Elphinstone's Army

AbbieP are you a youngish woman with a bawling child in a buggy, a phone clamped to your ear, a shouted conversation on the go, and rushing as perpetually late and anywhere near North Cross Road, and can you tut over the decibel level? please avoid a collision with this normal paced pavement user who is not as important as your self. Alternatively avoid NCR and CPR.

And can he/will he do anything to help the hapless tenants and co-owners of Solomons Passage

Seabag Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You missed Chef's Delight there in the mix EA > > And Subway > > I love Sydenham, and no there's not much > difference between Budgens/Co-Op. But really I > hardly shop at either as Hello Fresh turns up on > Sunday nite, 3 meals all there and ready to cook. > It's eliminated the 'choice' out of the busy week. > Who'd have thought that Sweede chunky chips baked > in the oven were so delicious?? Chef's Delight?? that sounds like your kitchen after a delivery of swede chunky chips, (in the war apparently swede was bashed up and things done to it to turn it into 'ice cream') In the good old days.

James, cushions or fascinators, soon as Maria's Emporium opens, you will be able to have a good peruse and pick up tips and feathers and fabric and sequins and make your own! so you won't need a fascinator shop - which is a shame really as a milliners/hat exchange would be wonderful, if you remember the display in the left hand side window of the St.C early in the year, last year's Ascot/Wedding/Royal Garden Party hats, a fabulous display, all gone within the week, obviously a market for them, all clean and new looking. And hat boxes as a requisite. James, I think we may have stumbled upon something here - more NCR than LL you think?

Perhaps you would define 'active', as I find this post really vague and suspect there is a separation betwen - being physically active' and 'exercise' You could describe targeted age groups, sedentary females, what your aims are, and what you hope to achieve by this survey, and on what you base your figures, and whether or not you realise that, in general terms, in an area of low car ownership (although it doesn't seem like it at times) and these are generalisations, it is women who are on and off the bus, with babies and children, lifting and pushing, at the market, in the supermarket, walking with children or not, picking them up from school, taking them to extra curricular activities, doing housework more bending and stretching, pulling and tugging and shaking, rushing often to fit everything in before taking the dog in the park/walking to the doctor/dentist/chemist/hairdressers/drycleaners whatever they need to do, then at 10am perhaps walking up to the ED leisure centre to join the gym to find it is closed anyway. Many will be carrying heavy shopping bags home and perhaps up flights of stairs, whether in a house or block of flats, then putting it all away, bringing the washing in from the line they hung out earlier, strtching and reaching and jerking that clothes post up, all the while being active. It does not end at the front door. Women with families especially are on the go constantly. Younger women full of energy and zing will already be yoga ing, gym, swim, run, as that is part of their modern way of life. Older ladies will do their own thing but probably walk, as diet and exercise are drummed into them by doctors nurses and women's magazines. Elderly ladies I have no experience of so cannot comment but hope they are content. This is why your figures are skewed - men exercise as a recreational activity, women unknowingly but to suggest that half of the women surveyed are not as active as the men needs quantifying please. N>B> I did initially state these were generalisations However as you are an Insight Team you would know all this. Iwould be fascinated to know from which age groups these figures come, whether car owners/drivers, respondents exercising for health or habit or joy reasons, dog owners/walkers, gym attendants, cyclists, walk to work, possibly from necessity, whether a cross section of socio economic groups were interviewed, the relevant outlay for equipment for their chosen form of exercise, and whether the women you interviewed who said they did not exercise offered a reason for this and whether they were pushing a child in a buggy at the time. Thank you !

Seabag - have you been able to ascertain any difference in these two mediocre stores? Budgens will not be there forever, as the complexion of Sydenham High Street changes, and is, with already an excellent vegan restaurant, Italian, Blue Mountain, wonderful book shop with beautiful cards, at least one 'We sell everything' chandlers, and large Sainsbury's at the other end. And a Railway Station. The High Street is changing, and retail dinosaurs have no place in a faster paced, demanding, gentrified HS which needs to keep pace with customer expectation and aspiration, especially in these times of closing down town centres, pay to park, traffic wardens, nowhere to park, online shopping and delivery points. It is the evolution of shopping and now unstoppable. As the demographic shifts and alters and thirty somethings with babies and young families move into the area, this is a fact of life and I would suggest, that for those mourning a past, passed or passing way of life, that this one could be better, and embrace it, as resistance is futile.

Siduhe Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > lavender27 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > link above for really maria, why did they call > it > > "really maria" , who knows? > > I assumed it was a Sound of Music reference... the name came about when Maria announced to friends and family, her intention to open a specialist shop but could not decide on a name.... the unanimous vote was - "really, Maria?!" and now we have it! Voila !

James, cushions are passe, do keep up.

The Cooperative is doomed and rightly so. New signage will not save its sorry ass.

lavender, I don't believe you are frightened of anything, especially a 'large and powerful organisation' - or huge and monstrous, ha ha

DulwichFox Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Well .. when it comes to The E.D. Deli.. Mr. Fox, > you know the miserable (old) git.. most negative > poster here on EDF > has to say that on the few times I used this > place they could NOT of been more helpful. > > I was looking for Low G.I. bread and was treated > to an in depth chat about their breads and what > might be the best for my needs. > > I had other similar experiances at other times > but cannot recal them specifically. > > Perhaps other people felt 'neglected' while I > held their attention. > > When you talk to people.. and take an interest in > what they are doing, they treat you with > respect.. > > I wish the new Shop all the very best.. I think > they too will be a valuable addition to L.L. > > > DulwichFox. Lidl do a low GI multigrain loaf which is delicious and sells quickly. I doubt you will have as much attention as in the ED deli A craft shop is restoring independents to our high street, a counter balance to the changeling behemoth now in our midst.

lavender27 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > At least M & S staff are trained well in > friendliness and customer services, to a high > standard. As for the co-op - staff are not > friendly no interaction with customers, its just > pay and get out. I was at the till having waited > an age to be served in a very long queue and only > two till open, wasn't offered a bag, had to ask, > after cashier had scanned half my items and wasn't > bothered whether I had my own bag or not, paid for > my items and then she threw the till receipt at me > with a grunt. Whilst I was in the shop was told > by someone packing shelves that I was in the way. > rude rude rude. F them I've never been back to > that shop, they can rot in somewhere not very > nice. lavender, you are not alone in your despair over the coop, it is horrible and the queues are famous. How they survive is baffling. There is no management, it is a dismal understocked shop, with often a shortage of semi skimmed milk, weeks without regular humous. Everything is ludicrously expensive. The only way anything will change is if we all stop shopping there. The staff are surly and sullen, except for John from Leeds who is efficient and helpful. For a shelf stacker to say that you are in the way, denotes the lack of staff training and contempt for customers which keeps us away in droves.

Dog duck Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Look at you all?!!.... this thread is > unbelievable! M&S is opening a shop on Lordship > Lane...so @#?!ing what? Because M&S opening on the Lane alters it's structure, dynamic, complexion, and is self explanatory when you consider an Iceland has now morphed into an M&S food store. M&S reasoning is that ED is an area on the up and they are intent on capitalising on this phenomenon, being opportunist and profit driven. The other side to this coin (see what I did there) is M&S seemingly arbitrary closing of small stores in cash strapped towns, and the slide of said towns into charity/pound/betting shops, minimal footfall and tumbleweed, a good example being Grantham. I hope this answers your question politely.

NewWave - I went in twice also, as the first time I thought I was mistaken, they could not possibly be so ignorant? ventured in again looking for Italian cake and Serrano ham and other goodies : we walked in and greeted the behind counter staff - no response - went through to the adjoining section - felt so uncomfortable we left. And certainly do not miss it. A craft shop, especially if they run courses will do well, as Louisa points out, we need retail diversity, and it seems as though we are going to get it!

People of any age,on being photographed, be they sports personalities, actors, 'celebrities' photo bombers, or most upsetting, on wedding photos or family gatherings, who stick their tongues out and think that it's funny.

Robert Poste's Child Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I'm in a nostalgic mood today. How about > old-fashioned values like kindness, courtesy, > consideration for others, thinking before you > speak, duty, making the best of it etc. > > Maybe I should lay off reading biographies for a > bit. Do not despair, we still have these stoical values

Evening in Paris, or Soir de Paris if you wanna be posh, other old fashioned scents, Quelque fleur, Fleur de Rocaille, Coty Paris, Worth Je Reviens, Ma Griffe, Bronnley Herbal soaps, Windsor Dianthus, Boots geranium and Calendula, Boots jelly like hand cream in a jar with a screw top, and whatever happened to Zam Buk (with oil of wintergreen) it was like tiger balm, a total cure all. And Yardley, especially English Lavender, and all those lovely fashionable fragrances which are popular and then disappear, why is this?

siousxiesue Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Woodland spot under a tree, no box, just wrapped > in a sheet that my friends/family had drawn all > over > > Scatter my ashes in Horniman Gardens > > Ashes thrown up into space, in a firework, to > return where we all come from-the universe We are stardust, we are golden (Joni Mitchell, at Woodstock) or as Carl Sagan et al would have us believe, We are all Connected, which is probably the same, atoms and particles. The Horniman Gardens is going to be full of ash, it's good for the roses

yes d.b. you are quite right, which is what makes it a busy junction.

Robert Poste's Child Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Sorry to hear that. I understand you probably > don't want to go into details here so sending you > a virtual cup of tea and a hug. hello RPC, thank you for your kindness.

hello Otta, it isn't just today ! This is a mood, triggered by waiting at the bus stop outside the Coop funeral directors, absorbing the dullness of it all, po faced men in tall hats and cliched rhetoric, whilst musing - this is a rites of passage for us when a loved one dies, and further musing - why isn't it more spectacular? Anyway, I thought the last line of my OP was really funny. I am never going to die, I am only going to fade away.........

Robert Poste's Child Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Can't help noticing two threads from you on the > same topic in one day, Elphinestone. What's up? > Seems to be on your mind. Yes ! it is. Thank you for your comment, thoughtful is good.

alice Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > could be 'knocking on heavens door' ? well Alice, I like to think so, but I guess I won't be the one to decide !! but thanks for the vote of confidence ha ha

I spent that summer in Surrey with Mia Farrow and her brood, and a querulous but mostly absent Andrew Prune Every day sunshine, heat, flies ladybirds, pub running out of beer/ice everything, skimpily dressed ladies, baby boom 1977, drought and hosepipe bans, unforgettable summer, met list of hollywood stars, standout was Natalie Wood, tiny and exquisite, and her family, adopting a continental 2 hour siesta midday, knocked out by the heat, wonderful, life changing/enhancing/hot hot hot summer

No right turn from Lordship Lane? cars executing this manoeuvre delay traffic anyway. The volume of traffic on Lordship Lane would then free flow, and pedestrians could cross in safety, particularly buggy pushers, who are slower.