The Standring Faculty of Sheep Husbandry at the University of Milton North

[DumSpiroSpero]

Well, this should guarantee us some visitors if it comes up on 'Most Active'.

one for the mantelpiece

Ok, the next 2 aren't John Standring, but it would be rude not to...

yummy!

UMN Rector!

Maud, will DM you exact location, but I'm in the South East. Am curious to know where you thought I lived...?

Spiro, as far as being a grown-up, I think kids like it better when you aren't :) Maybe I can deal with them ok because I've always helped out in DD's class at school, right since she first started. So I'm quite comfortable with them but any of the older children freak me out and I am scared of them don't know to deal with them.

Massive, I skimmed that link quickly (am supposed to be making fajitas) and it was very funny, will have a proper look later.

I missed Massive's link at first. Yes, it's very funny and very true. I've read 17 of them - thankfully it's not more.

I am also fairly terrified of older kids, Twigs! I helped at Rainbows a few months back and hated it, even though they're quite little. It is just not me at all. My Zumba chum is DD's godmother and comes complete with teenage DD of her own so I always have both of them at birthday parties for back up as I'm such a wuss!

I find children more annoying the smaller they are - the squeaking at Rainbows must have been terrible, Spiro. I thought parenting became much more enjoyable once Girl could communicate and better still once she could speak and hold something resembling a conversation. She was (naturally) a gorgeous baby but those months of endless feeding, mashing up bananas and changing nappies became much easier to bear once there was some two-way communication.

Totally agree, Maud. Although I'm always struck by the irony that you spend several months desperate to hear the word 'Mummy', then the next several years wishing you'd hear it just a bit less!

Very true, Spiro, but the mummy, mummy, mummeeeee phase also comes to an end. Trouble is (it seems) it's immediately replaced by it's not fair, huh, I haaaate you.

I think it takes a special kind of person to enjoy being with other people's children, I am not that special. I also agree with children being faaaaar more interesting as they grow, the baby years were dull hard work.

So, what's on TV tonight then? Prof Brian Cox is on late Twigs.

My DD told me she was very lucky I was her mummy when she went to bed this evening so I really can't complain at the moment!

And those are the moments that make the 5.30am wake up calls bearable .

Is there anything that makes the 5.30am wake-up calls bearable? I have been so lucky, that Girl has inherited my sleep patterns!

I wake up at that time now even if the smallboys don't cuddles from my gorgeous two can ease the pain Maud.

Are you still tele-less?

I too am lucky Maud in that whilst DD has not inherited my sleep patterns, we have Disney channel, a sofa with reclining ends and a nice big fluffy throw, all of which make 5am wake up calls a bit more bearable!

DD and I 'camped' in the living room on Friday night and I got the best sleep I'd have in about a week.

Oh. The telly. The shop has a marvellous system. They make an address label which also gives the name/stock number of your item. That label is then attached by the warehouse to your item, which they deliver. Except in our case, the warehouse attached the label to a telly which was 8 inches smaller than it ought to be and now tells us that the right telly is out of stock in all local branches. I am girding my loins for a Conversation tomorrow, aimed at establishing how long it might be before the desired televisual apparatus is in stock.

::rolls on floor, sobbing and chewing carpet::

::reaches for the Polish cordial but is willing to share::

What a pita, Maud!

Are you completely without tv then, or do you have a spare eg bedroom telly for the time being?

::smacks forehead::

I'm approaching this all wrong, aren't I? .

Very true, Spiro, but the mummy, mummy, mummeeeee phase also comes to an end. Trouble is (it seems) it's immediately replaced by it's not fair, huh, I haaaate you.

Maud, would I be correct in guessing your DD is almost but not quite a teenager?

Do you need a fishwife forthright friend to assist in your Conversation, I am free tomorrow?

No, Spiro. We are completely telly-less. The bedroom telly conked out a couple of years ago and our cunning plan had been to replace it with the small downstairs telly once we had bought a bigger telly. Like most of our cunning plans, it fell apart because we decided to renovate the room and so postponed buying the big telly until after that and then the downstairs telly conked out too. So, needless to say, we are now spending a lot of time online reading improving books, singing madrigals and doing the household accounts.

Speaking of forthright, Small, any joy getting your mum's blue badge sorted yet?

Thank you for that kind offer, Small, but you will see from my later post that I have decided to ask another friend to take more, ahem, direct action on my behalf possibly involving a hand grenade.

And, Spiro, the sad truth is that the teenage behaviour is starting long before she actually becomes a teenager.

::Knocks back even more Polish cordial::

::Thinks - but isn't entirely sure about this - that vodka isn't on the list of food and drink to be avoided by the gouty and fills Small's glass::

I don't think I'd really notice the loss of our tv, apart from in the keeping DD out of mischief capacity .

There are only about 3 programmes I make an effort to watch regularly and none of them are on at the moment.

I just wondered about your DD as that quote of yours sounds very like my DNiece who is 11 (soon to be 12).

DD can be horribly adolescent at 6 mind you. I did tend to blame TV and have always locked the Disney & Nickelodeon channels for a few days if she oversteps the mark, but now she's at school it seems to be other kids she picks stuff up from and unfortunately there's not much I can do about that.

Small, am watching Prof Cox at the moment - counting how many times he says "vast".

Smallboy major is quite teenagey at times too. I dread how he will be at 13!

Twigs I am watching also and wondering if he well ever bring his top lip downtown meet the bottom one. It's very distracting when you are trying to understand the 'vastness' of space, time and expanding galaxies.

And he constantly smiles too - a bit disconcerting. And am I being unfair to think that he's a little.... um... simian?

still fancy him a tiny bit though