alex_b

Our son has just started at Oakfield and really likes it. Unlike some of the other schools (don't know about Rosemead) it isn't hot-house academic and seems very child-centric in their approach to learning. We also liked the fact that it is co-ed and non-selective which seems to give a more mixed group of children (and parents). The pre-prep head is brilliant and the new overall head seems nice but will clearly take a little bit of time to settle in. Personally I think that the uniform is a bit over the top, but you can't have everything. PM me if you'd like more.

Sad to see a local shop close, but I do wonder how Bellenden Rd ever managed to support three newsagents/convenience stores (Yogi, Village Grocer and Bellenden Food & Wine).

George Orwell Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > In conclusion, don't waste your efforts > complaining as you won't get anywhere. Learn to > love it or move. I wouldn't recommend Richmond or > Kew though. I lived in Twickenham and actually think it's worse here in some respects. At least in Twickenham you get a pretty much guaranteed half day of no noise due to runway alternation (even though the other half is noisier). Here you between Heathrow and City the noise is almost constant, plus they stack the planes above us before the curfew lifts leading to noise earlier than I used to get it in West London. That said I lived in Windsor for a bit and that was truly terrible.

Another vote for stamptastic, super easy to use.

kford Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > If you've ever lived in a CPZ, you'd be glad we > don't. Exactly, a complete pain in the backside for having friends or family visit or when getting any work done on your house. Plus it's another way for the council to award lucrative contracts for issuance and enforcement.

We used Bathrooms by Designs in Richmond/Mortlake. They have really nice stuff, and their staff are really knowledgeable. PM me if you want info on what we did right/wrong design wise.

We were paying ?180 a day for our guys if it was just the one day, but got down to the equivalent ?140 a day inc materials for doing the whole house.I posted a review in the trades section if you're looking for people.

I think there is an issue that Waze and other apps have been re-routing traffic that once would have used the designated A roads onto side streets to save a couple of minutes per journey. My biggest problem is the coaches, trucks and vans that should be using commerical sat navs turning residential roads into major thoroughfares. I'm not sure how you solve it though without closing roads completely.

We've had them come by a few times. Very aggressive and selling expensive tat.

But Ronnijade and Eliphinstone's Army both said it was around midnight on Friday/Saturday. I can't think where a BaE146 would be landing at that time of night and why it wouldn't show up on flightradar.

The don't all appear in all areas, but it's pretty reliable in London I think. I do find it odd that a plane flying so high would be that noisy though.

Have you spoken directly to your building control person (strictly they work for you not the builders)? I found our loft people had a habit of putting their own spins on things. For kitchen fire doors you can get pocket fire doors if that helps, also normal fire doors no longer need to have self closing mechanisms making them more child friendly. By way of comparison for our recent (non-open plan) loft conversion and kitchen extension. We were required to have a 30-min fire door on the main loft door (looks identical to our normal white four-panel doors) and linked smoke alarms in every room. We didn't need fire doors on the kitchen or any of the existing rooms.

What time was this? I had a look at flightradar24 and the only thing I could see coming over us was a Qatar Cargo plane (Houston to Liege) at 35,000 feet at 12:08am Saturday morning. If you're searching yourself, note the flightradar uses UTC so is an hour behind BST.

To steal a joke from the internet: I hear house prices in central London are holding up well, last week a woman paid a billion pounds for a home in Downing Street.

DulwichLondoner Wrote: > Can I ask roughly where, how many bedrooms and > what price range? Adys Rd (yes I know it's stretching the ED definition but just up the road from the Tribeca development). 2 bed (no garden) and 3 bed (with garden) in Victorian properties at around the ?700k mark. > What are your views / recollections / experiences > about prices now vs 4 years ago? We've only been here 3 years, certainly there seems to be less stock than when we were looking, but asking prices seem to be about 25-30% higher.

We were given building control approval on the basis of putting interlinked smoke/heat detectors in every habitable room. This removed the need for firedoors (with the exception of the loft door) or sprinklers. Has your building control person said this isn't an option?

I'm not sure I believe that the market is as dire as suggested. Two of our neighbors both sold their flats at above asking on the first day of viewings.

That seems like such a waste; hopefully they'll work out a way of combining fleets in future.

Can you only use the flex cars for one way journeys or can you use them for return journeys at the normal hourly rate? Seems curious to have two fleets dedicated to the two different journey options.

Has anyone reported this to Southwark Environmental Health.

East Dulwich is a great place for kids. Also Peckham Rye is becoming much nicer, lots to do, better transport connections and slightly better prices. I would avoid living on a really busy road like EDG, plenty of houses on backstreets which will be better for families.

Do you have a party wall agreement, ours set out the working hours. In any case complain to the council as they shouldn't be working outside permitted hours.

Our insurer (John Lewis underwritten by RSA) continued to provide buildings cover for our place when we moved out during renovations, they also covered our contents in our temporary place for the duration. There was no extra charge for any of this. They did ask for copies of our builder's liability insurance, copy of the contract and asked some simple questions. The exclusions they put in place were as follows: "We do not provide cover for: Accidental Damage In respect to your building work the following terms will apply, whilst the work is ongoing. ? We are not providing Joint Insured status with the Contractor. ? Cover is restricted to the existing structure only. ? Loss or damage by storm is excluded whilst the property is not weatherproof. ? Loss or damage by theft, attempted theft, malicious persons or vandals is excluded unless there are signs of forcible or violent entry or exit at the property. ? Any damage caused as a result of the works is excluded. ? No cover is provided for unfixed materials The automatic policy exclusions detailed in the policy booklet, which usually come into force when the property has been unoccupied for 60 days in a row, will come into force immediately when the property becomes unoccupied due to building works ? Freezing water in fixed water or fixed heating systems ? Water escaping from washing machines, dishwashers, fixed water or fixed heating systems ? Oil escaping from a fixed heating system ? Theft & malicious damage" Our mortgage company were happy with this and so were we, the contractor's insurance would have covered most of the exclusions.

Hop Burns and Black have opened "The Can Station" on Saturdays from 12-6pm at the Serious Pig on Blenheim Grove.

I spoke to them again tonight as I was getting intermittent connectivity and dial-up speeds. After wasting lots of time resetting equipment and blaming my computer they eventually admitted there is still a network issue that could take up to 72 hours to fix. They have credited by bill for yeaterday, today and the next three days because of the problem.