Amelie

Allegedly there are trains from Forest Hill tomorrow morning to London Bridge at 8.11 and 8.43.

I have had problems with C4 and ITV and Virgin told me it should be repaired by 8am today, but I haven't really had the TV on so I don't know if they made it.

I work in St James's, but no buses and no trains and the only person who did make it in to the office today had no work to pass on so I think almost no-one made it in. The agency that I work for also seems to be largely absent as my email to them has gone unanswered. My mother tells me that when she was working in the 60s for the Civil Service if you lived within 5 miles of your workplace you were expected to walk in and no excuses were accepted. Whilst being largely in agreement with that, I don't fancy risking breaking my ankles (or anything else). It would be helpful to know if public transport will be back up and running tomorrow. What makes me really angry is that LB Southwark made no effort whatsoever to grit the roads/pavements at this end of ED and there is still no sign of any gritters or snowploughs, despite having 5 days' warning.

Has anyone else noticed their lights flickering? I came home this evening to find that my phone needed resetting, which usually happens after a power cut, and now my lights are playing up and the PC keeps telling me there are problems with the local area connection.

Complaints about a hospital should not only be sent to the PALS office but also to the Chief Executive, who is under a statutory duty to investigate all complaints (worth putting that in the letter too). Failure to keep proper records is not only dangerous, it is also a breach of the Code issued by the Information Commissioner. I would suggest that you drop a line to the ICO as well.

There are several shops apparently Under Offer along Lordship Lane, but no indication of who made the offers in question. I will be very interested to see if any of them actually come to anything.

Thames Water believes that there is a burst water main somewhere in SE22/SE23; a technician is on his way (as of about 11am). They aim to fix the problem within 6 hours.

You could try the Civil Aviation Authority, the Metropolitan Police Authority, and the Borough Commander but I doubt if you will get anywhere.

Thames Water is what is known in law as a Statutory Undertaker, therefore it does not need planning permission to carry out these works. Its only obligation is to notify residents that the work will be carried out, and that is what it has done. I would personally suggest that Tessa Jowell should be asked to arrange a public meeting with Thames Water so that the affected residents can have their questions answered.

Guneh (not sure if that is how he spells his name) is a really nice guy. He made my blinds which are fantastic, and his family have lived in ED and owned the shop for at least 2 generations.

rspcasouthlondon - yes, it is that driver Vicks* - definitely a bad case of collective cowardice as well as shock.

I am with you MadWorld, this could have been my grandfather (served with the RAF) or my grandmother (suffered through the Blitz). Peckham Rose - this driver is in his 50s, grey hair, glasses.

I take the #185 bus to my current job in Victoria every day, most of the drivers are perfectly fine if a little heavy-footed and the only real problem has been the effect of the Thames Water works in Lewisham. However, the other morning the bus driver, in my opinion, behaved so badly that I wrote to TfL to complain. The bus had pulled up outside Plough DIY and two elderly ladies boarded, this was before 9.00am so technically their Freedom passes weren't valid yet. Instead of politely pointing this out and giving the ladies the options of either paying the excess fare or waiting for the next bus, the driver started banging on his internal window shouting 'Hello! Hello!' and 'Oh God, there's two of them' at them. Initially neither of them understood that they were the passengers being shouted at and the other passengers had to explain. The driver then started shouting at them about it not being 9.00am yet and just ranted on and on, one of the ladies told him that she hadn't seen the card reader had flashed red and he shouted at her that she had seen it. It was obvious that she hadn't because she was wearing a pair of what were plainly medically prescribed dark glasses. Her companion, who it turned out was on her way to a medical appointment, told the driver she was 92 (92!!) and she was a little frail and very taken aback at being treated like some sort of criminal. The partially sighted lady asked the driver to stop shouting at them and not to talk to them like that but he just ignored her. When they then offered to pay he continued to shout at them and it almost looked like he was trying to prevent them from paying. Eventually they paid ?2 each and sat down. The rest of us were so shocked that we all sat or stood like lemons, not knowing quite what to do. It is bad enough that a driver who is paid to provide a service to the public should treat people like that, but to treat two vulnerable pensioners so badly was appalling. As I said I have written to TfL and I will wait to see that TfL says.

Can I make a few suggestions? Anyone who has nearly been knocked down by schoolchildren in identifiable uniforms should write to the Head Teacher, stating what happened and where and asking for the Head Teacher to remind the schoolchildren that they should cycle considerately. You should also remind the Head Teacher that their pupils are breaking the law and doing so whilst wearing the school's uniform. PCSO's who abuse their authority should be reported to the Borough Commander of Southwark, again state what happened and where and ask the Borough Commander to formally reprimand the PCSO's in question. If you are dissatisfied with his response escalate your complaint. And I would personally be grateful if the parents who let their children cycle through the people waiting at the bus stop at the junction of Overhill Road and Lordship Lane like some gigantic game of skittles would stop doing so. The pavement there is not wide enough for pedestrians and cyclists, people queuing for the bus have the right to be on the pavement at that point child cyclists do not.

On the subject of chocolate, there is a fantastic recipe for a chocolate cake in today's Times2 section.

I wondered what had caused the huge tailbacks this morning, the #185 disappeared and the traffic was bedlam. It took me an hour and 40 minutes to get from ED to Victoria.

May I suggest that you take this up with the local practitioners' committee? It seems to me that the lack of attention at Melbourne Grove should be the subject of a formal complaint to the relevant authorities.

I was called by Lloyds TSB this morning and told that someone in New York had tried to use my card several times at ATMs, I have most recently been in Sainsbury's and Green & Blue. I have not been to the US, and never to New York, for several years.

The legend of Ondine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondine_(mythology), also is it 'Bell vwhah' or 'Bee vor' for Belvoir Road?

There are also cheap bars at the St Thomas More Hall on Lordship Lane and the Dulwich Constitutional Club on East Dulwich Road, the latter has snooker tables upstairs and a bowling green outside.

Nico On the subject of Ladies' loos, can I request the following: A/C - overheated loos/changing rooms are horrible Direct white light around the mirrors Mirrors without distorting effects Sound proofing - sometimes it's nice to get away from the noise of the bar Supplies of moisturiser Cotton hand towels Comfortable chairs in the main area Decent size handbasins with shelves (for make up etc) Claridge's Hotel regularly wins the award for the best loos in London, so you could do worse than ask its management for advice.

I had an appointment in town to go to first, which I thought I had left plenty of time for and caught the #176 bus. I had not reckoned on the phasing of the traffic lights, or the number of traffic lights, on the Strand. I got off at Charing Cross in the end and took the tube and was only 5 minutes late but already hot and starting to become dishevelled. Not helped by meeting someone who was immaculately made up, which I wasn't as I thought it would probably just melt off. I am going to rant about First Great Western and London Underground at this point: I caught the H&C line from Gt Portland Street with no problem, arrived at Paddington to find that unlike the other tube lines the H&C exit was at the departure end of the platforms and not on the main concourse. Having made the mistake of wearing my best pair of black heels from which I was already suffering I was not thrilled about this. There is no A/C at the station except in the enclosed shopping area on the main concourse. So I limped down the stairs, all the way along the platform and stopped at the Ladies on my way, with my interview clothes sticking to me. The Ladies is downstairs. You would think that being underground it might be a bit cooler. Wrong. It was BOILING and again had no A/C, but did have huge numbers of enviromentally unfriendly lights and several of those new Dyson hand driers. You also had to pay to get in, 30 pence, which had to be paid as 1 10p piece and 1 20p pence; you couldn't pay with 3 10p pieces. OK if you speak English as your first language, although irritating when you are hot, tired, footsore, pissed off and desperate. Not good if you are a tourist, of which Paddington running the Heathrow Express has many. The change machine was broken, and said Out of Order - not an engineer has been sent for you note. There was no pictogram explaining what was required to the tourists, and the booth which was supposed to contain a member of staff was empty. I felt very sorry for the three women in front of me. The person in charge grudgingly let them through the exit in the end. I limped back on to the main concourse and not having had any lunch yet looked for somewhere that wasn't selling huge amounts of calories deep fried and dipped in sugar. I looked in vain of course and eventually settled for a small fruit salad and some juice from Boots. Now all this is something that I hate about this country at the moment. We have had hot sticky summers in London for as long as I can remember, so why are our public places STILL not designed to cope with this? Why isn't Paddington and every other station equipped with a cooling system, why aren't the toilets air conditioned, and why are places that are heavily used by tourists so bloody unfriendly?! And WHY does FGW let its trains sit with their engines running when it is already unspeakably hot, not to mention the damage this does to the air quality in London? And WHY can't you buy healthy appetising food at a railway station? There was a time when this country produced the best engineers in the world, and a problem was something to be addressed not greeted with a shrug of the shoulders. Anyway I get on the delightfully cool fast train to Slough, hence the need to travel to Paddington in the first place. I get to Slough, discover that I had left behind my carefully pre-printed map and looked around for the map that I assumed would be on the wall of the station. There wasn't one, either inside or out. Yet something else that FGW can't be bothered to provide, so when a visitor arrives at the station they can't orient themselves. There was a map however attached to the corner of the building opposite the station. The logic of this escapes me. I make my way home after the interview to discover that there is no correlation between fast trains from Paddington (every 10 minutes) and fast trains from Slough (every 30 minutes), change for the Bakerloo line and get to E&C. One of the lifts at E&C is broken, again there is an Out of Order sign with no suggestion that anyone has actually called an engineer to fix it. An announcer tells waiting passengers that they can use the emergency stairs if they like, there is no mention that anyone who suffers from asthma/breathing difficulties/heart problems should avoid this, nor any acknowledgement that telling people to use the stairs in a deep station on an extremely hot day is probably not a good idea. I caught the bus home from E&C, and even managed to get a seat. If anyone saw a woman in a black suit on Overhill Road that afternoon with her shoes in her hand walking up the road in her stocking feet that was me. I have never been so glad to see a shower in my life. Hopefully I will have some news next week.

@ Huguenot No, I have lived in London all my life and was born in King's College Hospital. At least if I drive I won't be reliant on public transport, which is notorious for breaking down. Neither will I have to be constantly changing means of transport. Thank you so much for your patronising and rude comment. BTW: I said that I have to travel to Paddington to attend an interview, I did not say that the interview was in Paddington. A moment's thought on your part might have led to the realisation that I meant the railway station, not the area.

Thank you for all your suggestions. As it happens I now have an appointment in town in the morning so will catch the Bakerloo line from there. I have also discovered that the #436 bus runs from Camberwell Green (starting at Lewisham) to Paddington and allegedly takes 45 minutes from there, presumably if there is no other traffic . However, I have also sent off for my provisional licence so if I am offered the job (which would be for 12 months) I will learn to drive rather than chop and change on public transport.

nutty: Assuming Dial a Cab has a licence from the London Carriage Office, I think you should report them. I don't know if they do have to have such a licence, so it might be worth checking. A little while ago TfL had adverts on the flip-up seats of black cabs for a cab number that single women travelling late at night were recommended to call. I used to have it but lost it when I changed mobile phones. It might be on TfL's site.