Minitoots

She certainly encourages their creativity, having home schooled them all for some time!! However, like many other people who want to get the most out of life, she does not want to spend all her time with other Mums and children who only spend their time mixing with other Mums and children!! How dull. There are other people out there who do not have children or even if they do, also have other interests who may have an hour or so a week to do and think about things NOT related to children. Any other more relevant suggestions gratefully received!!

Hi Emily, I've got some jewellery bits and pieces (earring bases etc) and beads and will be in touch as soon as I've sorted them out.What date do you leave?

My lovely friend who is a textile designer and artist moved from London to Milton Keynes with her husband and 3 children a while ago and is finding it hard to meet like-minded creative people. Does anyone have any friends who fit the bill who live in or near MK?

thanks - is it safe?

My son got a macbook pro via the Apple store student discount department and also got a great deal on the Adobe suite at the same time but has since realised it did not include 'Word' for mac on it. He doesn't really need the rest of the 'Office' bundle which starts at ?59.99 from microsoft such as Excel, Powerpoint etc. Has anyone found somewhere to get 'Word' without having to pay for the rest?

thanks. Marmalade is fine for short term insurance but we found that one for all of us works out cheaper pro rata - it's called 'Drive Smart' and you have to get a tracker/black box thing fitted.

We're about to take out a new car insurance policy and want to add our son as a learner driver only - my partner will be taking him out for practice lessons but once he passes, we will take him off the policy as he would not be driving the car after that. The policy would also have to include me - has anyone been in a similar situation and found reasonably priced policies? I'm about to trawl through all the comparison websites but thought it would be good to see if anyone has done it recently... thanks

Hi Hillstop yes thanks, I did all that last time - our kilowatt hours are very high. The main complication for us is that we were put on British gas business instead of residential when the flat was converted, which has caused no end of complications in trying to switch in the normal way which works for everyone else and tha's why I'm trying to get recommends to approach directly as switching sites can't cope with the fact we are on a business tarrif but are now able to switch to residential.

thanks also for the message about Ovo, RenF - do you have both gas and electicity with them? I'll check them out. Keep any other recommends coming too thanks!

I certainly know uswitch.com - went through the whole long winded process via their website a few months ago, switched to another provider and phoned them to discuss it too, and waited for confirmation which they said could take up to 6 weeks - when I hadn't heard after 6 weeks, I called to check and they had mislaid my details and had no record of the switch. That's why I want to go direct this time.

Our gas bills are massive and once again, I'm about to do a utilities comparison for either just gas or both gas and electricity combined but before I start, I wondered if anyone has swapped recently and found a good /relatively cheap option? We are with 'British gas' at the moment on their highest tariff (it's a long boring story...)

These bees arrive in all weathers every year so don't think it's sunlight reflecting on window. My neighbour just told me she hears them buzzing outside her place each morning but they don't come in to hers, so I'm wondering if there is a next somewhere on Northross road??

We live just off Lordship lane / Northcross road and keep getting bumble bees coming into our flat despite having all windows closed.This has happened occasionally each summer for several years but this week, we've had 3 bees so far! I've managed to catch them and let them out of the window safely but am very concerned that my cats could catch and try to eat one when we are not around. We live in an open plan flat and I'm wondering if they are getting in from the roof or attic (which is also part open to the main space). There are no signs of nests anywhere (or holes they could get through from outside, either. I've been in touch with 2 local urban beekeepers who aren't sure why we get them each year. Has anyone else in the area had bees coming in? Any ideas of how to deter them from coming in again? In past years the bees looked quite dark in colour to my untrained eye but this year they look more yellow and black striped (and big and round!!) ...thanks for any advice you can give,

I'm going to Nice for a weeks holiday at short notice from Sat 29th March-5th April and want to rent either a studio or 1 bed apartment in a convenient area for the museums, etc. there are quite a few available on various holiday rental websites, but I thought I'd just check here too, in case anyone has one!! Or if not, any good suggestions of where to stay? It will be for one person, possibly 2 and must have wifi and be in the lower price range, and that's about it.

There are already so many ads on the forum, I'd have thought it's easier for people to only browse through ones that are actually available rather than also have to look at lots of things that have already sold- I was just trying to unclog the forum....

I've recently sold a few items on the forum and have tried to delete the post, but can only seem to edit the title to say 'sold'. Am I missing something?

My son also used to love reading comics when he was in the early years of primary school, and his teachers said it was better than not reading at all! We're selling my son's Beano and Dandy annuals from 1998 - 2004- ?1 each or 6 for ?5, and also have lots of Beano, Dandy and Simpsons comics at 20p each or 6 for ?1, if anyone is interested....

We went along tonight - great! Very good selection of wines and lovely decor. Lots of wine tastings coming up. Definitely worth visiting.

Thanks Annette. WE have done lots of the maths already, ??? and realise how many different options there are - all garages/dealers having lots of different rates depending on what deposit you put down etc. We don't have much to put down as a deposit so really, we'd need to be borrowing the whole amount and so are trying to work out the best place to get a loan from car finance, regular loans, putting it on our mortgage, 0% interest credit card (til that runs out) etc so it's still good to have suggestions from people who have done this recently.

Any suggestions yet?

We've got a lovely 3 bed apartment which we are unable to use over the Christmas week and are trying to rent it out just to cover our costs- does anyone have any suggestions (other than the obvious!!) as to where we can advertise it? Maybe places in or near Devon? More info about it here: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?25,1228898,1228898#msg-1228898

Thanks for the helpful info, everyone. You asked whether we were bothered about the car looking cool or not- my partner's quite keen but I'm not bothered as I'm cool enough myself. (Only joking- seriously, I'm more concerned with the finances and how much it will cost to buy/run rather than the look of it.)

Lots of helpful advice, thanks and yes, townley green we'd also looked a bt at Mazda 3 (had mazdas in the past which were very reliable) and ford focus so any more feedback on those models would also be good.

thanks, numbers - will check out that one too!

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