Carrie

In answer to LadyDeliah The Goose Green festival is organised by unpaid volunteers and sponsored by local businesses

Wonder if she was the same person who allowed their dog to crap right outside my front gate on Oglander Road this morning - definitely a dog and not a fox!

Hi Drive down to Shipbourne in Kent , park on the common - do a lovely circular walk from Shipbourne Church to Ightham Mote - can pop in and have a look round there if you have time - then back to Shipbourne for lunch at the Chaser Inn. The walk itself is probably only a couple of hours but can be padded out with a visit to Ightham Mote which is lovely. Alternatively - drive to Toys Hill near Westerham - lots of lovely circular walks around there of differing lengths - the one I normally do is about 7 miles - and a lovely pub for lunch at the end of it - the Fox and Hounds. The website www.walkingworld.com is great for walks - you can find a walk to do wherever you may be.

One other tip - if you get a single room in hospital (don't know whether they still do this for twin mums in kings but they did when I had mine) then rearrange the furniture and push the bed up against the wall - you have a much better chance of getting feeding established if you are not concerned that the babies will fall out either side - some of the staff will probably complain but stick to your guns I was in hospital for about 10 days after the birth due to blood pressure problems and it did take a few days to get feeding established but with the help of Claire Kedves (who was their breast feeding guru and I think is still there) and one wonderful midwife who just took the time to sit with me one night until I got the hang of it - I came out of hospital a reasonably confident breast feeder.

Hi Congratulations on having twins. My experience was some time ago (my girls are 18 next month) but I normally used to feed my two at the same time during the day - one tucked under each arm.The way I did it I sat in the corner of the settee with a couple of very firm pillows stood on their side each side of me with one of those v-shaped pillows on the top to provide a "platform" at boob level for the babies. I had a drink, phone snack remote control etc on the arm of the settee so I could reach them easily and a pile of cushions on the other side. The twin who seemed the least desperate would be put on the pile of cushions then I would get myself sorted out with the squalling baby. When that one was safely latched on and calm again I could manage to scoop the other one up one handed from the pile of cushions by my side and get her latched on. Sounds like a lot of palaver but it really worked for me. Although there is no way of doing this disceetly and you can't really take all the cushions etc with you if you are going out!! I did try expressing but quickly came to the conclusion that it was a step too far for me - so if I could not feed them at any time they had formula. I do remember that when they were about 6 weeks old i went through a period when I appeared to be feeding constantly and was getting very depressed by it - a "helpful" health visitor said I was obviously not producing enough milk so should start bottle feeding them. Luckily I ignored her as turned out that babies tend to have a bit of a growth spurt around this time and laws of supply and demand mean that the babies have to demand first before your supply increases - a few days later things were back to normal (although I had gone up another bra size!) I have to say breast feeding twins (although quite hard and tiring to begin with ) is magical - I will never forget the moment when one of them first noticed that the other one was there. If you have not already done so get in contact with the Dulwich and District twins club - you should find their contact details if you google them.

gm99 wrote "It will be interesting to see how this changes over time, e.g. if people have decided not to pay for permits because they reckon they can simply park a bit further away, or haven't yet got round to buying one." So - not necessarily commuters!!

Fazer - I said 77% were EITHER against OR could not be bothered to respond - I made absolutely no assumption whether those in the cohort who did not respond were either for or against - I would imagine there would be a mix of opinion in that band of people, some for, some against, some who simply could not make up their mind!

Adam It really is not ridiculous to suggest that people within a cpz would choose not to pay. The figures for Derwent Grove show that there are 82 properties which were consulted. Only 31 forms were returned - a response rate of only 38%. Of those returned 19 were in favour of the CPZ and 12 were against. That means that only 23% of the residents of Derwent Grove are in favour of a CPZ - the rest (77%) are either against is or could not be bothered to respond. It is not ridiculous to suppose that some of those who voted against or did not respond are not willing to pay ?125 for the privilege of parking on the road on which their propery is located and would rather park on a neighbouring road for free!

James - The council are not covered by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 but if, in selling freeholds, they abide by the spirit of the act then they would require over 50% of leaseholders to agree to the freehold purchase. Therefore, in a street property converted into 2 flats which are both owned privately both lessees would need to agree to purchase the freehold. If converted into 3 flats, all owned privately, then freehold purchase could go ahead with 2 out of 3 agreeing to it. In either scenario, if one flat is still owned by the council then the freehold purchase could not go ahead.

Give all your work colleagues a tube of smarties and ask them to put all their 20pence coins in them once they have eaten their sweets- 20p coins fit snugly into the tubes - can't rememeber exactly how much each tube holds but I raised quite a lot of money that way - also did cake sales on a weekly basis - but I agree with Loz that Justgiving is your friend - just make sure you send a personal e-mail to thank the people who have donated rather than just relying on the automated response.

Even with a one hour experimental CPZ arrangement the residents in the streets surrounding the one or two street experimental zone are going to be adversely affected. For example - a resident on Tintagel may well baulk at the cost of paying ?125 for a permit when he can easily park just round the corner on Elsie Road for free. However, if that resident works normal business hours, commutes by public transport, and normally only uses his car at weekends then, in order to avoid a ticket during the experimental one hour CPZ Monday to Friday, he is likely to park his car on Elsie Road on a Sunday and move it again the following Friday eve/Saturday morning. This means that a parking space in Elsie Road would be "taken up" for 5 full days for the sake of 5 hours controlled parking time. Surely the best solution would be to "tidy up" the roads by removing lines and unused bays as proposed in Option 2 (although not quite sure why this has not been done already) and make Tintagel a one way street with no entry from Grove Vale, which should deter some of the opportunistic shopper/charity shop drop off parking.

James, Please could you ask the relevant parties to come and have another look at the drainage issues that have arisen following the pavement works carried out when the new crossing was installed on Grove Vale. A small rainwater lake has formed where the pavement dips down in the middle, right by the crossing, and whilst a drain has been installed this is not at the lowest point and therefore is fairly useless. We have been lucky so far that temperatures have remained above freezing but if it does get cold this could be a real hazard. Thanks

My firm have done so in the past and so have other people - don't think there is a problem with it - when we did it I put it in the business section as seemed most appropriate.

Hi Irish Dancer I have tried sending you a pm but does not look like you have opened it so am hoping you may read this message, or maybe someone who knows you will read it and pass the message on. Could you return the baking tins to me soon please. Thanks Carrie

I think the intention is that the cyclists continue to ride over the pavement between Oglander Road and Grove Vale - the railings have been removed which would facilitate this and a small blue pedestrian and cyclist sign has been erected.

James Barber Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > . > > Hi Freddy1929, > The extra crossing on Lordship Lane. The rasied > entry treatment across the mouth of East Dulwich > Grove where it meets Lordship Lane has been > completed. The two crossing will be installed > starting in January. I asked that they only be > installed outside the Christmas period as we don't > want to harm trade or distract traders with road > workers at Xmas. The works will take from 6 > January until mid March BUT most of that time will > work wont be onsite but the elapsed time will be > 10 weeks - concrete curing etc. Also, big > depedency on TfL contractors to install the Puffin > lights. > >

I will check at lunchtime whether they are easily accessible and will pm you my number.

I have a 5 and a 0 baking tin - they are packed away in the cellar at the moment but I should be able to lay my hands on them quite quickly. Let me know if you still need them.

Of course there will be edge concentration - the roads surrounding the CPZ will have additional parking pressure put on them by those living within the CPZ who do not want to pay ?125 a year when they can park a short walk away for free!

Actually the fact that you can park at weekends does not necessarily mean it is a commuter problem. For example during the week I walk to work and my husband cycles - therefore our car remains taking up a parking space on the road during working hours. At weekends we tend to go out in the car thus freeing up a parking space. And no - there is no proposed trial period once they bring in the CPZ you have got it for good whether it works or not!

Actually Huguenot I think most people posting on here who are against the zone are people who live just outside the zone on the adjoining streets - they are not people who take advantage of these streets for their own convenience - I certainly would never consider driving from Oglander Road to park on Melbourne Grove if I was going to the station - I would walk as it would be much quicker! I don't think a tight time period will give the people who live in the streets within the CPZ much relief. Whilst undoubtedly there are some commuters who park in those streets (and in my street) a very large number of them will be people parking during the day for short periods - dropping kids off at school, visiting the doctors, hairdressers, ice cream parlour or exercise studio on Melbourne Grove or the shops on Grove Vale. If a tight time period is introduced those people will just change the time of their visit. As long as Dairymilkfiend and others within the CPZ want to time all their excursions so they return home to park within the allotted 2 hour slot they will be OK - if on the other hand they return earlier or later I think they will find they have the same problem parking as they ever did.

As someone living at the Grove Vale on Oglander Road one of my main objections to the proposed CPZ is the likelihood that there will be a sizeable number of car owners within the CPZ who don't want to pay for the privilege of parking on their own road (supported by the council's own figures) and will therefore park on neighbouring non-CPZ roads, with our road being one of the prime targets. In fact James Barber in an earlier post appeared to actively suggest this as a way of not having to pay the ?125. This will lead to the ludicrous situation of there being empty spaces on the roads within the CPZ but an increase of parking stress on the streets immediately adjacent to the CPZ, not through any influx of commuters but from those who do not want to pay for a permit.

Might be worth trying the fabic shop on Blenheim grove next to Peckham Rye station- they might have some.

It might be connected to the flight but it can also be one of the first symptoms of pre-eclampsia - I would not wait until you get home to get it checked out.

She is not claiming that she is advertising manicures and waxing for someone else - what she is saying is that THIS post is not about her. Don't forget that not everyone on the forum has English as their first language!