The AAA Room in the Dept of Psychology at the University of Milton North.

[LadyDamerel]

Sigmund is available for appointments.

Not all that much of an Enigma, though, Spiro, if they've been doing their homework properly.

What is everyone up to, this fine Friday evening? Absolutely el zilcho on telly, here.

A shame Maud's not around tonight, I just found this

Love it!

Just had a lovely soak with some aromatherapy oils, now in nice clean bed watching Simon Schama's History of Britain on laptop.

Didn't get round to doing Christmas decs today but it's a bit early for me. So long as there up by next Friday when I do my wrapping it's all good.

Is it any good, Spiro? What periods does it cover?

I'm decking the halls tomorrow, can't wait!

From 3000BC onwards! It's ideal for me as didn't study history past 14 so am seriously playing catch up, and at £12.99 for 6 discs it's a bit of a bargain.

I did go shopping for some new decs today 'cos I really need some with two large suitcases full in the loft

It's very fashion forward to mix new with vintage, after all.

Does he do Stonehenge? i must get something like that next time I'm in the UK. Books are good, but sometimes the pictures can give you a far better impression.

New with vintage - ROFL!? My tree style tends to involve piling as much sparkly tat on as I can find.

Actually it's not tat - but I do like sparkly and shiny and tinsel which I know is considered by some to be the height of bad taste. In my defence it's very nice thick tinsel in either plain gold or holographic silver, so imo about as tasteful as tinsel gets!

If you can't do sparkly at Christmas, when can you? Who needs minimalist white on white?

A much better name, courtesy of DrT. I spent about 2 hours today trying to think of one and he came up with this in 20 seconds, damn him :)

We are doing tree tomorrow as well. Our tree is always red and gold stars and we have thick gold tinsel which drives me INSANE every year because I have to have the tinsel so that it looks like it's winding downwards around the tree, which necessitates a very careful tinsel design. However, there is always an errant branch that will NOT comply and sends the tinsel wonky so I spend at least half an hour sprting that out. Then the lights won't be right, then there will be a red dec too close to another red dec so it has to be moved nearer to a gold dec. But then that places two gold stars near to each other so they need moving again until all stars decs are equidistant and the red and gold are evenly spaced.

I may need help.

Nice threads, Twigs.

I have a similar problem to your tree one when filling up the freezer with portioned meals - can't have a two chicken ones or two beef ones too close, but when you start the second layer, it gets very complicated.

Hi all. My Christmas frock feels frumpy now [pouty lips]

Exhausting day but burial site is beautiful. FIL has bought 2 plots side by side so he can be buried next to her when the time comes [isn't that romantic soppy emoticon!]

Cousins are getting on great. FIL seems ok. Funeral not for another couple of weeks so time in hand.

Still can't get my head round the fact that she has gone! But the 2 4 year old boys are very excited about burying her! They were all for digging the hole there and then!.

Right sleep calls.

Knighty bite all. x

Massive, if you mean that you can't plan to eat two chicken ones too close to each other then that is perfectly sane and rational. However, if you mean that one can't physically sit next to the other in the freezer then you are an utter weirdo :)

Words fail me

Bitey Knight.

Good Lord - that is hideous. Looks like they should do it in a tiny size so it fits on a loo roll!

If I make & freeze stuff I always tend to put the same things together, but then I tend to do that just in case rather than putting them in order of 'to be eaten'.

Twigs I am exactly the same with you re decorating the tree, which is why having more than two colours helps on the sanity front! Always have to do lights first, then tinsel (although I kind of zig zag it down the tree so there's not 'wasted' tinsel where you can't see it) then baubles and hanging bits.

I've got a slightly peacock coloured thing going on this year!I did buy multi-coloured tinsel but have gone off it already, so sticking with silver.

That's exactly what I do with the tinsel, putting it just on the front. That's why it's so hard to make it look like it goes right around. I might try and make a stand for No Tinsel on the treet this year - I've got them a tiny tree each for their bedroom so maybe I'll say they could have the tinsel in their room instead.

Oh and don't even get me started on the lights and trying to disguise the wire - firstly, why oh WHY are they designed so that one light pokes out and the next light pokes in?! That means that every second light is pointing inwards where you can't see it - try to turn it round and the next one will point inwards instead

I'm using chunky star lights this year and the weight of the stars keeps them facing the right way. If I have gold as a base colour, I've got candles which have a clip on the base and can only point upwards!

My mum wraps tinsel round the wire.

I think you may all be over thinking your trees a bit, just did mine in about 20 mins!!

Vamps sounds like yesterday was not so stressful as you feared, and at the boys wanting to dig a hole!!

I was too at the Vampy boys. Kids are so refreshing at times, even as they are running you ragged. I hope the rest of the weekend passes off in similar smoother-than-anticipated style.

About the frozen meals. My lot like to pick them out of the freezer, but get annoyed if they keep coming up with the same things out of the lucky dip. That's why I try to space the varieties out a bit.

Finally got a few moments to myself - just about to do battle with our airline and change our christmas flights and car park booking etc - but popped on to say hello.

The others are all out looking round our local town - but I'm so exhausted that I opted to come home with the 2 boys - they are happily playing bob the builder in the sitting room - so I'm hoping I can get a few quiet moments before the onslaught starts again.

After much discussion with my family and the in-laws it has been decided that they are coming away with us too - so it will be a busy family Christmas - going to be a bit of a squeeze, but luckily BIL et al and FIL are pretty laid back and easy going - TBH I'd rather go on holiday with them than my own parents. But it will be a lovely Christmas I hope and the Australians will witness snow and a white Christmas for the first time - hope that we don't have awful weather back here again now - really think that would probably push me over the very fine precipice I'm currently navigating!!

Love all your OCD-ness - we just keep things simple and all our decorations are silver, glass or white! No problems there at all and there's not much that the kids can do wrong with it!

Oky-doke - hopefully BB soon.

lots of love
me

Bless you, Vampy. thanks for the update. What an unexpected bonus that the boys are gettng on so well together.

I didn't know they had Bob the Builder in Oz. Or did Vampboy introduce his cousin to its delights?

They get on fabulously! Its lovely to watch them Vampboy is 4 weeks older only and they are so similar!

Oh and yes they have Bob over there and recently got the octonauts, but not the toys yet so he loves the octopod! And i got him a gup-/b with kwazzi which he loves!

oops! wrong name!! still on hold to airline!!

I recognised you Vamps, don't worry. I do so hate being on hold, expecially when they keep telling you your call is valuable to them. The lying toads.

Here is who has to spend a long time on the phone.

In case you aren't on the pooter, here's the still version