giggirl

Jacqui5254 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I imagine it is a reflection of the donations > received. > > How many people actually have donated 'high end > designer clothes and shoes' since the shop opened? Me, I donate to Save the Children and my wardrobe is pretty high-end. I think they were most likely my Choos that someone spotted. Ebay isn't for everyone; I don't like ebay and I don't use it. I'd much rather have a charity make money than a big corporate take a large cut of the profits. If I'm donating something that I paid ???? for then I want the charity to make as much money as possible.

I also use Mason & Green

I went to the London Vision Clinic in Harley St and recommend highly. Very thorough. Wish I had had it done long before I did. https://www.londonvisionclinic.com/

"must have" "exciting" "exclusive"

To the wanker in the beige trousers and blue t-shirt at 2.20 this afternoon (Saturday 25th) who pulled up in his car and dumped his old tat on the pavement - I have your registration number and I have you on camera so why not do the decent thing and come and pick it up again. Fly-tipping is anti-social.

Just back from Kings, where I was seen straight away. I was dreading today because I was expecting all sorts of obstacles, but in the event everyone has been kind and professional and I have had quality care. Wasn't expecting that to be the case but I have to give all credit to DMC for getting me sorted out quickly.

I have to say that on this occasion DMC was pretty dam good. Didn't get allocated an appointment but the doctor called me to triage over the phone and had me in straight away. Have a letter to take to Kings this afternoon. Can't fault them.

I sympathise, tarpaulin is very noisy in these winds. I suspect that a good pair of ear plugs is all the relief you can expect. I think that Loz was joking but please don't untie it because it's not safe for you to be hanging so far out of your window, and you don't want a bloody big tarpaulin blowing down Barry Rd causing accidents.

Hello I just wanted to ask you resourceful people what to do to get some quick medical attention. I've been sick for nearly a week; all things being equal I would have seen a doctor days ago but I didn't have the energy required for DMC. I will have to have a stab at calling DMC tomorrow but what, if any, other options do I have? Sorry to sound needy but I'm quite worn out now so I don't have the energy to be re-dialling all morning. Just saying, My first port of call when I'm feeling rough is the pharmacy on Northcross, which has skilled and helpful people. Pharmacist is saying I should be going to the doctor now though. I didn't read this thread from the beginning but I've got the gist from the last page or so. Just a few points: I just registered with the Patient Access link to book at appointment online for DMC - it's offering me 8th April. Useless. I was also recently de-registered from DMC and I only found out when I called to get something. The first interaction I ever had with DMC was to get a prescription a few years ago. I didn't recognise the pills so when I got home from the pharmacy I googled them and saw that I'd been given penicillin, to which I'm allergic. I phoned DMC and the receptionist (a guy who hasn't worked there for some time), didn't put me on hold properly and I heard him say to a colleague in a bored voice "there's a woman moaning about her prescription". To put that error into some perspective, the last time I took penicillin I was in a critical condition at Kings for several weeks. When I was finally discharged I had lost all my hair (shock) all my fingernails and toenails (also shock) and a third of my body weight. I was off work for nearly six months and had to take dodgy medication which made me sound like I was pissed most of the time. It was not a good time and I am lucky I lived through it, so not best pleased at DMC. To be fair to DMC, the prescribing doctor phoned me and was very apologetic that she hadn't made the required checks or read my notes. Also, I think the receptionist received a large boot up the rear. You might think that, as they apologised at the time, it's a poor show to bring it up on a public forum. Perhaps. I accepted the apology but, subsequently, I've always been nervous around the care I've received from DMC. Penicillin is so life-threatening for me that I can't get beyond that incident. I need to find another surgery! Oh dear. Oops - longer post than I meant to do but I'm bored. Advice needed on where to go for medical help if I can't get into DMC though.

I think you're wrong about the power of the forum Rodney B. For example, a couple of years ago I used a Bromley firm that a friend in Bromley had recommended. They were a new start-up and keen as mustard. On the day, I saw his van parked outside my house 20 minutes before he was due. I went and knocked on his window and it turned out he was so early because he'd never been to ED before and left extra time for the journey. I left a glowing review on the forum. A year later I called him back for another job and he told me that he was getting 75% of his work from ED as a result of good reviews. We've all had a good laugh over the years when fake reviews have been exposed (there have been some real corkers), but the downside of that is that potentially they are taking business away from good firms that don't have to rely on fake reviews. I agree of course that we should all use our judgement, but more than that I think we should be self-policing and weeding out the fakes. I'm pretty sure Admin does that already. I don't want to get off point though because I was meaning specifically malicious reviews, where threats have been used to leverage a transaction. I think Admin's call was a good one. Trip Advisor and ebay both police their sites and remove reviews that are proven to be malicious. It's a difficult thing the prove and like anything else is open to abuse. Tricky.

Hospital

Guys, thank you for saying nice things. Some great posts and here are my thoughts in a rambling, unconnected, just had a glass of red wine, way. The Forum is such a valuable resource for getting recommendations it would be a shame for it to become the wild west. My own view is that all genuine reviews, good and bad, add value and long may they continue. The Forum has so much power that the reason I posted this (after a long absence) is that I?ve heard a few tales from local traders about being forced over a barrel and it crosses my sense of fair play and goes against the spirit of the Forum. The tradesman I wrote about is someone I know to do high-end work and has lashings of integrity. He is fully committed until mid-2015 on word of mouth so he must be doing something right. So yes, he can take a hit, but it rankles as a good reputation does not come easily. He isn?t being asked to correct bad workmanship; he?s being asked to do things for free that weren?t in the spec. In my book that?s blackmail but at best it?s the school bully grabbing your lunch money. I totally get that having building work done is stressful. I had a 9 month build 2 years ago and there were many times when I had to take a deep breath and count to ten to stop myself yelling at my builders. Sometimes I still yelled! There are differences of opinion but I believe that if the client and builder are both reasonable parties then most things can be sorted out. It is stressful and I?ve got the t-shirt. Trip Advisor is a useful analogy (thanks Damzel). I'm all over Trip Advisor before I book a hotel and some reviews definitely stand out as spiteful rather than factual. I remember reading an article once about rogue guests putting the screws on small hoteliers with the threat of bad reviews. That?s nasty. Whilst I?m not a fan of ebay and I don?t use it, there is an anti-extortion policy as regards feedback. If a buyer uses the threat of bad-feedback to leverage the transaction and then goes on to leave bad feedback, the seller can provide back-up emails to ebay to get that feedback removed and the buyer gets a strike. Even on ebay (which has little integrity IMO), threats are not tolerated as a bargaining tool. I've read the Sweetgirl/Noodle thread and I expect that we will never hear from Sweetgirl again but she will likely re-surface with a different user name so as to draw a line under Noodle-gate. Hopefully she will have gained some personal insight from that experience and come back wiser. Not so easy for a business to move on with a name-change. Rodneybews has a point; that could indeed be a viable scenario. Certainly I think we all need to keep our wits about us when reading reviews. Moreover, be prepared to call foul where we suspect there are rogue-reviews (good and bad). Self-policing I guess. Yes Katanita, it would indeed be a better world if we could all be more decent. It would be useful to hear directly from any local traders who think they have had the screws put on (you needn?t name the business). OY VEY Px

Over the years I've found the Forum a valuable resource for all-things local. A lot of people do. I'm sure that most Forum users are decent people who add value with their own posts, but unfortunately that's not the whole story. In quick succession I've had two local service-providers tell me that they've been threatened with bad reviews as a bargaining tool. Today I bumped into a local trader who was upset as he'd just had such a conversation. His company does excellent work and if you were to run a search on here you'd find lots of glowing reviews. He is passionate about his work and wants happy clients. I think the gist of his current dilemma is that if he doesn't throw in some extra work for free, he's going to get a mauling. The client isn't prepared to pay for materials or labour. They know how powerful the Forum is, and are gambling that his reputation is worth more to him than his profit margin. My advice was to give them a very firm "no". Easy for me to say though isn't it? Not sure how I'd respond if I'd spent years building up a successful company and someone was threatening to take my good reputation away.

Please don't ban Martha. She's awfully nice. Px

Local scouse - Lisa Moss on Northcross Market on a Saturday morning.

Watch out for the insurance. Perhaps phone in advance and ask about the insurance policy. My experience was that I was ripped off on insurance - I was asked how much everything was worth and made to take out their insurance, which was a policy that wasn't working in my favour. I didn't see that coming.

Involving the RSPCA is jumping to the conclusion that the dog is being mistreated, which may or may not be the case. Some dogs have massive separation issues and howl when they are left alone. The owner usually doesn't know anything about it. When I leave my dog alone I think she settles down and has a sleep, but if she was distressed and bothering neighbours then I would like to think that someone would knock at my door or leave me a note, rather than calling the RSPCA.

Have you tried looking for the house/garden where the dog is?

Sorry to poop the vegetable-dissing party, but the fact is that our digestive systems were made for us to exist on a diet primarily made up of fruit and vegetables. We don't eat nearly enough - the so called "5 a day is laughable". Worse, lots of supermarket produce is imported so it's picked before it's ripe so that it doesn't rot on the journey. I picked up a bag of lettuce the other day and it had come from the US! What are we doing importing lettuce from America - that should be coming from English growers. It's not a matter of patriotism; you source your fruit and veg as close to home as possible so that it doesn't have so far to travel and has maximum nutrients. If you really can't stomach eating vegetables, then buy a decent blender, make a green smoothie and knock it back quick. Fact is, as a nation we're over-fed and mal-nourished.

Sad loss. The Donny Osmond poster was a step back in time.

For those of us who are technically challenged, is it possible to post a direct link? Thanks.

I have CCTV at my property, which was installed by CCTV Camera Europe. Excellent service so I would like to recommend them, but my reason for posting here is that I had this rather unusual email this morning about them looking for people who want to tackle unusual problems using CCTV and appear on TV. I'm posting in case it is of interest to anyone. "I have been approached by Channel 4 (CCTV in Britain) and Channel 5 (Caught on Camera) looking to film how CCTV can effectively deter and solve problems. The bigger / more unusual the problem, the better, so if you are experiencing something like continual antisocial behaviour or siginifcant theft, then you could be suitable. I'm prepared to install FREE HD CCTV upgrades, so final CCTV Installation will be seriously impressive and it is a WIN WIN situation for everyone. If you or your business are interested in appearing on TV and want to tackle a problem using CCTV, please let me know? Regards & Thanks Eoin Clarke Managing Director CCTV Camera Europe (UK) Ltd www.cctvcameraeurope.com 02076274402 07977177775 View our latest videos Protect your Street - Protect your Business - 10 Tips for effective CCTV -

Running up that bill..... Still plenty of seats available on Eventim but you'll need to throw some serious time at it. Tickets will trickle back on and you'll need to be on the site at the right time, hitting your F5 button so that you can pick them up. If you haven't already figured it out, hit the "Event" button on the left hand side so that it separates the VIP tickets from the ordinary tickets. Like this: http://www.eventim.co.uk/kate-bush-tickets.html?affiliate=EUK&doc=erdetaila&fun=erdetail&action=tickets&erid=1168640&index_ytix=0&jumpIn=yTix&sort_by_ytix=event_name1&sort_direction_ytix=asc&scrollToAnchor=ticketTable If you don't have any luck then I suggest you try again between midnight and 1am tonight. She's not really for me but good luck to anyone who wants tickets. Persistence will pay off. I was lucky enough to see her perform live twice, both times with David Gilmour, and she was great.

Hi midivydale - if you really need to spring clean your appearance then you'll need to use a face cream which has active ingredients. Most products available in the shops have few active ingredients, although they often have huge marketing budgets! Given that you're also struggling with roseacea, you might like to consider going to a dermatologist. Try googling Tretinoin or Obagi. These are the types of creams that a dermatologist or medical practitioner would sell. You use tiny tiny amounts of these products, at bedtime. Sometimes a first-time user displays signs of dryness, but this is usually temporary. To be clear, nothing you buy over the counter will change your skin; for that you need retinals/retinoids. Obagi is very powerful and effective and you must buy it from a reputable source. People actually sell this on ebay but you should stay well clear. If you go to the website you can find legitimate places to buy. http://obagi.uk.com/ Feel free to PM me if you want to know where to get it. Personally, I use Tretinoin (0.025% proof) a couple of times a week at bedtime. If your current condition is caused by sun-damage then consider laser treatment. Nothing is more ageing than sun-damaged skin and to redress the damage you need to take drastic action - like a laser peel. The rest of the time I use ordinary moisturisers, as it is important to keep the skin hydrated. I have used lot of different products but the range I keep coming back to is Eminence, which is a range of organic natural products that have been around for over 50 years. Buy here http://theskinsmith.co.uk/ I particularly recommend the Lavender Night Eye Cream and the Sun Defence Mineral Powder (SPF 30). I am also fond of Trilogy's Rosehip Oil when I need a moisture surge! http://www.trilogyproducts.com/products/range/rosehip-oil?gclid=CIn50q7Dj70CFVKWtAoddGoAcA Aside from all this, I'm a firm believer that you are what you eat, so pay attention to your diet. It's a cliche that everyone bangs on about drinking a lot of water - but it is true. If I don't drink 2 litres a day minimum, my skin feels less hydrated. For make-up, keep it simple and don't buy too many products which will clutter up your make-up bag and you won't use. At the moment I'm using a lot from the Charlotte Tilbury range, which you can get from Selfridges. It really comes down to personal choice. http://www.charlottetilbury.com/ Your daytime moisturiser/foundation should always have minimum of 30SPF, even in winter, but use a product with no SPF if you're getting your photo taken as otherwise the flash will bounce off the SPF and make you look like a ghost (e.g. it's a disaster for a bride to wear an SPF on her wedding day. Oh, and get your eyebrows professionally shaped - that's a very cheap face-lift.

I understood about 15% of that SJ. But it like it.