Nice People Thread Part 9 - and so it continues

zagubov

LydiaJ wrote: »

Thank you again for the encouragement and affirmation. Boarding schools have filters on their internet provision, just like day schools. It's quite frustrating sometimes. I remember it blocked me from getting access to a site giving technical specs of domestic gas cookers because it said it was p0rn - no idea how it got that idea. The biology department have to have special arrangements to get access to the stuff they need.

I teach forensics and have to get them to make holes in the firewall to teach the ballistics part - gun-related things are all blocked, although I'm far enough into the country to be near gunshops (one of which is ironically next to an undertakers).;)

chewmylegoff wrote: »

i've spent the last 5-6 years living in places which are about 5 mins from the station. i can make the train from the current place in about 4 minutes if i run, and i always have to run because i am always late.

i'm fairly confident that waterloo will always be a decent commuting hub for me as even if i do move jobs the chance of me working for any employer which isn't based in either bank or canary wharf is about 0.

Living in Vauxhall had very few advantages apart from the ability to get to tons of workplaces. I could get to most parts of London in 45 minutes and more troublesome parts/outlying areas in 55 minutes plus. :cool:

Actually it was also dead easy to get into the centre and walk back if needed.

Not much of London had so many connections

vivatifosi wrote: »

I'm meeting some American friends and their parents in London on Sunday. They will have flown in that day so will be tired. We're looking for somewhere we can get a nice meal. When I go out with my friends we tend to eat food from around the world, but the parents are more meat and potato types. Need to find somewhere that will cater for that around the Victoria area. For good measure, I'm a veggie. Any recommendations? We're planning to eat early - about 5pm.

Can't think of too many places near Victoria though, viva, I think PN might know some.

There's a Weatherspoons for pub grub in the actual station and a pizza place in the top concourse that does all-you-can-eat breakfasts that only regulars know about.

There's a former Texas embassy somewhere they may want to be photographed next to for their kith and kin back home.

TBH, the US has reasonably-priced eating out sorted out much much better than London has. As we all know. Mybe a few ethnic eateries not so well known in the US. Indian (but the milder dishes). Portuguese (as in Vauxhall). Hard to think of anything that won't feel like paying a fortune for a morselby US standards.

Unless you take them to one of the Pots in Chelsea/Soho. Cheap and Cheerful.

Good luck.

michaels

zagubov wrote: »

Living in Vauxhall had very few advantages apart from the ability to get to tons of workplaces. I could get to most parts of London in 45 minutes and more troublesome parts/outlying areas in 55 minutes plus. :cool:

The train fron here whilst pretty pricey is quite quick and travelling all the way through London is convenient for a lot of places. When the Farringdon crossrail interchange opens it will be very convenient. Currently SAC Station to work near St James Park tube is about 40-45 minutes but then it is another 40 minutes walk home from the station (or 5 minutes in the car when DW picks me up). Trains are between 4 and 15 minutes apart so missing one is not the end of the world.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

I'm meeting some American friends and their parents in London on Sunday. They will have flown in that day so will be tired. We're looking for somewhere we can get a nice meal. When I go out with my friends we tend to eat food from around the world, but the parents are more meat and potato types. Need to find somewhere that will cater for that around the Victoria area. For good measure, I'm a veggie. Any recommendations? We're planning to eat early - about 5pm.

I'd go down the carvery route - easy for people to make decisions and get what they want. No taking chances with one item off a fancy menu, or not knowing what stuff looks like.

PasturesNew

zagubov wrote: »

Can't think of too many places near Victoria though, viva, I think PN might know some.

I can spell London.... that's my knowledge done.

chewmylegoff

We are now thinking that the walk isn't really that bad and maybe we should put an offer in. However, having done a bit of research on school catchment areas it appears that this house would be in the catchment area for some godawful primary school in chessington rather than the good one in claygate which is a bit of a problem. Not that we have kids but we want them and it seems a bit stupid to buy a house with extra space we don't need unless we have kids which we would then need to sell again if we did have kids (and also whose value may be damaged by the rubbish school). Might as well just buy a flat and stay where we are until any offspring we might have are close to school age if we're going to have to move again anyway.

Is this sensible thinking, or the rantings of an irrational idiot? I suppose a lot could change in 5+ years time, the schools could reverse in quality or a new one could be built. Admission policy could be varied, or we could just have no kids, but it seems sensible to me to just assume that the situation is most likely to remain materially the same.

PasturesNew

chewmylegoff wrote: »

...

When I was growing up there was none of this school stuff. You went to the nearest/local school..... there was no other school to go to.

LydiaJ

chewmylegoff wrote: »

We are now thinking that the walk isn't really that bad and maybe we should put an offer in. However, having done a bit of research on school catchment areas it appears that this house would be in the catchment area for some godawful primary school in chessington rather than the good one in claygate which is a bit of a problem. Not that we have kids but we want them and it seems a bit stupid to buy a house with extra space we don't need unless we have kids which we would then need to sell again if we did have kids (and also whose value may be damaged by the rubbish school). Might as well just buy a flat and stay where we are until any offspring we might have are close to school age if we're going to have to move again anyway.

Is this sensible thinking, or the rantings of an irrational idiot? I suppose a lot could change in 5+ years time, the schools could reverse in quality or a new one could be built. Admission policy could be varied, or we could just have no kids, but it seems sensible to me to just assume that the situation is most likely to remain materially the same.

Not irrational at all. Either you are buying a family home, in which case you need enough space for some kids and to be in a decent catchment, and you accept that if kids do not in fact come along then you will have shelled out a lot of money for space/catchment you don't need (although family homes in good catchments do hold their value better than other things). Or you are buying a home suitable for a couple and maybe one baby/toddler, in which case you don't need the space or the catchment, but you accept that if kids come along then you plan to move before they get to school age.

Yes, the schools might change in quality, but in reality that's not very common. The sad fact is that despite all efforts to change things, kids' socioeconomic background is still the most powerful predictor of their educational achievement. Related to this is the equally sad fact that a good head and/or good teachers can make some difference, but the biggest difference your choice of school will make to your kids' education is the peer group with which they will spend so much time rather than the adults who will teach them. If you want your kids to spend their school hours surrounded by other kids whose parents value education and have taught them (by the time they start primary school) to speak in sentences, do their shoes up, sit still and listen when necessary, and share nicely, then your options are to live in a catchment where the parents are like that, or to pay school fees. I wish it were not so, but it is.

vivatifosi

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Is this sensible thinking, or the rantings of an irrational idiot? I suppose a lot could change in 5+ years time, the schools could reverse in quality or a new one could be built. Admission policy could be varied, or we could just have no kids, but it seems sensible to me to just assume that the situation is most likely to remain materially the same.

No it's sensible. As you're not finding anything in the area you want to live, have you thought about looking elsewhere? For example, St Albans will give you a quite quick journey to Farringdon, good schools and a great choice of pubs and restaurants. Harpenden, next stop on the same line, has fantastic schools, good restaurants and pubs but is smaller and not as cosmopolitan. Not suggesting this area particularly, it's just where I know as I'm not from where you are looking.

Just thinking you could cast your net a bit wider and find exactly what you are after. You'd also get more bang for your buck. Can't remember your budget, but this is what you'd get for about £500-600k in the town's I've mentioned:

Close to station in St Albans:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40448521.html
And Harpenden: close to station and two of the best schools in the county:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40351423.html?premiumA=true

I guess the long and the short is
* where can you get what you want
* that's a bit further out
* and within budget
* but you can still commute within an hour
* and are close enough to get to see friends?

SingleSue

LydiaJ wrote: »

Thank you again for the encouragement and affirmation. Boarding schools have filters on their internet provision, just like day schools. It's quite frustrating sometimes. I remember it blocked me from getting access to a site giving technical specs of domestic gas cookers because it said it was p0rn - no idea how it got that idea. The biology department have to have special arrangements to get access to the stuff they need.

In the end, though, kids will work round these things if they really want to. You have to try to bring them up to choose not to. Which is difficult.

Last year there was the farce of the 6th formers being given Ipads to use at school, only to find pretty much all the resources they needed for study blocked on the school internet!

The teacher had fun and games getting it all unblocked, by the time he did, months had passed and exams had been taken.

Middle son is getting his Ipad today and we are waiting to see if the same problem will be in evidence, we already know of one particular site that will be blocked which is essential for his music class.

misskool

vivatifosi wrote: »

No it's sensible. As you're not finding anything in the area you want to live, have you thought about looking elsewhere? For example, St Albans will give you a quite quick journey to Farringdon, good schools and a great choice of pubs and restaurants. Harpenden, next stop on the same line, has fantastic schools, good restaurants and pubs but is smaller and not as cosmopolitan. Not suggesting this area particularly, it's just where I know as I'm not from where you are looking.

Just thinking you could cast your net a bit wider and find exactly what you are after. You'd also get more bang for your buck. Can't remember your budget, but this is what you'd get for about £500-600k in the town's I've mentioned:

Close to station in St Albans:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40448521.html
And Harpenden: close to station and two of the best schools in the county:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40351423.html?premiumA=true

I guess the long and the short is
* where can you get what you want
* that's a bit further out
* and within budget
* but you can still commute within an hour
* and are close enough to get to see friends?

why not buy a £250k house in a sensible area and then spend the rest on paying school fees?

And if planning for children, well, sometimes, maybe things don't just work out the way you want it to be