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ToTeLondon · October 2014

@NorthNineteen Thank you for the welcome...

Re: Shutter colour....our logo is black and white and no other colour would have worked with it..besides its perfect to hide the layers of dust out there..our window cleaner always sweats it out..<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; "><h1 class="H" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 36px; margin-top: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; color: inherit; padding-bottom: 19px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); "><br></h1></span>

checkski · October 2014

Interesting link, Minim. Thanks. And thanks to Vetski, too. It all comes back to me. Mensarum mensis mensis. Bellum bellum bellum. 3rd declension. Better stop this, before we are all thrown off.

miss annie · October 2014

I certainly do approve @checkski. No Latin or Greek at my comprehensive school, but I've picked up a bit when encountering it in books. It's fascinating to hear people who really know it talk about it.

vetski · October 2014

Nice link, @minim. And it references my favourite and most valued book in the whole wide world - my ancient copy of Kennedy's Latin Primer! I had no idea that German had cases until I started learning it as an adult, about 15 years ago - having a grounding in other case-based languages was very helpful. Though the rest of German grammar is a minefield...

checkski · October 2014

You should try Russian, Vetski. Even harder than German. 6 cases there, with adjectives doing it differently from nouns, as far as I remember ( A Level 1960 - much forgotten now). If that doesn't faze you, how about the concept of imperfect across ALL the tenses? So 2 infinitives for every verb? By comparison, the Cyrillic alphabet is a piece of cake.<div><br></div><div><br></div>

vetski · October 2014

At various times, I've studied Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, German & Japanese. I think I'll give Russian a miss!!

checkski · October 2014

Very good, Vetski. Russ, Fr, Ger, Italian, for me. Plus Latin, to O Level. No Greek. And tiny bits of some of the London community languages, picked up in the classroom. I could say "be quiet!" In Yoruba, Turkish, and Bengali! Just for a joke, of course; I wasn't a shouty teacher, I hope.

vetski · October 2014

I think all teachers need the ability to be shouty on occasion - I got shouted at a few times, and in the main it was well-deserved!

vollmer · October 2014

<p>Hello everyone. Thought I quickly say hi as I have only just signed up to the forum - even though I have been living in the Stroud Green area for some years. Will keep an eye on good debates here. </p><p>Have a nice day!</p><p>Vollmer.</p>

tolgylop · October 2014

Hello everyone! I have been living in Stroud Green for about 7 years. After considerable <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">pestering</span> encouragement from @checkski, I decided to join the forum and see what is happening locally!! <div><br></div><div>My spanish-speaking partner is looking for voluntary work to help improve her English. If you know of any opportunities, I would be pleased to hear from you.</div><div><br></div><div>Have a good evening!</div><div><br></div><div>Tolgylop</div><div><br></div>

checkski · October 2014

Welcome, Polly! Another linguist. Miss Annie will be pleased. So will Detritus: Tolgylop is willing to help us with our chess - if it ever gets going again.

Sutent · October 2014

@checkski let's have a game soon

checkski · October 2014

Willingly, Sutent. I'll PM you.

tolgylop · October 2014

I would be up for some chess if anyone is interested!

Busby · November 2014

Many years ago (it seems) I posted quite a few items on this forum under the name of Busby. Then, for some reason I was blocked (I hadn't done anything wrong!) and after a number of fruitless tries I forgot about it. Half-an-hour-ago it came into my mind and hey presto! after creating a new password I'm back again. I'm an old grumpy (old but not really grumpy) and I lived in Florence Road as a child from 1945-1952. Later, with my new wife I lived in Oakfield Court in Haslemere Road from 1962-1967. <div>I'll be perusing the discussions with interest and maybe I will occassionally be able to add to some points.</div><div><br></div><div>First question though - why is that which I am writing being underlined in red (but not all)?</div><div><br></div><div>I'm not sure under which name my new contribuition will appear - will it be Busby?</div>

Busby · November 2014

Busby reborn as carlin!!!

Arkady · November 2014

Busby is back! Hooray. More historical posts please .

miss annie · November 2014

Hooray! Welcome back.

Marquis · November 2014

Welcome back, Busby/carlin! Yours were some of the most interesting posts on this site. Looking forward to many new ones! Did you ever get the chance to visit SG in recent years?

Arkady · November 2014

I can change your username back to Busby if you like?

Busby · November 2014

Yes, Arkady, that would be appreciated. Thanks. It's also sooo good to be welcomed back!!

Arkady · November 2014

Done.

Busby · November 2014

<p>OK, I'm back. Difficult to know where to start. Marquis asks if I've been back to SG in recent years - well - yes. Two years ago in spring we had a family get-together in Stratford on Avon and afterwards I spent a few days in London. There are certain things I always love to do - bookshops, British Museum, National Gallery and the South Bank are magnets for me. There is, almost naturally, one magnet that always draws me and as I usually stay at a hotel near Russell Square I can just jump on a bus to Crouch End then walk back over the hill through all those old childhood memories to Finsbury Park station. When we lived in Florence Road (1945-52) it was home but hardly comparable in quality to other areas - say Mountview - but slightly better than say Woodstock Road. Even then at that age there was a sort of class-consciousness, one exaggerated by the war and the influence of the military machine heirachy. (Even as late as the late 50s military ranks were still used in business). Through those years we had a middle floor 'flat' in one of those houses in Florence Road which basically consisted of: a kitchen at the back, a shared toilet on the same landing, then a flight of steps leading to a 'back' room and a 'front' room. The front room was the bedroom and dad divided it so that we all had beds, The back room was hardly ever used but was furnished as a sitting room. We didn't use it because it was horribly haunted - for want of a better description. That is Mum wouldn't go into the room on her own and my brother and myself after being forced to try using it as a bedroom rebelled. You always had the feeling something was in the room with you. </p><p>Anyway, it was my job to pay the rent every Monday to the owners who lived on the ground floor. The rent per week was 17/6d. These were the days of £sd. Dad would have earned about £5 per week at a guess. And he spent hours complaining about the state of everything and how these houses would soon be pulled down. (We had a good idea of how this would happen having seen how the bombed-out houses were cleared on the Ronaldshay site). </p><p>So when I walked along Florence Road in spring two years ago I was amazed to see how everything has been so well-looked after. The houses must have a tremendous value (1million I guess) and the area is extremely pleasant to be in. The up-grading of the whole of SG was visible and I really felt at home in the surroundings. There are parts of London which have deteriorated shockingly in my eyes - East Finchley and the North Circular Road for example. </p><p>Then I went past my old school, Stroud Green Secondary Modern it was called then - the infants were on the ground floor, the juniors in the middle and the seniors on the top floor. We did have a sort of school uniform but few could afford the whole works. I had the cap and the tie (in green and gold) and until about the age of 13/14 we were all in short trousers anyway. </p><p>Actually I did the walk with an old friend of mine of the same school class who also left SG in 1953 (at the age of 15) - I found a number of old school friends through Friends Re-united and we took this nostalgic walk together. We also walked through Finsbury Park from the entrance in Endymion Road down to FP. But we were disappointed. Maybe it was just our memories but it was much nicer then. </p><p>By the way, we also went along the Parkway, the old railway embankment where the Ally-pally Push and Pull used to run, our hope was to look at the houses we had lived in from the back (Terry had lived in Lancaster Road) but the trees are so large we didn't see a thing... </p>

Marquis · November 2014

@Arkady: Is it possible to link Busby's new profile up with his old one? There should be quite an archive of stories!<br>

vetski · November 2014

@Busby - what did you & your friend feel was different about the park?

Arkady · November 2014

@Marquis -don't think so, but his old profile still exists as @Busby1

Busby · November 2014

<p>To the question how did we feel the park was different relaates mainly I suppose to those days we spent as children in the park. We tended to head towards the American gardens to play hide and seek and cowboys and indians, or down to the New River which was a great adventure. Our main venue however was the lake, if we scraped enough money together we could get a rowing boat and mess about for an hour. Once we were out of sight of the boathouse we could get onto the little island in the middle of the lake and risk being seen by a park supervisor (men in brown uniforms) which was i suppose the highlight of such an excursion. We also went fishing in the lake with a cane, a piece of string and a jamjar - just in case! There was a cafe by the side of the lake, sometimes quite full which sold the most delicious and large Walls ice cream wafers. If we had enough money for a bottle of 'pop' we'd drop some of the ice cream into it - made a nice mixture.</p><p>Later we took part in the life of the park because we developed into keen racing cyclists, did a lot of time-trailing and road races and once or twice a year the road circuit in the park was used as a venue. The races drew quite large crowds and a bit of publicity for cycling. We used the road also to train, to get the miles into our legs before the season started. This was a perfect solution because cars weren't allowed and the surface was quite difficult to ride. We were then members of the Norion cycling Club which held its meetings just off Wightmann Road. Later we joined the North London Cycling Club which was in Priory Park Road (I think it's called that) which had more members. </p><p>My friend and I walked through the park in May. I'm pretty sure there used to be a lot more flowers and shrubbery all those years ago and we felt a sort of desolation - probably our age!! </p>

miss annie · November 2014

The cafe is still there, and is surprisingly good (lamb burger recommended), no going on to the island any more as it's a thriving habitat for birds.

vetski · November 2014

And there was a cycling event/race in the park in the summer. But the best event this year was definitely the Routemaster 60th anniversary parade - you'd have loved that, @Busby!

Arkady · January 2015

Bloomin LOADS of new people have signed up recently. Do come and introduce yourselves!

Howdy, Stranger!

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