civilservant

Coman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Taking the bus replacement from ED station today, > I noted the shop towards the top of Walworth Road > with the poetic title "Julie Know's Beauty." You do miss a lot of local colour by taking the train. I don't know about poetic, but Julie Knows Beauty has at least one other branch, on the Walworth Road. On the same road, you'll also find Michael Leigh's Beefy Boys men's clothing shop

Got off the plane at Gatwick late one night, just myself and three small girls, and went down to the station to catch a train home. The train arrived, one of the little girls got on and stood in the door waiting for us, while I picked up baggage and the other two younger children. But before the rest of us could board, the guard blew his whistle and the train left carrying one 10-year-old, all alone with no phone, money or ID. When I confronted the guard, oh no, nothing he could do, it was just one of those things. He didn't deny that he had done wrong. Basically he shrugged, he couldn't be bothered, and he knew that I'd be too frantic with trying to find my child to take it out on him. Luckily my story has a happy ending, but through no fault of the guard or his colleagues. I was reminded of that experience when I read this story and I wonder at the people who are trying to find excuses for this guard.

13 Hours by Deon Meyer A fast-paced police procedural translated from the Afrikaans no less. Meyer's USP is his perspective on modern South Africa, which he populates with believable and (mostly) sympathetically drawn characters. I've read a few of his books so far and this one is an especially gripping read.

It doesn't have to be a doll - my daughter and nieces never had much truck with dolls. They all had teddy bears as their 'children', and enjoyed dressing them and looking after them, and especially telling them off! It's quite common and not 'gendered' in the way that dolls are. I once met a dad and a little boy of about 2 out for a walk. The dad was pushing a real baby in a real pushchair while the son had a teddy bear in a toy pushchair. Sweet!

amazing - a meta-thread! all hail woodrot!

WorkingMummy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- >.. a lot of the research published only > proves an association between breat feeding and > improved health/development. I do not believe it > proves that one causes the other. There may be > something else (social/economic maybe) causing > both the tendency to breast feed and the improved > outcome together. I agree. There's a strong correlation between breastfeeding rates and social class, as well as maternal education. So there is a question about whether it's the breastfeeding or the infant's socio-economic background that actually leads to the improved outcomes. At the social level, though, I think that breastfeeding is just one expression of the kind of child-centred nurturing that seems to generate good outcomes for the child. So it may not actually be about breastfeeding per se - although there seems to be evidence that breastmilk is superior to all substitutes - but whether the mother is attentive to the needs of her child and is able to give it the intellectual stimulation and feeling of security that it needs to flourish.

We went for a full single as well, with a full-size single duvet. We tucked half the duvet under the mattress, both to stop it falling off in the middle of night, and not to lose the toddler under it. No bedguards, but she only fell out of bed once! It also helped with night-time waking as I could just climb in with her and cuddle her back to sleep.

What Saffron said in her last post Who are the 'researchers' who put that list together? It sounds like something out of Gina Ford (no, I'm not trying to start THAT argument again!). It's all about predictability and control. If that list is what it's all about, then I've never felt like a 'proper mum'!

In today's Evening Standard (which also carries the ED=Nappy Valley story) http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/dads-gone-to-iceland-8293471.html?origin=internalSearch Quote - "She suggested I do this by going to Iceland, a supermarket I had never used. The wilful ugliness of the shop?s sign had somehow persuaded me that it could not be a place where I would feel at home. But what a wonderful place it is once you get inside. In the supermarkets I used to visit I often found it quite hard to work out what things cost. In Iceland there is no such difficulty. The price labels are completely clear. Many items cost either ?1 or ?2. The first thing to catch my eye was a large bottle of Fairy Liquid costing ?2. This stuck me as very good value. In our corner shop I usually pay ?1.29 for a much smaller one. A litre of Flash cost ?1, while some dishwasher tabs for which I would usually expect to pay ?2.99 could be had for ?1.50. I became so enthusiastic about this shop, so high on the pleasures of frugality, that I spent ?34.25, which was more than I had intended, but which together with some fruit and veg bought off a stall on the other side of Kentish Town Road was enough to keep us going for three days. Not that everything from Iceland was equally good. A large pork pie that cost only ?1 was frankly a disappointment. The fresh spinach at ?1 a bag was fine, as were the Herta frankfurters at ?3 for 20."

See this overview of recent research on the factors supporting life-long wellbeing that was published today. http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-and-events/press-releases/23902/life-does-get-under-your-skin.aspx On the subject of breastfeeding benefits: "New research on children born in 2000-2001 has also confirmed the benefits of breastfeeding, which is positively linked to social, emotional and intellectual development and early school performance". A key contributory 'positive health behaviour' is initiation and continuation of breast-feeding for at least four months.

and don't forget the cats

why does the cat need to go out? so that it can be attacked by other cats, poo in someone else's garden and try its paw at killing birds?

Annette - as ever the voice of reason :0)

reeko Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Yes Waitrose will open up, respond to all sorts of > requests from the local community, win everyone > round - even those who cherished Iceland, but > three months after opening it will become a > morrisons overnight, with no explanation and the > Halloween facepainting will be cancelled with no > warning The big Tesco on Kennington Lane opened back when Kennington was first tipped to be the next gentrification hotspot. It was supposed to compete with the even bigger Nine Elms Sainsbury's. At first it had a fresh fish counter and real caviar on the shelves. But soon enough reality bit and it's now a bog-standard Tesco with shrink-wrapped fish and tins of cod roe. So they'll probably cancel the face-painting soon enough!

Will there be a special checkout for entitled parents?

And for the record, I WILL (with extreme kindness, of course) chase any cat in MY garden if it's threatening MY squirrels or MY birds

For goodness sake, we've got a whole thread full of lost cats. Cats seem to be important to ED. As important as buggies and entitled parents. No one in ED - as far as we know - was molested by Jimmy Savile, yet we discuss Mr Savile's activities on the Forum (and some of us even came to his defence in the Drawing Room.) Of course we can discuss cruelty to cats (or any other beast) on the Forum, whether it happens in ED or as far away as Putney.

There are two classes of posters on the Forum - those who are allowed to trawl (or do I mean troll?) all over it with inanities, often at midnight, and the rest of us. The latter group includes tree-huggers, cat/dog owners, buggy-pushers, in other words, your usual ED riff-raff. Then there's the Drawing Room, which is a sacred space. Enter at your peril, and do not on any account dare to joke therein. But that's rather unfortunate, as many of the contributions in there are often more LOL than even Salsaboy's jokes.

maxxi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Now that's inanity. True - a master class in inanity

maxxi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Maybe some people need 'reminding' that they don't > speak for everybody. Including yourself of course, maxxi? This thread is about our throwaway culture and the need for instant gratification at any cost

Don't fret Molly It's not set to be wet in London until nearly midnight.

I dream of one day having a chequerboard-tiled hallway in the grand style! see for example http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/quick-history-checkerboard-flo-136019

So that the forum can go back to its true business of utterly inane news threads and threads about watching threads about wool? Should pet owners be more responsible? Yes. And should the Forum keep reminding them to continue to be responsible? Yes

... so which one is he?

so the moral is - yes, you can. But only if you are an old Irishman or an illegal immigrant Is that it?