Bumpkin

Unfortunately I bought my annual season ticket at L Bridge so it's Southeastern, anyone know if I'd stand a chance of getting a refund from Southern given I live in ED and mainly use the Southern trains?...

Ok ????, but what do you suggest people do? It's a serious question as I'm very concerned about the direction that Trump and the impact of Brexit is taking us and would like to do something positive to offset these events rather than just moan to my friends and carry on with my nice little life. Signing petitions and going on marches can be sneered at as a 'look at me' or disregarded as of no ultimate impact, but is it better to just carry on with your day job feeling frustrated about the events unfolding around us? I don't honestly know. I'm not able to give up my job and start doing anything amazing but don't want to just be a miserable spectator. Advice welcome..

My 8 year old has been going to the music school on Saturday mornings for 2 years now and loves it despite being generally reluctant to do any organised activity. He's come on in leaps and bounds with playing the trombone and loves performing at the showcases. The teachers are great, really enthusiastic and supportive and there's a wide range of instruments available to learn.

As I've posted previously, Virgin always quotes fixes 3 months hence therefore they will currently be stating Jan for their fix. Come Jan they will be stating April... On the plus side, their engineers are very good at coming round to sort slow speeds every few months if you can be bothered getting through the automated phone maze.

To add to the recommendations, Atanas recently re-fitted a bathroom for me and his team did a fantastic job at a very reasonable price. Atanas was very professional, easy to contact, his men worked hard and got the job done on time and the labour quote was as originally agreed. I messed up with a couple of orders, but everything was 'no problem', with Atanas offering suggestions and sourcing things cheaper than I could buy where I asked him to. I was wary of using a bathroom fitter purely on Forum recommendations as have yet to find a decent handyman on here despite glowing references for some, but would heartily recommend Atanas and his team and will definitely use him for building / plumnbing work in the future. Feel free to pm me if you want a more detailed reference.

I've used Nina Christie on Lordship Lane several times for repairs and she was very reasonable (possibly partly as I have several things from her shop already as she sells lovely stuff).

My son's front milk tooth went grey, presumably from a bash and our dentist at the time noticed it and said it had been damaged. It went back to white again so I didn't think any more about it, however his adult tooth then came through with a significant patch of white on it due to enamel not forming properly and a different dentist said it would have been due to damage to a milk tooth and was rather shifty when I asked whether this could have been prevented by taking the original milk tooth out. I'd definitely get it checked out.

Much sympathy to you, I had a very similar situation and it can really drag you down. Echo the comments re exercise, caffeine, screen time but also I got a prescription of sleeping pills which got my body used to actually sleeping again and I found it easier to sleep afterwards. Can't remember the make, but it was a good one, I didn't take everyday, but knowing I had some helped as well on a psycological basis. Found the herbal sleeping pills useless.

We've had ongoing issues with Virgin as above and they have continually stated a date 3 months hence for the capacity issue being fixed (we're opp G Green). Take no notice, come 30th March they will be promising the upgrade from 30th June..

I recently had some threading done by Sema on the basis of these recommendations and am really happy. Would definitely recommend.

Another thought is to read Sali Hughes book 'pretty honest'. She's the beauty editor for the Guardian and as a not v clued up 40 something I found it v helpful and inspiring if you want a makeup / skin care refresh.

we've got underfloor heating in our large open plan kitchen / living area and it's fine. It's been down around 10 years I think (we didn't put it in) and the only issue we have is that it takes a while to get going at the beginning of the winter, not as quick to warm up as radiators. That (tiny) issue aside, it's no problem at all, would recomend. Great not to have to have radiators on the walls, sometimes I wish I could have a rug to make the room feel warmer but clearly would actually make it colder! I'd go for it.

A friend and I took our 7 yr olds who enjoyed it although I was a bit perturbed that on presented with a choice as to whether to swallow a pill containing an unknown substance (the exhibition is about 'decisions'), they looked at each other, said 'I will if you will..' and readily swallowed them. I had thought I had sensible, cautious boy, sigh. I was also amused that the blurb about the exhibit where you can be hooked up to a trapeze said that part of it was to make the participant feel embarrassed that they were being displayed hanging 'like a sack of potatoes'. Made me wonder how much of it was the artist laughing at us fee paying participants. Anyway, it's a different thing to do and the slides were not quite as scary as they looked thank goodness.

I'd try to borrow as much in the way of clothes as possible if it's your first time and buy stuff once you know that you all enjoy it! Decathalon does good cheap thermals and ski jackets / trousers. Not sure when they start selling, but we got all our stuff at the Canada water one LY. Definitely Hire ski's, boots, poles once you are there (personally I'd hire helmets too as not much storage in our flat). My 7 yr old wore his school coat as it was a decent waterproof one and he was a beginner and we got him Decathalon trousers that have extending legs so they should last longer. As WoD says, layers are sensible, you don't want a mega warm ski jacket if it's going to be warm and sunny (can get quite hot with the sun in the Alps if you're lucky). Better with a thinner jacket with fleece + thermal vest. You will want long johns and decent socks although if you wear a thin pair of normal socks underneath, you don't need a pair per day of ski socks. Have fun!

Hi James Out of interest, do you know how big the Harris Boys ED site is for comparison? Is there anything that prospective parents can do at this stage to lobby for more land being released for the new school? thanks for all your help on this, I'm very excited that this could be opening so soon.

You know what, we all had cake and custard for pudding at school everyday in the 70's and I don't think it's a problem at all. they are young and run around and we can definitely over fuss (from someone who only cooked organic non sugar stuff for her baby / toddler). It's a nice treat for the kids which makes them like school meals and probably significantly cheaper to knock out a cake and custard than give out individual yoghurts, the cheap ones of which will be loaded with sugar anyway. I doubt the pudding cakes are that sweet anyway, sugar's expensive. the meals look to me to be far healthier in general than my ones back in the day and much nicer than a packed lunch.

I found Bells really helpful, Tony was immensely patient whilst we ummed and ahhed over choices and swapped things over when we changed our mind at the last minute for no charge. We've just had our bathroom completed by them this week and would definitely recommend he can source pretty much everything you want.

Resham, you raise the issue of our council tax being higher than Wandsworth as being a major issue. I'm presuming you want to reduce Southwark's tax? If so, what do you propose to cut in order to fund this? Are you suggesting that your priority is to win in a race to the bottom in terms of council tax paid and public services provided or do you have a really good way of reducing tax without any job losses or service reductions?

seconded thumbs up for Jack, it's not easy dealing with numerous children / adults clamouring for your attention at the beginning and end of the day in the office and Jack has always been calm, friendly and very helpful over the 2 and a bit years my son has been going there. Everyone can have an off day, unfortunate to have it put on the forum. We're extremely happy with G Green overall, last week my son said it was his favourite place to be and this comes from a boy who hated nursery and group activities with a passion prior to school.

As a private landlord of one flat... I ask for 1 month rent up front and 6 weeks deposit which goes in the Government run tennancy deposit scheme, this seems pretty standard and gives some buffer to cover potential non payment of rent and damage to property. The other actual costs involved in setting up a new tenancy are credit checks which I can get done for around ?35 per tennant, an inventory check in which cost me around ?120 for a 2 bed flat and a deep clean of the flat paying a cleaner around ?10 per hour, maybe 5 hrs. Also the cost of advertising the flat which is either free on gumtree or around ?50 to get on rightmove etc. The rest is just my time in printing out a standard tenancy agreement and changing names / addresses (10 minute job) and showing people round the flat. Anything else is just estate agent padding and they will be taking a hefty fee off the landlord too, so as SLad says, I'd be tempted to negotiate hard, however it depends on how many other potential tenants are prepared to pay those fees.. Or try to find a flat through a nice private landlord who doesn't charge the earth.

We've got secondary glazing but it was specifically to cut noise down as we're on a main road. I was told that it doesn't really impact on the heat that much as the gap is too big. Works a treat with the noise, isn't that noticeable (but it's a bedroom so don't look at it that much). If you're specifically only looking for reducing heat loss, I'd go double glazing or even a thick pair of curtains or ones with thermal lining, I had those in a room with drafty single glazing and they made a big difference.

We had a fab time tonight (although was horrified to be picked to be part of the 'musical comedy' act), sorry to see it was only around half full, maybe as it was the last performance, would definitely go again (and avoid all eye contact with the clown..).