chuff

my kids go to dulwich village infants and we most definitely don't go to church but we do live close. However there are many children from the Glengarry/Tarbert road area that attend the school that are also non church attenders. there are 90 places for each year that are split between church attenders and local children. It is definitely worth applying for as it is a great school. Other suggestions are Horniman and Fairlawn if you live around the woodvale/forest hill road area. They are both great schools. chuff

We had the same thing but with a letter addressed to us personally saying they had checked us on several occasions and found us not to be recycling. We always recycle, in fact only the week before I had hounded southwark enviromental services because they had missed our collection. I can only think that in our case that they're not looking by our side gate where we have been told to leave the refuse/recycling. we've also tried to call the helpline number to complain but have been told that they are experiencing high call volumes and will call back before the 24th September. I was hopping mad about it yesterday but have chilled out somewhat today... chuff

Jags is a very good sports centre but you can only use most of the facilities outside school times.

I've seen people rifling through bags outside that particular charity shop more times than I can remember. Most of the time they don't just steal, they throw the rest of the stuff all over the street. Nice people. We take most of our old clothes etc to St Christophers Hospice but now phone them to make sure they are open and can take the stuff before we venture down there as it does seem to be closed quite often or full. It wouldn't bother me so much if the person looking through the stuff was a homeless person but everyone I have seen doing it looks as well dressed as myself. chuff

I think the incidents were unconnected as we saw the police chase and scooter crash. Unless of course the scooter kids had just been involved in the cyclist accident. supposedly the police had been chasing the scooter as the kids were two up with L plates and helmets not properly on.

two teenagers on a scooter pursued by police, big crash. One boy looked to have a serious head injury and very broken leg. More police than I have ever seen and what looked like some serious crash investigation. I hope the kid is ok.

yes tumble tots is at st.faiths church hall in north dulwich every wednesday morning

mr chuff is Welsh too and I have the same problem. When out with the in-laws we are constantly stopped in the street for them to have their little chats and as soon as they know we are from London they all revert to speaking entirely in Welsh which I find very rude. We have to go there this weekend and I dread it so so much. I'ts always raining when I go too. bah. chuff

Talisman Just seen the programme and the house looks beautiful, really love the cedar wood. Can't wait for the big tour. chuff

aaargh It's looking doubtful for me tonight now, too much work to get through and no childcare for later. I am really interested though and will book myself some time out for the next one if it happens. Will somebody update tomorrow so I can find out what I've missed out on? thanks chuff

I'd like to come to the meeting if I can get away from work/children in time, would be good to meet some friendly faces. is there room for another? chuff

it's actually fantatic to go to the top at night and look out over London and yes you're right the finger pointing thing. I have noticed that there aren't many places around where it isn't looming in the background somewhere.

I just found the **** heads etc very scary when growing up and knowing at least three people that have chucked themselves from the top of it (a 13 year old boy included) has sort of put me off the place. Seeing most of my mates end up serious addicts too didn't help. am biased sorry! chuff

Dawson Heights was built on a rubbish tip supposedly and was sinking quickly. Was saved though because it had been listed, would have been nice if it was pulled down and redeveloped back when that was happening. Horrible place, used to be the place to go when you wanted hard drugs and to commit suicide.

ma - that's good news, I didn't think the catchment was that large.

I know that Charter is very popular now and there are a distinct lack of good state secondary schools around. Kingsdale always had a terrible reputation but seems to have turned things around completely and is now a local favourite too. I would think that you will need to live fairly close to either school to be in with a chance as there are many families living nearby. Dog Kennel Hill seems quite a way from the Charter School but as macroban said 'phone the school' they will probably have a map with the marked catchment area they can send you. Then again if they bring in the lottery system then you would have as good chance as anybody else in ED! There are still rumours that the old waverly lower school is going to be a boys secondary but who knows what sort of school it will be...

thank you x I think it makes a big difference when builder's are forthcoming with their plans, it definitely makes people less suspicious and less likely to complain at petty annoyances.

me, I'd love to look at the houses. Am both interested and nosey! chuff

keef - we used to stay quiet walking past the monkey tree and yes I still do it too! there was one down our road when growing up, it might still be there. I wonder where that came from, it's a very odd superstition.

am still trying to finish up my work and haven't even started to ring around for babysitters. Sullen au-pair is off out tonight with one of her many men so I may well have to stay at home eating curry with mr chuff. If I do make it I will probably looked like a scared rabbit.

I went for a light bluey squiggle but am actually an orange squiggle. don't like orange very much. bah.

I think they are both as good as each other, Horniman is smaller though. Lewisham borough seems to have the edge on Southwark for education.

If you find somewhere over on the underhill road/woodvale side of East Dulwich then you might be able to apply to Fairlawn and Horniman Primary Schools. They are both very good and IMHO much better than Goodrich and Heber. Chuff

ha ha, they would know just by looking at our car and our unfashionable furniture etc moving in that DM wasn't me. I am definitely not that classy. Also CL Gardens are most definitely out of our price range! loads of people are parking here today, I can see them all from the side of my house and I have been happily dancing about every time someone parks in front of her house. You would think I had better things to do really wouldn't you?

hmmm poisons, not to up on those. Might speak to mr chuffs father though who knows very much about these things... and Huguenot yes I would agree that normally she might have mistaken me for a non-local but we see these people everyday and have done for the last six months. Our children are regularly popping out of the side gate on their bikes and trike to go up and down the road or to the park and not once has anyone spoken to us or even acknowledged us. Our oldest doesn't go to school around here as we aren't in a postion to pay for the independent schools in the area and the only other option in our catchment is a church school and we are not churchgoers so I wouldn't expect them to go there. Maybe that is our problem, we don't fit the typical brief for a family in this area. I'm sure too that there was great speculation as to who was moving in to our house when we did as not many of them come up for sale very often. I have decided that we will have a very noisy bbq sometime soon and invite all of our less desirable friends to lower the tone. She knew she just didn't want to have to engage in normal conversation with me.