victor

Dear James, who do you contact about a council flat lying empty for 18months, despite having had (very expensive!) building work done to make it safe and habitable?

EDF readers may be interested to know about the remarkable climax to the season that the local non-league football team, Dulwich Hamlet are enjoying. Hamlet play in Division 1 South of the Ryman League, and after another fairly indifferent season looked to have missed out on the chance of promotion to the Premier Division from which they were relegated 10 years ago. However an exceptional run of form at the end of the season culminated in them triumphing 2-0 in a ?winner takes all? match last Saturday away at Walton & Hersham and clinching fifth place in the league and a place in the promotion play-offs. The final table was: 1. Met. Police 96 points 2. Bognor Regis 96 points 3. Whitehawk 88 points 4. Leatherhead 88 points 5. Dulwich Hamlet 65 points 6. Walton & Hersham 62 points Play-offs at this level are one-legged ties away at the higher placed team. This meant Hamlet travelled to Bognor Regis who had missed out on top place (and automatic promotion) on the final day of the season by a single goal and had finished 31 points ahead. A fine performance on Tuesday night saw Hamlet win 3-1 in front of large crowd of dis-believing home fans. Such are the vagaries of the play-offs. So on Saturday, Dulwich Hamlet travel to Leatherhead who finished in fourth place (and a mere 23 points ahead) for the play-off final, knowing that one more good performance would see them assume at their rightful place on Jeff Stelling?s Saturday afternoon vide-printer. Incidentally there are no updates on club website (www.dulwichhamletfc.co.uk), because the club?s webmaster booked a holiday thinking the season would have finished by now!

Go to Lewisham - it is perfect for pre-teens. Primark, Peacocks, H&M, and other cheap and cheerfuls!

just voted - we used to love the fountains when the children were smaller.

James that is a most unhelpful post. And shocking that a councillor should attempt to put parents off a school. Surely parents are quite capable of making their own decisions. And I doubt Duwich College has loads of spaces, even if you could afford it.

Can you get a specialist rucksack? My friend's son has one for his trumpet. Or get up for an earlier bus?:)

Is he travelling to Kingsdale or Duwich College, etc? My daughter bus-hops with her friends - 185 or 176 to the Harvester and then the P4 or 363 or some other combination. When she got the P13, it was fine getting on around 7.40 by East Dulwich station, but was very very full by Underhill. He's probably better doing the bus-hopping route!

Zeban, if you had been to the local clubs and comps I've been to, you would see that it is not just the MC, white girls at all. Though there are far more girls than boys and they have to train and compete in different groups. And none of the 17+ girls looked remotely anorexic at the last comp, thank God.

Charisma Gymnastics is based at Dulwich College Sports Club - they do pre-school through to teenagers, but there is a long waiting list. Worth it if you think your child will really enjoy it and want to compete in local/regional/National competitions as she gets older. I think Ladywell is a similar club too.

Yay! Internet back! And phone!

We have been. We took in our own food / drink. Not only is it expensive, but there is only junk which doesn't taste too good if you have to have it for every meal. Don't take in a knife to cut fruit as they will confiscate it! And be prepared to either spend a fortune on tat or say NO! 4 and 8 would be good ages. Ours were 9 and 11. The main park has all the Disney characters, etc, so I'm sure your 2 year old would enjoy it, but it might be more memorable when she's a bit older?

Samstopit, these tables show the end of Key Stage 2 results, so the children are 11

Daughter and friends are going to set off soon for Kingsdale, with much complaining that the weather is worse than yesterday.....

Some of us haven't moved out at all ::o

Why don't you just try asking at local schools? Most schools welcome parents in to help with reading, etc, so it is possible that they would like a volunteer who is not a parent. The thing is, you will probably have to have a CRB check done - it may be that the school will organise this, but you will have to ask the individual school.