toomuchchocolate

A few of the more local, smaller parks have tennis or basketball courts. Harold Moody Park in Nunhead has basketball. Telegraph Hill Park has tennis courts. I've definitely seen others.

Has anyone booked a party bus? I'm looking for recommendations for an all-in party bus for 7 year olds, that will park up outside my house, and do all the work (so i all i have to do is enjoy the party!).

I'll be there tomorrow with lots of baby & kids toys & clothes - most items going for for ?1 or less.

We've also cleared our loft of lots of Art books, DVDs, Collectible vinyl, board games, great condition household items and more. Also some ladies vintage (but not *that* old) designer clothes in size 10/12.

See you there.

Edmund Waller Primary School fair is on Saturday 30th June, 12-4pm. Everyone is welcome.

Bunker 51 by the Thames Barrier. We had my son's party there in July and it was great fun.

Just a reminder that the Rock For Refugees fundraising gig is happening on Tuesday 7th March, that's this Tuesday!!

We have just now added a "15 minutes" pop up set from the fantastic SISTERAY. So that is now 5 bands in one night, for only ?5 and all profits are going to UNICEF..... Ticket via Eventbrite on the link above or buy on the door for ?6.

Here's what Clash Magazine had to say about The RPM's in October: "The new track from Brighton garage punk outfit The RPMs, it's a brattish salute to refusal, to the gentle art of making up your own damn mind"

Read the full review here: http://clashmusic.com/videos/premiere-the-rpms-i-dont-like-it

See this band and more at Rock for Refugees. Tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rock-for-refugees-tickets-32020749925

I am a bit tired of how much money my son is now wasting on match Attax...today he bought two packs and he had all of them already. He has loads of swapsies...but has all swapped out with his friends at his school.

So i'm thinking....are there any parents out there who would be up for a meet up with their kid and match attax to see if we can widen the kids circle of swapees?

How about if everyone could pay ?1 to (charity) to come to the meet. Parents all supervise and then hopefully all the kids go home with a few Match Attax that they didn't have before. We all lessen the duplicated Match Attax and the kids all gain ones they were missing (hopefully).

Anyone think this is a good idea? If there's a few people then I will organise a place to meet.

Tickets are ?5 : https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rock-for-refugees-tickets-32020749925

On March 7th Rock For Refugees is coming to The CLF Art Cafe, Peckham, to host an eclectic night of live music from some of 2017?s rising stars, all in support of UNICEF.

Based in the 120-year- old multi-level Bussey building, the CLF Art Caf? will host the very first Rock for Refugees gig with four incredible acts raising money for a good cause.

Headlining the event is London?s feisty female duo Nova Twins, who have turned heads with

their unique blend of grime, punk and hip-hop beats. Supporting them are riff-driven alt-

rock trio Berries, whose electric live performances are jam-packed with charisma and

energy from start to finish.

Also playing are one of Brighton?s most exciting up and coming bands The RPM?s, who last

year headlined the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury Festival with their indie rock n roll

style, whilst opening the event is solo artist Non Canon playing acoustic music with an

experimental twist.

Rock for Refugees is a charitable fund under the auspices of Prism the Gift Fund, however, we are in the process of fully registering as a UK charity. Since, we don't want to spend thousands of pounds on due diligence when established charities already know exactly where funding is needed, ALL the profits are going to UNICEF.?

All of our fundraising will help Syrian refugee children to access and remain in education. That may mean we are funding the provision of drinking water, food or other essentials, but this means the children can go to school in the first place, but also can concentrate at school because they're not hungry / thirsty / sick / cold.? There's more information on the work of Unicef in this area here: ?http://childrenofsyria.info/

Please support our work and come along on March 7th.

Tickets are available here for only ?5 : https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rock-for-refugees-tickets-32020749925

Thank you

Edmund Waller Primary School Winter fair takes place on Saturday 3rd December, 12-3pm.

We are seeking local crafters and traders to create a Christmas marketplace at our school fair.

Tables range from ?15 to ?25 dependant on space booked or if you are bringing your own table.

Please message me if you are interested.

My son has decided he'd like to have a two- wheel scooter (since we;re finally upgrading from the mini micro!)

I refuse to pay ?85+ for a Maxi Micro Scooter purely because of the brand.

Can anyone recommend any of the other cheaper brand two-wheel scooters?

I'm looking at The Razor Spark Kick Scooter, currently ?36 on Amazon, but I also like the look of the Oxelo Mid 5 Scooter from Decathlon, which has front wheel suspension, although it's ?50.

Does anyone have experience of either brands, or other brands that you would recommend as being sturdy, long lasting, etc. He'd also quite like to start doing stunts on it!

All advice much appreciated.

Thanks

Can you help transport refugees aid to Luton?

If there is someone with a van (transit size should be plenty big enough) who is willing and able to transport our collection of items for the refugees on Lesvos up to Luton please make urgent contact. We need to get our collection to Luton this week (ASAP) so that it can go with in a container to Lesvos on Saturday.

Please contact me urgently if you can help?

Thank you

The news from Lesvos in the past few days has been heartbreaking. The number of arrivals on Lesvos has hugely increased but people are dying as boats capsize and hypothermia sets in. In the last two days 11 people died, including 6 young children, four babies have hypothermia, surviving children are in shock,

We are collecting donations to fulfil the appeals made by the smaller charities working on the ground in Lesvos today. These are the items that are needed right now.

Please bring donations to The Ivy House Pub, Stuart Road, Nunhead, SE15 on Saturday 31st October. We will be there from 12-5pm to take delivery of your donations. Please be generous.

Please donate the following items ONLY.

Food:

Tinned Tuna

Dried Nuts/Fruit

Tinned Fruits

Plain Chocolate

Energy Bars

Biscuits

Rice Pudding

500ml Water Bottles

Tin openers

Medication

Ibuprofen

Paracetamol

Calpol

Cough medicine (adults and children?s)

First aid kits

Sanitary towels

Nappies

Baby Wipes

Shelter / Clothing

Tents

Sleeping bags

Roll Mats

Tarpaulin

Rain Jackets/ponchos

Warm Jogging bottoms

Waterproof Ponchos

Fleeces

Socks (in all sizes) Underwear (in all sizes)

Mens trousers

Clothes for kids (10-14years old)

Warm winter scarves, gloves and hats

We need helpers, so if you are able to volunteer for at least one hour to help collect donations on Saturday, or to help sort and pack donations on Monday please contact Paula: 07803 894615 or Tweet @rockforrefugees

Please also like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter: rockforrefugees

And sign up to our mailing list to be kept updated on gig information and other activities.

www.rockforrefugees.com

The news from Lesvos in the past few days has been heartbreaking. The number of arrivals on Lesvos has hugely increased but people are dying as boats capsize and hypothermia sets in. In the last two days 11 people died, including 6 young children, four babies have hypothermia, surviving children are in shock,

We are collecting donations to fulfil the appeals made by the smaller charities working on the ground in Lesvos today. These are the items that are needed right now.

Please bring donations to The Ivy House Pub, Stuart Road, Nunhead, SE15 on Saturday 31st October. We will be there from 12-5pm to take delivery of your donations. Please be generous.

Please donate the following items ONLY.

Food:

Tinned Tuna

Dried Nuts/Fruit

Tinned Fruits

Plain Chocolate

Energy Bars

Biscuits

Rice Pudding

500ml Water Bottles

Tin openers

Medication

Ibuprofen

Paracetamol

Calpol

Cough medicine (adults and children?s)

First aid kits

Sanitary towels

Nappies

Baby Wipes

Shelter / Clothing

Tents

Sleeping bags

Roll Mats

Tarpaulin

Rain Jackets/ponchos

Warm Jogging bottoms

Waterproof Ponchos

Fleeces

Socks (in all sizes) Underwear (in all sizes)

Mens trousers

Clothes for kids (10-14years old)

Warm winter scarves, gloves and hats

We need helpers, so if you are able to volunteer for at least one hour to help collect donations on Saturday, or to help sort and pack donations on Monday please contact Paula: 07803 894615 or Tweet @rockforrefugees

Please also like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter: rockforrefugees

And sign up to our mailing list to be kept updated on gig information and other activities.

www.rockforrefugees.com

We put up plastic sheeting around the stairs to protect upstairs while work was undertaken downstairs. We also put them up outside every bedroom door. They helped keep the dust out, but the dust sticks to the plastic, so a lot still blows in every time you go through the plastic. I found hanging a fabric sheet up on the inside of the doorframe helped catch more of the dust. Ultimately though, the dust will be everywhere and since it sticks to the walls, you either need to hoover the walls (I realise that sounds a bit excessive) or just keep hoovering as it drops off every day for months!

Definitely cover soft furnishings...we also had to buy a new sofa following the building works. And now we're thinking of doing the side return too. Thank you for reminding me about the dust!

We had them too. We ripped out all of the old carpets. They come from under the floorboards!

We had the house chemically treated last year, at the same time as the carpet/clothes moths - the chemicals can get under the floorboards. It seems to have worked, although we also laid new synthetic carpet upstairs which i don't think they will enjoy so much. We used P&J Pest Control (I think that's what they're called!)

Go to Emmanuelle Marshall in Forest Hill/Sydenham. Dorothy is fab with the children. She will happily measure your children's feet and will distract the unwilling ones very well. Then she will find all the shoes she has in your child's size. She will find the ones that fit correctly and then let you choose, or not, anything you/your child likes. I can not recommend her highly enough. (My daughter was a nightmare with having her feet measured when little and vomited in shops because she would get in such a tiz about it - Dorothy changed all that). The shoes are reasonably priced too.

....so far....still holding. Is this a new record low?

We also had a lucky escape. Here is a rundown of our dealing with him. I would advise everyone to avoid his firm, whatever name he trades under.

Jayson Webb, as Dulwich Windows, quote was competitive, similarly priced to another firm who undertook an installation for my neighbour, however, he pointed out their window hadnt been fitted brilliantly, so after much deliberation i decided to go with his firm.

I then read some negative forum posts about previous work he had undertaken. He explained both posts away ( i stupidly believed him) and duly had the posts removed from the forum. He sensed my doubt and offered to go ahead with our job without taking a deposit (thank goodness!).

At the end of October we agreed to go ahead. He then wasted a further 6 weeks of my time during which he stated he had ordered the windows (he had not), giving me a date for delivery and he would let me know exact fit date when he had received the windows. Then on December 5th he contacted me to say:

"After careful consideration we have decided not to carry out any window installations before Christmas as the factory cannot guarantee delivery so close to Christmas. Also we are a small company trying to keep on top of our cash flow and cannot commence any works without a deposit, I hope you understand and apologise for any inconvenience caused. I understand that you need these works carried out sooner and may have to find another installer, please let me know what you would like to do."

This was my response (which was frankly calm compared to how angry i felt) :

"This is so disappointing. You have wasted nearly 3 months of my time. You knew full well another company were able to fit the window w/c 25th November but you fought for our business. And now you wait 3 weeks after we have sent you a signed contract to tell me you can't fit the window until after Christmas and you can't do the work without the deposit you said you didn't need!!

It's a shame you aren't honest enough to tell me you didn't place the order with Roseview, despite saying you had and that you would confirm the fit date once the window was delivered...next week. What a big fat bullshitter you are. Let's hope your kids grow up not knowing the real you.

Rest assured I will be providing honest feedback on the East Dulwich Forum about your appalling customer service, how you have led us on and wasted our time."

...Do not contact me again.

*the comment about his kid is there because he brought his son to our house and harped on about being a family man.

I had contacted Webbs supplier and he hadn't placed an order with them for us.

He did contact me again with a thinly veiled threat, as if he was going to expose me:

"After reading your email I can be sure I made the right decision i will post your email on the EDF with a full explanation of my business decsion."

I would discourage anyone from using his business. I would certainly discourage anyone from giving him any money upfront if you are going to take a risk and use him.

In the end we went with Bespoke Windows who were superb. Murray and his team of fitters provided us with a beautiful new bay window and French doors. They arrived on time, kept mess to a minimum and cleared up brilliantly. Most importantly the fit of both products is superb. I would highly recommend Bespoke to anyone thinking of replacing windows or doors. They are a bit more expensive, but...well, you get what you pay for!

Yes I would be interested if its in the morning and I can bring baby and older sibling. Preschool and nap time rule afternoons out for us at the moment. I think the other music group is the one at Buchan tra on a Wednesday morning. I've not been but heard it is most excellent!

Lovely banners. Lots of people sell party supplies through etsy.com. I found some great stuff on there, though did have to trawl through a lot of tat too! Good luck.

That's terrible. I hope your baby is ok. I had no idea they could wriggle out...use mine all the time for my 6 month old. Here's a link to the recall notice...

http://www.recall.bumbousa.com/

We just had Chris from Daniels team out this morning, at very short notice, to fix a leaking loo. Brilliant, quick and friendly service. I'm already talking with them about doing further non-emergency work for us. Thank you for all your perfectly timed recommendations.

Great post Fuschia, really lovely.

Saila - i'm going to try that tonight as my 5 month old is waking twice per night and i'm exhausted. Even though it's not a lot of wakings my son was sleeping through from 9 weeks, so i had high expectations...quickly dashed!

I've used dunstans for both of mine and found it immensely helpful. I'm still finding it useful second time around with my now almost 5 month old.