MGolden

Look on mykidssports - they give links for clubs in SELKent, Tandridge, Kent Youth and Surrey leagues. Not all will play on Saturdays and not all will have U14 teams (if he's in Y9 he'll play U14 even if he is already 14). Many teams will have their full complement of players but may allow hom to train with them and let him join the team (after trails) next season.

Hi Rosie H So sorry to hear about your friend. Presumably she is under the care of an oncologist and again presumably the oncology dept have either social workers or nurse specialists. She should contact them and they should be able to help her. Do PM me if you want any more pointers. Michele

Sorry - I did try answering it but I couldn't answer Q8 as I would be fearful of the dog not the owner or the environment and your question didn't give that (or indeed not being scared) as an option.

The Weekend Guardian covered Groupon a couple of weeks ago. It maybe worth looking at the Guardian website - not a particularly positive story. Many reports of people either not being able to get the deal they had paid for or finding the company selling the deal cheaper if you went to them directly.

I would search this forum and select one of the many cleaners who post and get him/her to do it. :)

Atticus Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Great stuff!! I'm thinking of a compromise... the > Hamlet for the local team with Everton as our > team. Good idea! Going to see a local team feels really old fashioned sometimes and my son is often spotted by friends walking home from Selhurst Park with his mates and a bag of chips - which explains why it can take him forever!

Atticus, until this week following Palace was never boring, usually stressful and often disappointing and I often felt quite guilty for introducing him to the team! As I type this he is watching the Carling Cup quarter final again having been at Old Trafford for the match and for the umpteenth time has reminded his dad and I that we are never to delete it from the hard drive!!

My partner is a Spurs fan and when we had our first son and moved to Crystal Palace I decided that he (our son) would support CPFC on the grounds that it was our local team and anyway I didn't want him to have a lifetime of misery like his dad did following Spurs. Clearly, I knew nothing about football. That son is now 13 and whilst rarely cheerful is never bored supporting Palace! On the way home from Old Trafford in the early hours of yesterday morning he said 'Mum it really is the theatre of dreams - just ours not theirs, best night of my life'. He came home from school yesterday incensed at all the people who were now claiming alliegance to Palace - 'glory hunters the lot of them'! I imagine that wherever he ends up living, as an adult, his devotion to Palace will never fade.

We have held a couple of parties at Dulwich College - football and/or trampolining with a room to feed the children in. You can watch the activities from a balcony and get the room ready while they are playing football or on the trampoline. Not badly priced either.

Ruth_Baldock Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > But...if me and Mr B aren't drunk as skunks, how > are we meant to sleep through the incessant night > wakings? If you know another way, feel free to PM > me. Oh don't PM Ruth if you know how to avoid being woken up by your children - please share that knowledge with the rest of us. Michele

This will add no value at all to what is turning out to be an interesting discussion but it made me smile. My dad always referred to a chiropractor he saw as a 'quack' but that didn't stop him making (and paying for!) regular appointments! And that was well over 30 years ago. I see an osteopath regularly and get great relief from my chronic neck pain.

That's really interesting Saffron. Clearly times change - my boys are 12 and nine now and we were very clearly told not to re-freeze! :)

Expressed milk thaws incredibly quickly and can't be re-frozen. Depending on who is looking after Lex, it may be worth leaving out very little knowing that if she is still hungry it is easy to defrost some more. I was ridiculously upset when my older son wasn't really hungry when I went out without him for the first time and I ended up throwing out loads of expressed milk!

Hi Pommie So sorry to hear you are going through a traumatic time. At my 20 week anomaly scan I was told my son had a 'golf ball' shadow on his heart and large kidneys and we had his risk of having Downs Syndrome revised from 1:3600 (following his nuchal scan) to 1:200. We had an amniocentesis and were told he didn't have Downs but his kidneys were very large and we would need another scan at 36 weeks. It's so hard not to worry but please please try to be reassured by the fact that they have told you to come back after 8 weeks rather than thinking they need to do something now. When we went back at 36 weeks they said his kidneys were at the large end of the normal scale. They said there was no need to do anything. Nine years later, he's fine but your message reminded me of how worrying pregnancy can be. Good luck - I hope all goes well for you. Michele

Is there anything she really wants or needs? If not - how about some experiences? For big birthdays in my family we normally have a lunch somewhere - nice restaurant that is child friendly. Then for her main present my mum gets taken out - RHS Wisley followed by lunch, a trip to the theatre preceeded by supper, a drive around Brands Hatch, tea at The Ritz etc etc. She gets treated and we all get memories of great days out with her.

What else is your garden used for? We have a large garden but our two sons are under the impression it is a football pitch - the seven-a-side goals their dad put up have only encouraged that. Anyway, because the football pitch takes up most of the garden we opted for a smallish first greenhouse and most importantly went for metal frame and acrylic windows - not as asthetically pleasing as I wanted (I was considering wooden frame with real glass windows) but very very sturdy and has withstood direct hits from footballs on more times than I care to remember.

There are a number of sari shops in Thornton Heath and Tooting Bec has quite a few as well. Lots of choice particularly as Diwali is later this month.

I'm not so sure about that Sillywoman, I was dragged kicking and screaming to see Kingsdale two years ago and parents from our son's primary school are still often surprised when we say our son goes there. Of course that might be because good news about schools gets to Croydon long after everywhere else! :)

I have no idea what Prendagast is like and it was not a school we looked at. My son is in Y8 at Kingsdale and is also thriving both academically and in sport. We were told that once Y7 was behind him he would no longer be treated like 'royalty' and would have larger class sizes etc - like brockleymum's daughter he's still being taught in small class sizes (often smaller than 20) and is having a fabulous time there. I agree the school is marketed fairly agressively and that can be off putting (I told the head that if he ever gives up teaching he should consider sales) but there are still some people who think Kingsdale is a dreadful school and so I suppose they still feel the need to sell themselves.

new mother Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I am astonished to read that any parent of an > academic child would want him or her to be > educated with a random distribution of children. I > would want such a hypothetical child to be > stretched and to be able to compete in the world > he or se should end up in ie a high achieving one. > I would not want such a child to think he or she > was awfully clever just because he or she was top > in a class of mixed ability, only to end up > without the skills to compete or survive at a top > university thereafter. > > Am I missing something? Where is the gain to an > academic child in spending time with less able > contemporaries? You wouldn't do it with good > runners, would you? My academic son is also a good runner and talented footballer. He goes to a mixed comprehensive school which is representative of the city we live in - his peer group is racially and socially diverse. He is in the 'top' set academically and is, as far as we can tell, being stretched academically. Like many 12yo boys he wants to be a footballer when he grows up but as a fall back has said he will go to Loughborough or Bath to study sports science. He understands that to do that he will need to be a very high achiever academically. At school he relaxes by playing in the school's very successful football team and running for a successful running club which has runners of all abilities. I don't believe a grammar school would offer him the grounded education that a state comprehensive does. So yes, newmother I do think my son gains by spending time with children of all abilities both academically and sporting. :)

camberwell70 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Every dish on the menu 99p > > Minimum number of dishes 4. > > Concessions available. They could buy their ingredients from Iceland - thus supporting local businesses!!

We (two adults and two children aged 9 and 12) stayed in the Intercontinental Barclay (Lexington and W48th) in August. We had ordered a double double room and were upgraded to a suite with two queensize beds in the bedroom. Ideal, centrally located but not terribly cheap and as we hardly spent any time in the hotel room I'm not sure we would stay there again. Also horrendously expensive coffee making facilities in the room. My sister and her family also stayed in NY in August and they stayed at the Salisbury which is W57th (between 6th and 7th Ave). Each room has a kitchenette so you can make your own coffee in the mornings. If you do stay at the Parker Meridien (or if you don't) a visit to their 'burger joint' is a must - unless you're a vegetarian!

Dulwich College Sports Hall - football and trampolining with a room for you to feed the hot and hungry children. Again, not sure of the cost.

Does he like swimming? Or soft play? Not sure where you live but Peckham Pulse is good for softplay - although I don't think the pool there is open. Or Crystal Palace Park - see the dinosaurs.

My son has also just completed Y7 so like the above poster I cannot comment on exam techniques in the school. He has been taught by teachers who appear committed, dedicated and genuinely interested in the students. I, too, have been impressed with the quality of education that he has received in the last academic year.