Moos

Afraid you were right, Keef, that is what I meant. Shame on me for using the word of shame. :-$

Well, it would demonstrate your passion. But it won't help the candidate. ;-) Seems to me we're caught between the red devil and the deep blue C.

Keef Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It's depressing when you really don't have faith > in anyone to lead the CITY... Or at least no > one with a hope of getting in. Sigh. Greatest city in the world, and look what we have to choose from. Sorry - back on topic to PMs, yes I know we have a Mayor thread already.

Trying to get out of buying the first round again, Steve? :)-D

Quite right too, *Bob*, and then when it goes out of business you can be all smug about how right you were.

What Keef said. :)) Seriously though *Bob* and DaveR my point was not that people should support their local shops regardless of whether they like them / think they are good value. It was that if you like having those shops around, you have to buy stuff from them, not just walk past, i.e. put your money where your window-shopping-eyes are*. *maybe there's a reason why that's not a saying.

thanks Keef

The trouble is that lots of people who liked the little independent shops and thought they make ED what it is never actually spent anything in them. Shops aren't like artwork - they can't just hang around looking pretty for ever. So if you like your local shops, buy something in them - in this case voting with your feet is not enough.

Camberwelloz, how awful that you had that experience. I had heard that King's was good (specifically in contrast to Tommy's about which I heard a tale so appalling I won't repeat it) and my time there bore out the good reputation, from the midwives during labour through the theatre team and specifically the aftercare from the maternity ward midwives. My baby and I were making a total hash of feeding and they were endlessly patient in helping us out. The food was, of course, bloody awful. Seems my son thought the same, damn his impertinence...

bought two very nice cheeses from the cheese stall in the indoor market on Friday. But they were Welsh cheese, not Eastdulwicheese.

Or artificial inseminators.

The dad who runs Plough Babies posts on the forum as rsn - maybe he's connected to a 'dad's network'?

Mr. Moos isn't on there either, and he's a chartered whatsit. I do like the way they differentiate between 'Christian Science practitioner' and 'minister of a recognised religion'.

Think it just shows that the list is wrong. Doctors are definitely professional.

Bah - my 'new' threads have gone blue instead of red, and I'm all confused now.

East-hate agent? (anyone who works for Foxtons) Pram-rammer (Forumites who hate parents)

why do i keep doing duplicating... sorry.

wasn't having a go at you Anna, onist, or any one person. Just thought the balance of the thread was being a bit grouchy towards seanmlow and was trying to redress. Peace to all an that. except Snorky's employer, obviously. Not a large Swiss bank, by any chance? :)

A bit harsh on seanmlow? - I read his first post as having a flippant tone. As for traffic wardens just doing their job, I'm sure many of them are responsible and honest people whose mothers love them, but there has been plenty of media coverage (and recent comment on the forum) about tickets being issued unfairly and even illegally in London.

there are more official professions these days though, are there not?

Trinity, I'm sure no-one was offended by your post. I absolutely agree that everyone needs to find their own way. Books like GF or the Baby Whisperer are fantastic reference posts with a wealth of detail - even if you only use them to decide you are never going to follow their advice. I do think it's important (picking up on Curmudgeon's point) to remember that not all babies do find their own path to sleeping in a way that suits both them and their parents. I think Curmudgeon was saying that GF's way was not the only way, but I've had lots of people tell me confidently that all babies 'just start' sleeping through and in many cases that just doesn't work. One of the mothers in my NCT group had a very alert baby that used to sleep a total of 6 non-consecutive hours in every 24. When he was about 6 months old (and she wasn't far from a nervous breakdown) she realised that she was going to have to teach him how to sleep with gentle cues and a routine. My own baby used to sleep for 45 minutes at a time, and again I found a routine was the way that he learned to settle himself at the end of a sleep cycle. I'm absolutely not saying that a routine is the way for everyone - in fact, I quite envy those parents who can just go with the flow. But it works really well for some babies and some parents. Hurrah for sleep!! Oh, the bliss...

Louisa, I think you should be careful in what you say given that this is a real situation with a family dealing with trauma. If you take the time to read the pair of threads there is quite a lot of detail about what happened, and there was no indication that there was any interaction between the child and the dog before it attacked her. In any case, I'd be interested to hear your view on what provocation a toddler or small child would be capable of that might justify a 'poor dog''s attack on that child? I wonder what you mean is that parents should be more careful to protect their children against potentially dangerous dogs, rather than that children should not provoke dogs in case they respond in kind. Could you perhaps clarify?

my experience (limited to my own baby and those of my friends...) is that most babies don't drop their morning nap completely until about 15 months. I have found with mine that it is possible to let him sleep too long in the day with the result that he wakes up horribly early! But of course they're all different. Don't have Gina's book so can't help, sorry, but perhaps you could sneak a peek in a bookstore? And I have no idea why a person shouldn't consult a book if she wants to - seems to me the smart thing to do if you have a question, you can always decide whether or not you're going to take up the author on his or her advice. Good luck!

Surprised everyone has heard negative things about Kings - there was a thread on the forum not long ago asking for information/recommendations for choosing a local hospital in which to give birth and King's received a lot of positive comments. My own stay in King's for the arrival of the Moosling was longer than we expected (we thought 4 hours... we stayed for 4 days!) and found the staff amazing, from the midwives to the theatre team. Professional and kind, they epitomised good service.

I feel a bit mean saying this given that presumably lots of local teachers and parents have put a lot into improving local schools, but would those statistics look the same if one were to take into account the strong overall rise in GSCE/A-level results in the same period?