Minitoots

thanks for your helpful message, Anapau. We were also planning to look at Haberdashers so I'd be interested to hear a bit more about that school too - send me a PM if you prefer...

Our son is going into 6th form next year and we're looking at lots of schools. We saw Graveney a couple of days ago and really liked what we saw - good courses in art/DT/ drama etc which are the main subjects he's interested in. As we've only seen it on an open evening (not a regular school day) we wondered if any pupils/parents/teachers can give us any more feedback on it?? Thanks!

Our SkyPlus box has finally conked out and we're wondering if there are any other comparable options - what's the virgin TV version like? We don't really need the phone line broadband options they also offer. We got Sky for the football /sport channels but don't know much about Virgin or any other similar options - any recommendations would be great! thanks

We're thinking of going to Lithuania for our summer holidays as we have a friend living there who could show us around. Has anyone been? We like going to untouristy places a bit off the beaten track, and are on a fairly tight budget!! Any travel tips or recommendations of where to stay would be great, thanks.B)

thanks for your help, cassidy. I've just sent you a PM

My 14 yr old son has been trying to return his X-box to microsoft to be replaced as it has 'the red ring of death' but he's having no luck getting it sorted online and the phone line is all automated. If anyone has had the same problem and can give him an idea of how to proceed that would be great! I've also gone through the procedure online and by phone and haven't been able to get through. thanks in advance for any help!

update - I just bought an i-mac from apple and got a student discount of over ?120 even though I'm only doing an evening class at an adult education institute (the course actually cost me less than the apple discount)so if anyone else is doing an evening or p/t time course, you can also get a student discount. Apple are also doing a ?70 cashback on selected wirelesss printer/scanners when you buy a new computer so I got one for ?19 too. So thanks again for all the helpful advice and as for Matty's comment, well yes I am too lazy/computer illiterate but at least I'm a bit more cheerful than you sound! Signing off from this thread now. Mindy

thanks for all the helpful advice so far1 (And sorry Miss M, you can't convert me to PC at any price!!)

I have a very old iMac which still works ok but is nearly 8 years old, is very slow, and is version 10.3.9. I need to get a new or newer reconditioned one. I don?t need/can't afford the newest swankiest model, and am on a pretty tight budget as I?ll be getting it on a credit card and can?t afford to pay it off for some time:( I need it mostly for emailing, admin, storing photos etc. I?ve also started to use photoshop and illustrator for work now and would like to be able to do more of that if I had a better computer! Any suggestions of what I should get and where I could get the best value new or reconditioned one? thanks for any advice!

My son has written the following: Hello, my name is Louis, i am a friendly:)), easy going B) and artistic fourteen year old boy looking for a work experience placement in TV or Film production, it will be in the last week of the 28th of June . I am very interested in the creative side of television or film. Can anyone help??

That's a bit strange as the RCA is a post grad college - students must have completed a BA before going through a rigorous selection proceedure!!

Which schools have the best facilities/teaching for 6th formers who want to take A levels in Art and Design Technology? Our son is happy at his current school but the art department seems fairly traditional and doesn't have the best facilities, same with DT. We want to check out all options within a reasonable distance so any recommendations from students, parents or teachers would be great!

thanks - [familydoctor.org is a useful website. He's slowly recovering now and we met someone else who'd also had the pulsating pupils ('hippus') after a bump to the head. Re: Daizie's comments about the NHS - he was seen immediately by both GPs and 2 docs and 2 nurses at casualty and they all gave him very thorough examinations, and we were further reassured by the opthalmologist who would most certainly have told us to come in for a consultation if he'd felt it was neccessary. As 7 medical professionals all felt the situation wasn't serious, I'm happy to accept their judgement. We've always had excellent care from our GPs and Kings and I think we're very fortunate to have such good NHS care in our area. Signing off from this thread now, thanks for all the helpful advice.

thanks everyone so far! Have spoken to an opthalmologist at Kings on the phone who reassured me it's not serious, and as we've now see 2 GPs and also been to A+E and seen 2 doctors there, we'll wait and see if it subsides. If not I'll certainly bear Moorfields in mind. Re: scans - they don't like to give scans unless essential due to dangers of radiation...

My 14 yr old son suffered mild concussion in PE on tuesday morning when he fell and hit the back of his head on the wall. He thinks he was knocked out for a short time. All his symptoms are fairly textbook signs of an injury to the head apart from one - since the accident the pupils in his eyes are contstantly dilating and constricting even though the light is constant. The pupils look like they are 'pulsing' - getting really dilated and then going back to small about 5 times in a minute. They seem to do it at the same time as each other. He's been checked out by several excellent medical professionals - 2 GPs and then because of these strange symptoms the 2nd GP sent us to casualty yesterday where he was seen by 2 docs (but not a consultant) and none of them had seen anything like this before!! I can't anything relevant online about it and wondered if anyone else has had experience of this sort of thing or can suggest what we do next?

For anyone who couldn't get to the meeting on Saturday, I'm a local resident who went along and here's some feedback. Please don't reply to me about this, but send comments to the contacts at Southwark council below:- It sounds as though the electricity board (who own the wall) will ONLY permit decoration of the raised squares on the wall (NOT the whole wall) as they do not want it to be permanent. The person in charge of the proposal is Pippa who is part of the Cleaner Greener Safer Team at southwark council, and who can be contacted at cgs@southwark.gov.uk They had 3 very unimaginative images of ideas for the wall (apologies to the person who produced them!!) : one similar to the 'flower one' on this forum, another spelling out 'northcross road' in gothic letters (no comment neccessary) and a 3rd one with a set of old black and white photos of historic East Dulwich set at perfect height for graffiti artists to decorate. The idea on Saturday was for the public to vote for their favourite one of the 3 (NO!!!!!) or to suggest alternatives for the squares. You could also vote to leave it as it is. As the meeting wasn't very well attended, I think Pippa may try and have another consultation. We reminded her that there are many artists and designers living locally who may want to come up with better ideas, but it sounds like it needs to be sorted very quickly. She also said they will not be taking comments on this website into account in any voting so it's important to email her your views asap!!! We suggested that they hire a stall on Northcross Rd to display all the other suggestions that local residents may come up with. Their budget appears to be up to ?2,500. I've attached the form for comments and also a photo of the wall for anyone who wants to do their own thing to email her - sorry the pic is not very clear! I'm not sure if e-mails count in the voting so here's the address to send completed forms back to Pippa at Southwark Council Cleaner Greener Safer Public Realm projects Team - Pippa Environment and Housing Department Public Realm Division PO BOX 64529 London SE1 5LX cgs@southwark.gov.uk

I'll look into loading bank statements straight into an excel format - I was just thinking that would be a good idea! I spoke to the tax office who just said 'it's up to your individual accountant as to how they do it'!!! Also spoke to my accountant who said because she has always done it in the same (very meticulous) way, the tax office is likely to query it if she now changes to a more basic format. I'm still not convinced! I've gone with it this time but will ask tax office again after it's sorted. It was a good feeling to post it all off to her. Thanks everyone for the useful info! Minitoots.

Hi Trinity, yes I've since spoken to her and that's just what she said too. She said because that's the way she's always done it and submitted it to the tax office, they may query it if she starts doing it in a more simplified way. I need to check that out with them to see if that's right but will probably just go ahead with her way this time... Minitoots

Thanks for the helpful replies so far, everyone!

How detailed do my self employed records need to be? I'm a self employed designer/agent and have used a book keeper to my do my accounts each year, but am trying to do some of the paperwork for her this year to cut costs. I keep hand written spreadsheets with all info of what invoices I've raised, amount, date payment received etc etc and the same info for payments I've made to my designers (as a textile design agent I take a commission on designs I've sold for them). I give the book keeper all this info plus all my bank statements with notes on them of any other purchases etc. She says I also need to copy ALL details of ALL bank statements ont an excel sheet with details of what they were for etc etc. It seems as though she wants it on an excel spreadsheet because she says if I put the opening balance in the 'balance column' when I start the forumula it should tally with the bank statements. As I'm already giving her the statements and spreadsheets with these amounts on, it seems like a waste of time to do it all again? Hope this rambling question makes sense! Does anyone know if its 100% neccessary for me to do all this?

The book that thought was lost in the post finally arrived after about 2 weeks, delivered by someone from the management at the post office delivey office. He said they were ALL out on the post runs trying to catch up with the backlog.

Has anyone found any good Christmas music on spotify? Something a bit different from the usual stuff you hear each year....

I'm still waiting for a large book that was sent by 1st class post on 26th November from a reputable seller, and also an important CD of designs also sent first class over a week ago. My regular postmen are great, as are the guys at the sorting office so no complaints about them, but there's definitely a problem somewhere before it gets to them... I live just off Lordship lane.

We shall be selling handmade felted brooches and original machine knit scarves at the Lodge's Christmas Fete. Brooches from only ?5 - not many left - great stocking fillers! PM me if you'd like a preview at our local studio. See attached pics

This sunday 6th Dec from 11am - 6 free children's percussion , puppet making, family 'play with clay' story telling etc. also free drama, DJ demo etc etc workshops for adults. Over 75 selected artists and craftspeople exhibiting their work see attached flyer or www.morleycollege.ac.uk/winterfair/ Check out adult education courses in Music, Dance, Drama, Visual Arts, Health Studies & Exercise, Humanities, Languages, Access to HE, ESOL and Skills for Life. http://www.morleycollege.ac.uk - not far from SE22! 61 Westminster Bridge Rd, SE1 7HT near Waterloo/Lambeth North/Elephant t 7450 1826