Pugwash

Try advertising with Kings College Hospital. There are a number of medics who live weekdays only in the area but go home to family at weekends. My Dad was working for London Ambulance Service and had purchased a house in West Sussex as he had got a transfer to West Sussex. He had exchanged contracts for selling his house and for the new bungalow when W Sussex contacted him withdrawing the offer due to cuts. He managed to work out his shifts in London for the next year and rented a room from Sunday to Thursday in Merton going home at weekends. I would say ?60 - ?75 a week would seem reasonable with access to kitchen/washing machine etc

Many council tenants live in terraced street properties and some in the past have received a poor or inadequate repairs service from Southwark Council, with delays, bad workmanship and overcharging found to be all too common. The Council recently made a priority of improving its housing repairs service and there is an opportunity for residents to share opinions on whether things have changed. Also a chance to look at the related issue of whether an estate orientated local authority can achieve good management of street properties. Christine Bramman, Repairs and Maintenance Manager of Southwark Housing will be the Guest speaker at the Barry Area Residents' Association General Meeting on Tuesday 11th February 2014. 8 pm at the East Dulwich Community Centre, 46 - 50 Darrell Road. SE22 9NL (next to DMC) Council Tenants and Homeowners are all welcomed. After the meeting there will be light refreshments, informal discussion with a chance to meet other Southwark Council street property tenants and home owners. Hope to see many of you as possible

George lived at 77 Court lane for many years, my best friend lived at number 75 and her family foiled a burglar attempting to get into George's house. After that, security was stepped up

St. Mungos, Thamesreach - homeless charities.

Yes we have always had good beat coppers in ED. George was followed by Mike?, we later had Mick Bell and we still have Adrian Crust.

There was talk of a Travel Lodge in a southern part of Southwark, this site would be ideal for a Travel Lodge or small premier inn. We could do with some budget hotels at this end of Dulwich. I know we have the Queens at the Palace and a Travel Lodge in Penge but it would be good to have something here which has disabled facilities i.e. lifts etc.

The 1980s - there was great community spirit mainly due to the GLC making area a Housing Improvement zone and pumping in millions. The Alleyn Ward as it was then, had the highest number of people living in sub standard accommodation with outside toilets and no bathrooms, especially elderly folk. Most property was privately rented or owner occupiers with a few GLC and Southwark rented places. great community spirit with 3 popular residents associations, Pellatt Area, North Cross Area and Barry Area which all met at the Community Centre in Darrell Road. Each association had 80 plus members who rang senior citizens clubs, social events, dinner and dances, bingo, coach trips etc. Sadly many of the 'new commers' do not have that community spirit - ok they like their zumba and other activities but the generations generally do not mix at a social event - in the In 1986 within 2 weeks of having my 2nd child I was at a fund raising event at the centre where my baby was the youngest and the oldest person was nearly 90, around 150 people who raised ?1000 in a night for a scanner for Kings College Hospital as a result of our beat Copper George Hammond being stabbed in Lordship Lane.

Many years ago walking my child down Friern Road to Goodrich School, my daughter was spoken to a replied to both a man and woman in the street. I asked her who they were, she did not know their names but my aunt who used to do the school run had told her that she must be polite and talk to them. Had a go at my aunt and it turned out that these were people she knew who attend the Adult Education Classes at Goodrich (That will show you how long ago this was!!)who lived in that part of Friern. I was annoyed at her more as if my child is going to talk to people on a regular basis, that I wanted to know who they were etc, and where they lived and their connection with my family. I was much later introduced to this couple and was able to explain my concerns to them. They fully appreciated my concerns and realised that they should have introduced themselves to me instead of talking to my daughter. I have since them explained to my daughters that if someone attempted to talk to them, just to smile and walk on, and not engage in conversation

I have worked in Sutton and it does not give off good vibes during the day. St Helier Hospital is not very good. Lots of care and nursing homes in the area. More appealing to older folk than families. Try Carshalton which a work colleague has recently moved to from Cheam.

Bromley council only collect recycled goods fortnightly and they only give one small blue box per household. Daughter's recycled blue box is frequently over flowing and the foxes drag stuff out as does not have a lid. We have 2 blue, 2 green and 1 brown bin in our front garden, One green bin is usually half to three quarters full, blue usually full sometimes have to use 2, brown variable if doing any gardening on top of food waste. rather have wheelie bins that boxes or bags any day.

Social Services operate on addresses generally and not phone numbers however given more details as to the nature of the calls and conversation had, they may ring up the person and try and find out more about the lady. A quiet talk with PC Adrian Crust and giving him the number, he may be able to find out the address and do a 'checking call'to see if the lady is ok. Depending on outcome, Police will decide whether to contact Social Services.

2 of our grandchildren (both living in Harlow) had speech development problems. Eldest boy now 19 was only saying a couple of words at nearly 3 and was placed into s special nursery with other children which had developmental delays. great improvement from that time onwards. His little brother, now 4 same problem, now goes to a nursery 2 days a week and speech has improved considerably as copying children more speech advanced of a similar age. I had speech therapy from 5 - 11 as I had measles when 2 years old and lost 90% of my hearing and this was not picked up until I was rising 5. Obviously that was decades ago.

Having had to use a walking stick when out and about due to arthritis in my knees, hip and spine for the past year, I am surprised as to the number of people that have offered me a seat on the bus. I too have a disability which effects my balance and even before the arthritis- could not go upstairs on the bus as I could not balance on the stairs. Many moons ago when pregnant with youngest daughter, had to travel up to County Hall by Westminster Bridge daily, and frequently lost my balance whilst standing on the bus and my big belly hitting those sitting down Sometimes I got a seat - the rest of the time other passengers would just mutter and get annoyed.

This is the down side of owning a leasehold property on council estates.

My husband came into a sum of money quite unexpected following the death of his only relative. The executor was an accountant and we had a meeting with him and uncle's stockbroker and they advised to pay off as much as possible of our mortgage (around ?90K) to reduce our monthly repayments. ( This went down from ?120 pm to ?50)Keep some of the investments that Uncle had which were performing well, cash in the poor performers. We took out a couple of ISAs. If selling your current property is an option - use the money towards a bigger place.

If your relative has the space she may be interested in Homeshare. A national organisation which matches up people who are usually working or students, with an older (or disabled person) in return for a reasonable rent, the sharer has to provide so may hours practical assistance per week i.e shopping, housework, cooking but not personal care. Personal Budgets - the Government requires all local authorities to encourage those who require (and are eligible) for care packages, to have this provided via a personal budget. If following an assessment of needs, your relative is entitled to say 25 hours a week assistance with personal care including toileting, medication prompting, basic domestic tasks i.e. hovering/washing floors and work surfaces, laundry, and shopping etc. The local authority will give a sum of money equating to the 25 hours care which SSD would normally supply via their contracted agencies. The fair access to charging guidelines would apply and your relative's income and expenditure would be taken into account as to whether they would need to contribute in any way. Once a PB is approved - you have a choice of having care provided by an agency used by the council, or employing someone directly. If you employ someone you are responsible for the NI contributions and taxation paperwork etc. But most councils have an arrangement with various voluntary organisations who will take on the administration for you. if you go down the personal assistance route, there are organisations who will do the various checks for you. If your MIL needs help with her transfers or mobility it would be wise in getting someone who has been on a manual handling course, essential if the person needs to use a hoist. In reply to cathypj - if your parents own their own home, and your mother moves into a care home, the local authority will probably advise selling the property to fund fees. In the case of a couple - if one goes into a care home, the other remaining in the home, the value of the property will not be taken into account. Once the remaining spouse/partner moves out the whole value of the property is included. If you mother chooses to go into a care home, but does not need placement, it is highly unlikely that the local SSD will assist with payment of fees ( assuming that not an owner occupier). There are schemes such as the 12 week property disregard and deferred payments which help owner occupiers. I would recommend anyone concerned with care for elderly relatives to look at Age UK fact sheets - there is a number of them ranging from retirement housing to selling homes to fund placements, managing finances etc. Southwark and Lewisham Age UK have their own care agency and have different fee rates depending on service required. They also have people qualified in foot care. Abbeyfield have a number of sheltered housing scheme all over the country offering different levels of accommodation. Those in Southwark offer a bed sit, and all meals (except usually Sundays) in a communal dining room prepared by a resident housekeeper. Some Abbeyfields have en suite bedrooms with a small kitchen area for hot drinks and light meal preparations, others have flats. Abbeyfield also run a number of residential care homes throughout England/

Before Christmas we got a letter from PCSO Louise Wisson of the ED Safer Neighbourhood Team asking for people to sign up for neighbourhood Watch scheme. If interested contacted Louise on 207 232 6325 or mobile 0208721 2447 or email [email protected]

many years ago my eldest daughter worked in an off licence near the Paxton Roundabout in Gipsy Hill. she would talk about the weird happenings there, with bottles flying off the shelf, boxes being overturned, footsteps heard in the empty flat above etc. We did not take too much notice of this but whilst she was working there, our youngest daughter who was around 8 or 9 at the time was taken by a friend of her sister's to the off licence as the girls were meeting up for some family event. K came home later that night full of excitement of keys of the till flying in the air, shop bell ringing without the door opening, bottles being smashed on the floor and other things. She was not at all worried about this. Later on when eldest daughter went back to University, a friend took over her position and she experienced similar happenings. Years later retelling their experiences to a family friend who lived on the nearby Kingswood Estate, they were informed that the Off licence owner eventually closed the business as staff would not stay after they had experienced similar goings on. I do believe that some people are very sensitive to what I can only describe as 'unexplained happenings'. When my youngest daughter was 11, we were on holiday in Norfolk and had taken K's friend of the same age with us. On the Friday night before returning home, the girls were getting ready for the last night entertainment, when K became very hysterical and crying and could not explain why she was upset. Not being a child prone to this type of behaviour we were at loss how to deal with this over a period of hours. Returning home to ED the next day, our front door was not doubled locked and we gingerly went into the house to find my Mum sitting in the garden. She had come to give us bad news that my great aunt who previously lived with us, and had moved down to The Elms, had died the night before. We discovered that she had become suddenly very ill and died within a very short time the night before and this coincided with K's hysteria. Over the years, we have got used to K's 'psychic feelings' and do not question them as they have in hindsight proved to be correct. Whilst studying psychology, K mentioned these incidents and underwent some low key experiments, which showed that she had very heightened ESP and could pick up 'vibes'. Regarding spiritualism, David Nason used to hire the ED Community Centre for his meetings and one day, I was asked to open and close up for his session. Out of curiosity I stayed for the meeting with a guest spiritualist, and was surprised when a close deceased friend came through. I was very sceptical, but the female spiritualist did not know me or the area, she physically described my friend and the activities he was involved in. He was unusual as an artist that he specialised in working with the police and their animals, from the ED Mounted Police section to Police Commissioners. She described much of his work ( which I was familiar with) and then asked if he was known to anyone in the room. I put my hand up and gave my name. She then 'passed a message' from L relating to an event we had attended many years before. I do believe that it is possible there is a 'spirit world' as my family has some experiences in this area. I am a sceptical person and try to rationalise why things happen, either by coincidence or from a practical angle. I certainly would not dismiss entirely strange happenings experienced by others.

Last week hubby informed me that twice on the same day some men rang our bell and said they had paint left over from a job and did we want any rooms painted. Were told no thanks. The second group of men had the same storey but came a couple of hours later. He did not inform me until a couple of days later and I was annoyed that he did not report to the police as quite suspicious.

I suggest a modern police station with flats above for rental and purchase

It seems odd that at this late stage in the school term they have suddenly decided on a trip and given a week or so notice for deposit. Grand daughter's school gave warning of trip in July and the letters giving full details for the June trip were sent in September giving a month's notice of deposit date.

My 15 year old granddaughter is going to Poland for 5 days in June cost around ?600. daughter has been paying money monthly. GD staying in hotel and 2 meals a day and packed lunches plus all admission fees into places of interest.

It also could be the way they treat their non medical employees. I am with the Gardens and they have had the majority of their staff for years. Although I am not a frequent user of the surgery, they know me by my first name when I drop in to deliver a prescription repeat.

We also know where our front and back door keys are hidden - 2 separate places one near each exit. We have a fire route - climb out of back rear bedroom window onto kitchen extension and then 6 foot drop to floor. Possible exits out of other ist floor rooms but longer drops

If HSBC had asked if I had recently used my card to purchase something with xxxxx, rather than asking me when/where I had used my card. I use the card each week for shopping and with Xmas coming up and extra expenditure I would have to think when last used that account's card. A letter giving me a security number for telephone banking arrived today - so hopefully this may sort things out. Think I will check with Passport Office is they will allow me when I renew passport next March to use my original name. Many thanks for all your replies and helpful suggestions