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This may be the veggie eatery: http://www.foodforfriends.com/ I've not eaten there but have a feeling it may have moved premises in recent times, which could explain your inability to find it. There are other veggie establishments in the North Laine area (e.g. in North Road). Yes, Soho can be entertaining, but the dirt, the sleaze and the rip-offs are off-putting. (Alas, also true of most of the West End and many other areas of London.) I don't dislike Islington - it has character and variety with (still) something of a 'village' atmosphere - but I would not feel at home there, given the attitude/activities of many of the residents or the council. Cover Girl was originally midway in Upper Street and finally off it in Cross Street. My mum-in-law is becoming more and more immobile and somewhat forgetful. She lives alone (widowed in 2013) and relies on my wife and others to do shopping etc; we live 35 miles away. We're currently exploring possibility of selling her house so she can move into flat bought in 'assisted housing' near us. This is what she favours but I would not be unhappy with her living in our basement (which would need very little work to make it a self-contained granny flat) but she would lack the degree of attention and company she needs. Such an arrangement is not uncommon of course and I can also quite see a reversion to the 'traditional' arrangement of a young couple lodging with parents until they could get/afford a foot on the housing ladder, given the growing shortage of affordable housing and the effort needed to raise even a deposit. And (I read today) some Welsh councils are charging double council tax on 'second homes' as an attempt to release them for family occupancy - a very unfair ploy which I hope will not escalate.

It was mine, for 27 happy years until 2000, but I now dislike going there unless to see my sons. Apart from the huge increase in property prices (a two-edged sword)*, traffic management has become draconian, parking is difficult and exorbitant and the whole area (including the more genteel parts of Hove since the anschluss) seems to be taking on a more soviet atmosphere under a rapacious pseudo-Green dictatorship. Yes, it has its good points but I no longer feel so comfortable there, any more than I would be in (say) Soho or Islington. * I don't have precise inflation figures to hand, but the substantial four-bedroomed Victorian terraced house I bought in 1978 for £21,000 was sold in 2006 for almost £500,000 and would now be worth around £750,000+ - a compounded rate of 12% pa in the first period and 10% pa overall.

Yes, before they end up in the Small Claims Court! Like most people, I have a few photos of family members to prove the point both ways over the years. At both of my weddings, I was fortunate enough to have the services of a talented amateur family-friend; good results - and in lieu of a wedding present so no charge. I am no photographer - too many other fish to fry and I couldn't face carting all those glass plates around either.