dulwichgirl2

When and where is the main event, Please?

Fastest way I found: dry your hair upside down for immediate lift, mascara while starting up the car and Vaseline on lips. Great!

Some very good ideas here. I totally understand the exhausting nature of your current job so I think that the suggestion of reducing hours and trying other options out is a great one. I have been looking for a couple of years now but am having great difficulty getting back into working life. I was unlucky in terms of the recession so I don't want you to make the same mistake!

Dougal, Scotland does have a good eduction system largely, I gather, because it is always at least ten years behind new fangled and invariably politically driven idiotic developments.

I used to stress about small things like where the vouchers were etc. till I realised that a few big changes could easily save much more so.... Cancel things like gymn memberbship unless you use it. Run in the park or join the weekly 5k nationwide runs. Play tennis on the park courts. Use things like the travel insurnace that comes with bank accounts - check exactly what your accounts offer and don't duplicate. Call your mobile provider and check you are on the best deal. Leave the car at home and walk everywhere, saving on petrol. Buy things you know you will need in advance when on offer. It deeeply distressed me when my husband bought "Finish" at the local corner shop and paid the same for a tiny container as I could for 10 times the size. Cards - I used to get all cards in lovely little shopts. Now I buy 7 for a ?1 in discount shops at junction of Coldharbour Lane and DH. Take crisps, sandwiches etc with you when e.g. you go swimming. Use "The Book People" for eg party bags - HOrrid Henry and other "series" books are a fraction of the price. Join Amazon Prime - we save a lot on p and p by paying around ?50 a year. Get haircuts etc on the cheap day if possible. Make sure your savings are earning "good" interest! (eg 3% instant access)

By the way, when they are just "free" and able to enjoy going around their little bedrooms investigating toys etc if they want to, you must check that there is nothing with a cord available. This transition time is the worst for these awful toddler accidents with blinds, heavy things falling down on them and attempted climbing accidents. Please NM, be VERY careful with your balloon tied to the bed. (I wld not leave a toddler with a balloon on a string far less overnight, personally. I hope no-one is offended by my saying this. It was too important a point to ignore.)

Science museum - lots of things to push and illuminate etc. Downstairs for packed lunch and general mad behaviour. S Ken tube or maybe a bus that could take in some "sights" en route and kill two birds with one stone? Changing of the Guard? During the week obviously so might well not work.

RB, haha, very good point. I am sure Nabz's baby will manage this easily. ;-)

Yes I changed it as it was misleading. I am unfortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, far from being a nm. My concerns with one specifIc person are the lack of diversification as I said above. If you have a good one, or a relative perhaps, well done lucky you. But how do you know this on day one? At least in the nursery, there are many people looking after the children. otoh, to be fair, you do hear of children escaping from nurseries and walking home etc.. My ideal solution is to have some help while I am around as well. Is this the right thing to do - I hope so but does any of us really know for sure?

Errrr excuse me but the op did not ask for advice about nurseries and cms. (For what it's worth, op, you have a point re diversification in nurseries. I see cms and nannies around in many environment and I am not impressed. Pm me and I will give specific examples. You need to get your name on nursery lists ASAP. You are probably too late for eg DUcks but should try Asquith. Ignore anywhere with a satisfactory rating and focus on good or outstanding. It is a long day though, or so we found, for the child - would it be five days a week?

The decline in tv and newspapers has surely gone apace with the decline in education standards and the aspiration to be seen as intelligent or educated. Even in the early 1980s, people still learned how to write a good letter, proper syntax and, in my case, (the lost art of) parsing.

Thank you, SW. It did "H"!

I really want to know the councillors who voted for it....

Thank you.

Many thanks for the genuine responses which I've had and which I will reply to this pm. As for the dubious ones, you know who you are and I will not be responding. I wonder if you assume, wrongly, that people give house keys to complete strangers from the Internet. Lastly, I still need information on rates for bbsitters, if "employers" wouldn't mind enlightening me, many thanks.

These events should be self financing or, in good years, attract a small subsidy. How completely ridiculous to have spent 52k on it. Which councillors voted for that, does anyone know?

Interesting posts.

Our lovely cleaner/ bbstter has got married and moved north! Good grief! What next. We have found a neighbour to Bbs but don't know the going rate. She is 17 if that makes any difference. Could anyone advise? (Also, if anyone has a cleaner who wants more hours, please let me know.)

Sorry to hear especially as you have a lot to cope with. :-( Presume you got a description to the police ASAP and they drive around but could not find him. Disgusting. A serious physical assault deserving a medium length custodial sentence if caught.

Do they provide all the gear?

Dear god. I had a neighbour who had five brothers and sisters shipped to Australia. He was deeply troubled though had been too young to leave so stayed with his mother. The halcyon days of the 50s were not as depicted.

Was the car blocking something?

Ap, I think you are sensible to get the e voucher! Why pay more than you need? I also agonise about tipping and then give massive tips and feel irritated. My husband says: tip in the uk only if service is exceptional. Tip in the USA all the time. Otoh when he didn't tip the bags carrier recently, I was mortified especially as the poor elderly guy was hanging around telling us all about the room to give time for a tip to be produced. Aaaggghh. I felt awful. If the hotel adds service I am clear though - no tip. Envy you your day! It sounds lovely.

Yes the lighter evenings are an issue for us too. We had the same problem with older girls and do pre-empted it this time by exhausting the little one during the day so that she had to crash out at her usual time. This has completely wiped me out too, though. :-(

Susyp - a digression but did they keep the same price as the previous three? if so, great!