dulwichmum

I would love to join you all, and put faces to these extremely entertaining characters I have met on the forum, but I will stay home and sit in the corner on the stool of repentance. I have made a disgrace of myself and need to regain my composure. I will be with you all in spirit. Have a lovely time.

Yes, indeed, we are so lucky. The Village, parks and Gallery are amazing. I love Dulwich, all of it.

Dear All-Star and Nutty, I wish you the best of luck. Soft tiny bright eyed new babies are exhausting, but the best thing that can happen to anyone. I can't recommend them highly enough.

I completely agree with Ant, the Brierley Midwives are just as good as having a private midwife, and they can either deliver you at home, or travel with you to hospital and deliver you there if you need to - as far as I remember. The Brierley midwives are fierce advocates for their women, and have a good working relationship with the hospital staff. Kings Neonatal ITU is a wonderful place, babies are born in Kings from all over the world in order to avail of their care at birth. They do pioneering surgery and other procedures there which are not possible anywhere else. It is so reassuring to be so close to a unit like that when you are pregnant. I am a healthy person, and never expected to have a sick, premature baby, but these things can happen to anyone. My daughter was premature, arrested three times, and was ventilated for over a week at Kings. Our birth plan didn't come to pass, but at least we did not have to treck accross the country to visit our little girl in some far away place like Cardiff - which is the equivalent distance some people must travel to see their new baby at Kings. I found it a huge reassurance having Frederick Still ward just up the road. On the subject of prams, I have had a Phil and Teds double buggy for almost four years, and it was simply liberating to discover it. I never anticipated having two children so close together, but when you have one - you somehow suddenly believe two is a great plan, and you end up pushing a double buggy. The double buggy I had initially was like a bag of bricks, too long and cumbersome. The Phil and Teds is great because it is a super single pram, and grows with your family to the most agile and lightweight double buggy of all. We had to get ours specially imported via an internet site from New Zealand, but now they sell them in Soup Dragon on Lordship Lane! You really should take a look. I have turned mine back into a single buggy now as my five year old is walking everywhere, and my little one likes a snooze when we are out. Good luck.

Dear Bob, Crystalclear, Batdog et al, I am so sorry, I have lost the run of myself. You are right Bob, what would the children say? I shall go and verbally abuse the au pair............

Are you sure Batdog? That you are not wearing it on your head?

I bet I left it somewhere in The Penthouse actually. Ah, student days, they were the best.

You know Batdog we probably have danced together, I may even have tripped the light fantastic with Spadetownboy too - but I can't find my old wonderbra anywhere. I have searched my nicker drawer - through all my old maternity nickers and everything! How very disappointing.

The very man! He is still smiling, but now he drives the P3. He could play the piano like no-one else, and what a great dancer. Nevil - the coolest guy at Kings. When Nevil left and they closed The Penthouse - it was the beginning of the end if you ask me. Put Nevil in charge and lets get ourselves a big Matron and get the NHS back on it's feet. Hell, lets re-open The Penthouse while we are at it. I think I fancy a dance with Batdog.......... Where did I put my Wonderbra?

Do you remember 'Nevil' the oxygen porter, who was so fab at playing the piano? He drives the P3 bus now. We are too old to go back now, the Penthouse is over for good for all of us sweetie. Everytime I think of The Penthouse I hear that track 'Loaded' from Primal Scream in my head, and I remember drinking lots of larger, and being really happy. Happy days.

London maternity units including KCH have been discharging women at that speed for a very long time now (I remember it happening regularly as far back as 1990 when it was part of their 'domino' scheme). KCH are probably trying to portray themselves as 'dynamic' or 'progressive', because they are about to close a ward, or else some reporter has got the wrong end of the stick regarding some litigation case, and feels that women going home early is a scandal. Childbirth is a normal physiological process - not an illness - in most cases.

I agree with Mony, we are so lucky to have Somerfield on Lordship Lane. In West Dulwich when the small supermarket - 'Superfoods' got taken over, it was replaced with a dayglo Tesco, with its forumula of strip lighting and bright white and blue shop front. Somerfield is much easier on the eye and is certainly better since its revamp than what was there before. It blends in well with the other shops on Lordship Lane. Not everyone in Dulwich can afford to shop in M&S for food, and so I suppose Somerfield is a better evil than Tesco. There are large numbers of pensioners and young families living on low incomes in Dulwich, not everyone is in a good financial position, and Sainsburys is half way up a hill and set so far back from the road if you have to walk. It would be a genuine hardship for some people to get up there if M&S took over Somerfield:).

The absolute best thing about Kings was The Penthouse - my word, there is a blast from the past! That place just makes me smile like a Cheshire cat - just thinking about it. Does anyone else remember the incident (New Years Eve 1994 I seem to remember) when a certain Australian Registrar took a 'young lady' to the new on-call rooms virtually opposite the Penthouse but a couple of floors lower - to share some clinical skills? They didn't put the lights out and provided all and sundry with some outrageous entertainment (I believe they had not even been formally introduced!). I'm off to find my Rescue Remedy............