Cyclemonkey

I think the French guys who ran it as a wine bar/small club were doing fairly well but Covid pretty much ruined their business model.

Whenever I have used that Post Office the experience is pretty sub optimal - long queues, not enough staff, general air of chaos. The one at Forest Hill above WH Smiths is a lot better. I might use the Post Office more if they didn't insist on only opening when most people are at work. It is most odd.

Part of the problem the PO has is it has become all things to all people. It has become vital for a small group of people in providing banking and other in person services. But sadly that means for many others it is off putting to use. I need to use it a few times a year to send a parcel. The opening hours are such it is hard (basically impossible) for me to use it during the week, I don't want to use my Saturday morning or lunch hour queuing up behind loads of people. So I use the Royal Mail's online parecel service instead.

It is a challenge. These sorts of services are increasingly expensive to deliver as fewer and fewer people use them. Most people don't want to have to go back to using their lunch hour to queue up at the bank or Post Office. So the options are - reduce the service, make it more expensive or the tax payer subsidises it.

I'm in my early 40s and I am not sure anyone (aprt from HMRC) has sent me money in cheque form for at least 20 years. I would be slightly irritated to get a cheque as I would have to find time to pay it in. I can well imagine a young adult being pretty baffled by a cheque. Many don't even bank with places that have physical branches.

Indeed so. Just noting there are other options and many children and indeed young adults may well be perplexed and/or irritated by a cheque.

When they were very little I transferred money in my nephew and niece's savings accounts and wrote a little voucher to put in the card. Now they are a bit older I put half in to their savings accountd and half on to their Go Henry cards. Children neither know nor care about cheques. As for Postal Orders last time I checked I'm not in an Enid Blyton novel 😆

I think it was more amazement that anyone uses cheques on a large enough scale anymore for it to be an issue. Are cheque books even issued to customers by banks anymore? That said government institutions seem to be one of the last bastions of this - the last cheque I think I received was a tax rebate in 2016 from HMRC. It was very irritating.

Who in earth is sending you cheques? People from 1992?

When I worked in the City there was this great little thing near our office called Post and Go, it was an unmanned, 24/7 unit with machines where you could buy stamps, parcel postage etc.. and drop off parcels. It was really helpful. Not sure why it was closed. I only really go to the Post Office to post the occasional parcel or international letter so being able to do that without the 1980s Eastern Bloc vibe and modern opening hours was quite good.

I mean as someone who loves ina purpose built flat I have no dog in this fight, but those dormer extensions are, by and large, really ugly. The back of streets in East Dulwich look like a well built shanty town

There are only a few MNOs (mobile network operaters) - EE,O2,Three,Vodafone - any thing else (Lebara,GiffGaff etc..) is just a retailer that uses a network. Poor receptoin inside is often to do with the construction of your property - thick concrete walls abd steel framed building all have an impact.

Well there is that too. I support family friendly venues but in the evening/night pubs are adult spaces.

I think it is common for pubs not to be allowed to have children there after a certain time. I susoect it is a licence condition rather than specific children hate. We went to the Clockhouse on last month on a Sunday afternoon and there were plenty of children there.

Oh your poor dog, I hope she recovers. Something has to be done about irresponsible dog owners. I witnessed a terrifying incident on Thursday near London Bridge where a pit bull type dog slipped its lead and was running and barking at a poor woman who was just passing by - it was furious - bareing its teeth and lungeing repatedly at her. The poor woman was screaming with terror. Luckily some passerby by managed to grab the lead and the owner took it back - they didn't seem to be at all remorseful.