sidmeister

My daughter is nearly 4 now, and is beginning to express an interest in cricket, which I?m actively encouraging (a love of cricket runs in my family, and I?m hoping I can pass it down one more generation). I have been trying to find cricket coaching for little ones, but the ones I could find at Lord?s and the Oval all appear to only be available on weekday mornings which I cannot do. Are there any cricket clubs in the Dulwich area that run organised coaching for kids this small? Thanks in advance!

I'm totally with the OP on this. As a motorcyclist, it would make a massive difference to my daily commute.

catfood, I'm sorry, but I call whataboutery! Just because I'm complaining about cyclists does not imply that I think car drivers can do no harm. Additionally, thanks to license plates and ANPR, it's much easier to catch a car driver than a cyclist.

Nigello, like bawdy-nan says, it's nothing to do with whether contra-flow cycling is a good idea down Choumert Road (I think it isn't, but I'm not a traffic planner). But as it stands, there are no contraflow cycle lanes on Choumert Road, and as long as there aren't any, people should not be driving through No Entry signs.

Admittedly, it's a long wiggle around Reedham Street, Sandison Street, and Maxted Road otherwise. But in my opinion, if you're not willing to take the extra effort, then don't bike. Alternately, get off your bike and push it for a 100 yards. My problem is, if we start to selectively ignore the rules of the road, we might as well not have any at all.

Thanks for the tips, all. The Safer Neighbourhoods team are going to send a policeman over tomorrow morning to monitor the situation. Hopefully, with any luck, they'll be able to spot and stop a few of them, though I have a bad feeling they'll all stick to the law after seeing a police presence.:-)

Penguin68, sadly, the way cycle lanes are designed by TFL bears a lot of similarity to how borders in Africa were drawn in the 19th century ? some bloke drawing cycle lanes at random on a map and saying, "Oooh look, we've improved cycling provision in London".

Not at this junction, DulwichFox. And for good reason, because it is near a primary school, and a very complicated T-junction with two way roads and one one-way road. The reason we do not have a contraflow lane is because it's too narrow for a car and a cyclist to pass safely at all times (and certainly not during rush hour).

I live on Choumert Road just off Bellenden Primary, and lately, I've begun to notice that multiple cyclists (and on one occassion a car) ignore the no-entry sign next to the Le Petitou Cafe. A lot of these cyclists ride past fairly quickly, and in the last few weeks, I have almost been knocked off by one when a pedestrian and run the risk of a crash when in my car. IMO, This is dangerous (not to mention illegal) behaviour as it puts a number of small children (not to mention adults) crossing the road and not expecting fast moving cyclists coming the wrong way. In fact, quite often, the cyclists tend to cycle by on the right-hand side of the one way street. The infractions happen mostly during rush hour in the morning. Might anybody have any suggestions as to how I could get the police over for at least a few days to somehow stop this menace before it hurts somebody?

We had ours at King's (same as Rio Ferdinand, we found out later :)) and used the Lanes' midwives. I cannot praise them enough. You can't go wrong with Vanessa and co.

After having had a pretty woeful experience with some of the doctors at the DMC, I did not hold too high an opinion of the DMC. But my wife just came back raving about Dr. Prabhakaran and wanted me to sixth (or seventh) her. I am a bit reluctant to do so, coz then it might become nigh impossible to request an appointment with her. ;-)

@nunheadmum If you suspect it's not giving you the offer you expect to be receiving because it knows it's you, it may be just using cookies. If you're using Google Chrome or Firefox, open up an incognito window and checking it out. On Chrome, the shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+N (Cmd+Shift+N if you're on a Mac). HTH.

Happy Gardener, I am honestly not interested in the slightest in entering into an argument over my faith or lack thereof. I respect your right to believe in whatever it is you believe in, as long as you allow me to *not* believe whatever I wish to *not* believe in. Sadly, at this point, I think this thread has outlived its usefuleness, but I'm glad I received all of the interesting and thought provoking responses.:-)

Wow, thanks everybody, that was very interesting indeed. As a new parent (who was brought up in a religion himself), it's very useful to receive tips from all of you who are bringing kids up in religion. Thanks for the clarifications re. RE. I didn't go to school in the UK, and had no idea what it involved. I didn't realise it was ABOUT religion, which I agree is a v.g. thing

@boswell, yes, I moved here several years ago upon reaching adulthood; I forgot to mention it. I found that the UK was an incredibly easy place to be irreligious in as an adult (especially when compared to some of the religious ****wittery that abounds where I grew up). But what worried me about irreligiosity was some newspaper articles I've read about RE being compulsory in all stare schools. But the very fact that your first question was whether I was from outside the UK reassures me no end. It's clearly not going to be an issue! :-D

At the very outset, I would like to make it as clear as is humanly possible that I do not wish in any way to insult anybody else's religious beliefs, and that I apologise if I have caused any offence.:-) Neither my wife nor I is particularly keen on organised religion, and are planning on bringing our soon-to-arrive baby up without adherence to any particular faith (we believe morality and ethics do not necessarily have to be tied to faith). I'd be very interested in hearing from other parents with no strong religious beliefs who are attempting to bring their children up in ED outside the tenets of organised religion. I feel it shouldn't be too hard when the child is really small, but: * Did this influence your choice of school? * Have your children had trouble fitting in school because of a lack of religious belief? * Have demands been placed on them to pigeon-hole themselves into a religious denomination of some sort? * How have you handled awkward questions around religious festivals etc? (We do celebrate Christmas ourselves though neither of us is Christian ? it's just nice to have a bright few days all about sharing, giving, and love in the darkest days of winter. Also, I'm a sucker for Christmas trees).

Bump. Is there anybody who's sent their child to this nursery? :-)

Wow, thanks for the replies, guys! So I wasn't overreacting then! :-) I guess this isn't quite the right thread to ask general questions about nurseries (feel free to shoot me down), but I had a couple of other related questions: * Could you recommend any nurseries that I can register the little one with before birth? * About nurseries for very young kids, has any of you that's used them found an issue with the baby being very susceptible to infections?

I would recommend Marzena, who's been cleaning my place for almost 2 years. I pay her ?11 an hour through this agency called Domestic Shine (Joanna: 07891 653 122). Marzena's English is very limited (she's Polish and also speaks rudimentary Russian), but I haven't found that to be a problem especially as the quality of her work is absolutely top notch!

My wife and I are expecting a baby next spring (I know, 'tis very early!), and we were trying to figure out how early is too early to start registering for nursery places. We expect to need to use it when our baby's about 8 months old, and will probably be looking at a place for all 5 days of the week as both of us work full-time. Thanks!

I know this thread is long dormant, but I thought I'd add my two penn'orth here. I moved over from SE22 six months ago, and in the time I've been in this hellhole called "up and coming" Peckham Rye, I've had my motorbike vandalised twice and knocked down once (the repair bills are now running close to what the bike cost to buy), dodgy geezers hanging out outside my house every day, my car scratched up, and rubbish thrown into my front garden (empty beer cans, cigarette butts, plastic bags, and other assorted items of rubbish) every single day. And this is right next to the fabled Bellenden Road. After six months of staying here, all I can say is don't move to SE15 if you can help it. SE22, where I used to live, is far far far better.

Partygirl 24, I agree entirely with the sentiment you were attempting to convey in your message, but might I suggest you consider punctuation? Yours sincerely, Your friendly neighbourhood (U-30) grammar Nazi

If you venture out to Bellenden Road on Peckham Rye (just off ED), you may find the Payless Supermarket useful. I thought they were reasonably priced.

Il Mirto on Melbourne Grove fits the bill for a nice, friendly, family-run Italian restaurant.

That should work well, jrpfinch, thanks a million. I was very confused by the whole parking permit thing as, by some quirk of a benevolent fate, I have never had to live on a road that required parking permits before this.:-)