Around the Cadac with bunting, tealight chandeliers and fairylights on the EHU

[notwavingjustironing]

Gawd, the minimalists will kill us.....

It was Someone Else's idea, all right?

Carry on where you left off, be it owls, bins, sharks, tins of vodka, karaoke etc. [grain]

pmsl at slinging dses!!! Yep, often fantasise about that one too! [grain]

Definately up for a meetup. It would be really cool to know who I am talking to irl!

Definately intent on getting at least one more night under canvas this year too - my new tent is demanding it!!!

lovecat I've sent you a friend request via FB, feel very free to ignore if you don't want to add friends you've never met or [grain]

Quick hello to everyone, I've been neglecting the thread I'm afraid as I've been in our facility free field by the beach and also finishing my OU homework which I'd completely neglected in favour of camping and having a lovely time.

I've been out all evening celebrating two very lovely friends achieving their GCSE maths 20 years after leaving school, very proud of the pair of them, although if we'd drunk as much as we had tonight as 16 year olds we'd probably have ended up in A&E!

Quick check of the thread, I too remember slinging a DS, we moved house when DS2 was small and I was so excited that I had a proper landing to march up and down on instead of doing circles in our old house. It seemed so important at the time, I have to pinch myself now he's a nine year old football fanatic!

request accepted, Losty [grain]

Hope your head's all right this morning! Lovely news about your friends, that's wonderful. A 16 yr old friend in our drama group got v. good results yesterday too.

Right! Have overslept horribly thanks to absence of DH (I'm blaming him, not me, of course - he normally gets up at 6 and wakes me up in the process, the radio alarm alone is obv. not enough...) so have to go wrangle DD into her circus outfit and throw breakfast down her and NOT be on MN.

Laters! :o

Stuff tents, I want to know where love cat gets her amazing mosquito repellant/attractant! Maybe I wouldn't get bitten wo much if I camped with w friend like that, but sadly I think that I am that friend!

Home from hospital visiting for a couple of days. I have the joy of school shoes and tidying a house inhabited solely by men for a week without me! (a certain amount of direction will cone from me, but I may commandeer next door's skip).

Ha! Slinging DS - yes that would be highly tempting at times!

A meet up would be fab, this weekend's is just too far for us and we're off to our caravan in the woods instead.

lost -congrats to your friends' GCSE results

How's your dad doing brambles?

He's not off with the goblins as much, but still a bit confused and big gaps with memory. He's due an MRI today then hopefully we can get a diagnosis and treatment plan. I've come home for a few days - house needs blitzing, school stuff to plan, school shoes - argh! The crowded dance of modern life!

If I can get on with it today we may be able to be tenty or kayaky if the weather plays ball.

Weather looks cold and miserable and I just want to cuddle up with ds in bed. Hmm, what IS it with August bank holidays?! Better go and search for wellies and ski jacket.

Hope everyone is well and about to have a nice weekend.

Thank you lovecat, I love the pictures of your tent it looks beautiful (don't think I didn't notice the bunting, slubber will be told). Your mosquito repellent looked lovely too.

Hope you can get your dad sorted out brambles (and a cheeky kayak/tent), MRI will give a great view of whatever is going on a least. Although I've not seen any goblins on one yet [wunk]

Going to the opening night of a new restaurant in town tonight. It's USP is that all the food will be sourced from within 25 miles which is an admirable concept, I can't wait to see how it works in real life. I have a feeling it will be a little bit more expensive that food bought from the local wholesale caterers but hopefully worth it.

It's going to be nice at some point this weekend isn't it? The first time I came down here with DH (then new BF) was the bank holiday weekend and it was glorious sunshine the whole time, I fell in love with the area before I fell in love with him. It's been 18 years now and I haven't had a dry bank holiday since, I think I was had!

My poor friend... weirdly enough she didn't get bitten, they just gathered in a cloud above her head wherever she went! That photo doesn't do it justice, there were at least a hundred of the little buggers circling her... people passing us on the way to the communal tent were passing comment, it was that obvious Very weird to be in a completely midge-free field as far as the eye can see, look around and there's poor friend with a cloud hovering over her. She ran away at one point and they all followed her... I tried not to laugh (too much). Thank you for your kind comments re. tent. I thought of Slubber as I put up the bunting...:o

Restaurant sounds nice, Lost, you must tell us what's on the menu . I think you were definitely had wrt the weather, but fingers crossed for some sunshine this weekend. If nothing else we have to get DD out of the way while painting/ripping up carpet so good weather will let her ride her bike in the garden (she's gearing up for taking off the stabilisers so more practice = a good thing).

Brambles, fingers doubly crossed that the MRI comes up with the answers for your Dad and it's not too serious. I think you deserve a tent/kayak after all that!

On an unrelated note, can I ask where everyone stores their camping stuff? Our shed is already full to overflowing with garden-related gear and bicycles (plus even with sweeping it out twice a year it's still a designated spider breeding centre and I don't want my precious canvas getting any dirtier than it already is) and we don't have the loft boarded. I'm beginning to think that may have to be the way forward, though, as there's only so much I can stick beneath beds! (currently it's all over the floor of the dining room, my mission tomorrow is to find a home for it all...)

Dammit dammit dammit. Ds just sat on my glasses (after I wanted to show him stuff with a toy microscope, so my own fault really). An emergency optician appointment now means we can't go camping until tomorrow. Grrrrrr.

Lost, restaurant sounds lovely. We went to a (stupid really) chain restaurant with ds last night for burgers (Spur), and for the first time we could see why people are willing to pay normal prices for rubbishy food - they had a children's play area and were loud and gave him a lucky packet. All that = we could actually eat in peace. We will be back often!

Lovecat, camping stuff really not helping an already overflowing shed / bedroom / random hole here either. We can't even get a trailer as have nowhere to store it. We end up keeping no-damp-risk in the boot of the car.

Off to sulk about missed camping night.

I need a quick poll as I'm in a right grump due to 100s of different reasons-

Do I watch Remains of the Day, or A River Runs Through It,or neither an get a chickflick instead (recommendations required) tonight?

Wine and chocolate also required!!

Oh no MisSal how incredibly annoying although I don't know where you are but the forecast for overnight here isn't too great so you might be thankful tomorrow.

I'm sitting here admiring my new Teva sandals (at last, we've gone through about three threads since I decided I wanted some) they are soo comfy. The man in the shop offered me a mirror to see how they looked and was put out when I answered 'why would I want to do that, they're for camping'. Even better they were half price in the sale so I bought myself a lovely pair of merino hiking socks to wear with them. I was thinking about wearing them tonight...

Our camping stuff lives in the dining room, the same room I lovingly decorated in correct era for the house paints and made into a proper grown up eating room. It's the dumping ground for every piece of tat we don't have space for. Never eaten in it once.

Hmm tough one SeaShells, my cinema going recently has mostly been animated penguins moving through to the 'unpopular teenage boy finds he has amazing powers/is an alien/boy wizard and saves the world' genre. Having googled both I would say that the river one has the most watchable boy totty but perhaps a tad too much fly fishing for my taste and the Anthony Hopkins one sounds a bit worthy for a friday (more a Sunday night film maybe?) I would try and find a bit of rom com with a very attractive man who takes his top off a lot or Seth Rogan as he is lovely, and some popcorn, and lots of some wine. HTH

Seashells, given the grotty Non. Stop. Rain. I would vote chickflick as I seem to remember the other two required thinking .

lost - your dining room sounds lovely, we only eat in ours because our living and dining room are knocked into one. Tevas sound great, what are colour are your sandal/sock combo.

I am currently depressed thinking about work and Ofsted looming horridly on the horizon. I have loved being off this hol and having adventures with the small one. Is there such a thing as a relatively well paid job with NO mag=jor responsibilities???

Scaryt, I have no idea, but I'm still on the look out for the Money Tree or a lottery win. Failing that, dh to write a bestseller a la Bill Bryson (eg no original work just making it very very accessible an fun to read)...

Chick flick it is... I can't do thinking films today, my head is full
Of other shite!! :)

Me too scaryt, I'm in primary sen management. We are so due an ofsted. I've cleared my home office today and need to finalize planning etc ASAP in case I have to do another lightening southern dash.

Chickflick vote here

Yuck, it must be horrid to just be waiting for the ofsted phone call!

Brambles-I hope the MRI starts giving you all answers, must be difficult :( puts my concerns into perspective!

I'd vote for chickflick too, SeaShells. Pointless nonsense with wine and chocolates sounds heaven to me now. Dh thinks the world will come to an end (happily) if we watch that together, whereas I'm happy to throw myself off a cliff if I need to watch scifi, so we've got this agreement that we watch clever comedy - I can't do slapstick - or dramas together. When he's away on holiday, I love soppy no-thinking-required movies with a bag of crisps and a bottle of wine. Bliss.

Lost, ooh, comfy sandals sound good. Slubber will be so proud of socks (although not death-)! [grain]. True re camping, I guess - it's at NettleTea's place in East Sussex, and weather forecast does look better for tomorrow.

Sorry to hear re work stress, Scary and Bramble. Scary, not sure if it'll make you feel any better, but after years in a Proper Job I accepted a relatively stressfree, flexible hours, part-time role. Salary is fine, but it drives me crazy sometimes because it all seems a bit pointless at times. Also really annoying that often I think I'm the only one stressing about deadlines etc, whereas the tomorrow-is-another-day attitude is more common. The stupid thing is that this is why I made the move - was tired of never being able to take time off for nursery things and it being a crisis when ds was ill. It's just that it's mind numbing compared to before at times. Really need to remember to buy that lotto ticket.

Another vote for chickflick! Always good! Another dh who doesn't rate them or the endless reality tv crap I favour! but he is getting good at putting up with it on the understanding that he can watch cycling / cricket / football while I MN and FB! We both like crime stuff like Silent Witness and Grand designs / other property programmes though

Brambles hope your dads MRI gives some answers... Thinking of you.

MisSal hope you have a fab time at the BH camp! Agree with others that its definately not a bad thing to avoid tonight - I think after that the weekends meant to be lovely.

lovecat my dh is a bit like your friend which is all good - I used to get eaten alive before I married him but now they don't give me a second glance!

Lost that restaurant sounds fab - I'll look forward to hearing all about it! We're off out tonight too with dh and mum and dad although not sure where. We'd got a fantastic deal fro a curry on livingsocial but the voucher hasn't come through yet so we'll probably go elsewhere.

Anyway off to go and make tea for the boys - be back later...

Thunder, lightning and torrential rain in East London....:(

Lost, that sounds identical to my dining room, down to the period colours/tasteful furnishings etc.. We only eat in there at Christmas, if I can find another room to dump all the stuff in! As we're looking to move, we really need to get serious about clearing it, though. A fun job for the weekend [grain].

Another vote for chickflick, or, if you want something funny but not too brain engaging, how about Empire Records, The Princess Bride, Dogma or anything with Robert Downey Jnr in it....

More rain!!! I really don't want to go out tonight to rehearsal... :(

Edit function: grrr, you know what I meant

Anyway, dh agrees, so its back to see what LoveFilm has on streaming, as the two DVDs don't match the mood!!

I like a bit of delta peg hug action. Don't tell slubber.
MRI done, no results yet, but he said his head was too big for the original machine configuration. If they looked at his proper title (professor) they would have worked that out. Anyway, done, so we will see. Fewer goblins tonight [grain]

Dust begone at my place. I have been living the high life. Anyway, it's gin o'clock and all I have in is tesco's own. Might treat myself to some of that fancy stuff over the weekend as a stress relief strategy.

Argh camping has another Discussion of the day-we are not doing well at staying under the radar people!!

Good to hear fewer goblins Bramble :) I hope they are quick with the results