alieh

We went to Katschberg in Austria, which I highly recommend! There is a nice very family friendly hotel where you can walk on and off the slopes called Hotel Cristallo. There is a free nursery too. Amazing pools and saunas! All food included with an incredible buffet, very high quality food. We went at Easter and were pretty lucky with the snow, but it would definitely have been better earlier in the season. We have 3 children too and the room set up was perfect. I think the nursery only takes over 3s, but we paid for a 1:1 nanny for a few mornings to stay with our youngest.

Big recommendation for Mark from me too! He came on very short notice (twice!) and quickly diagnosed and solved the problem with our boiler. He also took time while here to bleed all our rads and re-balance the system and it is working better than it ever has. Thanks Mark!

Gazelle Electrical did a lovely job of our garden lighting scheme. http://gazelleelectrical.co.uk/

I've used QuickPrint on Maxted road before for basic copying and printing, but you'd have to check if they do binding. http://quick-print.org.uk/contact-us/

I'd like to add a recommendation for Ben, who did a great job on touching up painting in our house. He worked very independently and covered our whole house, touching up walls and woodwork. He is also lovely to have around and very pleasant!

I second the recommendation for Jessica Meek! She did a great job on our modular sofa.

I'd like to add to the recommendation for Chris. He is brilliant. He has cleaned our windows at least 3 times now, including after a very messy and very long period of building works. He is a pleasure to have around!

I highly recommend Miranda (Forum name: Inthepink) who helped us out twice on short notice with a huge amount of gardening and planting. She works so hard, knows a lot about plants, and is very committed to doing a great job. She has a network of other gardeners and landscapers, and she knows about design herself too. Her number is 07914 425 378 or PM her on Inthepink.

We have 3-4 tonne bags of soil and mulch that we need shifted from the road to the back garden on Friday this week. Our house is on a hill so each trip involves quite a few steps. As well as some general digging, and other simple work. Basically need 2-3 people with muscles and energy! Happy to pay a decent hourly rate. Hours ideally from around 8/9-2:30 this Friday. PM me if you can help! We're in SE23 near the Horniman Museum. WE'VE NOW FOUND PEOPLE TO HELP THIS TIME - THANKS FOR ALL THE INTEREST!

I just added a recommendation for Fernando Pinto to the Forum. He has lots of recommendations, as you'll see from the thread.

Just to add to the recommendation for Fernando! This is the second time he has worked for us and he is great. He showed up exactly on time, worked hard all day, and did a great job. He did a very tough patch of weeding for us (a very steep clay slope that hadn't been weeded since last summer) and cleaned all of our paving stones very well. He fit us in very quickly after getting in touch with him. Highly recommended!

We have a nanny who is beyond brilliant - we found her through Simply Childcare 3 years ago. Her sister is also a nanny and she is actually looking for a new role - I can't remember the exact timing but if you PM me your email address I could ask her to send you her CV if it sounds like the timing may work out.

Another recommendation here after they did a lovely job on our stair carpets, for what felt like a fair price.

We've booked a sort of Kinderhotel type place. Hotel Cristal in Katschberg, Austria. I booked EasyJet flights the day they released them plus got a good deal on the hotel. It is still way more than I would usually pay for a holiday but about 1/3 the price of any of the package places I checked or catered chalets. No ski school or ski hire included but the hotel does have free childcare for over 3s (plus pool, soft play, etc). Hotel is full board in this case. Haven't gone yet so can't tell you if good!

The skating rink at Streatham Leisure Centre is huge and way cheaper than the other Christmassy places, but not particularly festive I guess!

Does anyone know if the Peckham Adventure Playground is open tomorrow? It usually is in half term? Notwithstanding the other thread about potential closures of the adventure playground down the line!

My 7 year old just got Hot Wires for his birthday and it is brilliant. He needed help from my Dad to get started, but I think an 8 year old would be able to follow the directions to build different models/experiments once they'd been show the basics.

Fairlawn is Saturday December 5th from 12-3. Come one come all!

Not sure if this counts as a "team" but Football Magic run classes in Dulwich Village that are great. There is also a team for this age group that practices in Honor Oak but I can't think of the name at the moment.

Mine have never needed the total amounts the books say - at 21 months, I'd say she needs 12-12.5 in 24 hours. Unlike my sons, she seems to do better with an earlier nap. If I wake her up by 1:30, she'll still go to sleep by 7:15 or 7:30. I try to put her down around 11:30 or 12:00.

I would always recommend going south or east rather than west - the jet lag going to Mexico or the Caribbean can be brutal for very young ones! Might just be because mine aren't great sleepers, but I always find that the first week is pretty horrible with them waking up at 3 am for the day, which isn't really what you want on a holiday!

Steve sorted out a long standing problem with our washing machine within a few hours of my calling him. He even had a pump on hand to replace straight away. So grateful as I have a mountain of washing to do before we go on holiday!

Can anyone recommend a bartender for a private house party in SE23 on Sat July 4th? Thank you!

I have 3 but also have a nanny we kept on throughout so don't have as many war stories this time (except for the weekends or when my husband was away....shudder). But in general, the only way I survived was having newborn permanently in a sling. My older ones get up early so we had lots of time in the mornings. I would make sure they were ready by 8:00 or so, dressed and fed and then let them watch TV while I forcefed baby before school run and then sling. Also not averse to feeding pretty much anywhere! Also just had to ignore crying sometimes, but it was much less of a problem if she was in the sling. My #3 was a fairly settled baby (though didn't sleep), which makes a huge difference. #2 was a crier and it was hell. The sleep is too shocking for words. My youngest is nearly 18 months and I'm only just sort of starting to recover! Good luck! The really tough phase passes quickly! It was the fussy evenings that were a killer. I'd gotten so used to mentally checking out and drinking wine by 7:30 pm on the dot!