Polmoche

We used Tudor Touch - they are a family business based in Charlton. https://tudor-blinds.co.uk/ Recommending them for amazing customer service - one set of shutters they first installed was not right. It wasn't terrible, and my OH was certainly prepared to live with it, but the owner came and inspected it, apologised, ordered a new pair, and personally took the old ones down and re-installed himself when the replacements came.

This is my second recommendation (or third - I forget!) for Aaron. He recently plastered a bedroom for us. He is tidy and quick, reasonable and friendly. His plastering is a very high standard - I know this having suffered through a bodge job in our kitchen and hall with a building company redoing our kitchen. Highly recommended!

Can highly recommend Floral Evolution - she's not got a shop, but you can contact her through her web site. Very reasonable and lovely bouquets - bought some wreaths from her and she does flowers for a local cafe. http://www.floral-evolution.com/ You can also see her stuff at her instagram: https://www.instagram.com/floralevolution/.

I'm quite shocked by the negative feedback on Puccini Kitchens. We bought a kitchen from them in 2016 and had some snagging issues at the end (door arrived damage for one and due to our crooked floor, had to get new plinths), I've never had any trouble raising Andrew and his colleague Michael. They got everything sorted promptly with no quibble - if anything any delay was caused by me not answering them quickly enough. I also shopped around for ages for a kitchen - looking at everything from Ikea (we were thinking of buying the carcasses with fancier doors put on), Howdens (as pushed by our original builders), a German brand sold through KDCUK (who I can also recommend, but in the end was too expensive for us!), and the Dulwich branch of Intoto (ok, but didn't find a kitchen we loved). We found Puccini's Italian kitchens keenly priced and very good value for the quality you get - Howdens was more expensive (ok, we could have been one of those mugs Howdens thinks will pay thousands) but, all that said, found Puccini good quality, great design and great follow up service.

Another thumbs up for Paine + Hunter - took my kids back after first visit last year and again, impressed with their friendliness and thoroughness. We had a different doctor from the one we had the first visit - but equally great rapport with children. Highly recommend!

We've used Aaron who's highly recommended on this Forum (just do a search and you will see!). I second all his recommendations. We used him to plaster a bedroom and our living room. The finish on his jobs are excellent - so good that our decorator commented on it. He's also a nice guy and is very neat/tidy. Having had a terrible experience recently with plastering (part of a big job that was quoted together with all the other works ) that needed to be re-skimmed because the walls were literally wavy, my recommendation comes from now being able to understand just how outstanding his work is.

Hi there: Our garden is in a bit of state and I need someone to hack it back and tidy it up. I need a proper gardener though and not just someone who can clear it! There are fruit trees and beautiful plants and flowers that need pruning etc, but I have no idea what to do with them. Please PM me if you are that gardener!

Just wanted to add my recommendation for Paine + Hunter and in particular Dr. Charles (forgotten his surname!) He's excellent with children and put my 9 year old daughter at ease. My 9 yo had been given an earlier diagnosis of glasses by another optician - but I wanted a second opinion after she had a terrible experience with the first eye dr. It turned out she'd simply got so flustered at the first eye dr. (who was shouting at her when she began crying) she'd completely messed up on reading the letters and was prescribed glasses that would have actually made her eyesight blurry! So, a hearty recommendation for Paine + Hunter and for Dr. Charles!

It;s all relative of course, what is good value for money for some will be expensive to others. It's just a shame that so many science, coding courses are beyond the reach of most normal people - especially if you have more than one. I was looking into some coding courses and found one that was 500 pounds a week.

Ugh why are these camps all so expensive!

My neighbours are blasting out music in their garden - really loud obnoxious rap music. I've got work and my kids can't get to sleep! Is it too early to complain??? It is a Sunday night!!!

Another recommendation for Billy Hunter and his brother Scott at Hunter heating solutions - they moved and replaced our boiler and installed new radiators throughout. They were professional, tidy and totally reliable. Would not hesitate to recommend again.

Another recommendation for Billy Hunter and his brother Scott at Hunter heating solutions - they moved and replaced our boiler and installed new radiators throughout. They were professional, tidy and totally reliable. Would not hesitate to recommend again.

Hi all - I work with Peak (www.peak.net), a mobile brain training app. We're looking for Danish or Norwegian native speakers to test the app (that we've localised to Danish and Norwegian). Basically, you'd pop into the office located near Chancery Lane / Farringdon, play on it, and get paid in Amazon vouchers. It's roughly been taking about 2 hours for ?30 in vouchers. PM me if you're interested! thanks!

Rick and this time Dean his partner came out to sort another plumbing problem (this time corroded old pipes that needed replacing). Just wanted to recommend them AGAIN after having used them earlier this year. Found them friendly, able to quickly assess the problem and get the job done at a decent price. Also wanted to add that they are very trustworthy. I overpaid them due to fat finger typing and they sent the money back immediately after I called them in a panic. Thank you Rick and Dean!

Another recommendation for Rick - he came over in very short notice to fix a leaking sink, a leaking toilet (the toilet was a repair of a previous plumber's botch job) and a second toilet that was making a horrific noise on flushing. He clearly diagnosed the problems, told us how he'd fix it, got on with it, and repaired it all to high standard at a reasonable price. He's also a pleasant person to have in the house. Highly recommend and thank you Rick!

Thank you Redmeghan - we really like the look of them. Have they held up well? I suppose you could always easily replace things that get broken.

Hi Redmeghan--they look great! Can I ask roughly how much the shipping was? thx!

A two wheeler is tricker to balance, but if your child is coordinated they catch on quickly and never look back. Mine had a micro sprite 2 wheeler at 4. She's now on a Town 3 from decathalon. I will say this about Decathalon--no problem at all buying spares at reasonable prices - including wheels and brakes!

Thank you all. I complained and the environmental officer actually came out and must have said something. It stopped. And when the "coast was clear" they built another one!

Have a neighbour who is doing building works. Workers for the fifth straight day in a row has decided to set up a fire in an old steel drum container burning whatever is at hand (I think to keep warm). The smoke though is really annoying! Would you complain to the owners? I don't think bofires are illegal per se...is this just one of those annoying London things you have to live with?

Hi thanks for all the responses. Believe me I am familiar with the numerous "resources" out there as well as all the "enrichment" activities one should be doing. What I find difficult is aligning these resources to what they do in school. As a working parent it's not always easy to get into school to ask the teacher, and when I was thinking back to my own school days, I remembered we had text books that you could easily see what children were up to.

Yes, they do, but usually it's soooo general. I do wish our school did spelling...I know there is a raging argument about learning in context vs memorising words. But my dd's spelling is truly atrocious and I feel like I am always searching the internet on how to support her. As a child, I remember having a spelling book (how old does that make me! :-)) and the words were always grouped in context and used in a short reading passage and each week we would have a spelling test...Sometimes I feel like I should just homeschool!

Jessie is your son at a private? I have never seen any primary textbooks ever and it struck me that as a child I had maths, spelling, english, science and a "social studies" (history) textbooks in primary school.

Hi there: I did not grow up in the UK and now as my children progress through primary school I wonder why it is they don't get textbooks? I feel it's very difficult to ever know what they're doing and how even to help them when it seems they only ever just get hand outs. Does anyone know if they used to have textbooks in the UK and they just did away with them until secondary?