Muttley

Another unmissable episode, this is gripping tv. Michael is living on borrowed time. He's a nasty two-faced little shyster - but it will be great to watch him get fired when it finally happens.

jollybaby Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > There was > panic in her voice and she told me to wait until > after their forthcoming sales promotion 'make me > an offer' I can understand why she'd be panicking. Prices going up and down is only of secondary importance to EAs. What they want is a quick sale, at any price. So 'make me an offer' is very much in the EA's interest - maybe that's who the "me" refers to.

> Long term investment is better now than it > was 12 to 18 months ago as there are some good > deals around. > Even if prices go down a few more percent this > year people still need somewhere to live so all > this holding on means lots of lovely rising rent > for the people who buy to let. I wonder if this is what they said in the heavily populated island of Japan in 1991, when prices had begun to fall. 17 years later, house prices in Japan are about half the price they were in 1991.

seanmlow Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It's funny how > the people who know most about property (i.e. buy > to let investors), are buying by the truck load! Ahem, let's wait a year or two before deciding just how much these b-t-l investors really do know about 'property'. The ones buying by the truckload in Leeds and Manchester don't seem to have been very smart.

Raef comes from a different planet, I just can't see Sir Alan taking him on. I want Lucinda to win but I think she's too unconventional for Sugar's taste. My money's on Clare or Lee, despite his Sara outburst.

Close run thing, but I'd have fired Kev even if Jenny was there. His feeble ganging up on Sara was pathetic. But I really want to see the back of that little sh*t Sophocles too, if only Celebration hadn't put in the big order....

I can't believe Celebration bought 19,000 Single Cards...in fact I'm amazed any of the stores bought any of the cards. But Sugar was right to fire Kevin, who has the self-insight as a gnat.

Maybe Santa needs to move to JoJoMamanBebe this year. Or the ED Warehouse - they've got room for a grotto.

So far all the victims of the downturn have been independents - Booteeki, Raisin, Inside 72, Picture Room, even Southside Lighting. I never once entered any of these establishments, but somehow it added to the character of East Dulwich to have them there. In contrast, we still find ourselves with all dozen or so estate agents intact, each offering the same service and with minimal connection with the community. I've never been into most of them, either. If anyone else is to go under, please let it be an EA. Preferably a big one. Ideally, one that pollutes the area with its neon lighting and garish cars.

Walked past Booteeki today and it was closed up with a sign saying 'shop to let'. Is that the end? That corner of Melbourne Grove has often struggled for business, just not enough passing traffic. The fact that I'm the first one to report the apparent closure says it all.

Yes, according to houseprices.co.uk it was bought in July 2007 for ?250k, so a property developer has spent quite a bit soing it up and is now hoping to make a bit of a killing out of the sale. Or in this market, maybe not...

...is now for sale for ?399k from Bushells. http://www.bushells.com/search/popup_photo.php?propID=17433

Both of them are good roads. The biggest problem with them is parking, because they are so close to the station. Both are also used as rat runs to avoid Lordship Lane, and Melbourne is the more used of the two because it's the first turning for those coming from the village, and also because Melbourne carries on over ED Road. But Melbourne is better now than a few years back when it was on the 37 bus route. By the way, one day they'll be building a new community hospital behind Melbourne, which will no doubt improve the view for those currently overlooking rubble. But in the medium term, perhaps in 3 or 4 years time (who knows?!), you can expect a major construction job to be going on during the day for several months.

SE22 parents have the choice of a lot of good quality (and improving) state primary schools, so the vast majority of SE22 parents are happy to send their children to Heber, Goodrich, St John's etc. When it comes to secondary, however, those who want to go to the local private schools are then competing with vast hordes from further afield. Added to this, the number of secondary school places at Alleyns that are open to new entrants is fairly small. This is because Alleyns virtually guarantees that if your child gets into Alleyns at age 4, then unless s/he is a complete bozo s/he will get a place all the way through to A level. And since the 4 year olds don't tend to come from SE22 (because the local state primaries are so good), relatively few SE22-ers get into their local private school. I wonder if Alleyns has thought about the carbon footprint of all those Wandsworth invaders, when they have so much local talent they could be tapping into. (At a price, of course.)

snorky Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Do you want Lt. Colombo to come around and check > out the crime scene for you ? I was thinking more along the lines of hiring OddJob. TheePope Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Was he by any chance small, with brown wings and a > red breast? That's the fella! However, I fear he's not the one you saw. I've just found some tiny bones under the clematis, accompanied by a calling card signed Felix.

Right, picking up on the wren thread, since this forum is filled with sob stories about cats that have gone missing, time to formally start a thread that stands up for 'the other half'. We had a lovely robin nesting in the tree at the back of the garden (the robin's name was Tiddles, since you ask). Unfortunately it has disappeared. So has the blue tit (Bernard). I'm sure it's a pure coincidence that a number of cats have been seen acrobatically climbing that tree in recent months. These are the same cats that have no qualms about defecating in our garden at every opportunity. I'm called Muttley for a reason, you know.

monica Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The lady in question is very sweet, there was talk > a while ago about a developer who attempted to buy > the property, but bless her she said no and is > sticking to her guns. Hope shes ok, if the window > was broken. She might be "sweet" and all that, but frankly I'd struggle to "bless" anybody who keeps a high street space empty and in a delapidated condition, whatever their history.

Lillibet Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Went to 'the lane' instead, was cheaper > and very nice : ) I went to McDonalds once and I discovered it was cheaper than the Gourmet Burger Kitchen.

The former Woolwich BS, next to the Co-op pharmacy, used to be a Co-op grocery store. Closed in the late 1980s while Somerfield's predecessor (Gateway?) survived.

So this morning we decided to treat ourselves to our first ever Saturday brunch in Franklins, having offloaded the kids for a night. As we ordered the full English, a guy burst in to say he had just read the review in The Guardian about how this is one of the best breakfasts in the country. We grabbed the copy from the bar, and there it was in the Guardian Breakfast supplement, Franklins the London breakfast "to die for". It's a very strange experience to eat your breakfast while you are reading a review of it on your lap. Anyway, we can confirm that it is a really good breakfast, and it only happens on Saturdays from 10am.

This is for the lounge, surely.

I'm following up on the recent thread about the planned closure of East Dulwich Police Station (which provoked a lot of anger along the lines of 'we need local police, not a remote bunch in Camberwell'). I was chatting to a local pc the other day, and asked for the scoop. His understanding was that the plan is to have smaller community offices in each of the three Dulwich wards, one on Lordship Lane, one near the village, one...er...the other place. Sounds like they might be waiting for a suitable secure site to become available on The Lane before closing the existing station. Seems like a good plan to me. Can anyone corroborate this story?

The clocks go forward tonight, which means one less hour of night time, so the lights don't have to be on for so long, so we're all doing our bit for the environment today. We should just put the clocks forward by one hour each week and the earth will be saved. Not.

SteveT Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It is a bit cliquey, but I like it in spite of > it's price list, and think that it adds a touch of > gracious living to ED. There's nothing gracious about ignoring your customers. They could learn a thing or two from Claridges..

Bellenden Belle Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What's the word for those people who appear on the > forum, usually very dramatically, kick up a stink, > and then disappear from sight.... Are they called "one-thread wonders" ? Where are you now, Gykell?