RobMiller

It defeats me. The Conway vehicles being parked there is adding insult to injury re: the junction, and even considerate drivers are finding it tricky to navigate through the increasingly narrow gap!

@edhistory - not sure? I've just been getting increasingly frustrated by the growing barricades which appear to be being put up to stop those of us to the east of Crystal Palace Road getting through to Lordship Lane. And the impact on the Upland Road businesses from months of obstruction doesn't seem to be something that troubles Southwark very much either...

Is it just me, or is this junction getting a bit silly now? Construction work on both sides blocking access to one pavement and reducing the width of the other, and now huge road maintenance equipment parked up too.

Hi Vero, try the Spin Doctor: http://www.londonspindoctor.com/index.html. Steve's helped us with a couple of our appliances and lived up to his recommendations on the forum!

We've had our 2006 Touran for five years and have been very happy with it. It's still nippy, and there's plenty of room for us and our two boys. The extra two seats in the boot have also been handy for family visits (although obviously you lose the luggage space when they're up). The only issues we've had were the garage who sold it to us forgetting to include the locking wheel nut; I don't like the 'no spare tyre' approach which is common in lots of cars these days; and the rear seat belts have lost their retraction due to holding the boys car seats in place for several years (the car has ISOFIX, but the boys' car seats don't), and that's going to be a bit pricey to sort. But nothing you wouldn't expect from owning a car. All in all, would happily recommend the Touran.

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > To my knowledge business rates and domestic > council tax haven't been reduced, so why has the > standard of service? I don't have specific information about our local street cleaning, but as someone who works in local government (but not Southwark) I thought it would be worth giving an explanation of why it probably looks like local services are getting worse when the money we each pay in tax doesn't seem to have fallen. Council finance is complex. Council Tax is only part of the money councils have to spend on local services, and business rates aren't actually kept by councils - the money goes to Central Government who then redistribute it according to a defined formula. Over the last few years Council tax income for councils has fallen in real terms (e.g. Southwark's has been frozen for five years now: http://www.southwark.gov.uk/news/article/1156/southwark_council_agrees_council_tax_freeze). Government allocations to councils have also been dramatically reduced, and this is in the context of significantly increased demand, particularly for social care services to vulnerable children and adults. This infographic from Sutton Council is fairly effective at describing the difficulties their council faces: http://www.suttonsfuture.org/?page_id=107, and the position will be similar for other councils - including Southwark. The cuts councils need to manage over the next four years are as severe as those over the last four years, so while it's obviously important that councils don't stop looking for more efficient ways of running services, including using shared services where that can save money, it's inevitable that services which local residents care about will be stopped or severely reduced. This article from the Local Government Association describes the pressure councils are under: http://www.local.gov.uk/media-releases/-/journal_content/56/10180/6172733/NEWS.

I'd second Pine Design (see Belle's post above). We've bought two for our boys. They're well made, can be made to different sizes if needed, and definitely the best prices we found.

We had ours at the Rosendale (http://www.therosendale.co.uk/). They didn't charge for room hire, and have two rooms available. We had c 80 people and it worked really well. I'd definitely recommend them.

We rented a car in Portugal last year (a smaller car as there were just four of us), and got stung by insurance fees which nearly doubled the quoted price. I hadn't realised that 'collision damage waiver' didn't mean the same as it had when I last rented a car ten years ago! If you haven't already, I'd recommend checking out the insurance info here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire as they have some good tips which will be significantly cheaper. Enjoy your holiday!

midivydale, they use their GIS (geographical information system). We found this tool which is based on Google maps but gives you distances based on specific points (rather than general postcodes): http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-advanced-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm. Beware though, it may give a slightly different result from the GIS so you can't fully rely on the distances it gives. You also need to know where the admissions criteria measure each point from (I think that's in the booklet we got before the application deadline). We'd echo some of the sentiment about the process, we're not happy with what we've been offered... But I have to take my hat off to Anita in the admissions team and Liam from the schools preference service. They've been amazingly fast getting back to us at what must be an incredibly busy time. Thanks too to Renata for her speedy responses to our questions.

Glad that finding the club was useful dildals - keep an eye out for some changes which are coming soon to the club website. We're hoping to make it even more useful and accessible wherever you are (handy when you're trekking round the park with dozing newborns!). And I thoroughly recommend having twins! It's really rewarding and loads of fun!!

Hi, congratulations on your imminent arrivals! We were with Oakwood, but as we had identical twins (and therefore a shared placenta) were advised from the start that the boys would be delivered by c-section. My wife also had fortnightly scans at Kings due to the higher risk. If you haven't seen it already, the Expectant Parent guide on the Dulwich & District Twins Club website is really useful: http://ddtwinsclub.org/expectant-parents-pack/

keane Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I now go rushing upstairs on play dates if the > 'silence' goes on too long as that's when they > could be up to something! Indeed! This was our bedroom after our boys and their friends were quiet too long... (a similar effect in two other rooms too). Took hours to sort - how we laughed...!

Hi both, many congratulations! As dad to four year old twin boys I can thoroughly recommend having twins! If you haven't looked into it already do check out the Dulwich & District Twins Club, there are lots of meet ups and a helpful expectant parents book on the club website: http://ddtwinsclub.org/new/expectant-parents-pack/. You can also keep up with club events via twitter by following @ddtwinsclub, look out for the nearly new sale next Saturday (16 March).

I'm a GiffGaff fan too! Have been using the service since last summer and been very happy (particularly when the monthly bill rolls in...). The nano SIM trick is very easy, and they now have nanogaff (http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Welcome-and-News/Updated-Nanogaff-can-you-cut-it/m-p/6105002/highlight/true#M28555) so you don't even need to trim your own. I've found low cost unlimited data really liberating, and use Spotify and iTunes Match without worry now.

Did you find this link? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4352 If you're using iTunes 11, they've changed quite a lot of the layout. If you sign into your Apple TV with your Apple ID you can stream purchased music and videos direct from iCloud. But that'll be a bit less convenient if you have two Apple IDs (my wife and I use a single ID for purchases, and our own for iCloud / iMessage etc). Personally I use AirPlay most often rather than iTunes home sharing, as the Mac doesn't get switched on that often (while the iPad hasn't replaced it I find I can use it for many of the things I used to need a PC for). I also found the Apple TV experience was much better when I ran an ethernet cable to it (fortunately we've got access via the cellar). I sometimes found that movies would stall when using wifi, which was a bit of a pain. Good luck with getting it all sorted!

I'd recommend having a look at GiffGaff: http://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/robmiller31 (if you sign up using that link we each gain a fiver). It's very low cost (especially good for 3G data if you buy a monthly 'goodie bag'), and I calculated it was much cheaper than buying a 'subsidised' phone on the usual tariffs from mainstream carriers. I've been very happy since switching.

I'd second that!

Hi, I don't have specific accommodation recommendations (we have relatives fairly near to Swanage), but I've found Sawday's special places to stay a good source for bed & breakfasts and self-catering (http://www.sawdays.co.uk/). I'd highly recommend the Swanage - Corfe steam railway. We've taken our now 4 year olds on there a few times and they've loved it. Corfe Castle is well worth an explore too. Have a great break in Dorset! Rob

We went rear facing (check out http://rearfacing.co.uk/). We chose the Britax 2 Way Elite (http://www.incarsafetycentre.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/30/products_id/46), because our car had passenger footwell storage which make the models with a supporting leg unsuitable. We've been really pleased with them and our twin boys are still using them. The boys are tall, but we only turned them to forward facing at 3.5 years old, and they were really happy facing backwards (even though they're quite tall). We bought ours from the In Car Safety Centre as the Petts Wood shop didn't stock this model at the time. I can thoroughly recommend the Petts Wood people though - they were really happy to help, even though they couldn't provide what we needed.

I saw a good tip about locking location services (which means that a stolen device can't have the 'find' facility easily switched off): http://ipadinsight.com/ipad-tips-tricks/how-to-make-it-more-difficult-for-a-thief-to-turn-off-location-services-on-the-ipad/ Still, that doesn't help if they switch it off... [Edited to clarify: "it" being the phone.]

Or you could use these instructions to trim any micro-sim down to nano-sim size: http://t.co/wuQjpjCv Tried it today with my giffgaff micro-sim and it's worked a treat!

Have you decided if you want to get the phone on contract or pay as you go? Over two years it's quite a lot cheaper to do the pay as you go option (?180 based on the tariffs I've compared against). It also means you can stay flexible about the tariff which makes most sense for you. I've chosen Three's ?12.90 per month payg tariff as it gives unlimited internet, but will switch back to GiffGaff (who use O2's network and charge ?10 per month for the same) when they've worked out how to produce nano SIMs. Happy to discuss further if that's helpful, but I'm aware that I * might * have spent too much time thinking this through!

We had a similar issue for our twin boys. After a lot of deliberation we went for the helmets too and are pleased we did. It's a very tricky decision though as the GP and consultant advice isn't well evidenced or consistent (and family members who are medical professionals were sceptical as well), and it's not cheap either. As a starter I'd recommend talking to your GP and asking for a referral to the specialists at Kings. I'd be happy to discuss if that's helpful, and I'd recommend talking to Elaine Gregory at the Dulwich Therapy Rooms (http://www.dulwichtherapyrooms.co.uk/osteopaths/4522189296) as she really helped us think through what to do and wasn't pushing us one way or the other. PM me if I can help at all. Rob [Edited to make the link a link...]

Congratulations! We've had lots of fun with our three year old twin boys, and I'd definitely recommend it! We chose the BabyJogger City Mini Double, which is relatively narrow, light and packed easily into our saloon car (and even more easily in the people carrier we now have). I'd second the recommendation to get in touch with the local twins club. They've recently won a lottery grant to produce information for parents of twins, and have held some very useful free sessions as part of that. All the best with your journey into twindom. Rob