prdarling

Thankfully the neighbours who have a key managed to track down the owners to get the alarm code so have been able to switch it off. Still reeling from days of being woken at 2am and again at 6am while on my holiday but still thankful the damn thing has stopped

Is anyone else being driven mad by this??? It has been going off about 3 times a day for the last week, including 6am Christmas morning and the last few mornings plus a nice midnight toll to end the day, just in case the tinnitus wasn't quite taking hold. I have knocked on the door but quite literally the lights are on but no-one is home. I realise it's not the most grave of issues but it's really bringing about the demise of my mental heatlth Can anything be done or is it just ludicrous to expect A solution?

Wwe had ours at The White Swan near Hatton Garden. As they are in the City, they only open at weekends for weddings and as such have a wedding/events co-ordinator Nadia who is amazing. Everything about it was brilliant, food, wine, venue, atmosphere and it was really reasonable in terms of budget. www.thewhiteswanlondon.com

Do bear in mind though that chicken pox is usually much worse in adults than children. It's a nasty business for a grown up but it usually doesn't affect children for more than a few days and in many cases can be really mild....

We have a small sofa and 2 chairs, 1950's Danish type things and the leather straps which form the seats (onto which the cushions go) are so old and dried out they have virtually all snapped, making the furniture totally unusable. I have no idea where to go to ask about repairs. Can anybody help please? Best wishes

I did an awards event at work a few years back and Justtin Lee Collins was the compere. Unusually for a 'celebrity' he was happy to hang around for about 2 hours after the awards were over and give the guests photo opps. It was fairly obvious that he was kissing/trying to kiss every single girl and I mean properly kissing. He was the biggest sleaze I have ever worked with, totally made my flesh crawl. He thought he was God's gift. Repulsive

We would like to change our GP practice after much poor service from Forest Hill Group Practice. They used to be excellent and of course the Oakwood Midwives are superb, but we can take no more of not being able to get through on the phone, the impossibility of getting an appointment and the latest affrontery of my husband having to wait two weeks for his appointment, leaving work in WC2 early to get there for 4.50pm and then being told that the doctor was off sick, so err, sorry. It's just not an acceptable way to run a modern practice. Can anyone please offer some advice what to do please? All we want is someone who will answer the phone (preferably not on a number that costs us ?5 a second) and see us within a few days if necessary... We are on Wood Vale so SE22/23 borders Thanks for the advice

We had 13 spellings a week in Yesr 1. The first ever list contained the word frightened, which I thought was a bit much! Now in Year 2 my son has 10 spellings a week usually based around a topic, such as different plural rules, so this week we have recipes, loaves, knives, fairies etc. Spellings are streamed into 3 levels so not all of the kids have the same ones, they are done according to ability. We are at Fairlawn

We recently got married in the Council Chamber of Hackney Town Hall. It's a beautiful room with oak pannelled walls and seats in a tiered horseshoe shape so everyone can see you. Th town hall itself on Mare Street is a gorgeous Art Deco building with stone steps at the front which are perfect for a photo opportunity. The registrars are very helpful - the whole thing was lovely It's set back from the road as well, so no traffic streaming by. We had so many positive comments from our guests, I would definitely recommend it.

Hello Other than Goose Green and St Faith's, please could you let me know of any halls to hire in ED/WD/ND/HOP etc for a birthday party Thanks

Interesting feedback. Thanks for the insights... shan't be bothering moving if everywhere else is as bad if not worse!! I do need a meds review which is why I can't get a repeat prescription and I can't buy it OTC it's prescription only. Didn't think of the nurse practitioner, nor was she offered by the receptionist which is annoying as you are right Siduhe, there are probably appointments more readily available. Now I'm even more annoyed that they didn't propose this to me in the first place!!! It still seems a long time to me!

I have been with them 7 years and I think it's got progressively worse. You always used to be able to get a same day appointment, nowadays you can barely even get through on the phone to make one, the costly electronic check-in machine never works, the premium rate phone number is a scandal, leaving you to sit through minutes of recorded messages before you can speak to anyone, the rapid turnover of doctors is nuts and now a week to wait to see a doctor :( Such a shame as it did used to be such a good practice.

I have phoned this morning and the first appointment I can get is 8.30 next Monday morning. I am genuinely shocked. I wasn't expecting the luxury of a same day appointment or to see a specific doctor, just a harmless appointment about my hayfever prescription. Six days??? Really?? Am I being silly or is that just ridiculous?

The Barn... the building in the garden at The Herne is ideal x

It's a total headache. We end up with a very complex spreadsheet detailing where they both are each day. We manage with a combination of both sets of grandparents, taking a fortnight off ourselves, putting them in Scamps (summer school at Dulwich Prep), taking ad hoc days off separately and using our old childminder but it's a very costly business as well as a logistical PITA. You just need to be mega organised x

I always get my boys' Birkies in Biff in the Village. The sizes are a bit confusing as they are European but I think for example a 27 is about a 9 and a 29 is about an 11 as that's where we are at the moment. Agree with Monkey though, the staff in there are fab x

It was only a few years ago that you could always get a same-day appointment if you called or pitched up first thing in the morning. I always used to get them for my little boys and the oldest one is only 6. What went wrong??? Whatever they have done it's certainly not working. It's great that you can get a call from a duty doctor and if you are prepared for the long haul you can actually get seen but it's not the same as an actual appointment. I did think that surgeries were not going to be allowed to use those 0844 number anymore, but perhaps I misunderstood??

Does anyone have a sunken trampoline in their garden and if so please could you give me contact details of who fitted it for you? There was one in a rented house i stayed in the other week and it was brilliant, would love to check out how much it might cost me Thanks PRD

Is a consideration. Their rapid turnover of GPs makes me rather nervous never mind the inability to book or cancel an appointment

Don't get me started on them... I have had the same problem where I tried to call to cancel an appointment and was on the line at great expense for over 5 minutes due to their 0844 super costly system, I eventually got through to appointmnets then it just rang off. This has happened at least three times. I had to go down to the surgery to cancel my appointment which was really annopying but no doubt I would have been in trouble had i just not turned up and i wrote a letter of complaint to their patient service manager as they don't have anyone you can speak to directly and they don;t have an email which is most frustrating. I got a letter of reply back which basically said their records showed my call was answered in 1 min 17 seconds and i was on the line for x minutes to one of their staff. Err no I wasn't otherwise i wouldn't have had to go down to the surgery in the first place. The letter then went on to say perhaps it would be better if i tried to call outide their busiest time which is 8-8.30am (which is clearly the time that the phone lines should be adequately staffed) which is virtually impossible for me with two school runs, a commute and a job. I find the whole business most annoying, especially when your call gets answered by their machine and then you sit for ages while it rings and rings and it's costing money, the least you expect is for the damn phone to be answered. Nothing wrong with their phones. Everything wrong with their staffing

www.ownersdirect.co.uk Cuts out the middle man as the name suggests. Loads of bargains to be had if you can go outside school holidays. We went ot a lovely one in Menorca last year and one in Turkey in 09. Really good x

We are also Wood Valers. I have a 6 year old and a 4 and a half year old - my older son goes to school with Jo Dearson's daughter in fact. Very interested in keeping in contact even if only on here. I have asked Southwark for an update on the cemetery situation but they have not got back to me. I live opposite it and only foiund out about the proposed works because a friend on Ryedale had a flyer and I went to the drop in meeting. Apparently they 'forgot' to flyer all of the properties actually overlooking the cemetery. Call me a cynic..... Personally I am more concerned with the view from my window once the work has been completed... less park with a few headstones and more war grave type effect with row upon row of identical back to back headstones. Hmmm. I made a complaint and asked them to put more trees in and make it less depressing looking but funnily they haven't given me a status update as requested. If anyone does hear anything I would like to know Thanks Jane

Why not look for a cottage in Devon or Cornwall - try ownersdirect.com However, the comment about your husband's view on camping made me smile as every campsite I have ever been to (and we go about 4 times a year) is about as middle class as you can get with an on site organic farm shop, pick your own vegetables and early morning cricket in Boden pyjamas .... I think he may have the wrong end of the stick :)

Hi there - yes is St Faith's Hall and they are fine with bouncy castles. Kim I will drop you a line..thanks PRD

We always use www.ownersdirect.co.uk, which as the name suggests puts you directly in contact with the owner, so no agencies, no hideous "welcome" meetings, nobody trying to sell you day trips etc Owners are available by email/phone so you can find out extra information like who is the best car hire company and all that kind of practical stuff. We found one family who had a 2 year old boy when our were 3 and 1.5 so we had the added bonus of the house being stuffed full of suitable toys. Def worth a look x