bonaome

Go Dolphins. Teaching is great, coaches are lovely, but more to the point, they'll teach her with a view to progressing to club swimming from the outset.

I can recommend Stephen Turvil Architect - http://www.stephenturvilarchitects.com/ he's local and we're using him at the moment and he's been great. Your architect should be able to send you a fee proposal for the plans for planing permission etc. They should then be able to do detailed specs for a builder (if you want to pay them to do that) find you an engineer (if you want them to do that) get 3-4 RFPs out to builders to quote on a spec and help you choose the best builder for you (if you want them to do that). Only then will you know what your real cost is going to be, but you'll also know you have market rate as you're comparing like for like quotes. You could just get the architect to do the plans for planning permission and then sort out the rest yourself. Or, you could get a few builders round now to quote. The challenge with that is they'll all quote on different specs on different ideas and they'll all go over the budget they initially proposed because they'll all have missed stuff out. Either way you slice it, for what you're doing, ?120k is probably a fair ballpark.

Hello anyone with kids at Depford Green? How do your kids get there? We're by Franklins - I think easiest/most reliable would be 185/176 to Forrest Hill and then the Overland to New Cross Gate. Interested to know what others do. Thanks.

If you can get down there ok, the lessons at Beckenham Spa are very good. Their teaching pool has a moveable floor and they set it for toddlers so they can still put their feet down. Parents don't get in the water with them - they watch from the cafe!! The teachers are in the water with them, at that age.

Left it too late for what? (Honest question). Assuming you mean 'life' and not that you've entered him into the 2018 commonwealth games or a swimming holiday you have booked for next week then a) not at all, you really have not left it too late and b) there are some great options in the area. I'd recommend you to try and get him into Dulwich Dolphins. It's a club (which I think puts people off / means they don't think about it unless they already know the club) but the Academy and Development squads do start right at the very beginning of the swimming journey. I'm not sure they take complete non-swimmers, but it'd be worth asking. He needs a 'trial' (a level assessment really) which can be booked for Sept/Oct here http://www.dulwichdolphins.com/#!trials/c19nn It's much more expensive than going the local leisure centre route but the teaching is way better and the progress very fast - based on my experience anyway. It wouldn't work out very much more expensive than JAGS, if at all. JAGS lessons are overall fine but quite expensive and very mixed depending on level/teacher/numbers in group. Again, based on my experience (pretty recent). East Dulwich Leisure Centre is a waste of money, the teaching is not great and the kids make little progress (again, based on my experience and to caveat that was a couple of years back now). Beckenham Spa use to have great group lessons - and probably still does as there's an excellent club based there. Much cheaper than JAGS but further away. If you really want a series of quick one-to-ones your best bet might be someone like http://www.swimmingnature.com/ who I know are excellent, but who I also know are very pricey and I think the nearest venue might be the Queen Mother in Victoria. Really though, don't worry about leaving it too late (unless you have some deadline) and get him in group lessons once per week with someone good and I think you'll be surprised at how fast they come on. Hope helpful and good luck! (As you can probably guess, I am not a 'soccer mom' but a 'swimming' dad!).

Hello. My 10 year old would like to have her hands done with a henna design. Can anyone recommend someone who could do it? Don't mind travelling a bit - we were thinking of going to Southall - but more local the better. Any ideas? Edited to add (hopefully without necessary bumping) in case anyone searches the forum for henna (as I did) and hopefully this is helpful .. - We ended up going to Pavan in Selfridges. Absolutely fantastic designs and service, quick, professional and very high quality work - would highly recommend. PM me if you're reading this and would like more details.

For what it's worth there is a 38 degrees petition proposing that The Government strip Southern of their franchise. https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/strip-southern-rail-and-govia-thameslink-rail-of-the-franchise Apologies if already posted - I had a quick look and couldn't see it.

Southern Rail to replace timetable with avant garde poem http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/southern-rail-to-replace-timetable-with-avant-garde-poem-20160704110166

you should probably have a look at this http://www.helenhayes.org.uk/eu_referendum_result_reaction

Surma on Lordship Lane does a great buffet on Sundays and they always have naan and a selection of mild dishes as well as something spicier. I think most of the curry houses do a Sunday buffet. The Actress does nice pizza. The Great Exhibition and The Cherry Tree have a kids menu for Sunday lunches - I'm sure the other pubs do too, but I can recommend both of those from personal experience. And another vote for Mr Lui. Olivelli is nice, but quite pricy, as is the Picturehouse cafe. Both very child friendly though. The Italian place at the bottom of Melbourne Grove - Il Mirto (I think) is good too and very reasonably priced. For lunch the japanese place does a kids bento. It can be a bit on the 'entertaining' side but The Plough has a beer garden which can be nice in the summer months. The Fox On The Hill (Denmark Hill) has a playground and is a Wetherspoons (I think) - so no Michelin stars, but can be a good option - the grandparents love it! Also Hissar on the lane does really nice kebabs and all those dips like hummous and baba ganoush with pitta - very family friendly, booking advised for weekends. Great news is, you're pretty much spoiled for choice.

Can't see it opening in July. When the kids from Heber interviewed the builders in December 2015, they were told the build was expected to take 44 weeks and should be finished in July 2016. Andrew Wicks of Southwark planning was also interviewed and said that with store fitting, they were expecting the new store to open before Christmas 2016. M&S still aren't recruiting, though Dulwich is now listed on the M&S website as a new store opening.

This is too marvellous to be true. Probably.

If you're going to Waterloo - just get the bus. 176 all the way.

This was my commute until Easter. The 08:04 was OK to get on on the 1 in 10 occasions when it was on time. But it was so frequently so late that my general experience was that it would be packed with people who'd actually turned up for the 8:13 or even the 8:19. That said you can get on the trains. Like most people I found a spot for boarding that worked 9/10 times, and wedged myself into the train like a self-canning sardine. You could try the 7:37 but that seems to be very often cancelled. In short, you can get on those trains if you are now more tolerant of the armpits you mention than you were when you were pregnant. If it's space, or God forbid a seat you need - find another way. If you actually need Blackfriars, you might find it easier to endure if you get the bus to the Elephant (176/40) and get on the Thameslink there (where lots of people get off - usually used to get a seat from the Elephant). Sorry I can't offer a more encouraging post.

DulwichFox Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I cannot see > M&S opening soon if work is still in progress on > the roof > > DulwichFox They haven't started recruiting either http://careers.marksandspencer.com/new-store-registration

If you can afford one the Panasonic LUMIX DMZ range of tough waterproof cameras might be a good choice. Basically they are good compact digital cameras but water, dust and shock proof. They are not too expensive. It means you have a camera for underwater photos too which might be a boon on hols

We did our loft last year. The neighbours have to register the project with the council, regardless of whether they are applying for planning permission or are working under permitted development. Likely you will get a letter from some private companies offering to act as party wall surveyors for you and advising that you do not simply go with whoever the neighbours propose. These people are ambulance chasers and are best avoided. The neighbours have to write to the named owners of the property (you, in your case) to tell you of the proposed works. There are pro-forma letters for this which will sound a bit stiff and formal, if you know your neighbours. We have known ours for years, so I took the letters round and explained the ludicrously formal letter I was delivering. There doesn't actually have to be a party wall agreement in place, but you have a right to insist on one. You have the right to insist on your own party wall surveyor. You name them, and the neighbours appoint and pay for them. If they want to save money, they can opt to use the surveyor you have nominated. Or they can have their own. Either way they pay all costs. We spoke to the neighbours and agreed together that we'd just use one surveyor and we found someone recommended on the forum. Andrew Karoly http://www.partywalls-london.co.uk/contact_us.html He was really helpful and had loads of advice. For us he recommended a cheaper option than writing a full agreement; he did site surveys both sides, wrote a report and took loads of pictures. Neighbours both sides were happy with this, and it saved us a bit of money. The neighbours each got their own report and we got copies. We do get on well with both sets, which obviously helped, but also both are thinking of doing their own lofts at some point. We were just a loft conversion on PD though. I'm sure both you and the neighbours doing the work would be better off in your case with a full party wall agreement. It does protect them (from spurious claim) as well as you. Whoever you use as a surveyor, it's in your interest to allow them full access to your loft spaces etc. If you refuse, and later detect damage, you'll be in a weaker position to claim it was caused by the build next door. Hope that helps.

We have Had BT Infinity for the last 10 months and it's been excellent. Never gone off. Never been throttled afaict. Also, I did a reccy at the time and it had the best of the routers available with the package. Worth bearing in mind if you're not going to go out and get your own router etc. Before that we had Sky. That too was excellent and the only reason I switched was that I wanted to upgrade to fibre and BT had an offer on. The offer will expire in 2 months when they'll either offer me another deal, or I'll happily switch back to Sky to keep the costs down.

There's also the Paxton at the bottom of Gipsy Hill. Has an outside play area and beach huts into which I believe they have installed heaters.

How old are the kids? When's the gathering? Not knowing those things I would say if the kids can be kept occupied with a colouring book/puzzles any pub round here fine. For a bit more space the Cherry Tree is roomy and welcomes kids before 7pm. The Fox on The Hill has an outdoor play area and usually a few kids in it. And The Plough has a big outside area too which the kids can possibly feel a bit more free in. Nowhere (except the play area of the Fox on the Hill) will welcome rowdy kids running riot. But well behaved kids, aren't a problem anywhere.

Thanks very much for all the ideas

Are there any open mic nights in ED and surrounding areas? Went up to the Plough on Sunday but their usual acoustic night wasn't on, and they didn't know if it would be back. Looked on internets but couldn't find anything locally, so wondered if there were any that others know about?

Try swimming nature - I know they run lessons up at the queen mother on Vauxhall bridge road. But of a schlep but you can get there on the 185 from ED.

You should only need the space of one car as the skips can come off sideways. So just park your car in the spot and leave it there until the skip arrives. That's what we've done in the past plus had a chat with the neighbours - I think last time we had a skip (we've had a few!!) neighbour a few doors down parked outside our place and was happy to move the car when the skip arrived. You should be fine

Feel free to PM.