Thread 16 - TalkLair: "Well, I'm not exactly quaking in my stylish-yet-affordable boots, but there's definitely something unnatural going on here."

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 15).

Another year over, a new one just begun...

In the TalkLair, the hearth is glowing, the walls festooned with tinsel, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors, the tree is twinkling with fairy lights (and possibly being clambered on by cats). The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch though, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics.

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey Christmas roast beast over there in the corner of the cave…

Yes, it gives the impression that there is a lot of infantilising going on, @duc748. But we are of an elderly (in my case) generation and were just itching to fly the nest!

Glad it's not just me! 😀

I suppose I get around it by using DD/DC.

DC seems a reasonable compromise but I still tend to think of them as my children even though they’re heading towards middle age!

Quokka fans might like to glance at the most recent iteration of the Bluestocking and admire the wine waiter. https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5294134-the-bluestocking-where-spring-has-sprung-and-the-grass-is-riz?reply=142844969

Certainly much better! They put me in mind of the talking pandas on Who Dares Wins.

That's a fine looking quokka.

At my main work, I've been in the process of overhauling the colour scheme in one part of the garden, changing it from pastel shades to bright colours. This was being done after talking to the Lady of the House who likes bright colours and we both agreed that it would be lovely to brighten that part of the garden up. I spent weeks creating a new four-season planting plan, I've got dozens of new perennials coming on, have put in new shrubs, sown seeds of colourful annuals for picking and drying. Guess what - they've split up. Still, hopefully it'll look good and other people will enjoy the dazzling glory of it all. I will, anyway.

DH bought several packs of chocolate biscuits at the local shop (there was an offer). Took a pack to work and left the rest at home. He later mentioned that the top layer of his pack of biscuits was all broken and wondered if he’d broken them on his bike ride to work.

DD has just opened one of the packs for elevenses and exclaimed “What’s wrong with the top layer?” and I have a feeling some twisted ne’er-do-well has been deliberately jamming their thumb into the tops of all the biscuit packets in the shop. 😡

Are those McVitie's "Signature" caramel rounds? I bought a pack yesterday - on offer in a small Co-op - and the top layer is slightly squished/cracked, though not to that extent. It looks as though there must have been some sort of "incident" in a warehouse!

Yes, the shop had an offer on several of this McVitie's range so DH bought some of these and some of the swirl ones. The pack he opened at work yesterday were the swirl ones, the pack DD opened today are the choc caramel. The fact that they were two different types and the very specific finger-sized divots suggest individual action.

God, what a crappy trick.

Misaligned packing machinery? AI going rogue?

I expect it's bored/disgruntled staff. We opened a packet of biscuits a while ago and every single one was broken into bits, as if the packet had been kicked around the store room.

I see there's threads in Site Stuff, and posters are all over this 'endless scrolling of threads' issue. I hope they can just go back to pages as before. Surely nobody (well, hardly anybody) wants this?

I’m finding the different views on this thread fascinating especially the OTT attitudes to children’s parties. Thank God those days are past for me.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5294673-to-not-expect-to-owe-her-ps110-for-ice-cream

Yes it’s infuriating - I thought it was just me. What’s the point?

I thought it was something to do with having just changed from Chrome to Firefox, but it's nothing to do with that, it's MN.

I’ve been reading that! Very interesting on both sides…

I read the first couple of pages and glazed over! I sympathise with both positions.

I was also reading that thread. I’m on the “you offered, just pay” side of the argument I think. Not paying just sounds far too stressful.

The OP, to be fair, did pay and I thought she ought to. Although I empathised totally with her on the difficulty of the situation she was in, that was her problem not the hostess' problem, and it wasn't up to the hostess to police what the children were allowed to order.

Yeah, it was a stressful situation all round.

Ooh difference of opinion here! Or not really, as I would have paid for a quiet life and to bring it to an end, but I think the hostess behaved very shabbily and some of the people on that thread seem like terrible people. Worse things happen at sea and it’s only a cake.

I felt awful for the OP and her children, but also for the party mum and the birthday girl. Things went horribly wrong, children were understandably upset, communication was vague due to the stress of the situation and her rush to get away. The expense was rather eye-watering, but the OP never clarified whether this was because everybody had ordered gold-plated caviar ice creams on purpose or there was some reasonable cause.

If I'd been the OP, I'd have paid up with some wincing but no quibbling.

If I'd been the party mum, I wouldn't have even dreamed of asking for payment.

I wouldn't either, but I'd have asked for a replacement cake.