Since my childhood, a London theatre trip has been a magical, special occasion. However, when I try to recreate those special memories for my own family, I am aghast at the price! With little ones, you have to sit fairly near the front to be totally immersed in the experience – but you are then faced with a bill of over a hundred pounds. So here is the date for your diary – 14th June – at 10am tickets go on sale for Theatreland’s annual free tickets for kids. More than 40 different London theatre shows take part in the scheme where for the month of August for every full price adult ticket, a child can go free. Two extra children’s tickets can then be bought at half price, per transaction. Last year we did two shows, one of them was a birthday treat for a friend's little boy. He thinks I am now The Best, and he has no idea I paid nothing for his seat!
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In November, Whirlpool announced a safety alert with various models of Hotpoint, Creda and Indesit tumble dryers. Since then I have been campaigning on behalf of consumers who are sitting with potentially dangerous machines in their homes waiting up to a year for an engineer to visit. There are some five million homes affected and for some reason every authority from Government to Local Trading Standards seems to be batting for Goliath rather than David. I am doing what I can but am a one man self employed band/mother and don't have enough hours in the day to research and help every individual. Here is where I have seen the real heroes step in. Social media in all forms has seen customers get faster and better results and people joining one particular Facebook page: the group Hotpoint Dryer Fire Risk has done better than most. Behind the scenes, three women each having come through their own Hotpoint battle, are thoroughly researching and responding to everyone who asks for help. They push people to free replacement machines and never ever give up! Ladies, I take my hat off to you and suspect there may be more people heading your way now!
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How wonderful it is to say hello to the sunshine this week, and with it the onslaught for many of the pest that is pollen. My husband spends a small fortune from May through to August on various eye and nose drops. I worry about the chemicals he is ingesting but it seems the symptoms are just worth taking the risk for. My younger daughter, equally affected and streaming from everywhere, refuses all medication so I am thrilled that with persistence, trial and error, a prescription of two showers a day, a wet flannel in a bag for her eyes and a dab of Vaseline under her nose has truly knocked it on the head. Now to convert the man!
