I meat a friend and her children at this Play Centre and we all had a great time. The entry price ($7.00 for a 4 year-old) is reasonable compared to other local playcentres. The venue is clean with a large variety of equipment for children of all ages. The area for bubs aged 2 years and under is seperated well from the general playcentre. Every couple of hours a bell was rung and there was a mad scramble of children all waiting to climb aboard the "Beetle" ride. The ride is for children aged 3 years and over, can take 16 children at once and they all get to have a steering wheel to spend a generous few minutes 'driving along'. Rides on this beetle are included in the entry charge. We had a 4 year-old, a 6 and an 8 year-old and they were all thoroughly entertained for the morning. There's plenty of tables and chairs and a decent menu for snacks - you can even order a hot breakfast! There are also spacious facilities upstairs where children's parties can be held.

Approximate cost: $7.00

We goth a fellow (who shall remain nameless) from this company in to repair two small areas of carpet in doorway areas that had become frayed over time. We were told the carpet would need to be stretched slightly to tuck it back under the metal strip that holds the carpet edging down. One area needed a little more work and it was suggested we needed a replacement metal edging strip. Fine, that was supplied. However, when the fellow was hammering it back over the carpet edge he somehow managed to also make an 8cm hole/crack in our floor tiles. He was very apologetic and embarrassed - this had never happened to him before (apparently!) and suggested that all the hole would need was a bit of grout to fill it. Hubby did later repair it but the crack is still noticeable. A year later and the carpet is just as bad as it was prior to repair :(

Approximate cost: $132 to fix two small areas of carpet fraying

I've had Greg from Streamline clean my windows for a few years now (my yearly treat to myself!) and he's always done a good job. He usually brings someone else to help him so the two of them can clean the windows of a 4 bedroom house in under 45 minutes. He charged me $125 for the job. He also does flywire screens for an extra $3 per screen if you want to really splurge. After I thanked him for the good job and admired my sparkling windows he said, "A window clean is the cheapest and quickest home renovation you can do!" I have to agree.... just hope it doesn't rain anytime soon ;)

We required non-arsenic treated pine with unique dimensions to build some play equipment for our child. All the big specialty stores could not offer us what we required (though this didn't stop them from doing the hard sell on the arsenic treated timber they stocked). Demak was recommended (oddly enough by a specialty timber merchant) and they didn't disappoint. Despite dealing primarily with “tradies” the man I spoke to on the phone was extremely courteous and friendly and did not treat me like some kind of uneducated child (although this is how I felt) he even made a couple of suggestions that were extremely helpful. The timber arrived exactly when quoted and when I did the pick up (right on closing time) the handler who loaded the timber for me had no complaints at all, despite the fact he had already locked up.

I had a lead light lamp with huge sentimental value that was broken during a recent house move. I had no idea where I could get it repaired. I heard about this store via world of mouth and was told it came highly recommended. I can only but agree. The lamp has not only been fixed, but also strengthened so is unlikely to break in the future. The work was done in less than a week and only cost a little over $50 (I'd been quoted over $100 elsewhere). On top of this, when I took the lamp home and found a slight problem – the shade sat too high so the bulbs were slightly exposed – they happily corrected the problem on the spot and free of charge when I returned it. For such a specialty store (they deal mainly in huge hand made chandeliers and other lead light lamps) to offer such prompt and courteous service for such a minor task (minor to them, major for us) was sensational. And the person I dealt with (unfortunately I didn't note his name) was so friendly.

Approximate cost: $50 for lead light lamp repair

I happened upon this store after taking a wrong turn whilst driving about near Tullamarine Airport. I'm glad I found it :) The title gets it right, there sure are a lot of lollies here! They have great bulk packs of lollies, fruit and nuts and chocolates, most types that you or your kids would want. They have bags of 'reject' lollies - I bought a 1kg bag of 'reject' lolly snakes, broken snakes really - for $2.95. Bargain. A great way to buy for kids party bags, and then divide up bulk bags into smaller lots at home. The shop also has a massive range of party supplies and balloons, decorations for kids parties, adult parties, baby showers, engagement, wedding, etc plus lots of other party favours and odds and ends. I visited in November and there was a decent range of Christmas stock. Trollies and baskets are available. Ample parking outside the store.

Approximate cost: $5.95 for a 500g bag of r

Rare Bears isn't the most economical play centre around but like anything, you get what you pay for. The stand-out at this centre is the huge slide that has sections for 3 kids to use at once (and adults can use it too!!) Clean equipment with all ages catered for. Above average choice of snacks and meals. It's always a struggle to get the kids to leave this place! Car park can fill quickly so it pays to get there early. Open Fri, Sat and Sun evenings for family nights out.

Approximate cost: $8.50 entry

My family has been going to the GP's from this clinic for 10 years now and we've always been happy with the service given. The clinic's waiting area is really pleasant and clean and has a lovely area for children to play in. There is a female doctor on staff though she's difficult to get into and only works Mon, Wed and Fri mornings, however the male doctors at this clinic are just as good too. Patient carpark next to the clinic or on street at front.

Approximate cost: $Approx $50 per standard c

I've been very impressed with the prices for prescriptions at Chemist Warehouse. They're always between $4 and $10 cheaper per prescription compared to other chemists. After you've handed in your script, you're given a buzzer to carry with you which will beep when your prescription is ready. This is handy if you want to browse around the store and don't want to have to keep going back to the pharmacist to see if your prescription is ready. And the store is HUGE so there's lots of other products to look at to keep you buys! They stock a huge range of vitamins which are competitively priced too, plus a huge range of skin care, sunscreen, nappies and all other lines you'd expect in a chemist. They stock a lot of perfume and make up items too.

After receiving a flyer in my mail box mentioning that Triple 8 did tile cleaning as well as carpet cleaning I decided to give them a try. I'm glad I did! I was given an approximate quote over the phone and booked a time for my local operator to come and do the job. I had all the carpets in the house ($240) and 2 x 2.5 seaters couches ($136) dry cleaned and was very pleased with the end result. I also got the tiles in the shower cleaned for $80 which got rid of the mouldy appearance to the grout and freshened it up totally. The operator gave us some advice on how to seal the freshly cleaned grout so that it's not so porous and hence susceptible to mould in future. Seeing what a fab job he'd done with the shower I got a quote for the grout to be cleaned on all the floors in the house. At $320 this was a luxury but we got him back to do the job and were absolutely thrilled with the result. Our 9 y.o. white floor tiles now look even whiter after having the grout cleaned in between them all. You would not believe (and probably don't even notice) how dirty grout gets over time. It's freshened up all the rooms in the house and we can't stop marvelling at how good the floors look. My operator (Frank) was so professional and polite, I'd definitely recommend him. Cost for tile and grout cleaning - $7/sqm.