pearl1

thank you. I love the wall on Crawthew - it cheers me up every time I go past it. There's also some art i look out for on the train into london bridge. It's on the side of an old factory in peckham and it's a bit 'bikerish' with crows and stuff. Anyone know anything more about that?

Is there a definitive list of where these paintings are? I'd like to see them all and try to match them to the gallery paintings myself! Also can anyone recommend any other noticeable/memorable street art or murals I could see in dulwich...

When I applied for secondary school place (10 years ago) I was corrrected by the admissions person at Southwark. I was told parents don't have 'choice' they have 'preference' - small detail but it is one that is overlooked by most people. It's about time for change. We didn't get into charter despite the fact that it is only a 15 min walk from our house - instead we got sent to Harris Girls (then Waverly). In retrospect it worked out really well BUT it is a 40 minute walk. The same thing happened before that with primary - we never got a place at Dog Kennel Hill (we live on the St Francis Develeopment)but we did get a place at Heber - again a fine school but a 30 minute walk for a five year old? that was tough for a while! The reason I felt cheated by not getting a Charter place at the time, was because the council (or whoever) had recently put up wooden plaques all over Greendale and the surrounding area, stating it was a safe walking route. Charter ignored that. When we appealed we were told by the appeals board to try and improve the school we had been offered by joing the PTA and haveing jumble sales! Not exactly the point we were appealing on...

Please don't be mean about Harris Girl's by suggesting they teach hairdressing - they don't! What they do, is (same as most secondary schools) offer vocational training through local authority colleges to students unlikey to achieve 5 or more A*-C grades at GCSE. These courses vary from year to year depending on what is available from the local college, and involve some level of choice from the student. This seems like a good thing to me?

Can anyone tell me if the proposal for building flats on the DHFC car park still ongoing?

This might be a dozy question to a lot of people but I need to phone someone on their mobile in Africa and was wondering (a) Can I buy one of these phonecards anywhere and (b) would I need a particular kind of card? Thanks

....DHFC were definitely using the car park today. There was an event on and the car park was full... Also. I don't think the parking from the 5 a side is a massive problem right now BUT with 60 extra homes on that corner, and no parking for the football club or gymn, there definitely would be a problem.

For the 11 years that my kids went to Heber, the lopllipop people were only there during the private school term times. The rest of the time we had to cross by ourselves! That may well have changed in the last couple of years though

I went to a meeting at DHFC several years ago when they were planning to build a Homebase. We were informed by the architects(?)that it was not possible to build more housing in the immediate area as there would be a problem with water supply and pressure, that having more residences would overload the system. I don't know how true that is but it is certainly what we were told by DHFC and their representatives. The main objection would have to be the parking. They most certainly do use their car park and the surrounding roads have extremely limited parking due to both the narrowness of the orads and the fact that every house has a driveway. We also suffer severe congestion at times because of the weight of traffic going into Sainsbury's. Indeed, when the Sainsbury refit was put into place a couple of eas back, the entrance was redesigned with a roundabout, specifically to ease the problemn of access to the St Francis Estate.

No.

If it was just about keeping the bus lane free, then seeing the warden there would be enough to keep people from parking - he could just move people along or warn them they are due a fine for parking there and point out parking restricitions (which are not always clear whatever anyone says!). It is obviously about revenue as they fine rather than explain/give warning.

Chick, I agree with you. This thread is sick.

His expression suggests he's heard about the World Cup 2018...

Like CharlieCharlie, I live on a development of homes that have no front gardens. Our house, whilst accommodating four adults, is very small! Fortunately we are not part of this scheme because we would have to leave all the bins in the street, including the food waste caddy as I wouldn't really want the caddy full of food waste in my tiny,tiny kitchen for a week. If this scheme eventually runs across the borough, it could be difficule for some of us, or unfair on those who do not have to join it. Just thoughts - not definitely against the proposal...

Yep. Second that. The first mention of class was from Elderflower. Like it or not, the WI isa middle class institution. As said previously, I come from a working class background (Kingsmead Estate, Hackney) and there was no WI where I grew up, nor mention or suggestion of it. The WI is fine! Great even! but stop wittering on about it in terms of class structure and trying to make out that only in East Dulwich is the WI middle class...

White working class with middle class pretensions here....(hence living in ED) I just don't understand how anyone can get upset about the WI not being radical enough? I'm quite partial to a bit of bunting and have made my own so I'm not knocking the WI but if I wanted current affairs and action, the WI would not be my first port of call. Why the complaining? It is what it is. I can't see what difference it makes what you are sewing or knitting - unless it's going off to support people with need - what advantage does knitting dolls have over bunting?

definitely screens.

I was really testing the waters here to see if my feelings on the matter were out of order! I do agree with Smiler: she needs to be more assertive. She's great with the kids - it's the parents she needs to learn how to deal with. I'm off to tell her it's not just me who thinks so........wish me luck!

Unfortunately, that wasn't the only job I was cross about. She does a nannying job two days a week after school and they are really stingy too! She collects the children from school entertains them, walks the dog (and cleans up it's poo!) and sometimes (not always) cooks tea. It's 3 hours at ?5 an hour but the parents often come home early and so she gets dismissed early but her pay is docked accordingly. Sometimes she does all the above for just a fiver! Not only that but they overpaid her two weeks ago as they only had a ?20 note. This week they docked the extra ?5 off her wages. I think they are really mean - I would have let it go considering all the times she has been sent home with just a fiver...

It's actually not the first time that has happened! but at least the last time the father/husband walked her home, they lived in East Dulwich so it was only a 15 minute walk. She just didn't have enough confidence to say 'no thanks' to the person who was paying her and she din't want to lose future jobs....

Could someone please tell me if I am being unreasonable here...I'm getting increasingly peed off with some of the babystiing jobs my daughter has taken on recently. She has been babysitting for some time, has a good reputation so is quite popular but I think she takes too much rubbish from her clients. Of course I'm only mum so my opinions don;t count!' Yesterday we were called at short notice by a friend of a friend (who she hasn't sat for previously) who wanted a sitter for that night. I explained that she has A levels next week so she didn't really want to be out much this weekend but was assured they would be back by 11 o'clock and would give her a lift home. Of course they didn't get back till 11.30 and then the husband (who my daughter has never met before) walked her home from Herne Hill to East Dulwich! She didn't get home 'til midnight and was really tired. All this for ?5.00 an hour. These people have a much more glamorous(?) lifestyle than we do (large house in Herne Hill vs council house in E.Dulwich) and I son't doubt they pay more for a bottle of wine than they pay my daughter to look after their most treasured possessions. Am I wrong to expect a lift home, or a taxi if they have drunk too much to drive?? Especially having failed to return when they promised. Am I the only one who thinks these are cheap people?? Tell me if I'm out of order!

Isn't the issue here, not so much with the child - often children in inner city schools have problems with behaviour, or indeed other issues, but with the lack of support for teachers from the headteacher of the school and the local education authority?

14 years and counting...it's very nice here in burrow Road....

I was part of a squatter community in the 80/90's. We never occupied a property if that meant it would be stopping someone for using it, our homes were always abandoned/derelict. We never left a property in a worse condition than we found it and often made considerable repairs/improvements to our living space, and we always moved on when the property was reclaimed by the owners. Welcome to the GooseGreenTeam.....

Life during wartime - talking heads