bonaome

Try the Hotel Praktik Rambla - quiet yet in the thick of it. No breakfast but there's a deal with a cafe next door or lots of places nearby. Look it up on Trip Advisor.

Our daughter screamed her head off for the first three months. Then it suddenly stopped. - investigate all the possible underlying causes, even if it's nothing to do with any of them, at least you'll know that you did all you could - swaddling helped ours calm down enough to get her to sleep - we found pushing her round the streets / park shut her up - but only when the buggy was moving, and only if it was moving quickly enough!! I used to shove her in the buggy, put my iPod on and set off for hours at a stretch! - take time out wherever you possibly can and do "shift" parenting ie do 2 hrs on, 2 hrs off - and when it's not your shift, get out/away from the screaming (never ever be late to take over your shift). - rope in any friends/relatives you have who can help. Accept the help and support, don't keep people out. Doesn't matter if they're not parents etc. as long as willing to help - don't worry about bonding. Your son isn't moving out anytime soon; you've got the next few decades to know him and build a relationship. It is indeed a slow burn and whilst he's totes amazballs to you right now, at three weeks he's mainly a very elaborate tube in which milk goes in and crap comes out. - and stop worrying. It's not 'normal' but by no means unusual, unlikely to be your fault, probably not much you can do about it and will certainly pass long before your son really starts to become a personality you can truly get to know and love

I had a bit of vicarious fun with this. If it were me I would ... Fly Thai Airlines direct to Phuket - night time flight leaves LHR 21:50, 13hrs40min, 1 hour changeover in BKK - very doable. Arrives 18:15+1 Fly Thai Airlines direct to Melbourne - mid evening flight (20:35) 12hrs50min, 3 hour changeover in BKK. Arrives 13:25+1 Flown with them a few times. Generous seat pitch in economy, great service, not vastly expensive. That trip for 2 adults, 1 child and 1 infant is ?2,714 all in. Phuket has lots of nice resorts you can stay at which would be great with the little ones and you'd actually get a holiday. I love Bangers dearly, I really do, but with a 1 year old I would give myself a break and just chill out by the pool. Leave traipsing around extremely hot, busy, dirty, dusty cities until the kids are a bit older (we did BKK with a 6 year old a couple of Easters back and that was fine, but the days were exhausting for her: heat, culture shock etc etc). Singapore is ok for a couple of days, but not a couple of weeks - unless you plan to be spending a lot of time in departure lounges and baggage carousels at Changi and use it as a hub. Hope that's useful. Bon voyage.

It's pointy and covered in slate.

Yes, about ?40k for a side-return extension. I believe what actually makes it expensive is anything that requires going out beyond the existing foundations. So what you are describing sounds to me like it would be very expensive.

Thank you I shall have a loom for threw FAQ

intexasatthe moment Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Just posting link re criteria from New Schools > Network ,as requested > https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mainstr > eam-and-16-to-19-free-school-applications Thank you.

James - do you know when the school could actually open on the site? At the Habs meeting someone raised a question around this and I think the answer was that NHS needs the site until 2017. Does that mean NHS can't even release the land for building on until 2017? If so, where does the school go in the 16/17 and possibly 17/18 school years?

@intexasatthe moment Was this a link on the word 'here'? > The details of the criteria can be found here. If so, would you be able to post the link? Thanks.

What Lowlander said. Plus check out if it makes sense to get a rail card. If it's a one-off trip probably not, but if you travel a lot by train, or even 2 or 3 times on longer journeys, they can pay back very quickly. Or you could hire a car. If you're not travelling alone, it can work out cheaper plus giving you lots of flexibility - you still need a lot of time, it's a long way. And I have occasionally found it cheaper to fly! FlyBe from LGW, BA from LHR. Though from ED, it's actually quicker to get the train from KX than to fly because you've got to get to LGW or LHR, and then there's the getting from NCL airport ...

Humph!? Apologies. I went to the new school meeting and thought I was told (I thought) by their chair of governors, that they had changed their policy from safest walking distance to as the crow flies - because it was unfairly excluding particular areas, e.g. Dog Kennel Hill Estate. Clearly I misunderstood.

Charter's last distance place offered for admission this year was 1.544KM. There is no misleading map here.

We had bamboo in the office. It was forever being scratched and ended up looking awful. It was nice flooring though so it depends on where you have it - I'd out it in a bathroom or bedroom, but nowhere high traffic. Engineered something other than bamboo for that.

James Barber Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > M&S. I don't believe they've signed any contract > with the developer and hadn't during the last > planning application cycle. ...... > M&S is the > aspirational stalking horse to win local and > officer favour. We must judge the scheme on the > merits of any potential shop occupying it Calling the thread "M&S planning application to replace Iceland" hasn't really helped the whole aspirational stalking horse hoo-har.

Call the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000 - that's the advice line for those worried about a child.

Which? Do an annual report on cars. Goes through all the pros and cons of all the different ways of buying a car, petrol vs diesel, car formats, manufacturers and all that and picks out its best buys in each format for new and used. It's excellent. It's pricey, as I recall, but told me everything I felt I needed to know. I then went off and searched for the model etc I wanted. 2 obvious tips - doesn't sound like you would do enough miles to make diesel worthwhile and if you're prepared to travel you can save a lot. I ended up taking the train and a taxi to a dealer way out in Hampshire and driving the car back, which was a faff but saved me a lot of money on the car. I don't know what automatics are like nowadays, but you may find that if you are legally able to drive a manual geared car, it will save you both when you buy and on any maintenance or repairs.

Sorry - read the post title and answered my own question

eleg1 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It seems the Charter School practices as regards > equality are being questioned again, first there > was the criticism from the adjudicator regarding > the change to the admissions policy detailed here: > http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/feb/01/a > cademy-school-catchment-council-estates and now an > FOI request about equality that they have not > responded to within the deadline: > https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/treatment_o > f_ethnic_students. Shocking that they have all > this support to open another 'exclusive' school. The Guardian report you link to ends by saying that a fifth of the school's pupils are on free school meals (vs national average of 16%) and that over half of the kids are from ethnic minorities (vs national average of 22%). The school has changed to as the crow flies, away from safest walking distance. (Funnily enough, this too has drawn criticism - seems you can't please all the people all the time) and the new school bid is proposing as the crow flies, possibly with banding, possibly from a nodal point, possibly both. None of this indicates either that Charter is an exclusive school, or that there are any plans for the new school to be in any way exclusive.

They were very explicit that they do not have a firm idea or preference for admission criteria beyond a) no lottery or random element and b) no specialism / scholarship element. They said that therefore there will have to be a distance criteria. Distance from where, and whether banded or not is something they seek opinion on. There was a form in the packs handed out for people to fill in on this question.

parentsteeringgroup Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi bonaome, glad to hear you will be coming along. > Please could you register on the link given above > or send an email to [email protected] to say > you're coming. Let us know if you need a place in > the cr?che. Thanks.hopefully kristy and others > have done this too. Helps us know how many to > cater for. Yeah - did that last weeks sent an email saying just me, no cr?che, daughter currently at Heber yr 3. Didn't get a confirmation back. Will resend.

parentsteeringgroup Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Pleased to hear that kristy and look forward to > meeting you on the 10th. So do you just need to say here that you're coming? I'm coming!

What Harris actually say in their letter is this (comments in brackets mine)... "Like many prospective primary parents, our preferred outcome would have been (PAST TENSE) to build on the grounds of Harris Girls? Academy ? but (HERE COME THE REASONS WHY THEY CAN'T) this would raise substantial planning issues because the land there is classified as Metropolitan Open Land and given the same level of protection as the green belt. In addition, of course, Southwark is currently asking its secondary schools whether they can expand to help meet some of the expected future shortfall of places." That doesn't sound to me like building the new Nunhead Harris Primary on Harris Girls's site is even vaguely on the cards.

clux Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I agree with toffeese15. Identical admission > policies mean this school is of virtually no use > to anyone not already living near to Charter. On > these grounds I wish to withdraw my support for > the Charter bid and will be fully supporting > Haberdashers. But if there's 12 forms of entry instead of 6 across the two schools, you'd expect the effective "catchment" area to expand quite significantly, would you not?

LONDONMIX said .... >James, if Harris really desire to have the Nunhead primary on Harris Girls ED site, why haven't they put in a planning >application for it? They have had years to submit a plan for the council to assess and to date haven't made any real >effort to illustrate that the Harris ED Girls site is feasible for the Nunhead primary. Harris make it clear in their >letter that they may need to expand Harris Girls to help with secondary places in future as a reason not to put the >Nunhead primary there and only you seem to suggest they are actively petitioning for this location right now. Absolutely right LondonMix Edited as I forgot to quite the bit I though was right!

The Crooked Well in Camberwell is top end gastro pub. Or there's Angels & Gipseys (tapas). Or if you want an actual restaurant Berner's Tavern just off Oxford St is excellent (the name suggests a chain pub - look up some reviews online - nothing could be further from the truth). Pollen Street Social is lovely - trendy but not too poncy etc as you say. If you really don't mind the card taking a bruising you cannot go wrong at Le Gavroche - super food, and yes men have to wear a jacket and tie, but the atmosphere is romantic of an evening, the service exemplary and the food some is still I think some of the best available in London.