tomskip

I can't recommend Sydenham School enough. And it is a properly comprehensive school with a transparent admissions process, which is refreshing! It's nice to go to school music concerts and see girls playing the drums and bass guitar, for example. Girls play Rugby there. There's a lot of after school clubs. The pastoral care is excellent. And now they have a beautiful new building and refurbished grounds as well.

My son has received 5 birthday cards in the post today ... 9 days late! Poor kid.

Yes, thank you amac and keep posting!

Oh calm down PeckhamRose. Of course I understand there are many Southwark residents to whom ?16 is a significant amount, don't be daft. That's why I said affordable "to most". I've seen items fly tipped that would be worth more than ?16 if the owner bothered to sell them! I don't think it's a large sum to ask to have something bulky collected from your doorstep and taken away and dumped or recycled responsibly is all I'm saying. A lot of fly tipping seems to happen when a rental property changes hands so you'd assume it is the landlord dumping stuff that's been left by previous tenants? I'm not sure the average landlord in SE22 is short of ?16.

The idea of a new tree is a really good one, very apt.

I think it's ?16.00 for bulky waste collection by the council(?) and you can feel secure that it isn't going to be fly-tipped somewhere. It's a shame they don't still do it for free as the fly-tipping in Southwark has noticeably increased. But I still think ?16.00 is pretty reasonable and affordable to most.

Those of you with younger children in primary school are sure to recognise the concept of parent homework - you know, when your child is asked to do a project involving lots of making and glueing, or the last minute requests for Christmas play or World Book Day costumes. It's just another layer of work that busy parents are asked to do on top of everything else Well, when they get to secondary school it gets worse! This is when parents are obliged to run around like a mad thing trying to secure Work Experience for their under 16 year olds from a workplace which is largely disinterested; sometimes not because they don't want to take on a work experience kid but because Health & Safety or child safeguarding legislation prevents it. It's a much moaned about headache for almost everyone concerned. Anyway, you don't ask you don't get: does anyone in the Family Room have any ideas for WE for my son who will be 15 at the time? He is interested in design, computing, architecture, food, animals but will of course do pretty much anything just to get the box checked. It could be local or central London, big company, tiny company. Any suggestions, pointers or leads much appreciated!

Window shopping yesterday and I noticed a striking black and white photo of the grey haired gent who I think owned Chener Books in the display, simply captioned 1951 - 2018. If this means what I think it does then I'm very sorry for his loved ones and just wanted to say how much I liked visiting Chener Books, and will continue to do so. Admin please delete if inappropriate of if I've got the wrong end of the stick.

I've lived here since 1996. I still love the view from the Horniman Museum Gardens (although just outside SE22) more than anything. I also love Nunhead Cemetery and Crystal Palace Park for a wander (again, not SE22 but close enough). In terms of businesses, I would say Farmers, Franklins, Thai Corner Cafe, the Great Exhibition, Greetings, Willow, Karavan, St Christopher's. All the other bars and restaurants seem to change hands frequently.

Yes, all wool carpets were once something luxurious to aspire to with a hefty price tag. It would be great to know what are the synth/natural proportions to deter moths if anyone knows?

I tend to drive the long way round to avoid crossing Barry Road where I can help it.

If you say the name of the road, the wise people of the EDF family room will be able to advise you. Catchments do vary slightly year on year but not really by that much.

How very sad to read. Condolences to Anne's sister, family and friends.

Have you had any luck fruityloops? Those pictures are pretty clear.

I hate cleaning so if I were a lodger in someone else's house I would be happy to pay extra for cleaning rather than having to do it myself. Perhaps this is the case with your lodger op?

Those helicopters are a long way up and you can be forgiven for thinking they are very close to you. I was in Honor Oak Park this afternoon at 5ish and that helicopter seemed to be hovering directly above us.

I am sure you can dispute that Taran. Agreed - very frustrating!

Hi, I'm sorry you had a traumatic experience giving birth. I had to really press for a birth debrief when I was at King's. I was in for 5 days and finally saw someone on the 4th or 5th day. I had a meeting with the consultant at the time but he hadn't actually been present during the birth. Of course we appreciate people are busy but to have a near catastrophic experience and then just be left to get on with it is unsettling. It was difficult for me to have approx 10 people in the operating theatre before I was given a GA and then to never see any of them again, except for the anaethetist who checked I was coming round ok. I think it is important for mothers to find out what went wrong in traumatic births (and in my case what actually happened during my crash c-section). I really hope you find the answers you are looking for. Was the birth recent and are you still being visited at home by midwives or health visitors? Perhaps ask them what is the best way to approach this.

Those photos are shocking.

Hello Dave. We decided not to this year after the 20% price increase and the sobering thought that it could cost ?600 to fill the album (without any swaps). But we've missed doing it, the Mr especially :(

We've got to get over our love affair with water in plastic bottles.

If anyone on this thread actually needs a good tree surgeon, I am very happy to recommend Tim Doidge at Sakuratreeservice.com, who did a great job here last year.

It would be lovely if you could find a friend for your single guinea pig. There is a local rescue charity, GBH Rescue, based in Beckenham, who will let you bring your piggy in for a few days and see if he or she bonds with one of their rescues. Then you can have a happy pair. http://gbhrescue.webs.com/

That's a very good image. Best of luck with catching him.

Interesting that there's CCTV. Where are those cameras?