tomskip

It doesn't seem like much to ask does it?

I would hope the OP has found a piano by now R7Genrih, as he or she posted their question 3.5 years ago :)

Google is giving me quite a variety of routes, so I thought I'd ask the good people of East Dulwich. We will be travelling on a Sunday (tomorrow infact) if that makes any difference. Thanks in advance.

Would nanny share for the baby and child minder who does nursery drop offs for the 3 year old be more affordable? Mind you, 7am to 6.30pm is an incredibly long day so maybe a nanny is the only option.

I just thought I'd start this thread to see if people more knowledgeable than me can explain about the new A&E set up at King's. I was there recently and it doesn't seem like an improvement in any way, but then I am just an average punter and don't understand NHS systems and thinking so it would be great to have an insight from someone in the know. The "old" set up had large seating area with padded blue seats (at least I think they were padded) in rows in front of the large reception desk, and a separate A&E for children to the right just as you went in through the main entrance doors. This was the arrangement when King's was featured on 24 hours in A&E. It was also like that when I had to go in in 2017. I'm not sure when it was rearranged but I had to go to A&E in the middle of the night recently. There were two stages to signing in at two separate desks and then the waiting area was tiny, more like a corridor with two rows of hard metal seats (like on a railway platform) facing each other. It couldn't have been a less comfortable place for someone in considerable pain to be left waiting for 3.5 hours. The jovial doctor who saw me in the end told me I should be grateful it wasn't a 7 hour wait like it had been a few nights previously. Of course I understand the concept of waiting in A&E - there will always be someone more acutely ill and other emergencies coming in that take priority. But since we are expected to wait many hours - why does it have to be in a place as miserable and uncomfortable as you could imagine? The old waiting room was definitely a notch or two up.

How do you know when the cracks are bad enough to worry about? Does anyone know?

Bill's is really nothing special. Certainly nothing to get excited about.

No, my main question was who or what is GCH. As far as I know, Charter has a great 6th form and the students who go there are happy. I do know quite a few Charter school pupils - it's all good.

What is GCH? In all honesty I think by the time it comes to A levels parents(even ED parents) need to slightly ease up on the neurosis about schools and let their kids decide.

I really do rate this school, warts and all. There's something unique about it, in a good way! It has gone through "a lot of change" because the previous headteacher and governors ignored Government budget cuts in a stick your fingers in your ears and go la-la-la kind of way and thus ran up a shocking amount of debt (approx ?800,000 I believe) in one school year. The head resigned just before the news of this broke and the then deputy took on the poisoned chalice of taking over. His name is Mike Sullivan and he has taught at the school for many years and sent his own son there. He is sorting out the budget deficit. All of the strikes you may have heard about a year or two ago were to do with national cuts to the education budget and the repaying of the deficit. From my contacts within the NUT I know that it was hoped that the strikes at Forest Hill would be a springboard for strike action across the country in opposition to general education cuts. That did not happen for one reason and another (one of them being the merging of the NUT with another teaching union to create a larger less militant union, the NEU). Meanwhile Mr Sullivan has quietly got on with the job in hand and I really don't think you could hope for a more committed headmaster. When you look at what has been achieved at Sydenham Girls in just a few years (which is after all the school where the sisters of Forest Hill boys are educated) you'll see just how positive it can be to go to a fully comprehensive, non-selective state school in SE London. The 6th form is very good too. My daughter went to 6th form there with a surprising number of pupils who left a far more widely regarded local school whose 6th form apparently isn't up to scratch.

Really, it's time to say goodbye to helium balloons along with as much single use plastic as possible. I cannot see how they can be defended.

Never seen a hedgehog in 33+ years in London. Never seen a squashed one on the road either. I doubt there are many in ED, mores the pity.

I hope you sought medical attention for your dog bite op! There has recently been a story about death caused by a dog bite in the news.

So sorry, how horrible for you. Hope you weren't badly hurt.

Of course the sweets are going to be expensive. They have to shift an awful lot of confectionery to cover a Lordship Lane rent.

Thanks sheilarose - I was trying to remember if it was called The Secret Garden in Walworth Road. In the summer you could actually eat out in the wild and wonderful secret garden.

He probably used the meagre pickings to buy drugs or alcohol or pay for his gambling addiction so that's rather tragic in itself (annoying for you of course!). Someone broke into my car and stole a bulging Sainsburys carrier bag. All it contained was home-made compost donated by my Mum. A tiny part of me still feels sorry for him/her.

And another opticians which I really don't think our high street needs. The fact is that our online shopping habits have reduced the need for local shops. Perhaps, in view of the acute housing shortage in London, we should be thinking of reverting commercial premises back to domestic (as has been the case in various side streets in ED).

Oh my, these two most recent posts are very amusing!

I'm going to keep going with the paper bags I think. Just prefer them to having my front garden completely cluttered up with fugly bins.

Wasn't it called The Secret Garden restaurant on Walworth Road? Was very fond of that place. I think they kept the name for a while when they relocated to ED.

Perhaps we should ask our neighbours in Lewisham how they manage it. A friend of mine in Catford says she pays "about ?70" for garden waste collection (she couldn't remember the exact figure). I'll ask what she does about naughty people using her bin.

We eat out as a family once in a blue moon partly because we are rarely all together but also, yes, because of the cost! I'd love to earn what you lot are earning.

Ah, sad to see there hasn't been much demand for the bowling.

Wtf with the minimising of such crimes on this thread? The photo of the mugger on Gilkes Crescent is awful. So sorry to hear of teens having their confidence battered and the police apparently unable to do anything about it.