louisiana

Being a lazyweb sort of person who hates lugging lots of heavy stuff home, I tend to buy my flours online from Shipton Mill. Amazing range of organic everything. Thanks for the local flour tip.

I've already had lots of peeps in to do major stuff, resulting in bills totalling a very, very chunky 5-fig sum, so now with the tail end bits I'm trying to focus the money spending on things I cannot do (e.g. chimney rip-out, stove and insulated flue install = 2.5k; blinds and curtains > 5k; underlay and carpets circa 6k) rather than on those I can. The 'budget' (ha!) did kind of go out of control at one point (kitchen!) though there have been lower bills than expected elsewhere (e.g. electrics), and thankfully there have not been too many rotten joists etc. along the way.

Yes, karter, the prep work is what is driving me mad. The skirting boards measured in hectares with all those itsy-bitsy fiddly shapes. Trouble is, I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I'm sure most people would just do a quick and bad sand and then slap on the paint. Right, back to the land of sanding...I may be some time

Yeah, Sean, the Forum is a menace, but my excuse is that a delivery van arrived with next-stage materials :-S What I need is a Speaking Forum :) I've got other peeps doing the difficult stuff periodically (stove install, underfloor insulation, plumbing...) while I do some of the think work (e.g. researching insulation materials and U-values) plus the easy, boring stuff. Hence the decorating.

This decorating lark is a drag. The sanding seems to be endless (skirting boards the size of a fence, ultra-high ceilings which add another half room to the top of every room etc.). But I have to get it done. Currently working on another big room, having taken care of the smaller ones. How can I make it go faster and seem less tedious?

Is it possible to show at a venue that has equipment? I think the Crown & Greyhound have a projector set-up upstairs, for example.

Definitely sounds like a rotting corpse.

I know other councils do, but not Southwark as far as I know. But they certainly should do. Something to raise with James Barber?

Plenty of perfectly good bread for sale on the Lane. My particular love is the Kentish flute sold by EDD. Alternatively, make your own. It's not hard. I tend to buy/make a lot, then freeze it (cutting large loaves in half), so there's always something tasty to hand.

For years I've spotted a jay's occasional flash of blue high in the trees. This week for the first time ever I've seen two of them dancing around the lawn for several minutes, all shyness gone. Interesting to see that they were traversing the landscape perpendicularly to the road (from behind my house to my front garden to the house opposite) rather than along the line of gardens. I suppose rodents/mammals and birds see the urban landscape in quite different ways.

Good points from Huguenot and Twirly. Attitudes indeed may be down to ignorance. After all, who has any stats on this? Surveying your customers an excellent idea. Would also be worthwhile knowing some higher-level info, such as how many different shops visited (and where they are). We are all indeed pedestrians once we are on the Lane. I'd imagine there are patterns for different types of outlets too. For example, I'd cycle to pick up some wine or a few groceries, or to browse some clothes or housewares, but I'd be unlikely to cycle to go out for the evening, and I wouldn't be picking up a picture frame on my bike.

I tend to try and inhabit a world of my own :)

SeanMacGabhann Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It?s entirely possible that nothing of the like > would have happened again anyway tho, right? > > Major events like that, by their nature just are > rare > > Timothy Mcveigh exploding a bomb in Oklahoma > didn?t precipitate a wave of similar homegrown > attacks Exactly, Sean. And each event tends to be different. So they are alike only in the sense of being major. It is therefore difficult to know what measures could be taken that could have any effect. And even when you decide which measures you might want to implement, it can be impractical to do so. Hence we do not have 'security theatre' for anyone attempting to join a Tube train or to board a surface train, despite major incidents having taken place on both of those (UK, Spain). > > One of the things that bugs me most about current > flight restrictions is the 100ml fluids thing ? > which didn?t come in until several years after > 9/11. So the worlds ?experts? looked at all > possible avenues of attack after 9/11 and thought > about EVERYTHING to prevent something like this > happening again only to find ?ooops? ? fluids can > be used for nefarious purposes > > It doesn?t instill confidence does it? It's all part of 'security theatre'. (See Bruce Schneier's writings.)

You may be right DJKQ, but I tend to regard one troll-bot the same as another, as they all behave in pretty much the same way. Best to leave them to the rats. B)

Saturday pm I saw a number of rats scuttling around on the west pavement on Dog Kennel Hill just adjacent to the St Francis park fence. I'd actually deliberately avoided the park to avoid the rats, but no joy. Made me jump. I'd imagine they are nesting around the park.

Hi James I'm getting fed up with the amount of junk coming through my letterbox. As some local authorities do offer stickers and such for front doors, I decided to check out Southwark on this. I have to say I found the 'junk mail pack' difficult to locate on the Southwark website. There was no link for sending off for this, and you had to kind of guess who to send a request to. I then received the 'pack'. (I didn't actually want a pack - and there's no info on the website of what is in the pack.) I just wanted a sticker. When I received the pack, I found it included a sticker which doesn't exactly conform to best practice. Is this something that can be improved by: 1. Addressing what info should go on sticky labels, to make them most effective. Label design. 2. Addressing how this info is included in Southwark website content in terms of a call to action. 3. Addressing how these stickies are generally publicised and distributed. Given that there are many of us who want to control junk mail (including unwanted free newspapers); and given that Southwark (and therefore we) have to pay for collection of all junk mail from households (recycling) and so would presumably wish to see the amount minimised, this would seem to be a win-win investment of a modicum of time. What say you? Worth dicussing? (I should say that I work in information design myself, so know something of what I am talking about when it comes to content and design of instructional sticky labels. The Southwark stickies really do fall short in a number of ways.)

Within 30 minutes of me sticking a Southwark Council 'no junk mail' sticky over my letterbox, the junk mail delivery people were already jamming junk mail in there... Sigh.

???? Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Taxi's don't come here? Never been turned down Likewise. This used to be a problem in the bad old days of the 80s, but Ken changed all that.

One way can worsen roads, with vehicles tending to drive faster and more aggressively. Take a look at the Crystal Palace triangle (Church Road, Westow Street, Westow Hill), where two-way traffic and a mini-roundabout were replaced with lights and a one-way system. Pretty much everyone up there is up in arms about it (traders, residents, the Chamber of Commerce) but I think the cost of reinstating the previous arrangement is the problem. I completely agree that LL needs to be more human-centric, and more crossings (e.g. outside Iceland/Co-op) are a priority. I try to plan my shopping so as to do all my west-side shopping together, and all my east-side shopping together, but even crossing once or twice with loaded bags by dodging among the traffic and parked cars is no fun, and I probably shop less frequently on the Lane than I otherwise would, because of this, and I definitely visit fewer shops each trip as a result too. Crossing LL around the junction with ED Grove can be a nightmare. It is completely unrealistic to expect shoppers (some elderly) with heavy bags to only use the existing crossings: they are just too far away from where most people are shopping. Any shop-keeper not supporting a crossing in the Co-op area is shooting themselves in the foot on this, because they're losing many potential customers owing to the aggro of crossing the road all the time.

Moos Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > louisiana Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Does anyone know if they have secure cycle > parking > > on site? > > Louisiana, I saw a covered bike rack outside the > entrance but it wasn't in use today. Thanks Moos, but not sure if I get your drift... Was it not yet commissioned/operational? Or was it operational but with no bikes secured there?

Moos Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What Pickle said. Tesco also have the advantage > of delivering in crates, which saves loads of > plastic bags, whereas Ocado although very reliable > and good quality use lots of bags and over-wrap > all their stuff. You hand back your bags (from the previous delivery) to the Ocado van driver.

Huguenot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My latest Vaio's made out of carbon fibre and it's > lighter than a butterfly. Sometimes it just > doesn't fancy doing any work. Never had a problem > with the proprietary software though, never > noticed. You've never noticed the proprietary software? There's quite a bit of it on there! (plus Club Vaio and all that jazz). > > I tend to find other people using Macs a bit like > seeing someone wearing a Chanel neckscarf. Their > move into the mainstream has left them just on the > cusp of turning naff. Sweet. > > I love my iPad though, even though nothing that is > 'standard' works easily on it. Trying to put a pdf > on it is like pulling teeth. Neither is it small > and handy once you've put a protective case on it. I use neither iPhone nor iPad. For me it's all down to the most productive tool for the job. I don't see the iPad adding anything to the tech mix.

I have two top-end Vaios sitting in the back of the locket filing cabinets. They come out about as often as my annual company tax return. Or less. Which is why they're located there. Nice machines, but Sony's built-in software can be a real annoyance (added to all the PC/Windoze annoyances). Unless they are in the design or comms or development departments, clients tend to be on old and grotty low-spec PCs (HP or Dell more often than not) and often make eyes at anything that is not what they have. That's the corporate world for you.

Do you think if you played Creedence to the foxes they would p*ss off (like the deer who loathe Radio 4)?

Does anyone know if they have secure cycle parking on site?