this might be controvesial but how come the people who have joined specifically to comment on how terrible MNers are in the Madeleine / Shrek thing ...

[Twiglett]

how come they can neither spell accurately nor use the rules of English Grammar?

My mum kept her envelopes if nothing else to remind her not to bother next year.

You know there is something quite unhealthy about this failure to protect children from horrific news.

I have a friend who was a child during the Moors Murders and she said she didn't know who Myra Hindley was until she was quite old. Her parents, and all the parents then, thought it was their duty to protect their children from such awful stuff, not to celebrate it by indulging in competitive greiving. It simply didn't occur to them that their child would hear it from another child.

What has happened to our culture?

were they special envelopes?

I missed the results of the MN cake competition - I do hope we let someone come first?

haychee for crying out loud, stop being such an obssessive! Children get upset - parents don't want that to happen, so we try to minimize that.

You told your children, I did not.

It's not rocket surgery, woman.

Actually, I misread it. The judge had come third in a one woman only ocmpetition. Perhaps she'd never got over it and was abusing her powers.

and were there monetary prizes?

Just sad little brown envelopes like they used to use to put payslips in.

There were indentations from the wire rack so she only came second.

What a world.

Sorry NKF i meant to say from the childrens films. My deepest apologies, god forgie me for making such a absurd mistake. I will not let you all beat me down on this, id prefer and i chose this option, that my kids heard the news from me rather than from a third party for the simple reason, that i dont want them to be unduley distressed and the news is already broken in such a awy that they feel totally reassured and secure.

It does make you wonder if they held a committee to decide on the prizes, you can imagine the arguments that 7p would be just too steep for a 3rd....

perhaps we need to warn our children never to take part in village shows

Oh, I love those little brown envelopes. Takes me back to punching in, that does...

thats exactly what i thought nkf. she obviously wasn't screened properly prior to office

Don't apologise Haychee. Everyone makes mistakes.

So long as your cakes don't have indentations, I think it's okay.

We certainly shouldn't be letting them read that story, could give you nightmares. GOD NO, I put it on the wire rack by mistake, arrrggh.......

And do you use currants or mixed fruit in your scones?

spits

I hate indentations!! They ruin everything

breathes through nose and tries to stop eyebrow twitching

NKF if you have to ask that question......... there's no hope I'm afraid.

Maybe the mixture was not light enough, thus allowing the indentations to remain after a short period of time.

how could they see them anyway through all that icing sugar

maybe she was stingy with the sugar

Are they a form of punctuation? Indentation marks?

Would I come last in a one woman competition? That would be mortifying.