Only me!

I think the Shakespeare is A Winter's Tale. Starting this Sunday & running for a week. Tickets are ?15.00..... I think.

Not quite Monroe, but I think that there are a few evenings of Shakespeare coming soon. Unfortunately will still be Midge season though. Vino & Veet should do the trick.

The higher larger planes are Heathrow bound. But only when the wind is from the West. (unfortunately most of the time!) When we have Easterlies the reduced traffic is noticeable. The smaller lower ones are outbound from City. These are lower but are of a quieter specification & as they are lower they do seem to be gone much quicker. Helicopters are primarily the Police, looking for people I guess? With the occasional others mostly ambulances. The Heatrow traffic seemed to get worse after 9.11 when their routes over Central London where altered I think, sending them over us instead.

I travel to Swanage several times each Summer. Eveings are always horrendous. 4 Hrs or more. Leave ED at 05.00 Sth Circ, M3, M27w, A31 etc. Door to door. 2 hrs 20 mins. Excellent MPG. Beautiful drive with the Sun-rise behind U.

Just in case you are getting fed up with the early mornings. Coq au Vin (rouge) recipe (French for: Chicken cooked in red wine) Ingredients for 4 people: - Fresh chicken - 1/2 bottle red wine - 2 large onions (or 4 medium onions) - ? pound (125 g.) of bacon - 4 cloves garlic - Bouquet garni (or 4 bay leaves) - 1 cup (250 ml.) chicken broth (not absolutely required) - Butter - Flour It would qualify as FRee Range. Mr Fernley Wittistal would approve. Tempted yet?

Vans & crew & stuff all parked around Dulwich Picture Gallery most of this week. Does anybody know exactly when I can take some of my toot for it's "Insurance Valuation" on National TV? BTW am already practicing that look of bitter disappointment, hidden behind a sheepish grin.

The good thing about Cockerals is that they are usually highly coloured & bold & as such make quite good targets. Just allow for the wind, exhale & gently squeeze the trigger. Don't jerk at it.

Since I posted on Tuesday saying all was well....... It would seem I need to open my mouth to change feet. Last night there was very patchy connection. With a man seen delving in the box at the top of the Rd during the day. If still the case this evening I'll give them a call & see what they say.

Virgin "Catch up On Demand" was u/s last night. But Broadband & phone all seemed fine. On the couple of occasions that we have had to call (free!) Virgin to sort something, their call centre has handled things very well. & still much cheaper than our old BT & Sky bills were. ps. If the current offer to new customers is better/faster than you existing package, they are willing to upgrade you to the same deal without question. Well anyway, they did for us!

On the Wedding present topic. They are actually always great value. You get ?50.00 of food & drink, in return for a ?15.00 present. Bargin!

In an ED street where parking is always a pain & at times actually impossible (any time after 20.00 it's next street at best, sometimes even further away!) So from this angle I really don't have a problem with fines for illegal cars & removal of dumped ones. However the chaps doing so do sometimes behave with little or no Common Sense. I am aware of a Mother receiving a ticket for double parking, while actually in the process of lifting her child out of the back seat! Pay peanuts, get Monkeys. I guess.

Many moons ago (late 70's- early 80's) he used to live in Worlingham Rd. Then moved on to Forest hill I believe.

In reply to Jimbo. We've never had to re-queue just for more drinks. Just ordered from a waitress, had them brought over with a bill & paid as we leave. As for the comments on price, quality etc. Never had bad or duff food. Even had wine of reasonable quality. i think you get what you pay for & can usully get out for less than ?15.00/head. Which for reasonable food & drink in Lordship Lane isn't really that bad, is it?

I have to say that traffic calming measures are very much a two edged sword. Humps & bumps, they do slow traffic, a bit. & expensive as they are to install they have a much larger cost to the driver. As has already been mentioned they cause more noise & air polution as drivers accelerate-brake-accelerate away. But the substantial unseen cost is however very much down to the driver with the additional cost of maintaining your car. Fuel consumption is appaling with the stop go driving & the hidden cost of replacing suspension bushes, anti-roll bars, tyres, exhausts & steering components are only revealed at annual Service time. When the reaction is all about how expensive cars are to maintin in London! Humps & bumps are nowhere near as effective as a luminously coated Police Officer weilding a spped gun, but unless somebody is knocked over that just doesn't seem to be a priority these days.

We had just had our first baby (2 weeks old) and remember that night very well as there was a power cut and we had to try and see to the baby in the pitch dark , with the sound of several trees falling on cars. Sounded very impressive to us. Dulwich park was out of bounds for several days.