redjam

Melanie has looked after my kids in the past. I can confirm that she's great and my kids really enjoyed going to her house!

Thanks, all.

You can get a temporary card, I think, for out-of-town visitors. Scroll down to 'Young Visitor' bit on this link: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/travel-for-under-18s/travelling-with-children In reality, if you are travelling with an 11-year-old and a younger one and tapping in and out yourself (using the wide barriers on the tube) I think it's highly unlikely you will get stopped on a bus or tube. I've done it a million times with my older one when she's forgotten her Oyster card. Trains are a different matter, though...

Argh! Is it closed the whole of today? Where's the nearest place I can send something Special Delivery this afternoon - Forest Hill Road? Or is there one up by the library? (dredging memory for alternatives...) Thank you so much for the heads-up, singalto - that's saved me a wasted journey in an already frantic day.

Why the tone of doom? Seems eminently reasonable to me that the council would want private car ownership to decrease given the terrible pollution and congestion levels in the city. Obviously one would hope they would provide an incentive by improving public transport (not seeing much evidence of that so far) but the aim of reducing - not eliminating, incidentally - car ownership in itself seems absolutely fair enough.

Advice for planes is to turn into the type of parent you probably used to sneer at before you had a child yourself - in other words, stock up on sweets and treats and produce them at regular intervals, and glue them to a screen at all other times. You won't win any parenting awards, but it's the best way to ensure that you (and your fellow passengers) have a peaceful flight. And think about your evenings too. Our first holiday away with a baby we rented a little cottage in France, which in retrospect wasn't very baby-friendly as they don't seem to like children in restaurants there. So we were eating early, then finding ourselves faced with rather empty evenings in a quiet cottage with no TV or wifi. We'd have been better off going to one of the countries Lula suggested, where you can take your baby to a restaurant and no one bats an eye if they make a bit of noise or get down to play in a quiet corner, and you can take your time over the meal. Good luck!

I'm really sorry to see Mrs Robinson being squeezed like this - it is one of my favourite shops in ED. I miss its clothes shop across the road too. It started off too expensive for me but for the last couple of years its prices seemed to come down and I bought a lot from there - though not enough to keep it afloat, obviously...

Yes (to Penguin68/Rendelharris) - one of the examples of 'proof' that SNARL stated in the Guardian article was an animal head left on a penalty spot in a garden football pitch. That rang another alarm bell for me in terms of seeing evidence in what is likely to be just natural behaviour (or sheer coincidence, of course). Foxes are well known to leave a pile of poo in the most ostentatious spots (they regularly leave us a little present directly outside our back door, on the step) so it doesn't seem unlikely they would leave a corpse somewhere highly visible. Our cat does it too - she has more than once carefully positioned a dead mouse right in the centre of our circular rug that has concentric rings on it, as if enacting some weird Satanic ritual. She's clearly placing it deliberately for maximum wow factor. A head on a penalty spot, as gruesome as it sounds, cannot be taken as proof of anything unless someone has actually seen a human actually place it there. I agree some of these deaths may well be attributable to a human - maybe even the same human - but I suspect it's only a fraction of the number that SNARL states.

Yes, that story rang almighty alarm bells with me, too.

Interesting article about this in the Guardian today: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/08/croydon-cat-killer-hunt-three-years-man-myth Have to say I'm now thinking it's highly unlikely all these deaths are the work of one invisible man. I felt differently when it first started and there were just a few cases - now I'm afraid I'm no longer convinced. Or maybe, as Penguin68 suggests above, there was one person who started it off, but now we're looking for patterns and seeing them everywhere. Just my opinion - I know many will disagree!

I realise this is too late for tomorrow but in future it might be useful to know there is a non-emergency hospital transport service run by the NHS. I overheard someone asking about it at Kings the other day and they were given a number to ring and it all seemed quite straightforward to arrange. Some details here: https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/nhs-services-and-treatments/how-do-i-organise-transport-to-and-from-hospital/

Gosh, poor you, sounds horrific but lovely to hear that people came to your aid. There are so many prolific 'this world's gone to the dogs' posters on this forum so very nice to hear evidence to the contrary! Hope you, your kids and your poor doggie get over the shock/injuries quickly and enjoy what remains of your holiday.

As an adult French learner who has often struggled in 'intermediate' classes (I get there and find that I'm the only one who isn't half-French/lives in France 6 months of the year/studied French at university etc), I share your daughter's pain. It's really tough to sit there feeling like the thickest person in the room while everyone babbles around you and you can only pick up half of what they're saying. She's probably learning more than she thinks she is by osmosis, but it's a bit soul-destroying and it's very easy to just 'switch off' when you feel like you've lost the gist of what everyone is talking about. Could you afford one-to-one tuition instead of the French school? Then the teacher could go at her pace. Also I wonder about the books you're reading with her - could you go back to books aimed at younger children, even if they're a bit babyish? I was trying to struggle through adult books in French, but when I switched to kids' ones on the advice of a lovely French teacher it was a real confidence boost as I didn't have to look up every other word (even though it's quite funny reading 'Le Petit Nicolas' at my age!). So much of learning a language is having the confidence to make mistakes, which is hard to do if your confidence has already taken a battering. Good luck - it's definitely worth it to push her as it's so lovely to be able to speak another language. I'm sure she'll get a boost when she's at secondary school and finds she's loads better at it than her peers.

It's a shame it's unused space if the tenants want to actively garden in it. But like others have said, if there's nothing that can be done, think of the positives - there are so few wild spaces in London so at least this will be a little haven for wildlife, which is in turn good for the biodiversity of your garden. And you're not being woken by the sound of building work/kids playing/chickens or whatever everyone else seems to be complaining about at the moment!

Could you afford to book a private room in a restaurant? My parents did this for their golden wedding a few years ago as there were lots of young children in amongst the different generations. They very thoughtfully bought a load of sticker books and puzzles which they handed out to the kids between courses, and there was a corner where the kids could go off and play with Lego (we brought a big box with us) if they didn't want to sit at the table. There was also a garden where we all wandered around in afterwards. There were speeches and a nice meal, so it felt special, but it was very chilled. I'm sure there must be a venue in London that could tick those boxes (we were down in Surrey, so that's not very helpful!).

I go past it every day. Generally just hear happy chatter and singing whenever I go past. Have you raised your concerns with the place directly?

I do second budleigh's suggestion of a microchip cat flap. They are really expensive but they are worth every penny and instantly solve this problem. We used to have so many cats coming in and terrorising our very timid rescue cat. When we first got the new cat flap installed I couldn't work out what the banging noise was that I kept hearing all evening. Turned out to be all the local bully cats bashing their heads against it wondering why they could no longer come and go as they pleased! They have now given up trying. You will never change other cats' behaviour - if it's not this cat it'll be another. Only thing you can do is sort out their access to your property.

EDmummy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Are you sure it's human? We have the occasional > fox poo around our bins. > Foxes don't normally move bins out the way to take a dump.

rch Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Well, at least you've confirmed that Lionel > Stanhope submitted a response to your "open call" > for interest, which is what I had intended. > > If I had been allowed to continue to attend your > meetings, I would have done everything I could > have to convince you to include him in the > shortlist so that residents could actually vote > for him. > > To be fair, Blue Shop Cottage is the least worst > of the three shortlisted candidates, but I think > their proposal to hand out flyers to collate > phrases and responses to build into a design is > the wrong approach for this location... it would > be better if they simply designed an East Dulwich > location graphic in the style of the old London > Underground graphics, similar to Lionel's > approach. > For someone who's been so critical of the selection process you seem to have a very dogmatic approach to it yourself - it seems that your opinion is the only one that matters. May I timidly suggest that some of us might actually like the options available and not want a carbon copy of something that's already been done in Forest Hill/Herne Hill?

rch Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Arrrrrgggghhhhhh. > > The Forest Hill style design is EXACTLY what we've > been lobbying for in East Dulwich! It's done by > the same artist that did the Herne Hill one... I > think Bromley and several other locations had > variations of the same design. > > Arrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhh! > > I give up... Well if you (and others) like that style, then vote for the first option (Blue Shop Cottage) which is ... retro-styled lettering. What's the problem?

Oh come on, you can't honestly say this thread hasn't taken a very nasty and aggressive turn.

I'm really baffled by the amount of vitriol being heaped on this initiative (and the group that originated it) and to be honest I think it makes those individuals who keep banging on against it look rather petty and vindictive. I love having loads of street art around - even the pieces I don't personally like, if that makes sense. It livens up the place and makes it seem more vibrant and welcoming. If it helps local businesses that's good for all of us. I fail to see any sinister motive behind this. I loved Ingrid Beazley's Dulwich Picture Gallery initiative but sadly she is no longer with us and this is clearly a separate thing. Why is that controversial? Frankly I'm astonished that anyone does anything for the community given the amount of frothing negativity they have to deal with. Maybe those people moaning should try to organise their own initiative if they don't like this one?

Done, good luck with it. Though unfortunately if it's not in East Dulwich I'm unlikely to go over to Peckham/Nunhead just to pick up some dried goods, sadly. As devin3 says, so annoying that ED rents are so high when there are empty shops here...

Have voted. Great artists, difficult to choose! Good luck with the project - sounds exciting.

Anyone know what is happening to the building itself? I thought it had been sold last year and there seems to be work going on in the building next door but nothing appears to be happening in the actual chippy on the corner. It's such an eyesore...