JulieP

Hi, have you tried: http://www.mannasociety.org.uk/ or http://aceofclubs.org.uk/

Agree with the others that the Elms is the only residential care home in ED and seems to be very well liked by residents and their families. Hill House (the Abbeyfield home in Sydenham) has now closed. Castlebar is still open and has nursing and residential places. There is also Greenhive in Peckham/Nunhead which is a residential care home (and another home from the same company on Sumner road in Peckham). As Pugwash says, there is a shortage of care home places in SE London so if nursing care is also required, this reduces the options available. There are three nursing homes in Southwark borough (Burgess Park in Camberwell, Tower Bridge (on Tower Bridge Road) and Queens Oak in Peckham). Lew Evans house (SE22) provides extra sheltered accommodation but this is not 24 hour care in the sense of a residential home. If you get in touch with social service, they should be able to help determine the level of care required.

There will be Christingle services at St John's on Goose Green at 3pm and another at 4.30pm

Hi Sue, Yes - there will be carols at 11 then midnight mass starts at 11.30.

My 8 year old has been going to South London Dance Studios since the age of 3 and has done ballet, modern and tap. However, she has now been banned from ever participating in another show (because we had to pull out as she wants to miss one practice session to attend a friend?s party). She loves dancing and has enjoyed doing shows / exams so she cannot stay there. I have looked at some of the schools locally and many seem to cater for younger children or only do ballet. Does anybody have any recommendations for schools where she will be able to continue with what she was doing - but perhaps with a bit less pressure? Thanks

Both of ours were stolen earlier in the year. Police gave us the same advice - also make sure you carry the v5 doc around in case they stop you. We didn't get any fines or hear anything more about it. Got new plates from halfords and they were attached with special screws which are supposed to make them a bit more difficult to take off.

I have a scanned copy my marriage certificate as a pdf on my iphone which seems to be acceptable. Have been stopped on several occasions and staff have said that although it's obvious they are my kids, they still have to go through the motions.

Pickle Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I will, once all my kids are at school, look at > retraining. > > I have an accountancy degree, and worked in CA > firms, and investment banks. Money good, quality > of life, shite. I also play flute, and did so > professionally for many years in an orchestra in > NZ, as well as teaching. Was brilliant, but very > unsociable hours and these days I lack the > time/motivation to put the hours of practice in. > > These days I find myself thinking I'd enjoy > working with the elderly. Terribly paid, and > tends to be the focus of documentaries for all the > wrong reasons, but it's something I am > increasingly finding myself drawn to. > > Before I had my son I was thinking of doing a > personal trainer course, and I still think I would > enjoy that sort of work. > > Maybe I should combine the two?! > > For now I'm enjoying being a stay at home Mum :) Combining exercise and working with older people is certainly feasible! There are training courses you can do (on top of exercise instructor courses) to teach exercise classes to older people to prevent falls and assist with rehabilitation after stroke. See http://www.laterlifetraining.co.uk/courses/ for details. I am a physiotherapist (not retrained but been so since leaving uni). I work with older people and this includes exercise and I love what I do - so another option could be to retrain as a physiotherapist?

Red Cross on old kent road or http://www.emmaus.org.uk/greenwich I think both can collect

We are also looking at a new kitchen in the next couple of months. Thanks for all the links and advice, they have really helped with decisions on cupboards, flooring and worktops. We are ready to start looking for tradesmen to do this now and I have done an extensive search in the business section here but few recommendations seem to be repeated by seasoned posters.Do any of you who have done this, have any advice about how to start the search for someone to do this work? PMs of your experiences of local tradesmen would also be very helpful if possible. A quick question on flooring. I like the idea of the Karndean / Rhino floors as I am sure there will be a massive increase in breakages if I go for tiles (this was my original plan). How hard wearing is it? The Amtico tiles look lovely on the floor in LL carpets. But when I got home and moved the dining chairs about over a sample, it scratched the surface of the tile quite easily.

My daughter was coming up to 4 when she had the same surgery. She had it at St Thomas' and went to a pre op clinic where a play therapist showed her the anaesthetic mask/ drip etc. I'm not sure how much she remembered when it came to the day however. They also recommended that we read books about hospital (i.e. Tim goes to hospital - from Topsy and Tim series) and make a special trip to get a dressing gown / slippers etc. On the day, there is a bit of waiting around as you have to arrive early but the hospital have lots of toys to keep them occupied. I don't remember the fasting being too much of a problem as we arrived at 7am and went down about 11. Immediately after the surgery she woke up screaming. It was horrible, but realised that all the children coming back from surgery were doing the same thing. I think it was just the shock of waking up somewhere strange and perhaps related to the anaesthetic. 20 minutes later she was drinking and eating and an hour later running around the ward! I think usually you have to stay overnight but as my husband is a doctor, they let us go the same day. She did have quite a lot of pain afterwards (which is normal), for around 2 weeks. This included night time waking when the medication wore off. Just have to have the calpol ready for this and my daughter settled very quickly again once dosed up. Usually they will need to take antibiotics as well as regular pain killers for 2 weeks. Had a 5 week old and a son who came out in chicken pox the following day which added an extra challenge! However, don't regret it at all. Having had either tonsillitis or a chest infection almost every 2 weeks from the age of one, I don't think she has needed any antibiotics since. Happy to talk to you if you need more info.

It is a lovely service to bring children to, your 2.5 year old will love it. Lots of people will bring babies. It certainly doesn't last more than 1 hour (probably shorter than this to cater for the audience - but can't remember exactly) and there will be plenty of carols.

Ferritin is where the iron is stored in the body. Low levels can eventually cause an iron deficiency anaemia. Iron is needed to make haemoglobin in the blood and low levels of haemoglobin (your blood test would have also checked Hb levels) could cause some of the symptoms you are having. The usual treatment is iron tablets. Your GP will probably want to find out why the levels are low. It could be related to diet but often in women can be associated with heavy periods. Not aware of much reading on this but NHS choices explains it reasonably well: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Anaemia-iron-deficiency-/Pages/Introduction.aspx Hope you feel better soon.

Did this for my 6 year old daughter last year. She chose a theme and some of them dressed up (super heroes). Then had pin the cape on the super hero, decorate your own super hero mask, musical bumps, statues and pass the parcel as well as party tea with jelly and ice cream. Manic - but the kids loved it.

I have two boys. They are polar opposites. One slow to crawl and walk, laid back (and possibly a bit lazy - if he can get someone else to do it for him he will). The other started jumping when he turned one and hasn't really stopped since. They are two different little people and I love them to bits - but not for what they can do. Also never underestimate a slow burner, they may turn out to be a late bloomer (the hare and the tortoise and all that).

What makes me cross about this kind of advice is that it makes you start to question your instincts as a parent. IME breastfed babies are very good at knowing what they need and if baby is happy and you are happy (if tired and drained - quite literally sometimes)then try not to worry. I had the opposite problem to you, BF babies that would not use bottles and as they got older slowly went down the percentile chart. However, they were happy and developing normally. Despite not putting on that much weight, they sometimes fed every 3-4 hours and I grew to accept that it was just part of the experience! The HV gave me such a lot of hassle about my first child not putting on weight that I really lost confidence. However, she is now 7, normal height and weight and perfectly OK. Needless to say (except for the 6 week check), I never took my 2nd or 3rd to be weighed. Sounds to me like you are doing just fine. Try not to lose confidence in your instincts.

St John's at Goose Green has a Christingle service at 4pm on Christmas eve.

Just a thought and I'm sure that the docs wouldn't have missed this, but mine all got a rash on their face between 6 and 8 weeks (they were then exclusively bf) and HVs told me this was related to my hormones. My eldest had this the worst and the HV suggested we see the GP who prescribed some antibiotics as he thought they had got infected. They cleared up quickly after this.