Carrie

This is probably a really stupid question- never having used an oyster card on anything other than a bus - but if the gates are open at London Bridge ( as they often are at evenings and weekends) do you still "tap out" on the pad on the gate when you go through

There was a burst pipe in Oglander Road this morning - could be related to this

You could try the Fox on the Hill - we got a good view from the grassy area in front of the pub on millenium night

I was so messy as a teenager that when I was at university in hall I popped to the bathroom and left my bedroom door open, I was not gone long but found that someone had called security whilst I was gone to report that my room had been burgled because there was stuff everywhere! I was too embarrassed to admit that was how I lived normally so just reassured everyone that nothing had been stolen!! I am now (reasonably) tidy at home but one of my daughters is as bad as I was - the thing that pains me most is the endless recycling of clothes - an item of clothing will come out of the drawer she will then decide not to wear it drop it on the floor eventually tidy up and put it in the washing basket whereupon it is washed and ironed only to go through the same cycle again never having been worn. Her twin sister is tidier but operates the beach system where everything just washes up against the wall to leave the centre of floor clear so that the room looks superficially tidy. I have faith that they will eventually become tidy - if I could anyone can - but my husband tends to think they are both mentally ill!!

It is the gated development opposite Dulwich Park on the South Circular

Wow - so many things you can buy for one-handed living - who would have thought it - thanks PGC. Good suggestion about Help the Aged as well Mogs - I did have a brainwave and phoned Age Concern in Merton this morning and they have given me the numbers for the right people to phone at Merton Council so at least we don't have to waste time trying to get the switchboard to understand what we want.

Thanks for the advice - it is Merton Council - my sister will get onto the older persons team there and do her rottweiler impersonation until she gets somewhere!

I was not really sure which section to put this in but hope some of the medical/social work types on the forum may pick this up and may be able to give some advice. I am at my wits end as to how to get help for my elderly aunt (82 years old). She broke her arm 12 days ago and due to the position of the break it was not possible to set the fracture so her arm is just in a sling. She lives on her own and is in desparate need of assistance as she obviously can only use one hand, she has only managed to change her clothes once since it happened and that took her 3 hours and she is in so much pain that she cannot lie down so is really confined to her chair. When she was released from hospital (Kingston Hospital as she lives in Raynes PArk) they told her if she needed any help then she needed to phone her doctor. When she phoned the doctor she was told they could not help her and she had to phone the council. The council have told her they cannot help her as she is not permanently disabled and told her to phone the hospital. She was supposed to be going back to the fracture clinic today but that has now been cancelled. When I went over to see her the other day and saw that her legs had become really swollen as a result of her not being able to lie down I said she had to get in contact with the doctor immediately. As a result a district nurse came out to see her yesterday but would only look at her legs and would not listen to her when she was asking for help with day to day living and said she wasn't there to deal with that. Does anyone one know who we can contact to try and get some help for her - even simple things like a long handled grabber so she can pick up her post off the floor as she can't bend down due to the pain. Sorry for the long rant but I just can't believe in this day and age that an 82 year old who lives on her own has just been sent home to fend for herself and no-one will accept responsiblity for providing assistance.

Hi You do not need to jog to lose weight - walking will do just fine - I lost loads of weight by walking (and cutting out a few calories of course). You could try Joanna Hall's Walkactive site - www.walkactive.co.uk she runs walking courses but if you join you can get lots of support help and motivation from the site. I have tried jogging in the past but I just did not enjoy it enough to persevere and it wrecked my feet - walking is much kinder to your joints. Another good hill if you want one is to walk down past Dulwich College past the tollgate and then there is a stonker of a hill running up from Sydenham Hill station to the Dulwich Woodhouse pub.

Mark's route (above) is the one we always take - avoids the traffic nightmare of Streatham and is much much quicker than going all the way on the A23.

There is also a mulberry tree by the carpark in Belair Park

It probably is comfort feeding - try switching to a bottle of formula when she wakes in the night then gradually increase the dilution of the formula over time until she is getting just water - this helped with one of mine who kept waking in the night - also if you are feeding her to sleep when you initially put her down try to give her the last feed before she has a bath so she learns to go to sleep on her own and then has the ability to go back to sleep without feeding. I had twins who were both woke at different times during the night for feeds and at one stage I was getting no more than 45 minutes sleep at a time and I was going for the easy option of breast feeding back to sleep to begin with but my health visitor suggested the above method as a way of preserving what little sanity I had left.

I've got my fingers crossed for Candy's Room - he played it the first time I went to see him back in 1981(god that makes me feel old) and then again last year at the Emirates - has to be my all time favourite.

My two are at Charter and I really have no experience of Kingsdale so can't compare and contrast - but one of the main things for me in Charters favour was that it was walkable (althouhg we are on the very edge of the catchment area as it was 4 years ago) - I always wanted them to be able to walk to school - and the best thing is all their friends are within walking distance of school as well which means that it is very easy for them to socialise without the need for a parental taxi service! My two are very different one academic - one more of a social butterfly but they are both doing really well at Charter and are very happy there.

Hi Louisiana I left in 1981 so a few years behind you - Aggie left the year before I started! Challoners is the main reason I did not want my daughters to go to an all girls school - or indeed Habs which had too much of a grammar school smug vibe to it when I went to look round!

Louisiana - you went to the same school as I did! I never knew about Roger Moore

Oh dear - this is exactly the same story that my elderly aunt fell for a few weeks ago - that time it was in Raynes Park - she was rather chuffed to think she had helped someone in distress - I thought at the time it sounded like a scam but she said she would rather pay out to 5 scammers than miss the person who was genuinely in need.

There is a proper decent barbers by Balfes Bikes on East Dulwich Road

Thanks everyone, you have all been terrifically helpful. I think that is as much information as I can cope with at the moment. Mark, I would love to take you up on your offer. I am away for a couple of days but will pm you when I return. Thanks Hal for the pointers.

Just to provide a bit more information. I am the painter wanting to explore the possibility of shooting my own photographic record of each work. I have used a professional photographer for many years who used to take very good 5X4's for me. However, since the advent of digital his work has not been as good in terms of colour/tone. There are some odd anomalies in the images he takes that cannot be rectified in photoshop. His photos have fantastic clarity though, making even the weave of the linen visible in the photos which are taken from 15 feet or so away. My own camera is much better in terms of colour/tone, simply shooting in the studio on a tripod using the daylight balanced strip lights I have in there, but there is not the same clarity in the detail. So I was wondering whether a new lens would make the difference. I am shooting at the highest possible resolution. Thanks Paul (Carrie's husband)

That's all great advice. Many thanks to you all. Some of the paintings are as big as 8/9feet and I have about 25 feet to get back from the painting. Would a 70mm lens get all that in the frame? And a 'slow' lens. Does this mean a lens with a larger aperture giving the option of slower shutter speed? Sorry for such basic ignorance!

I have one of the very popular Canon EOS 350d cameras with the lens that came with it (18-55mm). An excellent camera but I have a specific requirement of it occasionally that it's not so great at. I need to photograph paintings, large and small, and the result is often a softer image on the detail than I want. I need a sharper image. Would a different lens be better for this job and if so what lens should I be looking at? Can anybody give advise on this?(Carrie's husband Paul).

I'm Carrie's husband and had a bad pint of bitter in the Vale a few weeks ago which the landlord was very sniffy about and at first refused to accept there was anything wrong with it. It had a sour taste like it had come through dirty pipes or had been poured into a dirty glass. Eventually he changed it but it took a lot of doing.It was not a good attitude and does not encourage a return visit.

As someone who has interviewed a lot of people I would say at least half will list about 3 or 4 strengths and only 1 weakness - try to come up with at least 2 - (and we get heartily bored of the I'm too much of a perfectionist" line - it is the one everyone uses!)

Are you thinking of Jim Bowen there Tillie?