civilservant

Dying on the Vine - John Cale

No school's out until the Tuesday after the Royal wedding (but some schools are closed for a training day on that Tuesday). Then there's another 4-day weekend and then some schools are closed for the AV poll on 5 May! Good luck with your search for a venue. Have you tried the church at the end of Barry Road? There's also St John's and St Clements - both the school and the church hall - and the Darrell Road Community Centre.

my daughter aged 7 would be very interested. She asked me just yesterday if she could do yoga Push studios would be fine for us (although 9 may be a earlier start than we're used to at the weekend!)

it's a pity that people are getting hot under the collar about this A household is defined as living in poverty if it has an income that is 60% of the median household income - what this means is (see http://www.poverty.org.uk/01/index.shtml) that ... "The latest year for which household income data is available is 2008/09. In that year, the 60% threshold was worth: ?119 per week for single adult with no dependent children; ?206 per week for a couple with no dependent children; ?202 per week for a single adult with two dependent children under 14; and ?288 per week for a couple with two dependent children under 14. These sums of money are measured after income tax, council tax and housing costs have been deducted, where housing costs include rents, mortgage interest (but not the repayment of principal), buildings insurance and water charges. They therefore represent what the household has available to spend on everything else it needs, from food and heating to travel and entertainment." This definition of poverty holds across the country, from London to Liverpool, regardless of the local cost of living. and the statistics quoted by alice need to be qualified. For example, if we take out all the children in Village ward who attend private schools, I bet that we'll find that the percentage of children in state provision who are eligible for free school meals is quite a bit higher than 8%.

a hedgehog in ED - hooray! I hope Herbie meets a nice girl hedgehog and has lots of babies this year

Thanks for the update, Longlad. I was hoping this story had a happy end! all credit to you for being so caring

I do hope the dog found his family - was he micro-chipped?

how could I forget Owl Babies by Martin Waddell with pics by Patrick Benson? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Owl-Babies-Martin-Waddell/dp/0744531675/ref=pd_sim_b_7 or Can't you Sleep, Little Bear, also by Martin Waddell http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cant-You-Sleep-Little-Bear/dp/1844284913/ref=pd_sim_b_7 I could go on for ages - I'd better stop now!

My 7 year old still loves Each Peach Pear Plum and Peepo - she finds something new in them every time she looks at the pictures Wibbly Pig (esp lift-the-flaps) are also good other good ones are the nursery rhyme books by Opie and Wells - lovely selection of rhymes and great pictures, but it looks like they may be out of print... http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Very-First-Mother-Goose/dp/0744560276 and http://www.amazon.co.uk/Here-Comes-Mother-Goose-Iona/dp/074455554X/ref=pd_sim_b_1 don't be put off by 'boys' or 'girls' labelling, unless it goes on about cars or princesses - parents will have to spend time with the book too and believe me the potential for boredom with talking cars or pretty princesses is HUGE oh, and try to go for board books everytime with the under-3s - paper won't last!

thanks James!

There are a number of points on Barry Road, Lordship Lane and even Whateley Road, Upland Road, Underhill Road and East Dulwich Grove where zebra crossings or traffic lights could be used to slow down traffic instead of speed bumps and would be of more use to pedestrians At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'd like to know what's happening with the extra crossing on Lordship Lane. You take your life in your hands trying to cross outside the Coop or negotiating the traffic turning into or out of (rat-running?) Matham and Ashbourne Groves.

It is very distressing to have a sick baby, and I hope she gets better soon. You don't say why she's been prescribed so many antibiotics, but clearly your GP is not helping the situation. I'd suggest that you ask for a referral to a decent paediatrician. Your money would be better spent on seeing a proper doctor privately if you can't get an early referral.

:)) (or maybe play this at the bottom of the garden? - )

loved the owl pic [plaintive voice] now if anyone sees a hedgehog, could they please let me know?

We are planning to repeat the Big Lunch on Crystal Palace Road this year. The date is 5 June.

funny that not everyone seems to know about this side-effect of pregnancy - see the 'birth guru' quoted on http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/mar/08/lasting-effects-pregnancy. Mine waxed and waned but ended up at least half a size bigger, and every time I've tried anything higher than a half-inch heel, my knee and ankle give me gyp for a week afterwards.

quite right too, Molly for my mother and women of her generation, the menopause was not something to be discussed (neither were periods) all I know is that they lived through it and came out the other side, but never understood at what cost. I've found the prospect v. unsettling for myself, mainly through not knowing what to expect, so thanks for starting the thread.

huggers, thanks for that. i really liked your point about the contradiction in wanting to be as natural as possible with contraception, childbirth, breastfeeding, child-rearing etc and then rushing to embrace medication in middle age. I've often wondered why there's so little about the menopause out there apart from the HRT propaganda. as life expectancy keeps increasing, less and less of a woman's life is bound up in her fertility and it just doesn't make sense to define oneself solely on that basis. we do need to construct a new way of dealing with 'the change' and the decades of life after it that aren't based on the presumption that something has been 'lost'

I read the Guardian piece that Fuschia mentions but here is another view from a woman who writes for the Financial Times under the sobriquet of Mrs Moneypenny, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/f7cb4662-396e-11e0-97ca-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1G8rWK411 as someone who is fast approaching the milestone but very sceptical about the benefits of HRT, I think this is much better for those who don't manage to get through the FT's paywalls etc, here is an extract: "Oestrogen-free. Does that sound better than post-menopausal? I have been oestrogen-free for three years, which, at 48, is reasonably young to be so. But I am loving it and do not feel in any way deprived. I have also managed to get through this change in my chemical make-up without resorting to HRT. This is not because I am against HRT ? I?m all for swallowing any drug that works ? but because I was terrified that I would put on even more weight. The only time I wavered was when the FT sent me to Ireland to write a piece for the Pursuits section of this magazine, and I stayed in an absolutely freezing B&B. I woke at 3am having the worst hot flush I have ever experienced. I resolved there and then to call the doctor at first light and make an appointment to get some HRT ? until I realised that I had left the electric blanket switched on. ... (The book that she is reviewing, The Second Half of your Life by Jill Shaw Ruddock) contends that oestrogen-free women get their fertility in another form: the creation of ideas and purpose in their lives. Did my life lack ideas and purpose before? I hope not. As to whether we need a book like this, I think most of us probably do. I suspect far too many older women don?t make the most of their abilities and their time. This is the book that encourages you to get off your oestrogen-free backside and grab life with both hands. Its mantra is ?this is your time?, which might sound a bit like self-help preachifying, but the premise is a valuable one."

I don't know about dietary triggers for eczema - I've never been able to prove a link myself - but we cut back on the washign pwder, only use non-bio for all laundry, no bubble bath or smelly potions and wear nothing but cotton or linen next to the skin. You will find that many eczema flare-ups coincide with challenges to the immune system such as coughs, colds or other infections, and quite often act as a warning that your LO might be coming down with something.

I hadn't heard about Hydromol and googled it - it seems to be an emollient rather than medication/steroid. My LO also reacted badly to a variety of emollients prescribed by the GP. I have heard (and our own experience tends to confirm this) that GPs are notoriously bad at dealing with eczema, especially as they are nervous about using steroids. What helped most was persevering with the bathing and the Oilatum, and trying out different emollients (Diprobase was what worked for us) while using steroids to damp down the inflammation.

Really sorry to hear that your baby has eczema. I know how distressing it is when you first get the diagnosis, but don't worry, you'll learn how to manage the condition successfully quite soon. Here's a Forum thread where baby eczema was discussed - I hope that there's something on there that you'll find helpful http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,448163,458563#msg-458563 and also this one about adult eczema http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,586206,590176#msg-590176

Anecdotal evidence - interested to hear if this is borne out by research - is that the earlier you have chicken pox the easier it is to bear. So adults have a terrible time, but babies get over it fairly quickly. My LO has had chicken pox twice (and one of the carers at her nusrery said that she'd had it three times!) LO had bad eczema when she was little and I worried about whether she would be extra itchy when ill with the chicken pox, especially as advised not to use steroid creams while she was ill. But it turned out that her usual emollients (Diprobase and oIlatum) kept her skin comfortable enough to stop her itching very much at all

I'd suggest you chuck out all your books, whether for or against, and go with what you feel is the right thing to do. This is our experience, for what it's worth. We co-slept all three in a bed until LO was about 4. I'd gone back to work full-time since she was 7 months old and it was the only way of ensuring that we all got some sleep at night. The other plus is that co-sleeping is ideal for night-time breastfeeding, and quite often I'd half-wake to discover that LO was helping herself to a bit of what she fancied in the middle of the night:). And we too, and especially Mr Civilservant, wondered if we'd ever get our bed back to ourselves. (We tried controlled crying just once, but that was enough and we swore never again). But all well that ends well! LO is now in primary school and sleeps in her own room all night.

I disliked the wrist ones because of the possibility of jarring or spraining the wrist when the small wearer rushes off suddenly, which they tend to do such a lot at that age! IMO the harness-type reins are the best in terms of keeping the wearer upright and distributing the stress load (both for children and dogs :))) Reins seem to be a British thing, though - when we were on holiday in France, we attracted a lot of bemused attention everytime we went out for a toddle with Junior Civilservant in her reins!