The White Boar's Head: Student Union Bar at the University of Milton North

[DumSpiroSpero]

Student discounts available on all varieties of Chateau Gisborne and Polish Cordial.

Don't leave us Maud!!! We'll miss you!!

Thanks Twigs - I shall do it in a sec - off to put DD to bed!

I would be so much more efficient if I left MN, Maud - but I'd also be a lot more bored :)

Remember I tried, but lure of Lucas North drew me back!!

But we'd be so much better read, Twiggy!

::Buries her nose in A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu::

I'd get so much more sleep too, as I wouldn't sit on here until daft o'clock and then read for another hour when I go to bed.

Oh, yes. The lure of an early night. The bags under my eyes are more like suitcases, hence my resolution to live more of my life in the scary real world and less online.

My main concern is that I think I would be a better parent if I didn't MN :( Too often I find myself running off here, because playing with little children is, generally, boring. So I choose that instead of interacting with him. I do stuff with him, he's not a complete MN orphan, but I know I would do more if MN didn't exist and that makes me feel terrible. Several times a week I say right, no internet until kids are in bed but I never do.

Maud, you are about the most well-read person I 'know'!

I know what you mean, Twiggy, about not wanting your child(ren) to be an internet orphan - although I suspect that the only people whose children truly are internet orphans are those with mental health problems, where the issue isn't really about the internet - but don't fall into the trap of thinking that you ought to be Doing Stuff with TwigBoy every moment he's awake. Sometimes they do just need to be left to do their own thing, knowing you're nearby if they need you. Sorry, that sounds hideously preachy, but you get my drift.

I reckon Massive has read far more proper books than what I have.

Thanks twigs!!

That's why I took a break from MN but all that happened is I spent longer on FB!!

I do remember one of you telling me once that there is nothing wrong with some escapism like on this thread! And we definitely need some me time when home all day with little ones!!

Just watched last night's strike back. Tis full of boobies, violence and general unrealistic plots and although some pretty boys no Armitage!!

Yes, I'm sure escapism is good as long as one doesn't become as divorced from reality as some of those ladies on the confessions site. I think the reason I'm so about husbands demanding that their wives get off MN in order to keep them entertained is that I think husbands are better able to keep themselves amused than children, so it's 'better' (for want of a better word) to MN in the evening.

Good job, though, that we were still on dial-up when The Girl was very small and I hadn't discovered MN!

Evening all. Well I can state that since I discovered MN I have been a lot more cheerful and less naggy and so all round everyone in the household has benefited.

We all need a break from the relentless daily round, perhaps, and it isn't always possible to get one too easily in RL. But that's me. Maybe RL is more readily available back over there.

Disclaimer: if I have indeed read more books than Maud,it's because a great deal of them were rubbish chicklit, airport blockbusters and bodice-rippers from the rather more contemporary end of the bookshelves.

I regularly have to read books from the more contemporary end of the bookshelves for my book group. Most of them turn out to be rubbish are sadly devoid of cravats.

Oooh! Oooh! Gryff Rhys Jones is ambling though the centro storico in Rome.

::Want to be there emoticon::

I've had to step back from MN a few times in the 7 or so years I've been here because it's taken over a bit too much. It is the escapism I need from the sheer monotony of being a SAHM otherwise I'd go completely potty.

I subscribe to Maud's theory of letting children find their own entertainment and I'm lucky that all three of mine have always played really well without me. The other side of that coin is that it becomes too easy to just let them get on with it by themselves and lose myself here so I have re-find the balance every so often.

It's easier now they're at school because I feel less guilty about ignoring the housework .

From what I've heard of your bookclub books, Maud, those rank as great works of literary genius compared with my usual reading matter.

I have been known to read more worthy stuff, but that takes up more mental energy than I can muster, most of the time. Nothing wrong with a good cabbagey read, though, I suppose.

Ah. I'm in two book groups with quite distinct reper-twars and the two seldom overlap. Of course, I force them to read North and South and the like.

::will probably be expelled soon::

Perhaps you are thinking of when we read that pseudo-Victorian smutfest The Crimson Petal And The White?

And everyone else of course. How would it look on your big screen, Spiro?

What do they think of North and South? it's a great book.
I do remember Crimson Petal, actually - you did mention others but old suet pastry brain has forgotten them

Aha, . LadyD ought to see it, if she hasn't already

N&S got mixed reactions, in large part because not everybody welcomed having to read such a long book (as if anyone could begrudge time spent with Mr Thornton!) But my friend whose assessment of the books is often the closest to mine liked it.

I am fighting hard not to fall asleep but need to be compos mentis at 11pm to watch Spooks. I may give in and go to bed and watch it on iPlayer (and titchy screen, drat) tomorrow.

The music is so sad, though, isn't it?

Yes, it is.

::wails::

::Reminds self that, comely as he is, he's still an unwashed, leather-clad, psychologically-damaged arsonist and homicidal maniac::

'Tis true that N&S is but a slim feuilleton compared with the latest airport bonkbuster, but I suppose the difference is that one chooses (or not, ugh) to read a bonkbuster whereas book group choices are forced on one, so one doesn't necessarily want to spend 500 pages in company one hasn't chosen.

::Still baffled that anyone would not want to spend the rest of their life 500 pages with Mr Thornton::

I am baffled too. Mr Thornton is a true paragon among men. Though I say as shouldn't, since my taste obviously runs more to unwashed, leather-clad, psychologically-damaged arsonists and homicidal maniacs

He is indeed a paragon among men and sex on a stick too.

A disco stick?

::Adjusts lorgnette::

Is that a cue for a song, by any chance?