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]

Pants. My contribution for today . Will update tomorrow.

Honestly DH has had the laptop for DAYS bloomin' teachers and their need to do planning. I have spent my time usefully preparing DS1 for very big school, I can hardly think about it without crying . He insisted I took his photo (and put it on Facebook for all the girls to see ) so I'm putting it on my profile for everyone else to see as I'm quite proud of how grown up he looks (sob)

Well I would if I could work out how do do it from my iPhone

lovely to make own proper espresso again. all packed up and have waved goodbye to bodensee. have crossed border into bavaria. on route to casle neuschwanstein. Yellow your ds might want to see on google. the original cinderella castle before disney pinched the design. hoping we will have better luck finding site than when we got to bodensee. everywhere full to bursting with blessed caravans.

Safe journey slubbs and have a gorgeous time at wangerstein castle - on my to do list! Wishing you a gorgeous remainder of hol but also can't wait to hear about it in more detail. We're thinking Loire valley next year and then somewhere else in France, probably south or massif centrale (love the way that sounds!).

I had a miraculous happening in town. I found the trousers I wanted, in my size, and they fit. Even more, the shops were saying no we don't have any and I just found one random pair mixed in on the hangers. I'm pretty sure that I haven't nicked a random pair from someone else.

Bravissimo order not here yet. Last bra in England in my size apparently! Also waiting on some medical equipment from the States that I have to pay for for ds, wonder if customs has nicked it and is playing darts with it.

Off out to blimmin works BBQ. Humph. It will be nice to see colleagues again tho as they are a great bunch.

lovely to make own proper espresso again. all packed up and have waved goodbye to bodensee. have crossed border into bavaria. on route to casle neuschwanstein. Yellow your ds might want to see on google. the original cinderella castle before disney pinched the design. hoping we will have better luck finding site than when we got to bodensee. everywhere full to bursting with blessed caravans.

stoopid kindle.
in bavaria. can see lake and mountains from tent. there are actual tent campers here too. have consumed considerable volumes of weizen beer. still sunny. off to casle tomorrow.
agent pissed in bavaria over and out

Hello lovely

Enjoy the next stage! I went Crockying yesterday

Back to normal for us all on Monday boo.

slubber your trip sounds fab, still waiting for it to stop raining here. Glad we're not camping tonight. sal the image of people rummaging through a bin bag full of your slinky undies on your doorstep has made me smile!
We've just managed to get dd settled in bed after hysterics of the highest order. We walked home in the drizzle a couple of hours ago to come across the frog population of Lancashire (or so it seemed) on the pavement. Dh tried to shepherd one away from the road (a busy A road) but failed so we all witnessed it's demise. ds (10) ran away in horror but then was very brave, dd (6) however was not brave and wailed for what seemed like hours. At one point she tried to persuade dh to go out, bring back the remains of Freddie (named posthumously) so we could bury them in the garden. So we compromised and all sat in her bedroom and I said a prayer for Freddie. Am now waiting for the waking in the middle of the night with frog massacre nightmares

oooh northender sounds a bit grim.

bramble - love bravissimo, such a revelation to get a bra that actually fits! Can't believe I waited til my 30s though.

Slubber - enjoy the rest of your epic journey. Most jealous of yours and lost's adventures this summer.

Medically people - DS is having surgery for medical hernia on mon 26th September. I will no doubt be a quivering wreck when he is going under but not too worried about the op as it is just a day case. Kind of assumed DS would be back at school before the week is out (he's 5) am I being too optimistic? Should he have the week off or do we just wait and see how he gets on? Assuming he's not desperately ill I need to get my mum or someone on call to have him and need to plan that now really.

After wanting a massive car went to our skoda garage yesterday to test drive a fabia. Really liked it and they're doing 20% off at the minute. I feel rather loyal to them, they've been faultless in after sales care with DH's car and that counts for an awful lot in my book. Can't believe I might get an actual real life brand spanking new car! I am 40 next year, it'll be my super big treat!!!

Wow scaryt sounds bargains. My bro has always had skodas.
Lovely day, but looking wt weather forecast and will be rainproofing the broody run today. Chicks due next week along with weather.
Good night out last night with colleagues ending up with a second night out in my local with a mates band. Head a bit achy today and tooooo much planning to do still!

losty hope you have manageed to wrestle laptop off dh!!! How dare he! Will check your pic of ds2 on facebook - good luck not blubbing!

Slubber thanks for link to that castle - ds1 in awe! We'll have to put that on the camping wishlist! Glad you have expresso and found some more canvas!

scaryt hope your ds hernia op goes OK. (presume an inguinal hernia?) You are right it is a very straightforward operation but its important to do no heavy lifting / straining for 4-6 weeks. I'd personally plan to keep him off for this week and see how he is next week - we'd usualy write a sick note for 2-4 weeks for adults depending on how active their job is. Good luck xx

brambles fingers crossed ds medical equipment arrives soon and is not providing amusement to the customs officers!

We were out at a 40th birthday party yesterday which was fab. Very tired by the time we got in last night hence no appearance on here! Off out for family bike ride and lunch now - dh's dad is coming to stay later and dh doesn't exactly get on with him so could be fun! See you later...

pmsl just showed slubbers castle to ds2 and (I have trained him well) his first comment was 'does it have a cafe there?'

scaryt nothing wrong with a skoda, my friend has one and the boot is cavernous, fab for packing camping gear. A new car, I'm 40 this year and have never got close to having a new car. Enjoy. On the hernia front I would go with yd and assume he'll need a few days off. If he doesn't then it's a bonus. How old is he?
yd hope fil's visit isn't too stressful.
An update on the frog situation.........dd managed to sleep through the night but has had several wobbles this morning and asked me had Freddie the frog made it past the angels to heaven yet. So please join us in a toast to Freddie in frog heaven

for Freddie

Haven't been on for a few days - have been recovering from my two nights camping at Thistledown. It was lovely, but goodness was I tired!?

How early on in the year do you all start camping? Ds's dad lives in Spain and we have an agreement that he gets him for Easter and October hols (although I am not holding my breath on if that happens or not!), that only leaves us with June to start camping with him and that seems as if we are missing half of the year. What do you all think?

for freddie! Hope your children aren't too traumatised today northender

muchostinky I'd just plan for a couple of weekends (or even just one night) near to home. Wait until a couple of days before to check on the weather and just head off! No need to wait for school holidays imho

Well we've been out with the boys on bikes this am and had a roast lunch in the pub - yum! Still waiting for fil - he witnessed a fatal accident on the way up so had to hang about and give a statements. Apparently a caravan came loose from the car that was towing it on the A1 and piled into a motorcyclist killing him pretty much immediately . So a for the unknown motorcyclist and his family too

Oh and on a lighter note did anyone see x-factor last night? Just been watching it on sky+ and Jade Richards was amazing - just been blubbing my eyes out at her audition! Same feeling last year as when Rebecca Ferguson auditinoed and didn't even have the confidence to look the judges in the eye but what cme out of her mouth was amazing. Both Adele songs too if I remember correctly (who also gives me goose bumps). She wil go far

Wow the slubber camping gaz moment was truly epic, well done everyone. Coffee in the morning is always a focus for me when camping (ignores the memory of DH making her a cappuccino from a sachet without rinsing the previous nights Pastis out, ugh) Does slubbers trip seem truly epic or did I seem to be away for this long, she's surely been away months by now.

Scaryt, as soon as we joined the camping thread I think it was safe to say we were the sort who would be getting excited about Skoda's, it probably written into the base code for people who love to camp

I was going to reply about how long to keep hernia boy off for but as I see our resident surgeon has given the definitive answer I will just agree with everything she says. Whe DS2 had to have surgery on his testicle (ouch) he was off for a good few weeks, but he had other complications. Although the main problem was stopping him playing football before his stitches had healed properly.

DS1 is proudly posted on my profile, he likes the photo but is a bit worried he's got 'distracted eyes on', I think he looks gorgeous. I am treating myself to a good blubber now as he is out and I don't want to add to his anxiety. I'm quite sure I'd be useless anyway with my PFB going off to comp but the fact that he is SN and I'm chucking him in at the deep end in a main stream school is giving me a bad case of the wibbles.

for Freddie (surely past the pearly gates by now and having a good swim in St Peter's pond)

losty ds1 looks amazing! So grown up and handsome!! Not surprised your blubbing x

clearly you're blubbing

Ah, ds1 is gorgeous lost. Ds2 is also a ginger () and strangers really struggle because neither dh or I have the same colour hair. I'm sure that they think babies were switched or something .

Rest in peace Freddie on your celestial lilypad .

Ds2 went into a 'big boy's' bed last night. I think that he's getting the idea (slowly) but nobody is very awake today . Full-time school for ds1 tomorrow, sob!

lost he looks so grown up. Not surprised you're feeling fragile. yd hope your fil is okay, it must be awful to witness something like that.

lost - your big boy looks sooo grown up, no wonder you're blubbing big BIG school is a BIG deal.

to Freddie

Yellow - what an awful thing for your FIL to witness hope he and all involved are OK. We tow a caravan, it is one of my worst things that something should go wrong.

funtime - good luck for your DS on his first day.

Really hoping my set of Reception mites are an easy going bunch this year. I'm ready to have a laugh (with them, sounded like I wanted to laugh at them...in our last ofsted the lead inspector advised myself and my TA that if we ever wanted to give up teaching (cue our hearts sinking) we could become a double act on cbeebies. Yes, we're bonkers!) I can only imagine what's going on in 30 houses around here. Two more sleeps for them.

Rather excited about new car prospect. Really silly that I want it to be red with a white roof. How old am I?

All the best to new starters, including ds2 at high school on tues. I will be at my school welcoming all from tiddlers to towerers.
Yikes to caravan accident, hope all surviving and witnessing are ok.
Sniff to big boy bed. It'll be size 13 boots soon..
Hen lockdown commences soon, last time a chick hatched early and rolled out into the run :(