The Sergeant John Porter Memorial College at the University of Milton North

[DumSpiroSpero]

Motto: Qui audet adipiscitur

Areas of study include:

Firearms Training aka Big Guns 101

Advanced off-road driving

Improvised Vehicle Maintenance

Hostage Negotiation

...and lots more!

My sporting crushes preferred funnier shaped balls:

Kyran Bracken, the Underwood brothers, Martin Bayfield, Rob Andrews, oh okay the majority of the 1995 World Cup squad .

I took Miss S to HoI this year to get her over a fear of live shows. We did pantomime when she was 3 and the baddie kept leaping off stage into the audience and she was terrified. I thought if they were on skates they can't really come off so it would be a good place to start & she was fine thank goodness. It's a great show but not cheap if you want decent seats, still it's nice to have something to look forward to after Christmas.

Onwards & upwards then - normal service resumes today . Don't mind work/school but all the routine & faffing about every morning really stresses me out!

Oh for a child who's keen to go back to school, LadyD...

Good luck to everyone going back today. I'm with you on the routine, Spiro - well, it's not so much the routine I mind, it's the nagging at every step of the way. We've found it hard to get out of the house before 10am, despite being up at about 6am on most days so I'm not looking forward to that rush again! We have one more day so am taking the kids swimming in the hopes that most schools are back today so the pool won't be so awfully crowded.

Routine...nagging...organisation...trying to fit all the other chores in around the edges...hate it.

Hope you enjoy you last day of hols, Twigs. Tomorrow will be my first 'free' Wednesday. I will be mostly getting my housework done as fast as possible so I can watch several episodes of Robin Hood. Am finally on last disc of Series 1!

PS Lady D - am with you re Martin Bayfield and Kyran Bracken !

It's only because MasterD2 is starting today so the older 2 are very excited about him going in with them. By Friday normal service will have resumed and I will also be nagging every step of the way!

I met Martin Bayfield once, after a game at Leicester. He is massive and utterly lovely.

::swoons at the memory::

I hope MasterD2 is ok today - is he full-time? I hate that ours start full-time now - it used to be mornings only for a term and I much preferred that.

Oh and if TwigBoy had been born 8 days earlier he would be starting today as well! I'm so relieved that he isn't.

Morning all.

::snort:: at all the sporting crushes. One benefit of the Bloke not watching sport on telly (apart from an odd bit of MOTD if his team are featured) is that I don't know who any of these people are, although I enjoyed Austin Healey's performance on Strictly.

When we were in France, they were reporting a survey which had found that Yannick Noah was the most popular French citizen.

::fans self::

::::

Well, there we go. End of an era. I have no more pre-schoolers. Not sure whether or is the right emoticon.

MasterD2 waltzed in, hung up his bag and disappeared off to play without nary a backwards glance.

Twigs, they are split in half at the beginning - the older ones do mornings for the first week and the younger ones do afternoons then they swap for the second week and go full time in the third week. It worked very well for the older two although MasterD2 would be absolutely fine going full time straightaway, he's just that kind of chap. Nothing phases him.

How are you feeling, LadyD? Were you tearful? How fabulous that he went in so happily. I guess having 2 older siblings must've helped.

Ah. That moment when you get home from the first school run and close the front door.

::nostalgic::

Meanwhile, the Girl is spending the last day of her holiday watching Bondage Guy.

Segueing into Dynamite Guy.

MissTwigs is also watching RH as we speak, Maud. Not sure which episode though.

The Girl is currently obsessed with RH - for her, the pièce de resistance is when Marian socks Guy on the jaw at their abortive wedding. ::Awards Girl the Brownie feminist badge:: She has just reenacted Guy's great flying leap when the gunpowder stores explodes, landing (in her case) on the sofa.

In trying but failing to find a picture of Guy in mid-leap, I did however find what might be a facsimile of dear Jasper in his cravat and wig.

Right, this won't butter any parsnips. Off out on vital errands. A toute à l'heure.

Oh, how odd, I was watching the bondage/tattoo episode this morning, (he does look most alluring, tied to a tree, mwa ha ha, with his arm painted like a girl's...) I just saw the start of the flying Gizzy one: I had to return to the twentieth century, as I had errands to run.

Boring but it did have compensations. i have just eaten the most delicious strawberry tart. You can't get those in Sherwood Forest.

Oh bless you all with DCs just starting school. I feel such a biatch, i could not WAIT to shovel my little perishers off. They start older here, maybe that had something to do with my desperation, and they only did half a day for the first few years. I hope all goes well with yours.

Ahem, dear Jasper does not wear a wig. He has a fine head of dark hair.

Here we are at the Opera.

Whilst wandering the Gallery in the Priory I also came across this fine man who bears a marked resemblance to someone we know.

My link winked out, just as I was trying to call the Tardis back. I should be in the twenty-first century, of course, not the twentieth. Silly me

::shudders with horror at the thought of half days for the first few years::

I am looking forward to two weeks time when they are all out from 8:45 until 3:30, I have to admit.

. I wish it was still the 20th century. Most of my body was still in its assigned place back then and a lie in meant at least 12pm.

::borrows Massive's Tardis::

That is uncanny, LadyD, a very similar kind of nose indeed. A pair of blue contacts and he would be a dead ringer.

Half days are so much better - I wouldn't have any (many?) qualms about sending them off for half a day. I just think early 4s is way too little to be there for most of the day :( I know one little boy who is going full-time, only a week or so after turning 4 - no way I could or would do that with mine. A large opart of it, for me, is whether the kid is happy at school. If they skipped off happily and I know they had a great time then I probably wouldn't bat an eyelid but it's just heart-wrenching when they're upset about it.

I'm also extremely nervous of them both being at school because then the dreaded words return to work will rear their ugly head :o

Wow, uncanny resemblance!

Most of my body was still in its assigned place

LOL! I might pinch that phrase for my own :)

Halfdays were a pain. Especially as they were often on different halves