On your marks, get set, go...it's the countdown to Christmas 2020. Thread 1!

[ThatsMySantaHisBeardIsSoFluffy]

366

Afternoon.

Here we go again! It feels slightly bonkers setting off again before today is over, but it's tradition, so who am I to argue?!

I forgot to say, I am slightly ahead for 2020, as I only have 2 ends to sew in on a blanket that I finished for D's DUncle!! It was only 9 years on the needles !!

Im too scared to look into my family tree - am fairly sure I'm going to find criminals or scandal

I'm from a big family too - parents have 13 siblings between them. All siblings have children so I have loads of cousins who are all adults. All except 2 have children of their own.
I'm only close to a few cousins but they are more like siblings.
My family haven't moved very far - at one point we lived on a tiny estate with 2 sets of grandparents, 3 sets of aunties / uncles all within a 2 minute walk!

Wreck my DH has to help our neighbour jump start his car this morning too.

Nollaig an mBan to all Irish posters. What a lovely tradition / celebration

Well done on the blanket Biddy 😂

DH is back at work but it's an inset day so I think they're having meetings and getting things ready for tomorrow. He'll be home by 4 at the latest which makes me very jealous!

I'm back at my SW today so hoping the scales aren't too awful later 🤞🏼

'Mrs How's Doll the Dragon today, has she finished the knitted blanket yet?'
Fanny, l narrowly avoided having to get the damn blanket strips out and measuring them all. I just managed to distract her by getting her to write out 3 birthday cards. That took her half an hour . It is such a palavar. I have to get it all together for her then she is shouting at me to read what she has written out to them and it is like a bloody story. She hasn't got her hearing aids in because she has a sore ear so l raise my voice so she can hear , then l am shouting, then l lower my voice and she 'CAN'T HEAR YOU'. lol it takes some patience l can tell you
Anyway l have a tale to tell re Bob the man friend. You wouldn't believe the confusion caused by Mum not being able to hear!

Crazy my DD2 is back at SW tonight. Good luck m'dear
Biddy well done on finishing the blanky

Here is what happened today
You have got to laugh, my mother has got Bob into a terrible state, she thought he was coming to visit yesterday and he had no intention of coming to visit at all! Mum made my DD1 ring Bob to put him off calling yesterday but she made him come today instead of yesterday and the poor man doesn't know whether he's coming or going 😂😂😂
I met him at the car this morning and said do you want to come in Bob and he said no not really I got a lot on today .I said don't worry you go and do what you have to do and contact me next time you want to visit Mum 😂😂😂 I have his number now so l will be sorting it out , Mum can't hear a damn thing!
Poor Bob ! 😂😂😂

It's freezing! I'm under a blanket. Dc both had a good day at school which is good news. I really don't want to go out again later for swimming it's dark and raining.

Car is fine. I only arranged the lesson yesterday so wouldn't cancel now. We haven't been for about a month

I would take it with me but it's so hot poolside! Luckily DH will be coming with me for moral support

I don't envy you going out in this Wreck, we have all come down with a terrible malaise, partly due to Post Christmas blues and partly because we have all got colds ....SNIFF! COUGH! SNEEZE!
Fanny , Bancroft is really excellent l have watched 3 out of 4 of the first series and can't believe how good it is! Thank you for the heads up m'dear!
Just seen a BBC2 trailer for 'win the wilderness Alaska' , it looks like my cup of tea
Aberystwyth on FLOG IT , love Aberystwyth , ever since DD1 went to Uni there they are holding it in the Old Uni building. l have never been there will have a good drool now , there you are , will let you all have a breather from me now

I actually wasn't awake for too long, thankfully, Mrs! Just long enough to annoy myself!

You've had a busy day. And your mum is hilarious (unintentionally!).

Wreck, DH dies a death at swimming as it's so hot. He gets to go two nights a week too!

Good to see so many enormous families in here. Many of my cousins could walk past me in the street and I wouldn't know! PJ, however, was my drinking partner back in our youth.

Glad you were not up too long Fluffy,
l know Mum is nuts
I don't know if Bob is interested in Mum or if Mum thinks he is or Mum has misheard him and been inviting him there out of pity because he lost his wife and she is being kind to him. Bob didn't want to come in today, no way Jose there is Mum telling me, 'l don't want him to get the wrong end of the stick with me. l am not interested in another man, Daddy was the only one for me' . l think Bob thinks she has been chasing him and l am laughing and cringeing at the same time !
He couldn't wait to get back in the car today, to go home

'Mrs Aberystwyth was hinterland/y gwyll wasn't it? lovely around there!'
It was and it's absolutely beautiful there rugged and rough and biting wind and sea ohhh just lovely
Bancroft series 2 here l come !

Eugh. January price increase. Swimming lesson is now £33 each time. Maybe we will have to give it up

Wow that is a hellova lot of money for swimming lesson. £16.50 EACH child . I didn't realise they were so expensive these days.

Well for group lessons it's £33/month. 1:1 lessons £29/lesson 1:2 lessons £33 per lessons. They have a 1:2 lesson fortnightly so works out the same as if they had group lessons except they're actually swimming the whole time rather than standing on the edge half the time waiting for their turn. I'm not sure I need to think about it properly. We can afford it but I know it's a luxury.

We pay £50 per month, 12 months a year, for our two to swim. And that's with a steep price hike about 18 months ago. I think it's based on 46 weeks' swimming per year. Maybe! Nope, 44! We get a £2 a month discount as they both swim. It's groups of 6, do not too bad. £33 a lesson is steep!

When I say for group lessons it's £33/month I mean each so it would be £66 a month. There's no sibling discount on that and that's for 48 weeks a year. Bloody Surrey prices

Yeah. I'm happy to live up north with those prices. Though I'd earn way more down south!

I pay £96 for 3 months on a 1:2 basis, so works out £6.00 per lesson, so you pay 2.5 times as much. That's at my private gym. When he gets more confident, he'll be in a group of 4-6, same price. It depends what they're getting out of it, I suppose.

How old are they? When my sister and I were about 6 and 8, my parents signed us up to a local swimming club. They were really good at teaching us to swim, was literally a sink or swim scenario and as we got a bit older we used to do galas as well. We were both strong, confident swimmers within a couple of months.

This is the local council run leisure centre. They're not strong enough swimmers for the swimming club plus one of the women who runs it is vile she was so horribly rude to me and does nothing but shout at the kids. Dd has a neuromuscular condition so I prefer for her to be with someone nice!

Ds is being a complete shit again. I'm standing in his room guarding the door whilst he thrashes around screaming. I've been singing some made up songs about how naughty he is and that if he would just get into bed he could have cuddles with me but it's not working it's either that or I throw him out the window