Dorothy

The immediate vicinity of Goodrich School was heaving, as usual. My daughter was beyond scathing that some well-meaning and health conscious soul thought raisins constituted a treat.

Thanks Ruth, I will look out for it.

I'd like to buy a book for my daughter, who is just for the first time experiencing some mild unpleasantness in the playground from some girls in her peer group. I don't want anything too heavy and I think that Queen Bees And Wannabees book is probably too old for her. I wouldn't mind if it was fiction, rather than non-fiction, so long as it is quite light and the excluded girl wins through in the end! Does anyone have a recommendation for me - fiction or non-fiction welcome. Thank you.

When I was a student a group of us were on a train en route to a party when we suddenly realised the train wasn't scheduled to stop at the particular station we wanted. It was one of those routes that involved a stop at every station on the stopping service but at major stations only on the fast service - and we were on the fast service. Anyways, we had a word with the guard (this was the early 80s, so there were guards :) on Saturday evening trains in the middle of the country), and he got the driver to make an unscheduled stop at our station just to let us off. Public transport employees can be human and flexible, thank goodness.

Rubber tap swirlies Crocheted doilies Old ladies wearing nylon housecoats

Pearson, if it makes you feel any better, I got the jist of what you were saying perfectly clearly! Mere words on a screen often get misinterpreted like this; its what makes forum life a little tiresome at times.

Quite. We are not exactly awash with state secondary school choices in this area, so we will probably all apply to Kingsdale. If anything, though, I found the open day slightly off-putting for the same reasons as you Curmudgeon. I think thats what I was saying in my post above, come to think of it.

I went to the open morning today and was rather disconcerted by the "hard sell" of the deputy head's talk. The school is now very much over-subscribed, I understand, and I do wonder if their open mornings could be better spent explaining the admissions criteria and answering questions like how come they can keep class sizes so small in a more open and transparent manner.

I am sure there has been another thread about a barking dog at the top end of Crystal Palace Road in the past few months.

Yes, I agree with you.

Heh heh. Atticus - I made a point about the bizarre special treatment afforded to The Actress by this forum on the original long-running thread this morning, before seeing this one. I agree with you fwiw.

Yuck at the casual misogny on this thread.

there was another bottle of wine in the house.

HerneHope - was the BBC London coverage bumped because of the Tube Strike? I looked out for you all (didn't make it down there, too wet for me, sorry!) but don't think you were on last night?

Martin - you won't be there next Saturday will you? I am bringing my children for the first time, v. excited. (I can claim a slight connection to you - my good friend PA was your lodger in your town house in that nice Cathedral city in the early 80s. P worked in the craft market. Yours was the very first answerphone I ever left a message on, come to think of it. When P visited you in hospital you made a very funny comment about what you didn't want for Christmas). Anyway, I have only ever heard positive things about Zippos Circus from my many East Dulwich friends who have seen your show. Can't believe I have let my children get to the ages of 7 and 9 without coming before now.

When I worked in an Estate Agency in Plymouth we sold a three bedroom semi-detatched ex-council house with a large garden for ?8,000. Similar to the houses on Red Post Hill (for your East Dulwich reference).

I find this totally baffling, you poor people. We got to London Swim School (at Crystal Palace pool) - not perfect, but I'm beginning to look at it more favourably after these shocking stories. We book online. Takes seconds.

Am amazed so many people have mis-read the op. She wants to swim in an adult only lane-type swimming arrangement, without her toddler in the pool, and cannot do so because the creche is not open at adult only swim times during the day. Good luck with getting it sorted fmay.

What kind of stalls will they be? Yet more food? I am not a fan of the market. I don't hate it, but I find it all a bit meh. Years ago local legend had it that the waiting list for a pitch was two years.

The horses were out grazing on the common yesterday afternoon. They do look incredibly healthy.

Ok, I apologise for saying "you mingers". You have clearly taken me literally and I suppose I can't blame you as you do not know me and my sense of humour and these are words on a screen and you couldn't see the expression on my face and so on etc. However, if it doesn't upset you too much, I feel I must say that I do not agree that just because I am a mum I need to be supporting you to not flush poo down the toilet where it belongs. I am perfectly happy about the rubbish and recycling collection changes. Like many others on this thread, we are a family of four and am quite certain that we can manage with one green bin collection per fortnight.

"resorting to unecessary and uncalled for name calling" ?

Am not going to argue the toss with you Clare. If flushing poo down the toilet doesn't reduce the amount of festering excrement in wheelie bins in the case of ebf babies, then it certainly does for the other 75%+ of the average child's nappy-wearing life. Babies do not produce liquid poo for very long.

Thank you Clux! Code still working today :)) Tara - I would wait for a couple of years. Your two year old won't remember if you take him/her at this age and might possibly be overwhelmed by the crowds and noise.

Clare C - by my rough calculations I have changed about 2000 nappies from exclusively breastfed babies, and perhaps 5,000 nappies in total. (Two children, ebf for six months, weaned thereafter, both potty trained by about 2 and 3/4) so, give me a little credit, I do know what I am talking about.