Pugwash

We have a frog pond and have had wire over it for a number of years. It's rigid with approx one inch squares so frogs can get in and out put also acted as a safety barrier for our grandchildren. the youngest can spend hours just sitting there watching the frogs.

Hubby has 60 plus oyster card for about a year now. Well worth the ?10 fee. Since hubby was early (medically) retired he does not get any benefits only a very reduced occupational pension and the Oyster card enables him to keep in touch with friends and extended family - probably saves him around ?40 per month.

As I work in Kings most of the time I enjoy watching A & E and spotting people that I know ( colleagues and patients). However one colleague informed me that the down side of the programme is that more minor accidents are coming to A & E to see if they can get on the programme. Increase in those who should have gone to GP surgery but probably could not get an appointment.

Brownie Group at Christ Church on Friday evenings - run by Jayne (8th East Dulwich pack)

My daughter rented a property in Orpington having spent a year reading OFSTEAD reports and visiting local schools. The school she originally wanted ( the top primary school in the area at the time) she disliked when visiting as felt it too rigid and conscious of it's league position. Having worked with people with learning disabilies all her adult life, she asked about the schools special needs provision and was told that they only had one child with sepecial needs (autistic) but that he did not stand out so no one knew of his needs. This upset my daughter and she went on to view 2 other schools who were lower down the league tables but were very open about their special needs provision. When she had viewed these, she looked at the secondary provision in the area and the catchment areas. After several months, she decided on a school which was also in the catchment area of the secondary school she wanted. Rented a property and her daughter was accepted in the infants of the allocated primary school. Within a year, she was able to putchase a house outside the schools catchment area but her daughter now in juniors was joined by her younger brother in infants. My granddaughter now 14 attends is at the secondary school of my daughter's choice and her brother will join her when he is 11. Daughter very happy having taken the long term view over her children's education. Moral of story really is that these days it pays to consider both primary and secondary provision in the area first.

My friend has been a lodger with an elderly lady for many years. She has a bedroom and a kitchen and shares loo and bathroom with landlady. Until last year she had no central heating, outdated electrics which meant she could not have a fan heater or electric fire or a cooker, and an unuseable bathroom. It was not until the landlady went into hospital and needed carers when she came out that the hospital OT did an access visit and asked social services to step in and also to obtain a Housing Improvement Grant to update all the facilities. 2 years later, my friend has a warm bedroom, but only a hard chair and no arm chair to sit on, she has no oven but cooks on a hot plate. The rent is cheap as facilities are basic, she purchases her own food and cooks herself. Over the years she has been less of a lodger and more of an unpaid carer as her landlady has dementia.

Have had many family events at le Moulin - sad to see them go. Was going to go there tomorrow lunch time but obviously cannot do that now. However we had a group meal in April. Income was not steady and large enough for them to plough back into decor etc. They do not consider themselves as going for retirement - just going to see how they feel. I thought they were closing on 31st may?

Bromley Council many years ago decided that it would not operate any council social housing and hived all their housing stock off to Broomleigh Housing - a Housing Association. I think Broomleigh has now dissolved. Housing Associations rents are far higher that council rents. With the 'bedroom tax' looming for those council tenants under pension age, plus the changes in Housing Benefit (being paid monthly directly to tenant via bank account), and getting rid of council tax benefit as we now know it, we need to have a variety of rented accommodation options that offer alternatives to private highly priced homes. Southwark is the largest ( or one of the largest) social housing providers in the country.

Lino is based in Barry Road we have used him several times including taking furniture to our daughter in Worthing.

lambeth and Southwark Social SErvices used to be on the 1st floor of Dulwich Hospital but when the wards closed they moved nearer Kings. Another social services team were due to be based there pending a more permanent venue being found, however the move was delayed several months as surveyors found that the structural framework of the floor ( which was originally one of the old wards) was so dangerous, the floor was coming away from the walls and was in danger of collapse. We heard later that many of the old wards were in a similiar state. Much of the building which was in regular use was in prefabricated units attached to the old hospital. If the fabric of the hospital was in better shape, it would have been retained and a very expensive refurbishment taken place. Many of the external walkways linking the various sections of the building could not be used as crumbling. Southwark COuncil as far as I can recall do not own the land - was NHS Southwark and with the new change over from April this year I cannot recall who the new owners are

We put ours in their wire cat basket out in the garden for around 30 mins and placed in different areas over a number of days. Have also tried on harness and lead walking up down garden

The litter bins around the area are usually full and over flowing - the one near the Sainsburys local was bulging over and wind was redistrubuting the papers

we have some very helpful and efficient local coppers who know ED and its occupants inside out and also know the local trouble makers and their 'lines of crime' When I had my bag stolen in Sainsburys a couple of years ago, the police were there in less than 2 minutes. When i found a WW11 gun whilst clearing out my parent in laws house, it was to our local bobby that I rang for advice and handed it in at ED Police station. Over the years our SNT have served us well and many of us long term residents are on first name terms with our officers and can approach them with any concerns which affect our daily lives. We need to have confidence in our police and the more time they can spend policing the area and less time travelling the better for us all.

In response to some PMs you can enrol at the first session at 10 am

Cannot add on the 2nd attachment as too big - basically topics to be covered are design, fabric paint uses, patchwork measuring and cutting a block, fabric manipulation to make bowls using a sewing machine. All materials provided at a small cost per pack. Tutor demonstration.1-1 teaching, instruction hand outs, health and safety info re equipment.

Whilst the children are at school do you have 10 - 12.30 free to learn a new skill? The WEA (Workers Educational Association)is trying to set up classes in the ED area and have commisioned the East Dulwich Community Centre in Darrell Road, to hold a Craft taster Course from 22/4 - 20/5. Please see attachments for further details. Will also put this in Whats On

has anyone tried catching a bus from Camberwell to ED after 3.30 pm during the week - it's standing room only from the Green to ED. If I leave work at Camberwell anytime between 5. - 6.30 weekday, it takes me nearly an hour sometimes to get to Dulwich Library. On a good evening being able to get the first bus 30 mins. Last Friday I had to go on a training course at London Bridge. Left home at 8.15 am caught 40 bus straight away, ended up going by train from ED as it was 8.45 by the time I reached the station so knew I would not make the course at 9.30 am

feel for you - many years ago I looked after a couple of sisters during school hols who were in the same brownie pack as youngest daughter. Had a girlfiend round one day and we both happened to hear water flowing when she was going, Traced it to my daughter's bedroom downstairs - water streaming through the ceiling and ligts. Found bathroom sink over flowing upstairs with plug in, little darlings had washed their hands under running water, put in the plug and not turned off tap. rang their mother up at work and demanded that she collected her offspring early as I had a major job of having to clear out the whole room and find somewhere for daughter to sleep. Mum refused and came her usual time to collect. Showed her the damage and stated that i would be billing her for some of the costs - refused to consider it and said it was my fault having plugs in the sink as everyone knew that kids left taps running.!!. Damage cost around ?300 to repair as electrician had to be called, carpets and mattress replaced. I wrote the insurance company and giave them the mother's details for them to reclaim the cost from her. Telling the story much later on to another Brownie parent who informed me that all the local childminders had refused to have these girls due their destructive behaviour, and all other parents in the Brownies had been asked to take the girls for a few days. Unfortunately nobody had informed me of this fact as they assumed that I had heard of their reputation.

I do not use my married name but was informed by the Passport Office that I had to use it for the passport however since all my accounts and professional certificates are in my former name, the passport office have entered on one page ' Also known as ----' which solves the problem all around. We had seperate passports for our girls so that we both could travel independently with them.

Both my girls went to Sydenham and went onto Uni. There were some instances of bullying but school dealt with it once they knew about it. Both girls wree keen to work and get good grades and the teachers on the whole were very supportive. Daughter 1 had a difficult maths teacher who did not appear to have any time for her and daughter's confidence went prior to her GCSEs. We hired a private tutor who informed us that V's maths were good but the teacher was not explaining theory in the way she could understand it. He suggested that we did not need his input - however we discovered that he also taught Physics which was a weaker area of V's so he concentrated on that. V went on to get 10 GCSEs at A and B grades.

When hubby was retired early on health grounds - we did not qualify for any benefits as my earnings were too high. He gets a small pension from work which is about 33% of his preious earnings. We now do our main supermarket shop fortnightly to cut down costs. I always look at the reduced goods when shopping, most of them you can freeze on the day - I have just noticed in my freezer some mince, pie, bread, sausages, fish. Stews and casseroles - start off with meat and veg for meal one and you can extend this to day 3 by adding more veg and small pasta shapes so it can become a soup. if I entertain (extended family) I work out what do do with left overs- last Sunday there were 9 of us - home made quiche - large slice went to daughter no2 for her lunch the following day, coronation chicken - my work lunch for 2 days,fresh vegetables not used will be made into a soup later today, cheese - possibly another quiche. Each week I check what is left over - I got some apples from sainsbury's which do not taste very nice - will probably end up in a crumble or pie later today. We buy wu liquid and washing powder tablets from Lidl as better and cheaper than other supermarkets.Use BOGOF offers if you know you are going to use the product - make more use of freezer. I find daily purchasing more expensive as tend to use local shops. However you can get good bargains from local butchers (near the Plough) and his eggs are good value.

We live opposite St. Anthonys - our youngest daughter went there during the 90s and being on the 'friends committe' we were always receiving complaints from residents in Etherow. Friern, Norcroft and Barry Rds re car parking. I also put in a couple of complaints. Notice there still is alot of double parking whilst kids are dropped off, and alot of traffic - but situation in Barry Road appears to be stable. If it is a church school - they have a wider catchment area so many aprents drop off kids on way to work

I had a friend who was in the building trade and many years ago he was asked by the owner to look the premises over to judge how good decor etc was. He reported back that the rooms were very small and they were hoping to get double beds into single rooms, some rooms were going to have 2 sets of bunk beds. Felt the whole place was poor. Who knows it may have changed. The owner is/was a local businessman who owned and rented out several houses in ED. Owner is now old and demented and I believe family members may have taken over business.

I did a small shop in iceland recently - I had to go to the bank and thought I would pop in to get a few basics- picked up a few special offers for our dinner, some sandwich fillings, and whole bill came to ?8 - very good value and the food was lovely

Having watched yesterday's TV re the machinest strike at Fords over equal pay - I was reminded that I was 18 in 1968 and working with the GLC - I do not remember if we had equal pay with the men there. I did not go to Uni when leaving school, my single parent mother kept me on at school for 3 years past the school leaving age as having a disability I was at a disadvantage already and her view was to get as many qualifications as I could as in those days disability was equated with low intellegence and ability. My 2 girls were brought up in the view that education was the great leveller and they could be whatever they wanted to be . One toyed with the idea of becoming an engineer, the other an interior designer. Both went to uni, as I did at the age of 40, and have forged out careers for themselves. I now have a professional qualification and earnt twice as much as hubby. Nowadays - I earn five times as much as he was retired on health grounds at 58. Eldest daughter swopped a career for motherhood, but worked part time, and has recently completed her second degree and has a professional qualification which is recognised world wide. She recognises that her daughter is academically nore able than her son and wants her to achieve her potential. Whilst her son is bright at school, his interests lie in sports and animal welfare and his aim in life is to work in a zoo with reptiles. Who knows at this stage how my grandchildren's lives will pan out - but I know that as far as education is concerned - their parents would want them to achieve in their areas of interest and have a satisfying career.