*Tee*

Your right,its the way the police handled the whole thing. Why was it up to ME to arrange repair of the door, surely they should have notified the council of the need for someone to secure the door. My own flats security was compromised for the whole day while i was out and i didnt even know about it. Walking in to find the mess was a nightmare beyond nightmares, because no one was there to explain to me what took place.

My neighbor has slight mental health issues. His not aggressive in any way, just withdrawn and usually speaks to no one! I still believe the sister did go over the top when she called the police, and maybe made matters sound much worse than they were.By him having these issues maybe the reason they broke the door down. The sister can not be that smart because if she was indeed concerned about her brother, why did it take 4 weeks for her to visit him? why has she never arranged for some kind of support in his own home like a care in the community scheme, why didnt she arrange for his bell to get fixed? and further more why didnt she get a copy of his keys to let herself in. The weird thing is, why hasnt she already got keys, considering everytime she comes round,she goes through this merry go round of trying to get in.I am surprised the police didnt establish these facts first, BEFORE they decided to smash my door in. The whole thing seems rather weird to me, maybe they just enjoy smashing peoples doors in. These are all questions that i want to ask her also when she visits the next time, although she may be feeling slightly embarrassed by the lengths she has gone through to get in, so i got a feeling i wont be seeing her for some time. The more i think about it, makes me want to put in a complaint to the police. As back up, i have taken photos and will be going to see an housing officer first thing monday morning, as well as the CAB. The council usually takes 1000 years to give the go ahead on any work to be done. So in the meantime i have a carpenter friend who has offered to come around and look at my flat door, as from outside the door looks wrecked and weak, and i fear that would be thieves would try and break in, as they can see that the door is unsecure.I have 2 more sleepless nights until Monday morning, hopefully by then i can see some kind of result.

Thanks for all your helpful advice guys! This has never happened to me before, so i really don't know quite how to handle this.

Unfortunately, the door bell is my neighbors responsibility, not that he at all cares.I wonder how many "smash downs" i'm gonna get as a result :( The council said that as its the communal door, its not classed as an emergency, but as long as my own front door is in working order, then their not obliged to come out right away! I do hope they bring the door back to its original state, by the sounds of the housing repairs operator, it sounded like a hammer and nails were all that was going to be provided on the day, believe me it needs a whole lot more.

Hi all, i am after some advice!! I live in a conversion flat, which is a lovely house converted into 2 flats, (i live in the ground floor flat) Both my neighbor and i share the main front door and communal hallway before entering and leaving our own front doors (usual set up.) Both my neighbor and i rent our flats from southwark council. Late friday evening i returned from work to find my communal front door totally smashed in! Right away i panicked and got that sick-ky feeling that my flat had been burgled, as i edged my way in expecting to find total devastation and my own front door obliterated, i discovered that my flat was fine and no one had been in it. straight away i banged on my neighbors flat door to find out what had gone down, going by the state of the front door, it wasn't that pretty. He emerged shortly afterwards and said that it was the police that had smashed in the door. I said why?, he replied his sister had came round and was worried about him, and because she had not seen him in a while and he didn't answer the door, (his bell isn't working and his phone line is suspended)she became worried, thought something was wrong with him and decided to call the police???? My door is a total mess, they had used one of those heavy duty "things" commonly used to break down the door of criminals to gain entry. ?900.00 worth of solid new door is now unusable, skirting boards ruined, plaster ruined, locks ruined, door furniture ruined,and door framed hanging off by a nail. The plaster in my own living room has a huge crack running the length of the wall too as a result. In a huff i grabbed the phone and rang the local police station who told me that they had to attend as the relative of my neighbor had become concerned- fair enough, BUT TO SMASH THE DOOR IN??? The police couldn't even be bothered to clean up, leave a polite note with a telephone number on asking me to contact them or nothing, except they just left me to find my front door smashed in, honestly i thought i was going to have a mini heart attack, as my last conversion flat was broken into by thieves too! Once more i should add that as freelance, i usually work from home and most times when my neighbors relatives have come round and couldn't get him up because he is always sleeping, would always ring my bell, so that they could be let in. So my first feeling was the one occasion that i wasn't in, when she came round, she became panicked as she couldn't get in, she then decides to call the police. I think its a waste of resources as, my neighbor is one of those people who NEVER answers the door to anyone, not even his own relatives including her, AND SHE KNOWS THAT ALSO. He usually leaves her outside for 10 minutes or so, or until i get fed up of her communal door knocking. So why was this situation so different to the rest that she had to call the police. After all he never answers anyway. I later found out from the call log that she told the police that she had not seen her brother in 4 weeks??? well thats because she had not been round in 4 weeks. Its not as if she had been round every week for 4 weeks and could not get an answer, that of course would raise alarm bells. But to me, i think she may have slightly fabricated her story to get a faster reaction out of the police. My question is my door is so badly damaged, and door frame too that it needs replacing. I called the council straight away who were more helpful than the police, someone is coming to "repair" the door and frame on monday, but it really needs replacing. Because this is our "security" door meaning it has beefier locks, it will never be the same strength since it has been smashed in already. The council can only "make good" the door. The police dont want to know, as they say they have a duty to respond to the public, and my neighbours sister, well she hasnt been seen since friday, and we wont be seeing her for another 4 weeks.My neighbor doesnt care, as he has slight mental health issues, and wouldnt even notice if we had a door at all. I've spent my time and money restoring our lovely door, and hallway. In every conversion there is always one neighbor that takes care of the up keep of the entrance and i'm it! Should i get the door replaced and forward the bill onto the council, police complaints dept, or even the sister. What does everyone think! either way, the door will need to be replaced not repaired. any helpful advice welcome!! *Tee*

Yes indeed well done! i think now is the time to really do something about this while we still can, people will miss this service when its gone, and will complain and kick them self's for not taking any action. If i get any tickets, i'm certainly going along.

loved the first episode! loved heroes too, for those who missed it and havent got sky you can catch up with five on demand! *Tee*

4,i'm such a big wimp, i cant even look at a spider without freaking out. I wouldnt kill it with a book though, because then i'll have to throw away the book! i use a hoover and just go for it. there are loads of loads of them in my garden, one has even made its home right outside my back door,its web is huge!! never seen anything like it scary! the web is from the roof all the way down the house till the path, and thats just the anchor points. Once i borrowed my hoover to my friend who promised to return it right away but didnt,so i had to invent another genius way of getting rid of spiders, its raid spray the blue one, works a treat! *Tee*

very sorry to hear about what happened the exact same thing happened to us and the upstairs flat which was empty at the time. We got a call from our landlord, letting us know we had been broken into, i was mortified as at the time i was in the west end at the time. Whoever it is i think they knew that upstairs was empty, and i was out. I still think someone must have been watching our movements. i take it,you live in a flat conversion? the burglarys seem to be all of this nature. The looters persume that your own flat door will be weaker than that of the main front door, Which 9 out of 10 is the case including us.Once inside they can close the door, and take any belongings without anyone knowing.I think they also see it as 2 for 1 Bloody thieving B******s on the plus side you replacing the door to something much stronger, and getting london bars, replacement locks etc, will not see them returning, as they know you are bound to beef up your security. It takes something like this to happen before you realise, its crap i know! Our flat door, back then was made out of what can only be described as card board, i laugh now, but then it was shocking to deal with. Our door now, is solid and made from one piece of wood. You also need to get a mortice fitted on the main front door, with a thumb turn device on the inside of that door, so that you and your neighbour and get out quickly in emergencies! hope this helps *Tee*

Amsterdam, is a lovely city! i go there about once a month to visit my sister who re-located over there for a wonderful design job. Its only The centre in general that is sometimes'over-run' with drunken English at the weekend(who you can spot a mile off by the way), who fall out of pubs and the like.In terms of prostitutes, they cater more for the tourists,and they are not littered all over town, they stand in little windows in the tourist part, tucked behind the back streets. So dont let that put you off. In general, its a nice city, which is very liberal in views and vaules.Dutch lifestyle's always intrigue me, the way they seem to do everything on their dutch bikes, some even move house on their bikes! If you cant hold an umbrella, speak into your mobile, whilst balancing shopping and a person on your bike, all at the same time, then your not an amsterdammer. House boats are nice but bring alot of mosquitoes are you sure you want to rent on a canal?? And make sure you go to the Ann frank house if you haven't already! *Tee*

Purchased in Oct 2006. Battery that was purchased attached to it found to be a bad-un after high run down time. Apple swapped it! then that battery again, found to be bad (The one i just swapped on sunday), and they changed it again! i think in general their batteries are dodgy, what are the chances of 2 bad batteries? never the less, my new one is great so far, i just hope it maintains it's charge. We will see! if in doubt it doesn't hurt to get them to quickly test your battery. Test takes around 1 minute, Book an appointment first on line, through the apple website. *Tee*

Really pleased! the Apple store on Regent St swapped my battery for me after it was found it was a bad-un. They ran some test on it and confirmed, so happy days indeed. The Genius guy said for normal day to day emailing, with only one window open, the charge should last aprox between 3-4 hours, being a new battery, then gradually reduce. He also said if your viewing high HD websites, or sites with flash etc or the like, this will run down the battery further. This is my second faulty battery in 2 years, so if in doubt check it in. *Tee*

Mine is exactly the same model as yours, i'm pretty cheesed off with mine actually as your lucky your getting that much out of it! Fully charged at 100% i get only say 3 quarters of an hr, i've booked mine in at the genius bar at regent street for them to look over, as it's not normal. i have mine on the better energy savings and its still bad. Also one minute the battery will read 50%, then quickly jump to say 30%. Having only 1 window at a time helps, instead of many. *Tee*

This has happened to me with two different flats, the first was in the kitchen, leaky pipes, the second in the corner of the living room, where outside was a leaky down pipe, which was soaking the outside brickwork. As a result slug- gate saga number 2 occurred, i thought i was dreaming, NOT AGAIN!!!! we screamed, so yes i second the theory that water is the blame. In the mean time get your land lord to hire you a de-humidifier to dry out the damp, whilst he is preparing for the work to get done. Its a fan like machine which absorbs damp, which can lead to mould etc. However be careful as with some of them, your not allowed to be in the room when some of the more industrial machines are running. But it worked a treat with the living room. It may help a little to know your not alone with slug- gate!

Totally seasonal. With us they only came in when it got warmer, and only in the night, huge light brown ones they were, one after the other YUk! So you are not alone. I'm freaking out thinking about sluggate at our old flat. Please be assured its not all year round promise. Salt soon becomes your best friend.

Yuk, how disgusting, this used to happen with our old flat, ground floor too. I totally feel your pain strawbs. I decided i had enough and spent the day hunting down where they were coming from, found some holes and blocked them up.Its usually a little gap down behind the sink or similar! saw less and less each day. Also slug pellets and salt like a ring all around the house. Some of the gaps that i could not reach, i got salt and threw it down behind the kitchen units, sounds drastic but Worked a treat! Slugs hate salt, and wont go anywhere near it. This will work promise!

Breakfast at tiffanys

My heart goes out to the families of the six people who died in this fire. I cycled past today on my way home from work, and couldnt believe how many fire crew were there. I hope southwark council, finally get the book thrown at them. They often cut corners to save money on worth while things ,while throwing away endless money on stupid schemes.

I would lay them flat in a garment bag, like the ones they sell at ikea in a pack of three, then fold the garment bag. Very little creasing this way.

SCSB79,Saw the exact same thing down norwood rd, a fox head cut off clean, with percision, almost like it had been done with a guillotine! it was sickening.I was with a friend in broad daylight and we couldnt believe our eyes. The head was'nt in sight. It looked man made, rather than a road accident, but i could be wrong.

Hi Sanity girl, YES! you can, but make sure you don't park where you see the little yellow dash marks on the pavement next to the single yellow line and in resident bays. All pay and display parking bays are free too! The earlier you get there the better too, as on a sunday it seems everyone who owns a car seems to turn up in the west end, including moi! hope this helps.

So sorry to hear about your break in. The same thing happened to us 3 years ago. During the day when we were out and the upstairs flat un-occupied, they slipped the yale lock on the main front door, and kicked in our front door! our landlord had phoned us to tell us we had a break in, who was contacted by the estate agent who had been doing a viewing of the upstairs flat! when we returned, our flat door was literally in two pieces, i was so upset, as special, non-replaceable items were stolen. After the incident, we took special measures such as mortice locks, london bars, kick proof one piece wooden doors, the lot. The police and victim support were great.i had learnt alot, but cardboard wood for a flat door did NOT help. I still think someone must have been watching our movements for a while, So be on the look out for each other on your street. and yes, whatever goes around, will come back twice as tough!!

I hope she pulls through, and makes it into full recovery. Went pass this morning, was totally horrified by her bike which was literally right under the lorry and almost un-recognizable as a bicycle.People just standing around staring at the scene. I had to tell off a man who decided to take photos of this poor ladys bike on his mobile phone. "you have no shame" i told him, as i turned on my heels and went home. I feel so nervous to venture out on my bike now. I have a shiny new bike just completed my cycle training, and was ready to tackle my morning commute. bioycle accidents where women are mowed down really does make me think long and hard about biking into work on my own. I have everything i need to start my commute, but still keep putting it off.

Hi there very sorry to hear about your loss! however like jctg said, do try and make it down to brick lane tomorrow morning,there are endless threads over bike forums, about beloved stolen bikes often turning up at brick lane market on a sunday, and being sold! *Tee*

The only things i can think of that are similar, are the root veg things like plantains, yams and sweet potato for sure, otherwise everything else is wildly different. *Tee*