Bellenden Belle

Thank you to Mustard for advising me to contact Brendan at NoFlies (and Loz for mentioning them to be a few weeks back) - just had a really good conversation with him and I think I'm going to let my pushy buyer push off.

Muffins78 - thank you for your reply. No - the buyer hasn't done a survey. She doesn't intend to - that was part of the deal with the ?25k off. She's a cash buyer so is in the position to call the shots and to walk away, with no cost to her if necessary.

I am in such a quandary and have heard so many conflicting opinions that I am going to throw this out. We have sold our house in principle. For ?25k less than the asking price (so ?750k for a three bed house on Maxted Road off Bellenden Road). We took the lower price as we'd found our dream home and we wanted a quick sale (we had loads of interest and it sold in just over a fortnight - unusual considering we went on the market in August when it's traditionally quiet.) Our dream house turned out to have ?50k worth of dampwork and needed major work - not part of our plan. So we have to pull out. Do we still continue with the sale of our house? Some have said that we should bide our time - we sold to a young girl moving in with her mates - ours is a family house and with an excellent school about to open on our road (a free school managed by Dulwich Hamlet) families are very likely to be interested. Others say house prices are falling and we should take the money, and go rent, ready to purchase when the moment arrives. But rent would be considerably more than our current mortgage and would then begin eating into our deposit for our next home. Neighbours have told me we undersold - and we were happy to because the figures worked for the house we thought we wanted to buy. Wise forumites - what to do?!

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,1347145,1351973#msg-1351973 This thread should help.....

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,1229102,1276615#msg-1276615 Here you go - hope it works out for you.

These threads can have more of an effect than you think... posted on a similar thread six years back that Carnell looked like a young Robert Redford. I now wonder what I was drinking at the time but am thrilled my toddler is a mixture of Redford and some would say Bjork! The tall geeky office comparison is a bit of a passion killer though.

Typing this whilst sitting in the Vic - clearly not that serious.

I'm going to stick my neck out here and say that I don't think I would risk my child being labelled different in this way. I went to an inner city primary. My parents had fancy ideas, god bless them, and dressed me in the most beautiful summer dresses. They passed the uniform test but they didn't pass the classmates test. Kids are a discriminatory bunch - I'd personally not want my child starting out to be labelled different, even in the silliest way.

Catch22 offers mentoring which can take place in the evenings or the weekends. There's a poster on here called Norfolkvillas who recently started mentoring I think - maybe drop her a pm? Also have a look at www.doit.org.uk

I disagree. A lot of kids that age have no idea what's available to them. I've done lots of community engagement programmes and working with that age the most common question you hear is 'how much? What do you mean it's free?". A lot of them can't imagine anything being given 'for free' and a lot of young people have already decided 'things are not for them' and exclude themselves. I don't have any solutions but I do think having youth work on a local level rather than expecting kids to travel London clutching a copy of Time Out is more likely to be successful. StraferJack Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > what quids said - > > saying "nothing to do" and living in London is > like a dictionary definition of "lack of > imagination"

Theron, Yes - I know the group, and yes they are there every day. I don't find them intimidating, just bored teenagers, hanging around with nothing to do except occasionally try and get off with one another. The idea of asking them for their advice regarding footballing skills is a little naive quite frankly... I think it's probably more of a reflection of a lack of decent youth club than anything else - not sure where we expect them to go to hang out. I don't think they are any worse than bored nonchalant teenagers from any other era, but I agree with Kikimac that you did well to challenge. My other half has done so about bad language previously and has got an apology before.

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,1271050,1271379#msg-1271379

About 30-40 minutes. 20 for a bath (10 if it's a shower) and then two bedtime stories.

StraferJack Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > aioili was BB's intended word I think? Correct!

After sampling a particularly fine mayonnaise a few weeks back I declared myself quite taken with the areola.

I have recently seen bowls closed on a Sunday so it is indeed worth seeking a visual confirmation

The odd thing was that I did think that he was an investigator of some kind when I was at the bus stop and just presumed his interest wasn't in me at all and that I was just being paranoid. But no, I am as straight as a die, and can think of absolutely no reason why any one would ever want to investigate me for any reason. Definitely not the DWP. It just makes no sense. If I hadn't had a two-year-old with me I would be more worried. But following a bus? I can only think that seeing that I showed discomfort at being watched and beckoned at one stop, he got a kick out of further scaring me....

The car was silver. I don't drive and just don't register makes - I wish I'd grabbed the numberplate but I just wanted to get away, The man was probably in his late 30s. Stocky. Olive skinned with dark hair - Southern Mediterranean appearnance.

I was followed by a man in a car yesterday. It started at the bus stop outside the Co-op funeral parlour, opposite Iceland. A man was parked in the side road - Shawbury Road I think - and kept making gestures with his head to come over. I thought it was odd and a bit creepy but ignored it. I then got on the bus and thought nothing more of it. I travelled to Forest Hill. A fairly long bus journey. I got off the bus, walked a little way, taking a fair bit of time as I was trying to work out my bearings as I was going to a new address, went to cross the road and there he was, parked in his car, hanging out the window.'You crossing the road then?' I turned and backtracked, crossing the busy main road instead at which point he drove away. I don't know what was behind it. The fact I was pushing a two year old asleep in a pram added to the creepiness of the situation. It seems an elaborate way to go about a mugging. I'm fine and when I get a chance I will report it to the neighbourhood team.

Nunhead 'village' dear god - will it never end?

Precisely. But if all schools adopted the system then it wouldn't make such a difference - such a system also uplifts schools in areas of high deprivation. The nodal point seems to be a very interesting development which also makes a lot of sense. Soulking Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Right, got it. So if you make the assumption that > because the area around dulwich hospital site is > relatively expensive, then children will more > likely end up in the higher bands, then this will > make the furthest distance for those bands less > than if you use a distance based criteria alone. > So if you are in se15, or on the wrong side of > east dulwich (me!), and you believe your child > might end up in the higher band, you will then > actually have less chance of getting in (if > compared to distance alone). > However, I do recognise some of the arguments for > using bands, I just don't think it will help some > of those posting on this forum saying they would > have more chance with a banding + distance based > system.

Soulking - in areas like London good schools create their own catchment area through house prices that are prohibitive to disadvantaged families. Those same families are likely to have children who are achieving higher educational results than those in poorer areas, just because they have access to better resources and may well have better educated parents more able to support them. Distance alone just creates middle class self selection. The system isn't without flaws - it still won't help the bright child who lives miles away. But it means the intake will definitely be truly comprehensive in terms of pupils' ability. But the more schools that adopted that system in an area the fairer education would become.

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,1224207,1224581#msg-1224581

Agree with everyone above. I don't pay holiday pay because they are self employed (like myself - and I certainly don't get holiday pay. But I pay 11 pounds an hour - so more than 25 per cent above the living wage. I still have them clean when I'm away - if I took long holidays I would probably expect to pay a retainer.

Why go through an agency? I've always hired cleaners directly and paid well above the living wage.