meakit

Just wanted to add another recommendation for Ronaldo Mazzer. He has done lots of great work for me over the years as well as for my parents and sister (all living in and around Peckham/East Dulwich). Work has included decorating, plastering, floor sanding, kitchen cabinetry. Recently he installed a hearth fire surround and mantle piece. His work is always of the highest standard. He is efficient, tidy, flexible, reliable. Number - +44 7894 265676

Ive got 3 - 2.5, 4 and 5 and its hard. Totally agree that the arrival of number 3 was no problem at all, easy birth, easy breastfeeding, all that lovely sleeping they do (I could do all that again in a moment!!). But now that they are toddlers/school age life is very very hard and more exhausting than ever. Getting around is difficult (1 scooter, 1 pushchair, 1 walking), any 2 together is fine but 3 together and they fight, I havnt had 1-on-1 time with any of them for about 2 years, my husband and I never have a day off or even a lie in (which means we sometimes fight!!), holidays are hellishly expensive (have to hire a massive car), childcare costs are astronomical and we found it very hard to find a nanny - several just point blank refused to look after 3. My husband and I both have to work full time (he 8-6, me 9-9) to afford this crazy life. So Ive got 3 children but I only ever see them at weekends and for 1 hour in the mornings. Hummmmmm! Love them all madly though and wouldnt be without them.

According to the land registry, the East Dulwich end of Bellenden Road, despite its SE15 postcode, is actually East Dulwich, or at least is was in 1876! As a Bellednen Rd resident I think this is the best place to live - 5 mins walk to ED and Peckham Rye station and one day the East London Line, a good selection of shops on the door step and lordship lane a 10 min walk away. Peckham high street is not my fave place, Ive lived here all my life and love Peckham, but and I dont find it charmingly 'colourful', I think its just smelly, but it is useful to have a Boots, Mothercare, Dixons within walking distance.

Shingles and chicken pox are caused by the same virus. Basically, you catch chicken pox, get better and then the virus lies dormant in your body for the rest of your life. When you are elderly or otherwise vulnerable it can reactivate and thats shingles. Each time an adult spends time with a child which chicken pox they effectively get a booster, enhancing their immunity to the virus and protecting them against shingles. The people at risk of shingles, if children were vaccinated, would be us lot. Not the children. There are also currently calls to vaccinate over 70s against shingles. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8487987.stm If this goes ahead, then why not give children, and families, the benefit of childhood vaccination against CP? Finally, according to the BBC article, there is no evidence in the US where all children are vaccinated that there is a higher incidence of shingles in the adult population. Can anyone tell me - if you get vaccinated and never contract chicken pox can you get shingles at all? It seems to me that if the virus has never got into your system it wouldnt be possible to get shingles. Im really interested to hear that some people are getting their children the vaccine privately. I wish I had done that.

This debate has been raised today on the bbc news website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8557236.stm I was just wondering what people think about vaccinating against chicken pox. When my 3 children recently had chicken pox over a 4 week period it was one of the hardest most miserable experiences of my life. Not to mention awful for them. 2 of them had it terribly badly, my 18 month old ended up with a secondary, potentially life threatening secondary infection called cellulitis for which he had to have emergency hospital treatment. When I saw my children, covered in spots and sicker than they had ever been, I was furious that we are not vaccinated against it in the UK. We have friends in the US and Canada who were shocked that we in the UK still all go through this, when they are all vaccinated. For them it is a thing of the past. Isnt that great? Another issue is that, while I am a stay at home mum so this wanst an issue for me, if I worked Id have had to take 4 weeks off. And what about the threat to the baby in the early stages of pregnancy? Children are infectious for a couple of days before the 1st spots appear making it hard for pregnant mums to avoid it. And what about protecting people with compromised immune systems, those under going cancer treatment etc? Finally, what about the 10% or so of adults who dont catch it as children. They are at risk of very serious illness when they are exposed. I think the NHS is cost saving by relying on the anti-vaccination sentiment created by 1 scientific paper, now totally discredited, about the MMR. And also relying on the fact that as a society we just put up with chicken pox. Its not a rite of passage, its a horrible, dangerous, totally preventable infectious disease. The fact that my own children wont have to go through it again is not really a comfort because I know that every single other parent and child in the country will have to go through it until the vaccination policy changes. Id love to hear what other people think?

posted in the wrong place sorry!

Thanks Tommy. I will start writing letters! Its encouraging to hear that sometimes things get done as a result. Im sure it would be good for business, and just lift the area generally and with shops closing and new ones brave enough to try to open in these crunchy times the street needs all the help it can get.

I live on Bellenden Rd and Love it, Ive lived in this area for 30 years and I dont plan to move! But I do have someting to grumble about! THE BINS! I counted 21 bins on Bellenden Rd between the junctions with Choumert Rd and Maxted Rd today, and the one near the kebab shop was over flowing with oil drums, black bin bags etc. Other shopping streets in london manage to keep the bins out of sight. Surely that is possible here too? In fact the shops between Chadwick Rd and Choumert Rd have hardly any bins outside so it looks possible to put them away. Its such a waste of the fabulous wide pavement, with beautiful bar code paving design to obscure it with rubbish. Sitting outside drinking coffee or buying organic food would be a much more appealing prospect if the view/smell was a bit better! Has anyone else noticed this? (Im really not as up tight as this post makes me sound! I just want to see BR thriving.)