KathyG

Mentioning Urdang, can I just add Good luck to DF daughter who graduated from Urdang last year and tomorrow is dancing in the opening night of Top Hat at the Aldwych,

Only U to go any suggestions

A is for Appraisal and the agonising wait for .. L - Letters

Q is for questions that we constantly have.

Have just been looking in the dance direct catalogue and there is a small selection for men, though not a lot. Better than I've seen before. The shops in town used to have a small selection though last time we went Bloch had nothing. Luckily I can make unitards which gives DS some choice. Discussing with DD how much leotards have changed since she started dancing both in style and colour.

They have been trying to get this school up and running for a couple of years now without success. I would have been surprised as well if 100+ were due to start as earlier in the article it said there was space for 80 dancers.

They would work out a payment plan for you to continue paying long after you've left they did write off some off what we owed. Only paid a small amount each month.

Sewing I get so much satisfaction from turning a bit of fabric into something someone else loves or a bit of cross stitch. Love looking for fabric and patterns and dragging ds and mother to Southall. Seeing my great nephew who is 1 tomorrow especially when he chooses DS rather than my sister . I used to read but 25 years of working in a library changed that I have 4 books waiting to be read . Dare I say angry birds I will get 3 stars in each level. Helping backstage at local dance school. Beavers though is that fun, yes when you send home 24 very excited and wet boys. Chocolate I can leave but wine a must have. I do sound a bit old but this year I am.

Enjoy we see them perform so rarely that it becomes special when we do and definitely lots of tissues. I saw my DS perform recently and the tears just didn't stop. Have a great evening.

There's no student loans if you're in receipt of a DADA only maintenance funding if you earn less than 33,000.

When we did the auditions there was a child whose ability was not as good as the rest who took an unfunded place and now is as good as the rest of their year. The training obviously suited them.

If you looked at my DH and my DS you wouldn't even know they were related. DS long legs, long arms and proportioned torso and DH normal legs, arms and fat!!!! Hair colour doesn't match either. Neither schools DS has attended saw DH before or after aceptance (that's not spelt right)

I just looked on HMRC website Hurrah payments won't stop in October. You can carry on getting Child Benefit for your child up until their 20th birthday, if they're in education or training that counts for Child Benefit. Education or training counts for Child Benefit as long as it's either of the following: full-time, 'non-advanced' education (for example 'A' levels) 'approved' training Your child needs to have started, enrolled or been accepted for one of these types of courses before the age of 19. On the courses listed it doesn't mention the course we're studying but we are doing A levels

We can't get student loans to help so we get child benefit!

My DS is doing a national diploma in professional dance and it is classed as further education and we are still getting child benefit I was told earlier this week that you could still get child benefit until the end of the course but haven't investigated further yet. He will be 19 in October so hope it will continue for a few more months.

I actually enjoy ironing, get a great sense of satisfaction when it's done, its the rest of the housework I hate!

Always remember if you're booking in advance you have to catch the train you book. If you miss it you have to buy another ticket or if you're early you can't just get on an earlier train. As for reserved seat don't think my DS ever got to sit in it (don't think he ever found it) and you do need both parts of the ticket when they check your tickets on the train. The guards will either make you pay or get of the train and wait for the right one. One other make sure if you used a railcard to book they have the railcard used(family friend etc) with them if they don't they can be made to pay the extra. We know of examples of all of these including DS missing train in Birmingham and not enough money to get another ticket. That was fun and expensive

There is an 18 year old in 6.1 at Elmhurst.

Thanks for getting it sorted so quickly as usual.

I've had problems today getting onto the site. I keep getting messages saying the site has reached its limits and suspended to protect. Anyone else getting this or is it my machines?

We didn't get oyster cards until DS was 13 and then wondered why we didn't do it earlier. Makes traveling around London so much easier. also slightly cheaper.

White lodge many years ago used to x ray hands to see how much growth there was still to go something about gaps between bones. My DS is about 6 foot, his dad is 5 9, I'm 5 4 and his brother and sister are 5 10 and 5 3. DS also says due to his height he will probably never get to do his favorite solo professionally as he is to tall. When he was at W/L he was one of the tallest but at Elmhurst he is one of the shortest.

Pity not during holidays DS would have liked to do either of these

I can make leotards so easy compared to tutu's which I can also do but don't seem to turn out well, if I ever hear about that *!*!*! red tutu again I may scream. Getting stuff which is different for boys has always been difficult very few shops do anything for them.

On Dada you can only apply for maintenance grants if you earn less than £33,000. Which if both parents work is usually less (probably not by much) than you earn.