Amelie

I like Chener Books, but could wish its selection of crime fiction and fantasy was a bit more up to date. Murder One on the Charing Cross Road is my favourite book shop for this reason.

I go into GBK occasionally, as I don't like trying to eat when surrounded by loud (and sometimes badly behaved) children, [flak jacket now in place] and apart from once discovering that the bun was charred I have no complaints. In fact, the second time I went in the lady in charge recognised me and remembered my preferred burger. V impressed.

My problem with Virgin is that the Internet suddenly seems to fall into a circularity with the 'Connecting' icon going round and round, but nothing happening. I usually have to shut down the Internet and go back in at least twice before it starts working again.

Carmel You should take this up with the Trading Standards Office at LB Southwark. Grace & Favour cannot refuse any liability, and this is made clear in both the Sale of Goods Act and the Sale and Supply of Goods and Services Act.

I tried Omrith as well and was not really that impressed. Chandni in West Dulwich is good, I will try Spice Republic as technically it is my 'local'.

I have a menu from Poppadom in Camberwell which was put through my letterbox yesterday. It looks good and more interesting than the usual. Has anyone on the EDF been to Poppadom and is it any good? I usually order from The Indian Dining Club, who started off brilliantly, but have been either a bit blah or overspiced recently, so an alternative would be good.

As I understand it, sending threats of legal action through the Royal Mail without any legal justification for doing so is a criminal offence. Companies sending out incomplete County Court papers should be firmly reminded of this, with a copy of your letter and the incomplete papers being sent to the presiding judge (ie. the senior judge) at the relevant court. It might also be worth copying the Director-General of the Office of Fair Trading, as I think it is the OFT that regulates these companies.

Phone Environmental Services at Southwark and make a complaint, this is what they are for.

The power went off at 8.45am, by the time I got back to my flat at about 12.30 it was back on. Provided you didn't open the fridge/freezer and let all the cold air out the contents should be fine.

I was doing a bit of research about prices in my end of East Dulwich on the various estate agent websites, so far it seems that the average price for a good-size 1 bed sans garden is ?250K, avec garden ?270K. So things don't seem to have changed that much, and Ludlow Thompson is sending out emails asking for properties to sell.

The #37 to Clapham is fine until you get to Clapham Common and Battersea Rise; the traffic is AWFUL. Really, really best avoided during the rush hour. You can get the train to Victoria from Forest Hill, (London Bridge to Victoria). There is also a train that goes to Clapham Junction from Forest Hill, but I think it is one of those few and far between services.

Cats are supposed not to like the smell of garlic, and all the proprietary anti-cat products on the market are based on garlic. There was an article about a war with urban cats in The Times ages ago, I think it was by Giles Coren, which had me on the floor laughing. As did Loz's post, sorry to be unsympathetic but it really is very funny.

Is it the church on the #37 route?

Mr Franklin's told me on Saturday that the former tyre shop is going to be a farm shop selling local produce.

I think there is a private Act of Parliament relating to the toll road, I am sure I remember seeing this on the 'Net somewhere.

I hope that Belvoir Road will not become a rat-run, the right-turn onto Underhill Road should be reinstated but equally LB Southwark should be obliged to resurface all the roads and pavements affected; most of which are in a dreadful state due to lack of maintenance. Apparently the hard-standings outside the shops running from the corner of Melford Avenue are to be resurfaced in May.

I mentioned social services as a POSSIBILITY if OTE was really worried, obviously mere noise is not a reason to call them but keeping children up so late can be a sign of more widespread neglect as any health visitor could confirm. If of course we still had enough to around.

The transport official in question is Peter Hendy who may well find himself answering some very difficult questions from the Electoral Commission and the Nolan Committee about apparently breaching the rules on political impartiality. It is an aboslute legal requirement that officials paid from the public purse must not indulge in political activity. Mr Hendy's threat has nothing to do with being ashamed or embarrassed by Boris Johnson but rather an acknowledgement that his own thoughtlessness and disregard for the law of the land may have made his continued employment both impossible and indefensible.

I live in a converted Victorian house and my upstairs neighbours have laminate flooring, however only my flat has a lease with conditions about carpeting. Moreover, that prize fool John Prescott arbitrarily picked a date in the 1980s so that all houses converted before that date do not have to comply with the current noise regulations. The Victorians themselves of course had carpets everywhere, and these houses simply are not designed for bare wooden floors and multiple occupancy. It is my experience that most noise is not caused by people trying consciously to be noisy but is just the noise made by day to day life. I think OTE has a point about such a young child being up so late at night, if you are genuinely worried OTE you can always telephone Children's Services at Southwark and ask them to send a social worker round to check that everything really is alright.

The irony in all this is that LB Southwark paid to have Dulwich Library refurbished the other year and took out all the bookshelves that actually went with the building, installed new modern ugly too short and unstable free standing shelving units that don't go with the building - and spent not one penny on new books. I have been going to Dulwich Library since I was a child and it has never had a decent collection of books. Personally I get through a lot of books and look after them, and I would consider it 'bad form' to give a book to the library that I knew was falling apart, I would rather give them to a library where people could borrow them for free than to a however well-intentioned charity shop that will charge people for them. Call me picky.

is not taking donations in case anyone was thinking of sorting out their bookshelves. Apparently the library both at The Plough end and at Grove Vale have an overflow.

I have ladybirds in my kitchen, sometimes as many as 12, they don't bother me particularly apart from their kamikaze zooming around the hob when one of the burners is on. My mother told me that they are supposed to be lucky, so I try to avoid killing them.

I spoke with the owner yesterday afternoon, everyone at Red Apple is alright but shaken and he has changed their security procedures as a result. However, the newsagents has CCTV with apparently good pictures taken of the two youths involved. He also said that this problem is getting worse, the shop in Goodrich Road has been shut and converted into a flat because it was robbed so many times.

I grew up here, born in 1969, and I have never known anything like the situation at the moment; not even when Kingsdale and William Penn (as was) were at the height of their difficulties. There is definitely a problem with badly brought up and out of control teenagers of all colours, you have only to hear the way in which they talk to and about each other to know that. Personally I think bobbies on the beat would make all the difference, and Ian Blair drives me mad with his refusal to ackowledge that the disappearance from the streets of the Met has led directly to the increased incidence of street crime. The Met being a 'Service' has got to be one of the greatest ironies at large in London, the Met has no concept of what 'service' means and seem to have no interest in finding out. I shall be 40 next year and these huge crowds of teenagers terrify me, particularly as I am not very tall and they all seem to be huge. Except it has to be said for the girls who are small but clearly deadly. Their attitude to other people is appalling and it is nearly always these loud aggressive teenagers who cause problems on public transport. As the disappearance of policemen has had huge ramifications, so too has the abolition of bus conductors, train guards and ticket inspectors. I find I am becoming more and more intolerant as I age and I am starting to think that the reintroduction of some form of compulsory service requirement (not just military) would be no bad thing. I think every school, not just public schools, should have a Brownies/Cubs troop, a Guides/Scouts troop, a CCF and a Voluntary Service group with membership of at least one of them being compulsory so that none of these children - and they are children - would be left with so little to occupy their time.

Dan Looking forward to the Barramundi in the summer, fashions in fish and shellfish change for example: oysters used to be poor people's food in the Middle Ages and lampreys were for wealthy people e.g. King John who allegedly died because he gorged on them. Now oysters are incredibly expensive and no-one eats lamprey at all. This country's oyster beds were one of the reasons for Rome's interest in us, the crushed oyster shells produced the purple dye the Romans valued so much. I would like to try fish that used to be common in this country but became unfashionable. Perhaps it would be worth talking to your man at Billingsgate for his suggestions, especially if such fish can be sourced sustainably. You could hold tasting sessions. As a personal preference in the meantime, how about some pink trout or rainbow trout?