Knit one, pearl one.

This makes me smile every time I pass.

The adult learning centre on Brockley Rise is showing some of the fruits of its students labours - learning, art and knitting all in one.

Tree hugging in Lewisham takes on new meaning?

Sapporo Ichiban

There can be a no more unlikely spot for an evening meal than tucked away behind the council offices, amidst the shuttered nail salons and amusement arcades that make up Catford Broadway. But that is where you find our local Japanese restaurant.

As a huge fan of Japanese food, I was keen to find somewhere when I moved to Forest Hill.

Sapporo Ichiban is a solid local London Japanese restaurant. A step up from most local Japanese, the sushi we ate was fresh and satisfying with enough variety to keep us interested. It is also nice to see a local family run style place, as opposed to the omnipresent Hi Sushi, Yo Sushi etc of town.

On the Tuesday night we visited, the place was busy with groups of friends, I think attracted by the weekday buffet option. A good sign was that the clientele was Asian and looked happy with their food. We certainly were and we shall be back.

To Tip or to Fly Tip? Undoubtedly a question....

Having just moved into a new home, one of the first Council amenities I need to use is the tip. As with all the other London boroughs, Lewisham now has a "recycling centre" - whatever!

A quick review of the council website and I found the address, though not the opening hours. So, last Saturday saw me off to the back of beyond in search of the tip. Given my sense of direction round these parts of London and the abysmal sign posting, this turned out to be more of a challenge than I expected. Nearby to Milwall's ground, it's also not the best place to be on a Saturday lunchtime as the traffic is horrendous.

Having eventually located the road, I end up in the TFL East London Line extension site. Wrong, surely. Turns out the lack of signs meant I had driven straight past. How could this be? Well the tip, sorry 'recycling centre' is shut on Saturday afternoons - quite sensible given the location, though pretty useless for most residents of the borough.

So Sunday saw a retry. Easy to get to and at 11am in the morning, a cheerful man told me there was a 30 minute queue - which as I had a date with a friend, meant - no can do.

So this week I made it. What a misery of a service. It is tiny - though I have to say every effort is made to recycle. But it just isn't big enough for the borough. No wonder the streets and all the bins are overflowing.

Score card: Must try harder

P.S. Wandsworth has a very good tip. And if you leave early, you might beat the traffic on the South Circular....