jules b

Well on a somewhat more positive note, I've heard from Mel Southerden that the reason the old shop closed is that their lease ran out, but they'll be opening somewhere in Bermondsey in the new year. Probably still too far to go for a pastry treat tho... :(

Jeremy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > She's moved production to Maltby Street and is now > supplying Selfridges (and maybe others). > > They were planning to keep the Peckham shop > running, they'd just done a refurb to remove the > k!tchen and provide extra seating... not sure what > happened. Shame. That's what I thought too... Her website says "the cafe is now closed, new premises opening soon" but nothing more. Selfridges is a bit far to go for a mid-morning pastry treat :( and it wouldn't have her lovely self to talk to either.

Sorry if this has already been addressed in this thread, but does anyone know where Mel has gone? She had the fabulous pastry shop on Choumert Rd between Rye Lane and Bellenden Rd called Southerden's. I knew she was moving to new premises but where? when? I'm going into serious Choumert Bun withdrawal...

Thanks Boyohboy, we've done that. (Life is always more complicated than it first appears...) Thanks Steve! I'll contact Will to see what he says as soon as I have 5 mins...

I'm part of the PTA at a local school and nursery, and in early December the kids are putting on a series of nativity plays and carol singing performances. We would love to find someone/a company to film the performances and then edit the footage and put it on DVDs that could be sold to parents. The idea would be for both the PTA and whoever does the DVDs to make some money. Does anyone have a recommendation for a company that does this sort of thing? Or maybe there's a film student out there who wants a bit of work? Please contact me for more details.

I can't recommend Matt highly enough. He has helped me out on 3 occasions and worked incredibly hard each time. He has lots of common sense and I've just been able to leave him to get on with all the DIY jobs in the garden (building raised beds, putting up wires, etc) without having to monitor every move. All this for ?70 per day. Brilliant. Nice, honest, personable guy too. In fact, I've been in two minds about recommending him on here as I suspect he's going to get extremely busy once word gets out...

Spams

Hooray! I just passed my test (first time) after having lessons with Sarah. Having driven for over 20 years I needed to get my licence in this country, and if you think learning to drive is hard, try forgetting how to drive with bad habits and then learning how to do it 'properly'! Anyway, Sarah has been a great teacher and coached me through. Thank you.

Unbelievable! A plumber working New Year's Eve, who responded to my SOS immediately, turned up when he said he would and didn't charge a fortune. Hooray for Niko! And thank you!!!

Thanks but I have found someone on here who has a lot of recommendations, from a lot of people, who have long standing accounts with posts on many subjects. I'm sure that other people can make up their own minds about recommendations from you and sweller.

I just like to research people before I rely on them. You too, have an interesting history of posts... similar to sweller's...

sweller Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi try Richard local sparky :) contact 07931890286 I may be being overly suspicious, but do you have any relationship to either Richard or Steve the roofer? You seem to have made an awful lot of recommendations for them... In fact, there seem to be another couple of people on here recommending these 2 that have a similar strange pattern of posts... Hmm...

I've recommended Eric as a great painter and decorator on here before, and just had him back to fix the mess someone else made of a bit of joinery we had done. He's done a great job and meant that we don't have to get the whole thing ripped out and done again thank heavens. THANK YOU ERIC. I would highly recommend him (and his side-kick Steve). Ph 07872324935.

Creed

I hate to add fuel to a fire but if your house is listed, or in a conservation area, further rules might apply... Going thru' the planning portal is the only way to find out as, and you've already found this out, getting thru' on the phone is nigh on impossible, and useless if you do!

Chain

Draw

What is it with people who work on gardens, paving, fences etc? We've had so many people let us down that it is now nearly 18months since we hired someone to pave an area of our back yard... and it's still just an area of gravel and weeds. The latest person is still promising to turn up and finish it (6weeks after the proposed start date, - he says he's running late due to rain slowing down previous jobs, -really??? Have we had 6weeks worth of rain in the past 3months?) but we'll see. Anyway, obviously I have no recommendations for that sort of work, but can highly recommend Hamish of Cut Above Tree Care for anything to do with trees. Search for him on here, you'll see lots of recommendations (including mine).

Yes, it wasn't a great decision to plant it in compost, especially the very rich stuff that I used, but it was all I had and needed to get it planted before we went away. That's why I'm worried about giving it even more food if it doesn't need it. Thanks for your feedback.

Can anyone help? I bought a grape vine 6 months ago and have planted it in compost in a large pot (until I can work out where to plant it permanently). It's leaves are now going yellow, starting at the veins and spreading, then dropping off. This is often a sign of a feed deficiency but I don't want to give it any fertiliser if it is just normal autumnal behaviour. Can anyone give me advice? Jules.

this sounds so so horribly familiar! Our first son, nearly 4 now, still doesn't sleep terribly well, but as a baby it was torture. He had colic and the only way we could get him to sleep was by breastfeeding so he had a very strong 'sleep association' (to use the lingo). This meant that every time he went thru a sleep cycle (every 45 mins) he woke and couldn't resettle himself so at 10 months old was still waking, crying, and insisting on being fed, every 45 mins, all night, every night. And from about 11pm till 4am, often he just couldn't get back to sleep even tho i was holding him. I got every sleep book i could lay my hands on and the most helpful one was the Millpond one. For a start it explains how babies sleep. However, i was too tired to work out my own plan of attack, and there were too many layers of problems so i didn't know where to start. In the end, in desperation we got a consultant from Millpond, and it was expensive, but it worked. Our consultant did not ever insist on any particular technique, but made a plan with us, and helped us put it into practice. All by phone consultation. Like i said, it was expensive, but for sleep i would've paid 10x! Here's wishing you sleep, and if it's any comfort, reflux usually disappears at around 8months (our second son had reflux), just do whatever it takes to get thru! Get whatever help you can. Good luck.

I feel for you, it can be so disheartening. My son is 3.5 years and only just out of daytime nappies. I was panicking as we had tried several times in the past year and it had always become a big ordeal despite me doing my best to keep it low key and unpressured. A couple of months ago he just got interested in the toilet by himself so we seized the moment and he pretty much just trained himself. We did all the positive reward stuff (stickers and books or toy trains as a reward worked a treat) and lots of reminders ("do you need to go?" every few minutes it seemed) but it worked and I was so proud. Then, when we had all decided he was fully potty trained and stopped giving him stickers or reminders, an accident, then another one, and another one... It coincided with a change of class at his nursery and his grandma going away and in retrospect we should've just kept on with the stickers etc. I've since found out that it is really common to have a relapse as the child stops thinking about it all the time and just forgets. So we've gone back to rewards and reminders and he's getting better again. I can't offer much practical advice I'm afraid, but do want to say hang in there. Things can change quickly and when the kids are ready they seem to get the hang of it overnight. I agree that now she is out of nappies try not to go back into them so she doesn't get disheartened herself. My parenting maxim is 'this too will pass', but I'm better at remembering it after the fact than when I'm in the middle of it!

The Mulberry centre (I think I've remembered the name correctly) at Myatt's Feilds in Camberwell is brilliant, tho it may be booked up for October already.

Just a final note, I used Sweet Success in the end to order cakes, filling and fondant. They arrived on the date I requested, well packaged, in perfect condition and were very tasty. I also got colourings and bits and bobs from the little cake decorating and baking shop in the arcade off Rye Lane which is run by the most lovely woman. Then Cassia (aka 'grovevale') helped me do the basic covering, -she was great and so helpful. So, many thanks to all who made suggestions and helped. The cake was a huge success and a third of the cost of getting it made!

I knew I could rely on EDF! Great recommendations, especially for Ellie's Bakery (super helpful people, fabulous cakes) and the slightly more DIY option of Sweetsuccess with their amazing website. I'm doing a trial run this weekend to see if I can do any of it myself, and will go from there. Thanks again everyone.