The Inclusive Academy of Sword Fighting Skills for the Vertically Challenged, Milton North Campus

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Selected master classes available in;

Beard Plaiting
Grimacing
Application of Prosthetics
Dragon Taming

Please make welcome our <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.ramascreen.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Hobbit-thorin-richardarmitage.jpg&imgrefurl=www.ramascreen.com/the-hobbit-first-look-at-thorin-oakenshield&usg=__O91GQN2kC1_7KRh88mB40XHMmYw=&h=1600&w=2400&sz=1063&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=KHapa_DPfVYNhM:&tbnh=137&tbnw=174&ei=2UkkTraJC4a38gPS2PGkAw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dthorin%2Bpictures%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1920%26bih%3D880%26tbm%3Disch%26prmd%3Divns&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=1270&vpy=422&dur=1623&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=143&ty=96&page=1&ndsp=54&ved=1t:429,r:41,s:0&biw=1920&bih=880" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">new lecturer.

Oh my!

::inhales deeply of the smelling salts::

And now I'm off to bed. Good night!

On reflection I think that I prefer the less embellished giftwrapping style.

Night!

Morning all. Just reading back all your witterings discourse from last night - lots of it was very funny, we really need a 'like' button, a la FB!

LadyD, are you willing to divulge (via PM if necessary) the name of your crushee whom you met? I was pretty tongue-tied when I met Colin Firth years ago but then he was a mere slip of a boy back then - I dare say I would have fainted dead away had he reached his full MrDarcy state!

LOL, did you all inwardly groan when LadyD innocently asked "where did you meet him?" :) LadyD, it's a fun pasttime of ours to rib Maud about how much she goes on about it and tries to drop it into the conversation, but the truth is we practically had to put her on the rack to get any info out of her :)

Spiro, feeling your pain at the bad sleep. Is MissS ok or just in a habit? TwigBoy has just learned to sleep until 6-6.30am but now MissTwigs is up at 5 every morning!!! GAH!!

Morning. Twigs are you gong to let me have your top secret cake recipe? Please??

I can't believe of the 2 men in the world I would almost certainly leave my DH for I find rather attractive, two of you have actually shared airspace with them. [envy .

What was Colin like? The journo wife of a friend of LordD's interviewed him last year about The King's Speech and she said he was the loveliest, politest, most genuine celebrity she'd ever met.

Morning! How are we all today?

Twigs - it's habit but Miss S slept through til 6.30 this morning . Can't believe how much easier it was to get up then on 6 hours unbroken sleep for the first time in weeks. I can't get cross with her as I've always been an erratic sleeper myself.

Totally off topic - can anyone give me a few pointers on using a steam wallpaper stripped. At the moment Mr S is occupying Miss S and leaving me to get on with it and I'd like to keep it that way. Is it ok to let it cool a little in-between blasting and stripping? Am thinking I will steam & Miss S can follow me round with the scraper!

What an awful way to have to spend your day though Spiro. May I offer you a ? Or are sterner measures required?,

Do you need an assistant stripper?

And totally gratuitously, for LadyD

I love DIY - especially when Mr S just let's me get on with it!

Just need to find a way of involving Miss S as I don't like ignoring her all day - she's been paper stripping (not with steam) and emulsion-ing since she was 3!

I don't have any wallpaper in my house but I'd like to order a stripper anyway, please. I quite enjoy a bit of DIY but only when I've got an empty house!

Oh good, at least you are okay with it, Spiro. Not that you wouldn't be even more okay with this kind of help

Oh, yes Massive! If only...

As for you Lady D...

I knew you'd pick up on that, Spiro .

::polishes crown with very large discarded black jumper::

Small, so sorry, I forgot to post it yesterday! Just about to start lunch shift and will post it after that.

Colin was very quiet and aloof. He seemed like a shy teenager although he must've been late 20s/early 30s. It was back in 1991. I bet he is lovely in RL. We were slightly stalking, I must admit. A colleague and I had found a vaguely-work related excuse as to why we had to go and see him at the stage door. We genuinely had to pass something on to another cast member and although we could've sent it via his agent we deciede that it would be much better to go in person :)

I am an expert wallpaper stripper :) Firstly, yes you can let it cool a little - it just needs to stay wet so as long as it doesn't dry out, it won't matter. In fact, spraying with water is often just as good as steaming so MissS could always spray it with a bottle - kids tend to like spraying, I've found :) Most important thing is not to hold the steamer on the wall for too long or you can blow the plaster. I'd also be careful letting her loose with the scraper as she could easily ding bits of the plaster off and then you've got a lot of filling to do, make sure she knows how to hold the scraper properly against the wall.

and all before noon!

Just score the paper before you do it Spiro, not too hard as you don't want to damage the walls. don't leave the steamer on too long especially if it's normal paper as opposed to glossed woodchip! Too much steam will blow the plaster. If you let it cool too much it won't come off cleanly and will restick. HTH

oops x post with Twigs.

This Academy of ours is truly wonderful. You can learn to do anything here

Cakes, painting and decorating, Platonic carpet-laying, child wrangling minding, discreet sleb stalking surveillance, you name it. All in a days work for our fabulous faculty fems.

Cheers Small & Twigs. Have done plenty of stripping before but normally just score & sponge with warm water. I might do it again as I don't think it'll take much removing and I can use my little helper!

I have got my RA soundtrack pumping out full blast while I work !

How did it go, Spiro? And what do you mean by RA soundtrack, what was that?

How are you doing today, LadyD? Plans all set for tomorrow?

I am taking the kids swimming tomorrow morning and then they are going to cook a 3 course meal in the evening! I'm going to get them to design menus, lay the table etc. I've just got to type out a recipe for DD to follow (and a pictorial version for DS).

Good lord Twigs, that's ambitious! I wouldn't trust mine to do more than butter their toast in the morning .

Btw I meant to ask you what 00 flour is?

Spiro when you say that you've done lots of stripping before...

I got the idea from a friend who said that her kid loved doing it. All very easy stuff of course - nothing that needs to go on the hob. We're having smoked salmon & chive dip (just chopping and stirring) for a starter, then a pastry tart for a main, so all they have to do is spread stuff onto a pastry base and sprinkle toppings on etc. I really want to leave DD to do it all by herself but I'll obviously have to help DS so not sure how that will work out.

00 flour is very finely-milled flour. It says 00 on the packet. But you know what, ignore me, because that recipe I gave you needs SR flour and I think 00 is only plain flour. So just go for the normal SR flour and sift it well.

Sigh, so many shcool holiday things seem to revolve around food - am finding the diet very hard at the moment! Today they decorated cakes, tomorrow we're going swimming and lunch in the cafe then fattening meal in the evening, yesterday they had pizza and of course there were leftovers... sigh.

Of the wallpaper variety, Small - I wouldn't subject the general public to my numerous wobbly bits - they'd be paying me to put them away!

I'm still going at the moment. Soundtrack is my playlist of all the songs from all my fave YouTube vids!

It's taking you a long time. Do you need another pair of hands, Spiro? Mind you, this one looks as though he's been rolling around in the dirt...