*Moving to Saffron Walden, Essex , in August - does anyone live nearby?*

[SaffyCat]

I am moving from Surrey to Saffron Walden in mid-August with my husband, 7yr old son and 1yr old daughter. We don't know anyone in the area yet and I would love to meet other local mums (am happy to drive a few miles) and also to find out about toddler groups/recomended family activities.

Did you get a wooden one or metal? I am tempted towards the traditional TP type - mainly because I know people that have neglected them for 10 years and they are still going strong..would worry about having to look after a wood one.

Ds wants one with a 'den with doors' and a curly slide..haven't seen anything matching that yet, but having fun looking..am looking at the site you recommended now. Thanks

We went for the wooden playtower

Do Hanchetts have any frames on display? I might have to take ds along and discuss the finer points with him ;o Last year I told him we were moving so we could have a house with room for a climbing frame (oh, and so Daddy could live with us again) and it's certainly stuck in his head
Our new garden is quite slopey ( I think ) so might have to sort out the space for it first.

Yes, it's a small display but basically most of what is on the website.

we just bought one - we looked for ages - there is a place in great Chishill that does them, they have a display and get this you can hire out their garden for parties.

Anyway, we went for the TP one - we wanted wooden but DS1 wanted metal as it had more on it - we got metal

The builders have left site :0

Have they left site because they've finished (well, they think they have) or just gone, ES?
Joking aside, hope your house is all sorted and you can get on with enjoying it.

I must be strange because I kinda like the look of the metal climbing frames (although perversely enough, I like wooden ones in public parks). We have to get a basketball hoop put somewhere (thanks to ds's Sportacus obsession) so I'm thinking metal frame with a hoop attached at one end. We already have a high slide...hmmm..choices choices.

Have had the day off work today as (ex) nanny had her last day as leave. Glad I did because I have been racing round buying presents for kids teachers, writing change of addresses and arranging mail forwarding.
Think I have to start sorting and packing the rest of the kids toys now . They are off to grandparents this weekend and won't see them again until they are delivered to the new house. Can't believe that I'll be in SW (albeit with no internet access ) in 4 days time!

Oh, and is there a place that re-heels shoes in SW? Wanted to get my fav. boots done today and forgot to take them with me!

It may not be London, but we do have shoe heelers I use the one in lock stock and barrel. They are friendly and get the job done quickly.

I'm off to Clerkenwell tomorrow to a hen day. But typically ds2 has come down with hand foot and mouth so not sure if I'll make it now

Dh had his last day at work today, no more 2 hour commutes for us too....yay

about hand, foot and mouth - the mouth ulcers get soo painful for them - ds has had about every childhood illness going (chicken pox 3 times according to GP), but HFandM was the most painful.

So, has your dh found something nearer at last, or just given up :O My dh is recruiting at his place but I'm not terribly clear on what exactly he does there

Yes, he's found something nearer, Victoria well, it's better than Chiswick !

builders have left site because they think they are finshed - DH has been going round like a hawk for the snag list - it is now 7 A4 pages long and he is obsessed with reading it out to me again and again - i mean flipping heck i am the one who has been living in it for the last two months while he has been swanning off to work, does he think i haven't noticed it?

when you eventually get here and are all settled, we will all have to meet up - hopefully George will talk to your two Twoboysmacca and your little one might like his hair as it has grown since alst time

I've just come across this thread and the comments about Gt Chesterford make me quite cross. I'm a single full-time working mother and can't get my 9 year old son into Gt Chesterford School, even though I live there. I am having to send him to a school described as 'dire'. He's G & T and I'm not worried about his educational progress, but he has been denied the opportunity to make friends locally. Transport will cost Essex County Council about £5k a year. The situation has arisen because parents, able to ferry their children about, have abandoned their local school to come to Great Chesterford.

have you just moved to the area?

Recently. I applied for a place in March.

I tried to post on here twice yesterday and it didn't work so try try trying again.

Yes, Tallulah, the school admissions system is so frustrating if you move into an area with a popular school when the children are school age (and as EnglishSpringer has just found out, even if you live in catchment before they start school). We also will not get a place at our catchment school, nearest school with a space is not suitable for our son due to medical reasons, luckily we can afford to put him into a private school for now..but understand your frustration.

2boys - well I guess that Victoria is a little closer than Chiswick

ES - oh my gosh, sounds like a heck of a snagging list. Good luck with getting the builders back to do it (hope you witheld the final cheque)

I'm up to my neck in boxes and some of them are even packed . Kids and cats get picked up by Granny tomorrow then it's just dh, me, and a large roll of brown parcel tape

And now I'm getting worried about putting dd into the school nursery for 5 full days (she currently does 3 half-days at pre-school)..it seemed reasonable at the time but it feels like we either have to compromise on ds's schooling, or dd's care. My latest mantra is 'it's just for 5 weeks then it's school hols'.

2 days to go and I'll be local hee hee

Glad to hear progress is being made by all, moving, building work and new jobs. Hope it all goes well.

We were due to exchange two weeks ago but the buyer of our house decided to tie in a sale of one of his other properties at the last minute, which is going to delay everything by at least two weeks. We have had to rearrange removal company, which has cost us extra money and our oven has decided to stop working and we've just cancelled our service agreement.

As we had planned to move next weekend, so much of the packing has been done but it means we are surrounded by boxes, feel like getting in one myself and labelling it fragile!

Okay, rant over - I'm going to stop moaning now.

Oh no Susie! We ended up with a month of 'being on the verge of exchange' and it was so stressful I could barely remember to breathe at some points I also threatened to get into a box and hide!
What's up with your oven? Does it seem terminal? (Is it built-in so you are leaving it behind? ). When we moved into this house the oven/hob was taken and dh spent 6 weeks 'looking into things' before we finally got a new one. We survived, just, with a microwave and a kettle..although I have no idea how we managed it.
Well, I better get back to trying to round up kids and cats.

oh my goodness everyone sounds like i was a few months ago - i tell you i do not miss that whole moving thing, you know what though the unpacking is worse than the packing at least before you had a place for it

our patio man is starting next week and the garden is being landscaped at the same time - i am so looking forward to being able to go outside without falling down a hole or bumping inot a builder drinking tea

well - good luck with the moves, packing etc.

Good luck with the move Millarkie.

We were so full of excitement when we moved here. I opened the front door and cried, it was the dirtiest, smelliest place I had ever seen, and the kitchen....well it had a sink and 2 long shelves filling the back wall and that was it. The utility room when we opened it, wasn't a utility room, it was a bathroom that had been stripped out, well the bath had beeen taken out and that's about it. It was disgusting. I think we must have viewed it with our eyes closed

Hopefully there will be no surprises for you and you'll love it the minute you walk in.

I'm just feeling soooo cheeerful today

Well thanks for cheering me up 2boys We had only been in this house for 3 days when dh decided that he hated it and it was my fault for 'choosing' it, so I know not to get too optimistic this time.

We've survived the first lot of removals. All furniture and stuff except tv and bed have gone off in a couple of lorrys. And we get a further lorry tomorrow for the last of the bits and the bed. Only 1 slight disaster so far...the removal men packed dh's and my overnight bags, right at the front of the lorry so by the time we realised that they had been packed it was too late to get them out again. Dh and I have just been up to the shops and bought clothes etc to wear tomorrow!

Am now cleaning up this house (and I guess I will spend tomorrow cleaning the new house ). Hopefully it won't have shrunk since we last saw it..although I'm expecting it to be a bit of a mess.

Lose the internet tomorrow

Good grief woman, how much stuff have you got. 2 lorry's full already?

I knooooooow . I don't know where it all came from [shock}. I think it all belongs to dh and the kids.
I would like to say that they were small lorries - but they weren't .

According to dh there were 18 boxes of books (including several boxes of science fiction that have been in storage since we moved the last time) and 15 boxes of kid's toys (but in my defence, I have toys to suit from birth to 5 still because of my nanny having a young baby - they will be 'recycled' once we move).

hope the move went OK - don't envy you that one and i still remember it well - we still have boxes that are not unpacked.

thansk for all the advice on the baby, i have no routine in the day and he justs fits in with me - sleeps when he is tired, feeds when he is hungry but i tell you he is fab at night - goes down sat 6.30/7, we wake him at 10.30, he wakes up at 3 to 4 and then i wake him at 7. this will proably all go up the creek when we go on holiday in a couple of weeks.

Oh yeah - DS1 loves his new pre-school, still no news on the school front we are seriously considering Friends or Dame B's poor forever

Millarkie, I've just got back to this thread. The situation is a bit more than 'frustrating'. It is currently being investigated by the Local Government Ombudsman and has been drawn to Essex County Council's attention, therefore I won't go into detail here. I don't have the option of 'going private', although if I did I probably would. I would still feel outraged at the situation in Uttlesford, as I passionately believe EVERY child has the right to a good education within the state system. Muddle-headed policies of parental preference only benefit a few. Rant over (but not really begun).