Miss P

Crikey, what an eccentric bunch we seem to be! Welcome to the area, Charlotte, there are some lovely people in ED & it's by far the best place I've ever lived (although not much competition against Willesden Green & Island Gardens....) I hope your social life gets off to a great start with the drinks on Friday, I'll be coming along to the next gathering hopefully!

Foxes are vermin. For heaven's sake. There was no fox blood, so I think they were scared off by the noise as opposed to shot through the head. I don't like having rats or mice scuttling around my skirting boards at night, should I avoid disturbing them, too? I'm not that fond of spiders either, but at least they're nice and quiet.

I apologise HB, I didn't mean to mislead. Guess I just wanted to make sure people read my posting. Pathetic, I know. I was worried that Horny Canidae (yes, I've wiki'd) or Sexy Canids may not have been as interesting...

What, saying thank you?

About 4 nights ago, the foxes were 'at it' again in the streets around North Cross Road at about 5am. As usual I was woken from a deep sleep thinking that there were murders taking place outside. To my surprise, I then heard 'pop, pop, pop'. I can only assume that someone with more gumption/less patience than I has purchased a BB gun or similar. The screeching stopped & I am eternally grateful to my well armed neighbour. I assume no harm was done to the animals, but the noise drove them to someone else's street....

To go back to the original post, I was driving down Heygate street this time last year, and I spotted some people on the bridge over the road. They looked like they were about to throw something at the car infront of me. To my utter horror, I realised it was a fire extinguisher. Fortunately, the missed the car in front & as soon as I safely could, I pulled over and dialed 999. The police turned up, but I don't imagine they caught anyone. How people could be so utterly thoughtless and stupid left me stunned and scared.

The more Italian restaurants, run by Italians, making fresh pasta & going away from the English idea of Italian food, the better. I wish them luck!

Just wanted to say thank you very much to the kind soul who found a small somewhat soggy envelope in the street & put it through my letterbox. It was a wedding invite reply, so although it was small, it was important, so thank you! You must have very good eyesight as it had obviously been in the rain for a while!

So sorry to hear about your experience Slummymum, how very annoying for you. I would like to say that I'm a firm believer in what goes around, comes around. I very much hope that handing in a purse a few months ago to the shop I found it outside led to a kind soul putting my post through my door today having found it in the street. I can only hope that kismet eventually catches up with all scumbags.

Well I for one am glad that Red Van Man is making Johnny at the Admirable Crichton cross. I worked for him many years ago and it's the only job I've ever walked away from. (I too, thought it was just one van that got moved around.. can't believe I'm so naive....)

So I guess the trick would be not to all rush for a cuppa at half nine? Maybe we should all just go to the pub?

Sounds like fun, count me and Mr G in.

Very pleased to hear that Strawbs, Babycakes & Charliecharlie care enough to at least try. Louisa, if you think it's too late, we may as well just give up now. And go and pick some daffodils to enjoy them while we can.....(In another thread, Louisa was upset about people picking daffs from public parks - in fact I quite agree that people shouldn't do that, it's very selfish.) I'm sure all those with kids would like to think that we aren't going to leave them with a totally ruined planet & no natural resources left? It's not a huge effort really, is it?

I have just been visited by the lady, Rosalind, & I believe her to be genuine. I told her about the postings on here & she looked genuinely upset that she was being misunderstood. She went away without asking for anything & has just put a copy of her first book through my letterbox with a brief note explaining what she is trying to do. She said that she is telling people that it will be a 6-8 week wait from giving money to receiving the book, so I guess some patience is in order. I do feel for her - ED is a little cynical due to several scams being run in the area, but I don't think that's her agenda.

I wondered if any other ED residents were joining in with the earth hour this Saturday evening? www.wwf.org.uk/earthhour Seems like a small gesture to help save the planet - for those who haven't heard about it, all you have to do is turn your lights out for an hour at 8.30pm Saturday evening. It's got to be worth the effort - and a good excuse for a candle lit dinner......

Wandered past today & it looks like it's going to be a slightly more realistic shoe retailer. Camper etc.

Thank you for the Logs for London info, Louisiana, most useful. Just to clarify, I do have an approved wood burner, and as I'm at home during the day at the moment, it's got to make sense to light a fire & keep one room warm as opposed to putting the heating on for the whole house. I do also buy smoke free coal, and I let wood dry out before trying to burn it in order to keep the smoke down as much as possible.

I will return to Franklins and make myself clearer rather than walking out speechless.... Thank you Pommie for the offer, most neighbourly of you. I have plenty to keep me going for the time being, but thank you anyway.

I asked the lady who was working in the shop. I said "How much are the logs?" She said, "?11 a bag." I honestly have nothing against Franklins - I buy fresh veg from there regularly. Maybe she was confused or meant ?11 for two bags, but that's not what she told me. ?5.50 sounds average for ED.

Thank you HonaloochieB, that made me smile!

I saw some great snowmen in Dulwich Park, but my favourite memory from today was watching a family in the playground. They had some of those plastic mini shovels (I only know them as Ki-gliss's). They were using them on the slide and because they were using these little "sledges", they were whizzing off the slide and through the snow. Much laughter and screaming ensued - very sweet.

I went for a long walk round Dulwich Park & East Dulwich as I am a huge fan of snow. I came home via Lordship Lane & saw that Franklins were selling bags of logs. I thought I'd check out how much they were. ?11!!!! For a bag of logs the same size that is sold at the Texaco for around a fiver. I thought I'd misheard her - 11 quid for a bag of logs & ?4.50 for kindling - an absolute rip off. So I went straight to the DIY shop and bought coal, kindling & firelighters from them.

I'm so glad I saw this thread - I thought I was going a little bit bonkers. I kept saying to my other half that the lights seemed to be flickering, but he kept missing it, so I thought my eyes were broken. All seems to have sorted itself out today...

Anon, I can totally understand how frustrating it must be to have a car parked in front of your house for weeks on end, especially as you have a disabled relative. I wonder if you could ask for a disabled bay in your street if you don't have one? There are two bays in our street, and it's not a particularly long road. I do think Libra has a valid point - surely reporting it as possibly stolen so that it could be re-united with it's owner is preferable to breaking the law? With regards to a few of the other replies on here, unless the car is 30 feet long, there should be a space in front or behind the offending vehicle that should do the trick until the vehicle moves!

We live near North Cross Road & there are many occasions when we can't park right outside our house. At Christmas time it's virtually impossible as so many people drive over to shop along North Cross Rd. However, we would both rather park a couple of minutes away than deal with the utter inconvenience and expense of having to get visitors permits (or workers permits) every time we have friends over. I am happy to suffer the small inconvenience of walking a few hundred yards if it means local businesses are kept afloat. I would be very sad if all the local independents disappeared, it really wouldn't be the same without them. Long live unrestricted parking.