ryedalema

Our two little Debra Meadens are raising money for charity (and their toy cupboards) by holding a 'post sand storm' car wash across the weekend. 11-4pm on Saturday and Sunday (apart from Ken the milkman who is coming earlier) please come over to the corner of Ryedale and Cornflower terrace for a wash and brush up (externals only). Money is going 50% to them and 50% split between Kings and PKD (the polycystic kidney disease charity, as my OH has this) Looking forward to seeing you... Cassie, Charlotte and Claire (Sorry Admin if this is in the wrong place - wasn't quite sure where to put this)

Nah...lucky strikes tho.

Sorry should add, corner of Cornflower terrace and Ryedale. Roll up..roll up. Half the proceeds going to Kings' and half going to ToysRUs :)

Our 4 and 7 year old entrepreneurs have decided to hold a 'sand storm' car wash outside our house on Saturday and Sunday, if anyone's interested? Payment based on quality (and what you can afford) :)

Some of the parents at our nursery are keen on starting up a book club as a good way for the grown-ups to keep in touch as our young uns disperse among EDs primary schools. Does anyone have any experience of being part of, or of setting up a book club? Can you share any advice? I'm not sure it'll be the most serious/high brow of ventures...the main objective is a bit of fun, grown-up conversation and a few beverages/nibbles. I'd welcome any tips! Thanx EDFers x

Btw - my OH commutes there from ED to Heathrow every day by car...maybe you can car pool/share petrol costs. He uses Waze and has cut down the journey time to max 1.5 hours...

Brixton, Paddington, Heathrow Express is a pretty good route...you can get to Brixton from West Dulwich, Herne Hill, Buses etc.

Indeed - and I guess the fact that they will (albeit by default) wake up at a decent hour for a while is a gift in itself!!

Dammit - Mothers' day falls on the start of British Summer Time, so one less hour of Mum appreciation! I'm sure my kids have planned this deliberately :)

Does anyone know if the P13 will be going through or diverted for the duration? Or how long it's likely to last? Thanks loads!

We live on Ryedale and there's a lot of digging going on at the back of our house..with stacks of bricks around too. Rumours of what's going on span the rebuilding of some stone walls (which are the council's property??), to an access road being levelled that will come out next to the Mansions on Underhill Road. None of us have had any info from the council so if anyone knows what is definitely going on please do tell? A couple of our neighbours have homes for sale - so questions must be being asked by potential buyers :)

Brown Owl for the ED Brownie pack lives on our road - apparently there's a waiting list until 2017!! :( But if you go on the Brownies website it shows you others in the vicinity that have better lists - Forest Hill I think had a couple of good ones.

I don't know if anyone has already mentioned this as a cracking family activity but we've just discovered Dulwich College Sports Club (rather belatedly given that our 6 year old has been going there for holiday camps for a good few holidays) as a fab place for family sports activities. ?56 a month for a family pass gives us all free admission to the pool (UV not chlorine!), the badminton/tennis/squash courts and for us adults the gym and sports equipment. Also we've got discounted swimming lessons (no waiting list - straight in for our 4 and 6 year old on Sunday mornings) and they seem to have a much more sensible approach to the adult/child ratio side of things. Given that we spend easily a tenner every weekend on swimming pools and then on top want to get fit in 2014 I think this is a great value option, it also has really easy parking out front and good long opening hours. Just in case anyone's of a mind to do that sort of thing :)

We loved waterfront too - but when we last went (back in the summer) they had some strange hour long session times...are the session times better now?

What a nightmare about your roof Muffins 78,and thanks for the photo Ian R. Does anyone know how long this is forecast to last for? Also - is the South Circ open and clear does anyone know? Need to get as far as Dulwich College..

There's a pathway from North Dulwich station to Greendale (about 10 mins) and Mother Goose Greendale is a gorgeous nursery there. Lots of EDF people have their kids there (mine included). I'd highly recommend trying them.

Oh gawd you poor thing..hope you are ok? I know that stretch very well - and have never had any trouble, but I can't imagine how horrid it would be if I did. Just checking... you started before the school and kept on past Ryedale? Was Si Mangia not open? When I come home late I always bank on 'escaping' there if I need to. Thank goodness for the people who took you in!

Saffron - you're right I'm not sure her teacher is helping much, but I don't think she's part of the problem either. I think she's just not skilled particularly to help or has the time with 29 other demands on her attention. There is a pastoral care lady that she is supposed to see once a week to talk about stuff - but this lady keeps being ill or unable to keep her appointments. So my daughter keeps getting really excited about seeing her, and then upset when she doesn't show :( So you think a trip to the docs is the next step? And yes - you're absolutely right about it being good that she can talk about it...I'm glad she's not bottling it all up inside.

Thank you all - and for the PMs too. As you say - I'm hoping this will pass and not be a 'thing', but she's using such grown up language, it's almost as if she knows how to speak 'in therapy'. The food thing knocked me for 6, but thankfully she hasn't followed through on that one yet. I'll keep a close eye on this... Oh and we have spoken to her teacher about it...not sure that's helped though.

Hi all Our eldest daughter has been talking about 'feeling rubbish' and that she's 'not good at anything'. She also, which worried me most, said she doesn't want to eat her meals because she feels she doesn't feel normal and that she doesn't have any friends (which i'm sure isn't true). Is this normal? I'm not quite sure what to do about this one...

Does anyone know if there are any local Brownie troups in or near se22? I have no idea what age they start, but I had such a lot of fun being one when i was a kidlet - i'd love eldest monster to have a go. She's nearly six, do you think that's too young? All advice really welcome! Thanks as always edf-ers :) x

I'll be sad to see it go too... I agree that the food was 'patchy' (well actually pretty rubbish) and we haven't had spectacular grown-up-only evenings there. But as a place where parents can have a relatively trouble free conversation with each other while the kids play safely, it was/is wonderful! But I also agree that the kids should be watched a little more - the number of times ours have been bitten/scratched/pushed off the slide etc...grrrrr. And that wasn't by Dad in this instance :))

Have thought about booking my relatives in there on a few occasions and then decided against it as it just looks cr*p! Haven't ventured past the front door though so could (ahem) be pleasantly surprised. Have used Victoria Inn (good but sometimes noisy), Actress (sadly not any more) Air BnB (disastrous as key left with us didn't work but that's just a sample of one) and Peckham Lodge (surprisingly good!) Oh and Marmora Man's place - which was absolutely fab! Would bite the arm off someone developing a decent BnB near here....let me know if anyone hears of one!

Ah thanks for this - what are the steering and weight like on box trikes? My OH thinks they'll be too wobbly and heavy for me (oh him of little faith!)

Ewww - have had lots of off-putting conversations with my OH about this- this Trikidoo is 32kg (without kids) apparently. Does anyone know a better way to get to kids around locally by bike? Combinations of bike seats on a bike or a lighter custom bike or trailer etc? They are getting too big for our trailer and are not quite old enough to ride by themselves on our roads.... They are 3 AND 5.5 and I need to be able to get up Greendale so DEF need gears :)