wilko

Have sent a PM.

I?d like to add my positive feedback for Dave at McHow. I contacted him as an emergency when the heating and hot water stopped working. He managed to fit us in quickly. Great communication about dates and times. He was reliable and arrived early, quickly identified the problem and sorted it out there and then. Dave explained everything in a way I understood and I would definitely book him again. Many thanks.

Just to sound a word of caution, if you want to change the surname by which a child is known, you need permission from anyone with parental responsibility for the child. Otherwise you need permission from the court. This is dealt with in sections 8 and 13 of the Children Act 1989. As long as you have permission, it is straightforward. If you do the change through a solicitor, get certified copies of the deed as these will come in handy for future change of documents.

We had a similar experience with Rye Cars. The seats were in the boot on arrival (4am) and the driver didn't have a clue how to fit them. It was all fine in the end but I wished we had been out and checked the car seats before getting the children out of bed...

Sympathy here too. Our eldest (4) suffers with it. There is something especially gross about cleaning sick out of a car-seat buckle. Things that work for her: Snacking on dry/salty things in the car instead of eating a meal before travelling. It is better driving at night than during the day, maybe just because she sleeps more of the journey... Avoid milky food/drinks for a few hours before travelling. Open the window for short bursts every now and again. The smell of the air con when it first starts is a trigger for her for some weird reason. We found plastic bags too unwieldy for her to manage, but vital for the clean up job on the roadside, along with a change of clothes and wet wipes. The best option for us is empty plastic take away containers which you can put the lid on to contain the sick/smell until you can get out of the car and dump it. Plastic Christmas pudding bowls are even better for avoiding aim disasters, but aren't free...

I had chicken pox twice, once as a 4 year old (I remember it clearly, hot summer doused in calamine lotion) and again at 16. My friend's son has also had it twice (8 months apart) and diagnosed by the GP both times. Such bad luck. Hope it's over quickly for you all and this time is the last x

This may be a long shot, but I am hoping to find someone who has installed slide and pivot doors made by Sunseeker. I would really like to hear from anyone who has used the company and can tell me whether the mechanism of the doors works well. I like the look of them, but I'm worried they will be temperamental, and (as seems to be the case with most of the glazing companies), there is no showroom. Thank you.

In case it helps, here is a summary of the help available with childcare costs: http://www.familyandchildcaretrust.org/working-parents xx

I think I've already mentioned this in our PMs Hellosailor, but I just wanted to clarify the point simonethebeaver raised in case it applies to others. Spousal maintenance is only an option if you were married. The law is unequal in the way it treats married and unmarried couples on separation and it can be incredibly unfair to the parent left with the children. The child maintenance website is www.cmoptions.org and this will help people with issues like reductions in child maintenance for overnight contact and ex-partners going on to have more children, both of which significantly affect the maintenance calculation. I am sending you support and strength and crossing everything that you find a way forward in mediation.

I did this about a year ago. Bought the fireplace on the forum and used Blue Mantle on the Old Kent Rd to knock out the hole in the blocked up chimney and fit the Victorian fireplace. They have lots of original fireplaces for sale there too.

Little Kickers football in Dulwich or Nunhead (think you sign up for a course) Tiny Gym at Camberwell Leisure Centre run by Southwark Gymnastics (10.15am and 11.15am, drop in, ?4 per session) This website might help: http://www.edtots.co.uk/directory/saturday Hope you find something!

Just wanted to add to the recommendations for Martin. I have completed 6 months of training sessions and it has been a really positive experience. After 2 babies in close succession, I needed help to regain my core strength and I was lacking in confidence and motivation. Martin has worked with me to address all of these things and increased my fitness at a stage in my life when I felt it was impossible to find the time to exercise. We have trained in the park, in the garden and in my kitchen during my 1 year old's nap-times, and no two sessions have ever been the same. Martin is positive and motivating, he likes to see results, but he is also flexible, kind and realistic. I feel stronger, fitter and happier, so thank you!

I agree with what everyone has said about agreeing a gross rate for the contract. I did that too for the same reasons mentioned, in particular getting stuck with higher rate tax liabilities. However, the way we worked out the gross rate was by starting with ?10 per hr net (which is what the nanny was seeking)and plugging it into a calculator to establish roughly how much we'd need to pay 'gross' to give the nanny the take home pay she was looking for. The payroll company then applied her specific tax code to give us the exact gross figure to put in the contract. Kirsty - I found it all really confusing too, but it makes more sense if you think of it like PAYE where you are the employer so you pay the tax and NI to HMRC (quarterly) on behalf of the nanny, and then the nanny just receives her take home pay each month, like any other employer. Why nannies often still think in 'net' terms is a bit of a mystery to me!