GinaG3

How is everyone getting on? Southwark just let us know our latest wait positions. I'm feeling really disappointed there has been no shift AT ALL in the right direction for us since we first went on wait lists. This process is so disheartening, I feel completely on my own being so young. Its not easy. I know I have until the school year beginning year one for a place to come up for her but it seems so unlikely even to people with experience of the system I've spoken to. Yet, at the same time, everyone thinks I'm doing the right thing here and I'm going with my heart to do the best for my daughter and our whole situation. The prospect of long term home educating my child if I don't get a 'local' place for my daughter is daunting but I would be determined to do it! At only 23 with no formal qualifications myself after leaving school at 14, how would Southwark see me as a home educator? Is anyone else still strongly considering it, should a place not become available?

Severe eczema runs in our family so know what its like with very sensitive skin. For years on all children the suncream to use for us has been low spf Clinique. My mum used it on all of us 20 years ago and its still a good contender on the market for sensitive skin. Maybe try getting a free sample/small size to trial online or from a department store as it is quite an expensive product to try.

My daughter has been there since last September, I loved it immediately. She hasn't got a school place for this year, as yet so looks to be staying as the oldest child until easter term 2014 and I'm more than happy about that. She loves the teachers and gets on really well with the structure of the day which is pretty free flowing. She took a long time settle as she had never been in a nursery/pre-school environment and hadn't had much interaction with children her own age or spent many periods of time away from me. They went completely out of their way to accommodate our needs. She quickly identified her favourite teachers who she could go to with her concerns and I know they will be sorely missed when she leaves. She has absolutely loved it, the environment is lovely too set back from a main road, with a private garden for use in the warmer months/when its not wet. I've never heard any parents there be anything other than happy their child has the place they have. I wouldn't hesitate to send another child there should be opportunity come up in the future and we were still in the area. Happy to answer concerns via PM too.

My daughter loves sticking things to the window, namely super sticky stickers, things with sellotape, anything sticky she is on it. I use neat white vinegar to remove marks, takes it off clean, even when I've neglected to do it for months.

I use my Kitchenaid on speed 4/5 for about 4 minutes to cream butter and sugar (should be almost white in colour), then add egg, half flour, egg rest of flour etc. Helps if the egg has been loosely mixed with a fork. I NEVER put eggs in the fridge either, they always remain room temperature. You don't need to use a speed higher than 4/5 on your Kitchenaid and it will also prolong the life of the mixer. Hope this helps and good luck, we just did our school bake off too.

I spoke to Liam from parent partnership last week, I'm sure he said appeals are being dealt with now so that will be affecting lists although few are successful. Judith Kerr site also got announced last week so should help somewhat with a shift. Waiting to check again on our positions as I still check fortnightly. Forgot about the 2nd June deadline for Langbourne, wanted to reject against all advice, will I have been automatically accepted, rejected or what will have happened? Was advised to accept and defer but really don't want to even do that. Happy to wait out the year with hope in my mind and see what happens, if no budge looks like we are homeschooling.

Ah, its hard isn't it. I haven't had it during pregnancy but due to medical conditions I have constant severe nausea for up to 5/6 months at a time. I've tried a lot of stuff to no avail, natural and medical. Another option is mint, either fresh mint leaves boiled in water and drank when cooled or mint tea cooled. With ginger the ginger has to physically be present not just the flavour, a lot of ales don't actually contain ginger so read labels if you try that method. Crystallised ginger is meant to be good. I must say I think the one key to controlling nausea in pregnancy is giving in to ALL your cravings no matter what it is, whenever I had any nausea it was usually down to cravings whether I actually knew it or not.

We never have any problems at all by the Harvester and have been with Virgin for 4 years. I think I've been without service once, I find it them really efficient. I received this email from them last week regarding essential maintenance in the SE22 area, incase anyone wonders why it goes down on the 19th. Although may be specific to Forest Hill/Dulwich border. "We?ll be doing some work to the network in your area on 19-06-2013. This means you won?t be able to use your broadband for a very short time on that day. You may also find that there is a short interruption to your phone service. We know how important your services are to you, and we?re happy to tell you that the work won?t take long. In most cases, your broadband will be back up and running after 10-30 minutes. Though in rare cases, it could take up to 4 hours. As soon as we?ve finished, we?ll email you to let you know. Don?t worry, once we?ve finished the work, your broadband router will reconnect to the network automatically ? you won?t need to do a thing."

http://www.rosemaryconley.com/apps/class/classFinder.asp?franchiseeID=inon This is whats at Trevor Bailey I knew it was something..

I'm sure there is one at the running club thing on Dulwich Common but its on a weekday morning afternoon. I walk past on the school run. I could be wrong, its definitely one of the weight watchers, slimming world, diet with '...' things. I'm 94% certain.

I want to get mine off the ground again, but need to spend time really considering its direction. I'm out of the loop! P.S calorie restricting and cake doesn't work at all. I did consider going full blown into every aspect of cooking/budgeting/moneysaving but thats not what my blog was meant for. I'm a confused blogger right now, or should that be ex-blogger?

This really gets me whoever it is. Same goes with adult cyclists on the pavement constantly ringing their bell to get you to move out of their way. A few weeks ago I was forced into a very wet muddy patch by a large group of runners wanting to stay out of the mud themselves. Now wished I just stood right there and forced them to go round me instead. No-one ever says thank you in these situations.

Might be worth getting your GP to check your Vitamin D levels. I had bad joint pain, started at some point after I had my daughter, I'd never suffered before. I breastfed through it for 2 years, only the last 6 months became unbearable with fatigue also. Vitamin D deficiency randomly came up on a blood test with at a unrelated appointment with a consultant.. Always worth being ruled out via bloods as its rarely checked in the UK, and is actually quite common. I just took high prescription only dose Vit D for a period until my levels stabilised then continued with prescription supplements as you would from the chemist. Hope it improves, its a horrible feeling. Especially with a young baby.

I love blogging although must admit I'm in the majority of bloggers that started my blog and within 3-4 months it was abandoned. I now haven't blog for a year although am really eager to get back in to it. I only blogged once a week, so then I only baked once a week, twice maximum. I became unhappy with my photography (worst kitchen ever) and wanted to look for a completely new style to my whole blog. I was in awe of so many baking blog but wanted to become completely unique at the same time. I gained rather a lot of followers rapidly, but then after my absence they have all left and I see I only have around 20 now. Thats was a big dip. I was approached via email to take part in a worldwide 'online' food festival and was placed highly with my entries. Using Wordpress I could see I hardly had any UK visitor and most of my traffic came from Asia, Russia and South America. I loved this!!! I followed a lot of bloggers and in return they followed me gaining more traffic. You can display advertising, which is handy and increases revenue. For this I think you want to be looking at around 1,000+ unique visitors a month. Although I'm long gone but hoping to return sometime I'll plug away regardless.. www.realitybitesbaking.wordpress.com

Thank you James. Your help is appreciated.

I'm only holding my hopes in Bessemer. The others seem like such a long shot. At least its a direct bus route from right outside my home and my mother in law lives right at the top of greendale so can do some pick ups if I have hospital appointments, these usually clash with school pick up times EVERY time. Its the best 'alternative' option for the situation I'm in. Langbourners.. Langbourne have sent out a letter today with a slip to send back on the bottom (by Monday 3rd June) to ask whether we require the place or not. Do I just reply that we don't? I still have no intention of sending her and don't want to hold a place we don't require/that she wont turn up for in September. I don't want to mess them around.

FINALLY, over a week later I get a reply from Southwark. 2 places in the right direction at Heber (63), 1 place in the wrong direction at Dulwich Village (52), no change at Goodrich (40) or Bessemer (14). Now, can I call Bessemer and ask them how likely I am to get a place with them with this position and when? Southwark are failing to answer this question. Desperately need to speak to school preference service, think thats tomorrows task. Advised by preschool to call ASAP. They will keep her until January but I'm concerned Southwark wont continue with funding that place at 15 hours a week only as they have found a place for her at primary. A place that Southwark wont let me reject unless I can prove I have provisions in place, which I will have if they will continue funding her place at preschool until January. Please tell me this makes sense to someone?! Its mighty tough all of this.

I have co-slept for going on 4.5 years now with rare breaks when my daughter actually wanted to be in her own bed - past 21 months old. From the very first night we co-slept after I discharged us from hospital 15 hours after giving birth. I still remember the first night, I tried my hardest to stay awake the whole night, it was a weird sensation of her not being safe inside me but being in the world. She had a cot right next to our bed, it stayed there for until she was 2+ but she never wanted to go in it, I never wanted her to, it felt natural for her to always be close to me. I always remember instinctively waking what seemed like every 15 minutes for the first year of her life to check my pillow was away from her and the duvet wasn't near her. Our bed was wedged to the wall with a massive rolled up blanket stuffed down the side of the mattress filling a gap. Her dad was pushed right over to the 'unsafe side' then I would be in the middle always facing her with my body cocooned around her. She was always in a gro-bag until 18 months old when she graduated to being allowed a pillow too but still loved her gro-bag, so no duvet. I would ALWAYS co-sleep. I hadn't read up on it, I wasn't informed, it was just a natural choice. I don't think a single child in my family has ever slept in a cot until at least 18 months old..

I emailed the usual schools.admissions@southwark.gov.uk I didn't send to the direct email they use to reply back to enquires. I will try again, usually get a reply within about 30 minutes. Don't know whats happened here! Email sent on the 15th. I do email fortnightly for positions, but thats the predicament I'm in. Really hoping there has been a shift, if only slight in the last few weeks as I hear people are now starting to move around on lists. Fingers crossed. Sending email again now! Thanks James but it was emails not phone calls. They never give me list positions on the phone and insist on a call back in a few days so I always opt for email.

Southwark aren't even replying to my latest attempts at finding my current wait list positions.. Been 7 days now and no reply. Anyone else getting no reply on email? Maybe they are fed up of me already, ha!

Its been all over the world. I believe there is 3 of them now. Very heavy and hot outfit for sure. My daughter loved it, waited for ages with excitement to see it. Stood for 8 minutes filming only for my iPhone to corrupt the file, not impressed. Spent the rest of the day being forced to watch various youtube videos instead. The creator is from Cornwall, he was originally a panel sprayer in a garage but had bigger ambitions. It cost him ?30,000 to make the first outfit, considering he supposedly rents the things out at ?1,500 for 2 x 30 minute shows he's earning a LOT of money. Its been to every continent, starred in adverts and TV shows, award shows, on tour with singers, you name it. First appearance was 2010.

No-one can ever give me a immediate answer at Southwark. Are there parents that reject places and NEVER get another place anywhere? Can this happen? Everyone seems to be avoiding giving me an answer to that query. Just emailed southwark for my wait times again, emailing fortnightly for updates. Pinning hopes on Bessemer as we are just within the top 15 there. Our other wait times look like Horniman 35, Goodrich 40, Eliot Bank 50, Heber 65, Fairlawn 79 and no figure for DV due to them updating but 51 there the last I knew. How is everyone else in the grey area getting on? Think I will be calling Bessemer today to try and get a feel for if/when/how quickly we can get in there with our position.. Got to be some hope

Very glad to hear the girl is okay! I was concerned the other day to see school children sitting along the pavement between Friern Road and Upland Road doing what I assumed was a traffic count with a teacher or 2. There has been a fair few accidents at this junction over the last few years and to see school children (year 5 or 6?) sitting along the pavement in what I'd deem as a accident hotspot seemed irresponsible to me. There is a few things I hate about the stretch of road along there including the fact that buses are allowed to wait on Lordship Lane before moving into Friern Road, this obscures your view when trying to cross that section up to Upland Road. Then at Upland Road you have cars parked either side of the road down Upland obscuring your view up the road whilst trying to look back and up onto Lordship Lane. At the island I've had buses signal and allow me cross with my child only for cars to fly straight past (as it is on the bus lane), I signal the bus drivers back that I will wait. Its very awkward sometimes. If you cross further up at the green man crossing at Underhill you have to cross that road, which cars fly up regularly with only a quick glimpse, I've been halfway across the road and cars have turned in. Presumably because its a one way, they assume its clear. If I'm coming up from Plough I prefer to cross directly at Plough cross roads and walk along the Dulwich Library side of the road to avoid all these awful junctions, then you only have to conquer Court Lane. Much safer in my book.

Im only moving down too. Frustrating stuff. Southwark wont let me reject my offer until I can prove I have alternative provisions in place.. We are 41st, 51st and 65th in Southwark and 35th, 50th and 79th in Lewisham. Then we applied late to Bessemer as a back-up as advised and are 14th on their list. Don't know how likely this is, staying hopeful.

Just found out we are 14th on Bessemers list. How likely is that? Hmm, will have to think about appeal. I do have valid reasons, I feel.