Aw, lovely girl Cag and you are sounding so much more settled and confident yourself. Do you think you have broken the pain barrier re. bf yet?
Not sure whether this is the right reaction or not but I'm glad for you Lonely. The shop seems to consume a huge amount of your energies but unfortunately doesn't pay. I think about this a lot in relation to my own high street where rents are high and turnover of shops, and especially restaurants, can also be high. We've a lovely independent bike shop locally and I did buy my bike there though I never ride it because I want local shops to survive and the service is great. Likewise the recent dishwasher purchase from the local appliances shop. Luckily there is strong local support for the good (service) independent shops so a few do well enough. But I am sure it's not easy. And perhaps not the most frugal option for me but I got the service the chains couldn't match, e.g. for the dishwasher they could do delivery at my convenience around the school run.
I too would love to run a tea and yarn shop but am sure I couldn't make it pay round here - again, customers would browse and then go online to save money I think. I do dream about it though!
Well done on the racing Need. You put me and my couch potato ways to shame!
Welcome Ham and Dont (and have I missed someone else?). This is a great corner of mumsnet and no judgment here. Life happens to us all, sorry about the business Ham.
We've had at least 250 trick or treaters here. Most polite and taking one thing (I got fun size choccy bars) but a couple grabbing at the dish - I am stern with those ones though 
. Manners, innit. I bought plenty of sweets as I expected lots of people - it's always busy round here for those that join in. We stuck out a few pumpkin lanterns as people only knock at decorated houses (thankfully) - then we brought them in around 7.30 as we were both needed for dcs' bedtime. To be honest I wished I hadn't done it this year as it was really difficult managing DS and answering the door with DD (and DH doesn't get back from work till 7). It wasn't really a one-person job tonight but the visiting kids had fun! DS doesn't go out as he finds it confusing and won't dress up. I feel sad that he misses out on that sort of fun but I gave him chocolate after dinner (huge extra treat) so he was happy!
DD being a right PITA at the mo as she has a cold. I have been holding her upright all night, since I came to bed at 11-ish, because as soon as I put her down she bungs up and cries. God I want to lie down so much!
I never managed to reply to everyone about that a couple of days ago, sorry to those who were kind enough to advise. Snuggly (I think it was) I think it is a sleep regression. And there wasn't much to regress from! She's just coming up to 20 weeks and I think 4 months is where they lose baby deep sleep and start having more of a sleep cycle. She just seems to not sleep through her sleep cycle without our help because she can't self-soothe, so that's the target. Sunny I can't entirely rule out diet as a background issue but I don't think that's the cause of the acute problem at the moment as sleep is suddenly much worse and nothing has changed diet-wise! She's still throwing up after big feeds but is healthy (other than the current cold - blaming dh for that!) and is generally feeding more and putting on weight.
I think I just need to put in some serious work on sleep cues and self-soothing. It's going to be slow and painful.
Anyway, sorry for blethering on. I should try and get some sleep.
Pleased with the outcome of the Bake Off, the right person won. Prue and her tweet though! 