crescent

Probably a bit far if you are in E Dulwich proper, but Sydenham Tennis Club on Lawrie Park Road SE26 is lovely: my son and a few of his friends have lessons there. It's very close to Crystal Palace Park.

Have had Mirena coil for few months now, after DC3 (previously on pill). Notice nothing at all - not any moodier than before :-). Did not find it painful after insertion - bit of bleeding now and then for a few weeks afterwards that I did not like at all, and was all set to have it out...but by 6 weeks, all fine, and would say try it - like the contraceptive pill, suits some people and not others.

Hi Helen - There's a lovely local-ish charity (Lee, near Blackheath) called Lee Oasis. I donated my moses basket, breast feeding pillow, unused nappied and lots of baby clothes recently - and they came and picked up. Their website says: "We re-home donated furniture, household items and baby equipment free to families leaving hostels and disadvantaged people of all ages around Lee, SE12 and surrounding areas. We receive referrals from resettlement hostels, supported housing services, health visitors, women's refuges, refugee workers, Connexions and the drug intervention program DIP." http://www.leeoasis.org.uk/ The mobile contact works better than the email address listed.

Hi - a year ago my poor son slipped on a wet marble floor, knocked out 2 baby teeth and chipped a chunk of his adult front tooth. :o( Kings put on a temporary 'build up' which lasted for weeks: and our dentist put on a permanent one that should last 6 months plus...it lasted a day. 2nd time it lasted 2 months. 3rd time 4 days. I have lost faith with this dentist, my poor son is really upset, and I'd love any recommendations for a good dentist for this sort of thing. Would be sooooo grateful. Thanks.

Thanks all, appreciate it.

As usual, we're booking half term at the last minute. We've decided we fancy a week in York, as central as we can get. We have an 8 and 6 year old, and a 12 week old...so essentially still a family of 4! Has anyone stayed in an apartment/ townhouse the can recommend? Any help gratefully received.

Hi - wonder if anyone has any experience/ tips for me? Sorry, it's a long one... I am planning to go up to Manchester with my kids to spend a week with my parents. It's even rainier there than it is here, so I really would like the pram/ raincover option as well as my sling. However, coming back we would be on the train. Which I have done many times with 2 kids and a Maclaren...but not with a Bugaboo w/ carrycot. Which is big, hassle to fold up, limited luggage room etc etc. So I thought I'd try and book it into the Guard's van like a bike. 3 phone calls, 1 hour later, the answer is 'no'. I can chance taking it on carriage and putting it in wheelchair space, but - naturally - wheelchair users have priority, and so if a wheelchair user comes on, I would need to move the pram. "To where?" I asked. Virgin trains are really parsimonious with luggage space! The only advice was to try and speak to the station I am travelling from (Manchester Piccadilly) - they might have advice. I feel unaccountably cross that they make it so difficult to travel with a pushchair, esp as I am not insisting on having it with me, would be happy to have it in the 'hold' so to speak. So - I guess I'm asking - has anyone else done this with a non-umbrella folding pram and lots of luggage? :o) Any advice/ tips? Thanks!

Have you done a search on the forum on this topic - some useful feedback the last time someone considered a move to BR3. We moved to our current location of Sydenham Hill from Penge in 2006 - and were trying to move to Beckenham :o). At the time, all my NCT group were there, and spent life at various baby/ toddler activities, M&S and Waitrose (I'm such a stereotype, sigh) so it seemed the natural direction to move. Good primary schools also factored heavily. However, house prices reflect all of this...so we ended up going for semi-detached in SE26 rather than smaller terraced in BR3. And a few of my NCT group have since moved to West Wickham and Hayes - good primary schools AND state secondaries. The Park Langley schools have quite small catchment areas, and the surrounding house prices reflect their strategic positions! Re your questions: 1. Roads around Kelsey Park are lovely, e.g. Manor Road. And near Beckenham Spa, like Cedars Road etc. But best thing might be to look at catchment areas for schools you like, and work around them... 2. It's very similar to EDF, very Nappy Valley, cafes full of Phil&Teds, Bugaboos and conversations about school catchments :o) 3. Lots of playgroups: church halls, beckenham spa has soft play, see above. 4. Re schools - controversial of course, but to get an idea, you could look under Bromley borough schools at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16188584. Balgowan, Clare House and St Marys (Roman Catholic) are all very popular. Can be looked up on OFSTED website. 5. Ease of adjustment? Think everyone is different - you can always drive the 20-25 minutes up the road for a reviving cup of coffee on Lordship Lane... Hope this helped a bit. Good luck with the move.

Wow, Cazbee, that is fabulous! Kudos to yr dad.

Eliot Bank School Association (EBSA) would like to send a warm welcome to all new parents and pupils allocated a place at Eliot Bank Primary School in September 2012. We look forward to seeing you at the school's welcome meeting and at the start of term in September. EBSA and the new school work together to raise valuable funds: this year we have raised money for some new playground equipment. Next year we will be targeting the school's green space - the new 'secret garden' and the school pond. In the meantime, if you would like to see what EBSA is up to, you might like to join our mailing list. Please email [email protected] The school's newsletters can also be accessed on the school website www.eliotbankprimaryschool.co.uk We'd love to see you at our school summer fair which will be on Saturday 23 June from 11 am- 2 pm, and the next Open Morning at Eliot Bank is on 3 July 2012. We look forward to meeting you all, and welcome again! Eliot Bank School Association

My slightly under-confident 8 year old son has expressed an interest in cricket, so I'm looking for a cricket club near by. We had a slightly disappointing experience last summer where he and a couple of friends went on a couple of 'cricket coaching days', where the coaches pretty much ignored kids who were new to cricket, and concentrated on the "good ones" in my son's words. I am not looking for him to represent GB in the under 10s...and he is a state school kid with limited experience of cricket, so a little concerned that a cricket club with lot of prep school pupils with more experience may dent his confidence even more. (Checks self for inverted snobbery :o). ) I guess I'm looking for somewhere fairly relaxed, where they welcome beginners. Does anyone have any recommendations? I understand there is one across from the Harvester pub on Dulwich College...anyone have any experience? Many thanks.

Ditto - have looked into one-off deep clean services and think 'ouch, will live in squalor for bit longer'... So also watching with interest.

Activity village is a brilliant resource - goes thru festivals throughout the year - Martin Luther King Day, St patricks day, Hannukah, Divali, Christmas - it's great. And...it's free! http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/ And there are many others of course - I'm just a faithful follower of this one now :o)

I am reading this thread with an increasing amount of dread... and my oldest is only in Y3! Do I have to consider moving out of London? I live in the southern most of tip of Southwark: while I pay council tax to Southwark, my kids are at a Lewisham primary, and our allocated GPs is Paxton Green - officially Lambeth I believe? Our closest secondary school by a country mile is Kingsdale - 0.64 miles as crow flies. But this school operates a lottery as admissions criteria, not distance. However, someone who lives 3 streets away from Charter or ED Harris boys gets 2 bites of the cherry: they have as much chance of getting into Kingsdale as we do - but also have a chance of getting into Charter/ ED Harris - while we don't have a hope as we're so far away. Oh, I know life isn't fair, and it's all an illusion of choice...but it does seem like we are particularly poorly served down this corner of the borough - our closest school doesn't work on distance and we don't have any other choices. Feel trapped at this stage: can't afford private, don't want to move lout of London, and fail to see how it makes sense that a kid in Stockwell (for example!) gets into Kingsdale but local neighbourhood kids can't...

Interested in the NCT sale - what time does it start? (NCT membership lapsed, so think I might get let in an hour after evveryone else :o) )

There's a place on Kent House Road (penge) that does cushions/ filler/ upholstery.

Hi, can anyone recommend a good place to get some kids' temporary tattoos from. I find yellow moon/ baker ross a bit pricey esp by the time you've added on p&p, but when I tried another random place from an internet search, they weren't very good quality. Anyone have any recommendations? Or do I really just need to bite the bullet and place my baker ross order? :o) Thanks

Thanks Molly, K

Hi - have seen a few P&T threads, so hoping some other P&T owners might be able to help. I bought my P&T Explorer in December 2004, and still using, but it could do with a ... valeting service. It's just getting a bit stiff and rusty, and beyond what I can fix with a can of WD40. Does anyone have any suggestions? It's been a great work horse and has plenty years yet, just feel it could do with the pram equivalent of a spa day! Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Hi EDF users - I wondered if anyone out there might be able to help? DS is in Year 3, and on their school trip about WWII (topic this term), we've been asked to send them off on their 1970s coach dressed as 1939 evacuees, brown luggage name tags, gas mask box etc. DS's state school is the usual grey trousers and sweatshirt, and any socks at all. So apart from school shorts, I don't have much useful stock. I was wondering if anyone had any boys' long school socks their DS had grown out off (he's size1) they might be willing to sell/ dispose of my way? And anyone have a battered school cap, now their son has left for secondary school? Have looked on ebay, but all 1960s 'vintage' for about ?25... Thanks for any help/ suggestions

Apologies if this is not the right place...just wondering what fellow ED residents do about bike storage when you don't have a garage? Any advice/ experience welcomed. After a spate of birthdays, we now have 5 bikes cluttering up the living room, and this is not a long term solution that works for me (husband however can't see the problem!). We have a teeny back garden already cluttered with playhouse, garden furniture, sand table...if we put a bike shed in the back, there'll be little garden left. We have space in our front yard for a bike store/ shed of some description, but when I mentioned this to a neighbour who is also Neighbourhood Watch, she said "a shed in your front garden is an open invitation to be kicked in". Is she right? Would it be naive to have a shed in the front garden? It would be behind a wall,running alongside the pavement, so you'd have to walk up our drive to notice it. But then again, once up our drive, you could break into it with a sledge hammer and no one could see you from the street. Any tips?

You're invited to Eliot Bank Primary School's very first 'Yard Sale'. Come along and buy nearly new and second hand items: clothes, toys, books and more. The sale will be in the school hall & playground. Also available: ice creams, cream teas, temporary tattoos and kid's crafts Where: Eliot Bank Primary School, Thorpewood Avenue When: Saturday 14 May 2-4 pm ?1 entrance (proceeds to school funds) For more information, please email [email protected], and we look forward to seeing you there!

You're invited to Eliot Bank Primary School's very first 'Yard Sale'. Come along and buy nearly new and second hand items: clothes, toys, books and more. The sale will be in the school hall & playground. Also available: ice creams, cream teas, temporary tattoos and kid's crafts Where: Eliot Bank Primary School, Thorpewood Avenue When: Saturday 14 May 2-4 pm ?1 entrance (proceeds to school funds) For more information, please email [email protected], and we look forward to seeing you there!

Yes, thanks so much Citizen Ed, am glad to have somewhere to vent! Am quite chippy about feeling poorly served by Southwark, as I am right in the tip of Southwark - my kids closest schools were mainly Lewisham primaries (one of which they now attend), and out local doctor's surgery is in Lambeth! At least my local secondary school is in Southwark....oh yeah, it operates this weird banding lottery system that means some kid in Islington has as much chance as getting in as my kids - 1.09 kilometers as crow flies! Surely state schools should be local state schools... Will save the rest for the questionnaire - thanks again CitizenEd!

Hi - wondered if anyone on the forum might be able to help me? There are lots of activities set up for children to 'have a go' at different sports and see which they like, and I wondered if there was something similar for music/ musical instruments? My eldest is 7 now, and I started piano lessons around this age... but I always wished I learned to play something in an orchestra :o) Sadly, my children don't have access to musical tuition at their school until Year 5, and we don't have a piano, so not sure if the traditional piano lessons make sense! Does anyone have any suggestions? Any tips gratefully received!