peckham_perkster

Already know mine, and my mates are primed to ensure it happens. 'There goes my Soldier Girl' by the Polyphonic Spree with choristers robes under everyone's seats ready to sway along.

Courses in being northern Words fail me.

My mate lives a couple of doors down from the house that is being 'guarded' by nice policemen with rifles. They arrived about 10pm on Thursday night so is in no way connected with the car bomb attempts in London as that didn't kick off till Friday morning. He said he saw the shift change on Friday evening and witnessed a woman pumping them for information but to no avail, all they said was that it was a 'precaution'. We thought maybe it was witness protection or summat. How on earth do people find out about the home secretary's sister living there! Now that is some serious jungle drums.

I'd heard about that, it kind of makes sense in a stinky kill yourself type way, of course that happened in NY! I've just spent the whole afternoon writing a document about how we're enforcing it where I work, what a riveting read that was. Any questions about the legislation I'm your gal. The law officially comes into effect at 6am on Sunday 1st July so would be interesting if you're at a 24 hour boozer. Isn't there one at London Bridge - The Market Porter or summat that's open till the early mornning?

I'm off to visit the folks so what wine should I be drinking with the fambilee?

Me and my housemates were talking about this last night and coming up with the news stories that we know will be featured once the ban takes place. Here's what we came up with. 1. After it's been in place a while a look at the economic effect it's had on pubs, no doubt highlighting differences between the north and south. The red tops going for the jugular when they find a pub threatened with closure due to the smoking ban - I doubt this will happen personally. 2. An old man who goes to the pub every day who enjoys his pint of bitter and a roll up being forced to go outside and the pub owners and regulars saying it's outrageous. He fought for his country and this is how we treat him. 3. General comments on how lovely it is but now you can really smell the other nasties in the pub - stale booze on the floors, that weird wet dog smell some boozers have etc. 4. Images of the smokers outside in the rain in the badly erected shelters some pubs will have put up. 5. Pan to shots of city workers outside bars as well as offices - will they start to block the pavements? 6. Stories about people moaning due to the amount of cigarette ends on the pavements and councils agreeing that it's unsightly but it's a lesser of 2 evils and they are doing what they can. 7. After in place a while stories about how many fines have been dished out to individuals with the 'on the spot fines' and to businesses - van drivers smoking that kind of thing. 8. A piece on working mens clubs where they all think it's outrageous and others saying they've not noticed the difference really. Anymore for anymore?

Mumra, I have sent my suggestions for our sojourn to the mother of the Weasley's as I will not be in attendance this weekend. I feel I need to make some contribution, if only to stop the boys taking us to the woods so they can pretend they are Ray Mears and then realise it's at the bottom of a hill by a reservoir on the turn... Have included quite a few that allow fires so fingers crossed.

I was told by a fairly reliable source that Warwick Gardens at the end of Holly Grove in Peckham has plague pits underneath. They only found this out when about 50 years ago or so they went to do some work on water/gas pipes in the park and the workers were struck down with an illness which was quickly diagnosed as the plague! Hole covered up and all work stopped immediately. This is why it has never been built on. Don't know if this is true but it sounds about right when you consider the rest of the area has been built upon but this mysteriously wasn't at the time.

Ko: Thanks for this! The woman at Dulwich College gave me his contact details as well so I shall be contacting him very soon to see if he has any clues for us. I know that church on Rosendale as my mate lives up the road and have been watching the rennovations with interest. It would make sense that he designed this as well, thanks for that I may go in and have a look.

Hello Lulu, we have officially set one up now and have a website and google group you can look at which gives details about it all and the dates of upcoming meetings. Click on the links below:- EDWI Google Group EDWI website Maybe we'll see you at the next meeting!

Mini update Spoke to a woman from Dulwich College who looks after their archives as Charles Barry designed some of their buildings. The Charles Barry who designed St. Peter's is definitely not the architect of the Houses of Parliament, it was his son. As the church is just down the road from the college there is a chance it's all part of the same commission so she is going to get back to me she's also given me the details of a man she thinks will have more knowledge about this. Phew!

I've had quite a few cats, though this never makes anyone an expert especially as Asset says there is no knowing how he'll react. I've found that they do tend to settle once another cat arrives but agree that getting another in for a day to see his reaction will give you some idea. I think if he's timid you would need to introduce a kitten so he still felt like the top cat (excuse the pun) rather than an adult cat.

I haven't been able to get to Sainsbo's for the wine but will make a concerted effort after this weekend to buy the wines. Thing is I've never tasted a damson so won't be able to comment on that bit. Please don't sulk Galapagos. I'm happy to find something for next weekend if you like.

Oh, and by the way when I say Charles Barry was the architect I am not sure if we are talking about the man who designed the Houses of Parliament as he died in 1860 and the church wasn't finished till 1885 with the new building being put up roughly at the end of the century. He may have designed these all before he died though as it is an odd coincidence and the style is similar.

Hello again! An update... I've been to the church and got permission from them to do the work and are in the process of applying for funds to get extra work done to the memorial. As an aside to the project has anyone been inside the church? IT IS STUNNING! The church that uses it is filled with the most welcoming and friendly people who were interested in what we were doing and encouraged the work and wanted to get involved to help the young people if possible. Anyhow, I digress. The pastor told me that they have no records for the church and have no idea who built it or the history of it! The church stopped being a place of worship in 1984, it was bought by a property developer who couldn't do anything with it because it's a Grade 1 listed building. mainly due to the stained glass windows. so he sold the whole thing to them in 1996. In the time the developer had it any records or details of the church were lost which they are really sad about as people turn up looking for records about births, deaths etc. Having had a look around I have a hunch that it was built by Horniman as the second building outside was built by a 'Frerderick Horniman MP' in memory of his wife Rebekah. The building went up only a few years after the church was completed and was designed by the same architect, Charles Barry. The church have asked the local history society but they don't seem to know much about it so if anyone does have any clues let me know, it used to be called St. Peter's Church. If you do ever get the chance to go in and have a look if it's open, don't be afraid to go in, they are happy to do so and the building is worth it. It's the only church I've been in where the stained glass windows behind the altar have Jesus on the Cross without a beard! He does look scarily Aryan.

*drums fingers on kitchen table by bottle opener* So what wine are we slurping this week Galapagos?

I'm going to put my two penneth in here. I am in my thirites and still rent living in a shared house with 3 others. I would love to get on the propery market but there is no way on this heavenly earth I can entertain the possibility. I am currently in the process of putting myself forward for shared ownership which you can apply for even if you're not a key worker. I work for a council so I'm hoping this will put me in good stead. However even if you do buy people don't always think of the fact that from now on you won't be sharing bills and so you really do need to be in a decent position to be able to afford to live. This in some ways puts me off, I work in a reasonably paid job - bear in mind it's a council - but I worry that even if I got to that point that I would then find myself chasing circles trying to cover other bills. With regards to the renting thing in other countries, I have also talked about this to other people and saying that it is only in this country that renting is seen as almost the equivalent of being a social pariah with everyone at every turn telling you, 'you must get on the property ladder'. I've thought about this long and hard and the only reason I can see that we're obsessed with this is that by the time you come to retire your house is your pension as the state pension and even private ones we have will be so rubbish. With that thinking in mind will it make any difference if you get on the ladder later rather than soooner? The economy is cyclical which means something has to give or in essence that young adults coming along as first time buyers, younger than me, will never buy a single property because they are too expensive. I don't know if there will be a massive recession, and believe me I do remember it and it wasn't nice, but there has to be a solution to this or the future looks pretty bleak for everyone. I think the reason renting in other countries is more acceptable is because when you become old you invariably move in with your family or they take care of you lessening the need to have a massive pot of money. It's a very different culture to the one we have. Sorry that was more than 2 pennies worth

Louisa that sounds promising, hopefully they'll have some information or advice. I love the idea of a wreath in real poppies as well. I've spoken to the local councillor about this and he is going to hopefully come back with some useful information about this. He has also suggested we apply for funding through the scheme he mentioned which I think is a great idea but this wouldn't arrive till the autumn. I plan to get the Reparation scheme in to do most of the work but we could still use any money given for other work. I met up with other mentors along with the person who runs these projects on Monday and we've come up with lots of ideas about this and everyone is keen to get cracking as soon as possible!

OMG you will make Mr. PP's dreams come true if you pick a Wolfblass, it's his favourite wine! He likes the white label one which I think is a bit more pricey?...I'm not familiar with it but I know the way to his heart, that and a plate of pie and mash from Maureen's. Anyhoo pick away, I like the Sainsbos idea, always interesting to see what they have.

Dannyboy - Thanks so much for your posts they have been really helpful! If you could have a butchers at the Imperial War Museum at the list that would be brilliant. I didn't read your post above mine about them being like the 'home guard' so apologies for being dim. We've had a look at the information on the War Memorial Fund and realised it won't cover everything but we should be able to get about ?250 from them which is not bad for a starting fund and I doubt we will need thousands! I've given the information to the Reparation guy who is going to start following this up. At the meeting they were really excited about this as it covers a lot of areas for the scheme such as education in teaching them about WW1, botany with the plants, local history etc. We often find when working with the clients that they are proud of their work so getting them to come along to an 'opening' of it would be great so they really do feel they've achieved something. Questions 1. Does anyone know anything about the church there? It appears to have a CCTV camera at the front door and clearly the second building is used but I have no idea what the main church is now. 2. Is anyone part of the East Dulwich Local History group or does anyone know someone that is? It would be good to get the details of a contact there as I'm sure they must have some information about the memorial and why the regiment were 'ill fated'. I think that's all for now :)

OK, a quick update... Went down to the memorial on Saturday in between mentoring sessions along with my fellow mentors to suss it all out. I took some photos and sent them to the man who is responsible for the Reparation scheme and spoke to him later on about it. We reckon it's an excellent opportunity and will be getting the wheels in motion as soon as possible. We've come up with ideas about what we can do down there so now it's a case of finding out who is responsible for the churchyard so we can get permission to do the work though I really doubt this will be a problem. One of the other mentors was telling me that Wildred Owen wrote a book on plants before he went to war so we thought we could plant some of the ones he talked about around along with some poppies. I'm going to get my local history head on to find out what the regiment's colours were and see if we can't get a flag made up in them. I also want to find out all the names of the men who served as this is missing from the memorial. Another thing is finding photos of the memorial when it was opened in local papers so we can see what it originally looked like to try and restore it as close as possible to this. By chance I spoke to someone at the open gardens thing at Choumert Square who is from the local historical society who has taken my number to give to someone who may be able to help so we shall see. I was told by someone I work with that there is a fund for sprucing up memorials which I'm going to look into as obviously we need some money to get the project completed properly. The Southwark YOT team can provide tools and clients to do most of the work but we'll need money to buy the flowers and any other materials to do the work. I don't think there was a metal fence around the memorial as I could find no trace of this when scrabbling around it but there was definitely something attached to the front of it. I am having a meeting with the guy responsible for the Reparation project tonight and along with some other stuff will clearly discuss the way forward with this. However all of that said if anyone can help me out with some of the research or knows someone who may have information about the memorial, who runs the church etc then please PM me or put it on here, it will all help! My ideal ending to this would be to have the British Legion come down and officially open it back up again along with possible descendants of the men who served in this, apparently, forgotten regiment.

I drank mine last night with some friends over a gentle BBQ tea. I had chilled it but we all thought it was better once warmed up a bit. We felt it was quite woody and really filled your mouth with flavour and had a bit of tannin coating your tongue etc. I agree, I preferred the Saint Veran from last week. One saving grace, a real cork :)

I found it helpful to have them last time, not being an expert it gives you an idea of the smells and tastes you should be getting on your tastebuds.

Hmm me thinks something is afoot as all the greenery/shrubbery by Lidl in Peckham has been replaced with...paving slabs. Everyone knows that this is not good, apparently this surface reflects more sun and heat back into the atmos which ain't good for the planet's atmos...or summat like that.

Not bad at all! So when are we making our EDWI bags? Could that be one of our first activities?...