil's advocate I suppose. But I'm fed up with every adult encounter with children being subject to fear and suspicion. : P

Wouldn't that be "Saf London" then? Great thread this, btw! : P

Is there a Featherstonehaugh Road in the area? wow - if there was, how would we pronounce it? Mrs. Pierre has just authoritatively said it's "de crep nee"... : P

As we collectively "own" the roads, pavements, public spaces, government buildings and many other places, maybe we could ban smoking from more or less the whole country. I'd suggest we go about it by finding out whether the majority of people who "own" that lot are in favour. Maybe we could put it to a vote or something in some kind of national election... : P

ooh, good one. I've always said Math'um but, thinking about it, May'thum makes sense. We'll get on to how to pronounce "scone" if we're not careful - sorry, best keep it on topic ;) : P

No offence to those who have eaten there, but the menu looks like uninspiring creatively-described standard gastropub fare: >Chargrilled rump of Scottish beef, with roast field mushrooms, Watercress & ?fresh chips? >The Duke pie (check blackboard for details) >Toulouse sausage, creamy herb mash, crispy onions & red wine jus >Beer battered haddock ?fresh chips?? pea puree & tartare sauce >Soft herb risotto, tempura squid, planched tomatoes & gremolata >The Duke burger, ?fresh chips? choice of extra toppings >Macaroni cheese ?gratin?? wild mushrooms & gruyere (v) With the exception of the risotto and "gratin", that's just steak and chips, pie and chips, bangers and mash, fish and chips and burger and chips. It's certainly not unique to the Duke but I'm getting fed up of places advertising how exceptional their food is and then wheeling out the same boring dishes with increasingly flowery descriptions... : P

PeckhamRose Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Is that pronounced "pee er" or "pee-ear" > I always pronounced it the way Friern in Friern > Barnet. "Free urn" > Now, how dya pronounce De Crespigny? It's "Pie. Rrrr!" Not really, just the standard "Pea-air" And I'd say "De Cress Pin Yee" : P

...and she now has a plastic anus. I like to think that there's at least a nugget of truth in there. Am I the only one who sniggered at this? ;) :

I misread TOP as Binmingle, thought it was something to do with wheeling your bins around together... : P

http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=yu9rog&outx=600&quality=70 taken with my phone yesterday evening. Not a wonderful photo, but you can just about make out the second rainbow. : P

I'd always pronounced Free-urn, 'cos my friends who lived on that road pronounced it that way... : P

Is this the old chap who's a regular at the Gowlett? His dog has ping-pong balls on the collar and a little coat? If so, he certainly doesn't mistreat the dog, and she's lovely and gentle but quite old. : P

I think it's still going on BBC Three. It's excellent :) : P

Thanks all - it appears to be just within planning regulations (under 3m tall), it would take up a lot less than half the garden area, and I wouldn't be using it exclusively to run the business. Oh, and we've got a private road along the back of the property (other side of the back fence) so hopefully getting the thing in won't be a problem. I think they do rust, eventually, but it probably takes longer than it does for a wooden shed to rot. Am thinking about ED-ing it and growing a Green Roof anyway! But if I was your next door neighbour, would you get all grumpy about the state of the neighbourhood, or would you think it was a Good Thing? : P

not sorry at all! They're children, damnit, playing and making noise is what children do. Unless they're doing it at 10pm, I'd say your neighbour is being an ar*e. If they do have boundless energy, local councils and leisure centres often have holiday playschemes and sports courses. I remember learning to trampoline one summer holiday... : P

Thought it was probably best to start this one in the Lounge as it's not strictly an ED issue... We have a garden. It's got a shed at the bottom of it. It was there when we moved in; it's tiny and rotting and pretty much only good for firewood. I'd like to replace it. I ride bicycles. I fix bicycles for a living (but am avoiding treading on the toes of MLteenie or the forthcoming EDR bike shop - I wish them all the best. That said, if you want your bike fixed at your house or place of work, give me a shout!) so would like somewhere secure to store my bikes and ideally set up a workshop, as well as storing the usual garden tools. I'm concerned by how easy it is to pretty much demolish most sheds if you're keen to have what's inside. I've been drawn to the idea of a shipping container (painted a dark colour, with plants growing around and on top of it) as they're sturdy and very secure. Mrs. Pierre is reticent. She thinks it will subtract value from the house (rather than, I argue, adding it as a whole extra room at the bottom of the garden) and might attract derision from the neighbours. I have never cared what the neighbours think, but I'd want to make it as attractive and shed-like as possible. I think I have _some_ taste. I appreciate my post is a little one-sided, but what do you good people of the EDF think? I'd be interested to know... Cheers! : P

Where? : P

Having worked indoors in Fulham all day today, I wondered what those things that kept going "toc" against the motorbike visor were, until I got home and found a carpet of dead flying ants all over my car. Yes, it's flying ants day. Probably for a couple of days. I'm cycling tomorrow so will remember the glasses and to try not to breathe in through my mouth... : P

Ask anyone who works for a homeless charity (a chum works for Shelter) and they'll recommend you don't give the homeless people money directly. As many people have said, it's more likely to be spent on drugs or alcohol; while that may be the sort of distraction you endorse, the connection between homelessness and mental illness is strong, as is the connection between mental illness and long-term drug or alcohol abuse. Contributions to homeless charities instead will be spent on rehabilitation programmes, shelter, food and health programmes for the homeless. Just my 2p worth. God bless ya, etc. : P

Would you rather she invested by buying property so that she could let it to others, or put her money in a high interest savings plan which is funded by investments in companies that make landmines and suchlike? : P