pilsbury

Is it still possible to buy DHFC merch from the bar in the evenings?

I did a huge picnic on Peck Rye for my husband's 40th - got everyone to bring their own food and we just had a lovely afternoon munching, drinking and playing rounders! If you'd rather hire a private room - the lordship, the victoria inn and the edt all have rooms you can hire. Thx for the goboat tipoff, am thinking of getting one of those for his next BD!

yes agreed! i was there for 3.5 hours (!!) with my 7 and 5 year old and they absolutely loved it, particularly the sand and water bits (the huge slides are a wee bit scary for them at the mo!).

Amazing. Have I dreamt this or is it actually a water park too? Also - the adventure playground is still open on Saturday afternoons too right?

First off, congrats, what an excellent way to spend an unexpected windfall, you will make memories for the rest of your life :) Some thoughts - Canada and Japan - I've been to both (pre kids) and I imagine that might be tricky to do on ?4k (i'm assuming there's 3 or 4 of you to pay for including flights). Jetlag in Japan is a bit of a killer, but your kids should be old enough to cope... Canada is a beautiful country and you'd get great weather over our summer-time... Costa rica - Haven't been to, but heard its amazing, not crazy pricey and some great outdoor experiences for older kids like yours (safari-type things, surfing, zip-wires) Sri Lanka and Cambodia - In general you can get a lot more value for your ? in Asia. I haven't been to SL with kids, but know people who have and say its fab and the locals are great with kids. Cambodia I haven't been to (its on my list!), but we did take our then 2.5 and 4.5 year old to vietnam nearly 2 years ago and had an amazing trip - so easy to travel around on the train, locals amazingly helpful and friendly. see my trip report here - http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,1596858,1877573#msg-1877573 Another place to consider for fairly easy but still off beaten track, would be thailand... In general, i'd advise you to consider a) the weather in each place (simple google search), b) what vaccs you'd need and be willing to take (my two are pretty much vaccinated against everything now, but i know that not everyone agrees with that, and i'd certainly not want them to have to take malaria tablets at this young age, c) the accommodation - as our family has grown we've found that airbnbs not only offer greater value (no more squeezing 4 of you in to one tiny hotel room, you can get a 2 bed flat/house usually for cheaper!), more flexibility (have breakfast when you want, stay in the house/flat all day if you want to!) and a more personalised experience (the host often lives nearby and can give you great reccs of what to do), and d) the flight/time difference - assuming you're going for 2 weeks, do you really want somewhere with an 9 hour time difference (i.e. japan), when you're going to spend at least 2 days at start/after your hols trying to vaguely get on the right time schedule / if its a long flight, can you get a night flight to/from london to try and maximise your time there... Hope that helps, might be a bit rambly, so shout if questions! we've just got back from 3 weeks in brazil with our 4.5 and 6.5 year old and i really heartily recommend adventurous holidays with kids!

absolutely DEFINiTELY not too old! try looking at escapethecity.org (which i appreciate isn't aimed at the construction industry particularly), for some ideas and inspirations on how to find a career you love!

i had a red letter day voucher for a day spa here last year - https://www.jumeirah.com/en/hotels-resorts/london/jumeirah-carlton-tower/spa/the-peak-health-club-spa/ - small but really nice pool, jacuzzi, steam, amazzzzing massage treatment and nice (altho super expensive!) healthy resto

Ditto what everyone else says about taking your own food/booze. Also if you have further questions - just jump on the Centre Parks FB site and you can send them a DM and they're really quick at getting back to you and super helpful... We've been to Woburn twice now (kids are 6 and 4) and absolutely love it!

I'm afraid my kids are much older, but I have been reading a lot locally about an app called Mush, which puts mums in touch with one another... maybe give that a try?

For Denzil's group you pay ?42 for 6 sessions (45 mins)

Absolutely recommend Soccer Stars Academy run by the fabulous Denzil. He runs several sessions for different ages from 3 upwards on Saturday mornings (each is 45ish mins long, think he does sessions at 10am, 11am and 12pm) on peckham rye in between the cafe and the east side of peckham rye road. my daughter went when she was younger (before deciding it was her thing) and my 4 year old still goes and absolutely loves it. Denzil (and his team) are great with motivating the kids, definitely our favourite extra curricula activity! you can contact him on +44 7522 425931

Thx - a friend actually stopped by earlier today and apparently the "current" opening hours are: Term-time: Tues-Fri 3.30-7 Sat 12-5 School hols: Mon-Fri 12-5 Hope that helps other people :)

Apologies if this is covered elsewhere, but can someone tell me if the adventure playground on peckham rye is open on weekends and school holidays at the moment? I know there is building work plus the main guy left, so does anyone know opening hours? Cheers

Sonners tips are great so not got much to add - we went with our nearly 3.5 and 5.5 over NY for 4 days and loved it (tho it was *bitterly* cold!!): - Make sure you do book the restos in advance as the last thing you want to do after queuing for rides is queue for lunch. Our faves were Cafe Mickey as characs are always there (we saw micky, goofy, winnie the pooh, piglet, eeyore and the mice from cinderella); Blue Lagoon (would be love and cool away from the summer sun, its kinda of an indoor fake island thing, decent food); breakfast with Princesses at auberge de cendrillon (the food was pretty good, but obvs the princesses are the big sell and my two loved it, nearly broke the bank tho!). Try and avoid "standard" kids lunchtimes - see if you can go at 2pm for lunch for example and it is far less frantic! - Yes take your own snacks and drinks in, almost everything in the park is pricey and unhealthy! also buy autograph books in advance (amazon) as the ones in the park are extortionate - for the shops, we made it v clear from the beginning that we would visit one shop at the end of the holiday and they could each choose one gift - was good to sort that out from the get-go... - Because we all wanted to see the fireworks, we kept our kids up late - bed around 10pm, awake around 9am, but do whatever works for you - beware, you will work miles (my phone said we'd done ~15km everyday!), so everyone does get very tired and need a good sleep! amazingly my 5.5 yr old managed all the walking, 3.5 yr old needed a fair few shoulder rides though, so think about whether you need a pram/carrier/strong shoulders - we stayed at sequoia lodge and found the rooms to be average, didn't bother with breakfast, but the proximity to the park and advantage of magic hours was ace. its 5mins walk to park entrance, but be prepared to queue as they do bag checks/x-rays... - there's a TON of info on https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowForum-g2079053-i21935-Disneyland_Paris_Seine_et_Marne_Ile_de_France.html - but be prepared to spend several hours sifting through stuff! have an amazing time, i am sure you will!

there were a few very "tame" ones around the japanese garden in PR at the weekend

Hi James I'm about to send the management of Everyone Active an email, but wanted to give you a heads up first. Perhaps this has been covered elsewhere on the forum or earlier in this thread, so apologies if so... The a/c is not working in the upstairs exercise class rooms (or quite possibly in the whole building i am not sure) and apparently is not going to be fixed until march 2018. in the rooms instead Everyone Active have placed one solitary plug-in a/c unit which gives someone within 3 feet of it a nice cold blast... but nothing for everyone else! i have just come out of a HITT class where the room was dangerously hot - i certainly felt faint and i am sure others did too - plus the floor is getting slippy with all the extra sweat... in the current heat it will not be long until someone has a serious (and potentially litigious to southwark?) accident What can we do to expedite the works so that the a/c improves before march 2018? thanks

Definitely second the recommendation for Denzil - the kids love him & really listen to him and have lots of fun too

jesus i think he is trying (and failing) to be the next AA Gill. definitely want to visit la BB soon to show my support!

Kanella & Co has a FB page - https://www.facebook.com/Kanellaandco/ Plus I also spotted this - http://dulwichdiverter.tumblr.com/post/150674595390/new-deli-opens (obvs the building works took longer than expected!) Best of luck to the new place!

Any recommendations out there please?

KK who did you speak to / ask for to get that compensation?!v well done!

Has everyone else had on/off issues this week and then today just off? i checked status around 10.30 and they said engineer would be out to fix by 3pm... but no update. I wfh so have come to a local cafe just to work. Its particularly annoying as we just moved to their 100MB package last wk, so not a great start!

Oooh these are all good tips re: Netherlands - are there any particular resorts you prefer?

we just got back two days ago after 4 nights in Seqouia Lodge (me and my o/h + 5.5 year old + 3.5 year old). The rooms themselves are not particularly special, but comfy, 2 double beds. We booked Golden Forest rooms - not because we wanted better rooms, but because you then get a separate breakfast room to the rest of the hotel, and we'd read it can get a bit mobbed otherwise -breakfast was good and a relatively calm affair given where you are :) Hotel is just 5 mins walk from Disney Village (be aware they bag check everyone so you may have to queue, but never took longer than 10 mins) and from there its another 5ish mins to both of the parks. There is a hotel right by the main park, but from what i recall it was more than twice the price. we went half board and you can eat at almost all the rests - we went to chez remy (french and surprisingly good), cafe mickey (simple US fare, but guaranteed character appearances so a must) and blue lagoon (seafood, was ok). Make sure you reserve rests in advance. We also pre-booked lunch with the princesses in auberge de cendrillon - expensive, but good food and both kids over the moon to meet the princesses Hope this helps!