So when the UK sleeps, we know you other MNers are out there part II

[tadjennyp]

I was looking for thumbwitch's recipe for that cake and found the old thread has disappeared so Linzer and I thought we'd resurrect it!

Sorry about your job thumb - that's a bit mean of them. I know what you mean about gym work but I'm going twice a week at the moment, just to walk on the treadmill. I either watch the TV for the forty mins or so, or read a magazine. Hope you and sunny manage to meet up.

I'm having a bad morning too. What do you do with a nearly five year old dd who will not listen to a word I say? She wants to make her own porridge, so I ask her to wait so I can check the amounts - no such luck. We ask her to clean up but she lies on the floor screaming 'it's not fair'. We tell her that her db will be going out to incentivise her, but we are not being fair again. I feel at a loss as to what to say to her. I am feeling hormonal as well and just want to scream and shout at her. Please help!

Sorry to hear you're having a bad morning, jenny - your DD sounds very similar to DD2, who still (at 6) doesn't seem to have left the terrible twos behind. I'm often at a loss to know how to deal with her; I do try to ignore her, but sometimes just snap and end up shouting at her which just makes her worse. I'm hoping it's something she'll grow out of eventually, especially if she sees that I don't give in to her, but it's taking years! So I'm not much help I'm afraid, but you have my sympathy.

How frustrating about your job, thumb - are you looking for work at the moment or was it just an opportunity that came up? I hope you're starting to feel better now and that the rain is clearing up. Swimming and kangaroos sounds very tempting; shame we're not a bit closer!

hey thumb how you getting on today? I feel loads better having been on my run, as short as it was.

Hi guys, just trying to catch up with you all again! St Lucia is still in a really bad way - this gives a good idea but luckily where we live is almost back to normal. The dd's will be back at school tomorrow, although probably mornings only for a while as the big problem is still a lack of water. The damn which provides most of the water to the island was badly damaged and they seem to be clueless as to how long it will take to fix it. We have water tanks under the house but don't know how long they will last so having to be very careful. In the meantime, the government are putting out the message that everything is fine and trying to get people to come to the island - despite the fact you can't actually get from the main airport to most resorts as the road is still too precarious...

ANYWAY. Jenny - mucho sympathy with your nearly 5 year old. Dd1 was 5 in September and can be very difficult at times. However, she is starting to listen to me when I talk to her. We had a conversation about how it makes me feel when she shouts at me or makes demands - and now all I have to say is "remember what we talked about?" and she'll apologise. So hang in there! I also have a nearly 3-yr-old, so between them yes, they drive me insane some days!

Hi strandead, glad to hear you got back safely and that things are almost back to normal where you are, although the devastation looks awful on the blog you linked to. Are you in the north of the island?

I thought of you this morning jenny, when DD2 had yet another major strop! She was protesting because I'd cleaned DS's teeth before she'd done hers, so threw herself on the floor, legs kicking away - I ended up cleaning both their teeth at the same time, which amounts to giving into her I suppose, but I just didn't have the time to leave her to calm down. Maybe I need to have a talk with her (when she's calm) too...

Oh, the injustice Linzer! I have to remind myself not to take it personally and that I am being fair not to let her have things when she is screaming and shouting at us! Sometimes you just don't have the time to wait the tantrum out though, do you? If you have to get to school, that's the most important thing then. I hope you've had a better day since.

Stranded are you moving back to the UK soon? I hope things are getting better where you are.

It's hard not to take it personally sometimes though, isn't it? Distracting her sometimes works, but I have the feeling I give in to her more than I should... which of course ultimately makes things worse.

The rest of the day was busy but tantrum-free, thank goodness! We had friends over after the girls' piano lesson, and then it was bedtime before I knew it. DH has gone to bed too as he's feeling dizzy; I am slightly and very irrationally annoyed - I don't know why, but I'm not good with him when he's ill! He was lying on the sofa looking miserable while I had my dinner, so I decided I'd have an early night with my book - but he announced he was going to bed just after I'd gone upstairs, so I don't feel like I can now! Yes, I know I'm being completely and utterly unreasonable...

Curl up on the sofa and read instead? There's nothing wrong in feeling irrational, especially when you recognise it. It's being irrational and thinking you're being reasonable when it becomes a problem. My two are currently wrapping themselves in my throws and jumping on each other until of course they get hurt. No amount of explaining that will happen will dissuade them and I want to go into the garden to scream....

hi strandead! still in Hallowe'en mode, I see - probably appropriate to your situation. Glad things are mostly ok, getting back to normal with you though.

DS is only just getting into tantrums but he doesn't hold them for very long at the mo (but then he's still only 2.11 - there's time). He's taken to telling us we don't like him if he does something wrong and we tell him off - that's a little disturbing.:(

Linzer - is your DH prone to feeling dizzy? Is he ok? Worth checking on him...
Apart from that, nothing irrational about it really - it feels like they do it on purpose to get out of even more stuff in the evening, doesn't it? Or is that just me?

Have C&P this from another thread:
Had an interesting day today - as those of you on FB may have noticed - DH's satnav led me a merry dance and ended up taking me down a firetrail rather than a road to get somewhere. I have never driven to this place before so I feel I should be forgiven for trusting the thing - but anyway. I got down the firetrail, forded the creek at the bottom and then couldn't get up the other side. So had to reverse back over the ford (exciting!), luckily there was a large area for turning there, turn around and attempt to go back up the firetrail. Well, it didn't happen - I got stuck and had to call out the NRMA (Aussie sort of RAC) to come and tow me back up the hill (Think 1 in 4 gradient, sand and rock, no tarmac of course, lots of ruts and lumps). Of course I had DS with me - who mostly behaved very well considering - we had water/juice in the car but no food. Stuck for probably an hour - the man who rescued us has a Nissan Patrol 4WD - might swap our car for one of those...

It was quite scary but of course I couldn't show how panicked I was or it would have scared DS too. Cost me $100 too, but it had to be done - I ended up getting the car completely wedged. Poor thing - sooo not designed for offroading!

I read $1000 there! Sounds really scary. I dislike driving anyway, so I don't envy you. We've just played a really long game of the hungry caterpillar and they are still doing my nut! Now it's candy land..... Tomorrow is another day!

Hi thumbwheelwitch - yes must change, was thinking of strandedatseasonsgreetings but it's a little long! You came up with my last, great name so any ideas gratefully recieved!

Your err interesting drive sounds hairy! Did I realise your ds and my dd are the same age? She will be 3 on 11 dec.

Jenny - yes we are moving home in 6 weeks time. Will I still be allowed to post here?

Always welcome stranded! Any mixed feelings about going back now? Does your dh have a job to go to? Are you moving back to your own house? Sorry, v curious.

I like strandedatseasonsgreetings - or you could try tinselstrandedatsea? Not much in it, lengthwise!

Haven't decided on own Christmas moniker yet, waiting for December.

Friends (and DH) are mercilessly taking the piss out of my Adventure yesterday - they don't realise, I couldn't see far enough down this "road" to realise that it was something I shouldn't be doing! until it was too late...

DS is 3 on 4th December, so a week older than your DD, stranded.
ARE you looking forward to moving home? or is there some trepidation about fitting back in?

Hello everyone! This dropped off my threads I'm on.

Glad to see you're okay stranded and hope the island gets back on its feet soon.

Sorry to hear about the various illnesses that appear to have been doing the rounds and associated meh/lethargy. I'm no good with DH when he's ill either, Linzer, which is slightly unfair on him because he's fab with me!

Car experience sounds horrific, thumb. Glad DS was well behaved for you though, and that you got rescued! Bit mean of pepole to tease you, especially as it was the satnav's fault and probably looked road-like.

jenny - sounds like you've got a couple of champion game players there. Keep it up because they'll soon be able to play tedious games all by themselves and it will give you hours of peace to MN.

I am SO excited about moving home. I loved where our house is (Cheltenham) - it's where my two dd's were born and where I have a really good group of friends. The school dd1 will be starting at in January (reason why we are going home earlier than planned)is five minutes walk from our house, and the playgroup I am hoping I will get dd2 into about 10 minutes walk away. I can start to think about re-training or going back to work or just getting on with my life - I am so fed up of being an invisible nobody.

I know there will be lots of downsides - I won't have as much time to myself as I get here and I am sure the cold will get to me. But overall I am counting down the days!

Jenny - we will be moving back into our own house. I love that house - it is our home. We don't have to worry about damaging furniture or not sticking up pictures in case the blu-tac stains the walls. We can decorate if we want.

It all sounds great, stranded - as much as I feel settled in Austria now, I must admit I do feel slightly of you moving back to the UK. Cheltenham is lovely too; a friend of mine lives there, although I haven't been for years.

Glad to hear it's not just me, frakkers - I think it's because DH is "allowed" to be ill (i.e. he can take time off work and just go to bed) whereas I'm not, so this is my way of getting back at him, childish as it may be. Luckily he was back to normal this morning; he was slightly worried last night because he'd never had anything like it before, but hopefully it was just a one-off.

thumb That sounds like quite a frightening experience; I'm glad we don't have roads like that here (just scarily high and twisty mountain roads, but I leave driving on those to DH). Not that I have a sat nav to lead me astray, although - like I said on the other thread - I am working on DH!

jenny There are some days you just can't wait for bedtime, aren't there? I really should try to find more time to play games with the DC, as I actually quite enjoy it once I've made the effort to get a game out - it's just that there always seem to be so many other (not necessarily more important) things to do.

DD1 has a friend over to play this afternoon, and they're eating me out of house and home - two large portions of spag bol (one in DD1's case) followed by ice cream followed by a packet of jaffa cakes within the space of two hours, and they're still hungry! Must find something nutritious to fill them up...

Do Austrian children know the delights of jaffa cakes Linzer? Thanks for all the kind words, I really need them at the moment! Dd (nearly 5) managed to wet the bed 3 times last night. I ran out of waterproof pads. Ds was up in between times and started off the day with another nose bleed! Fortunately they are now at preschool and silence reigns in the house - bliss!

That sounds totally lovely stranded! I am also ! Cheltenham is a lovely place. We had to sell our house unfortunately as it was not fit to be rented out, so we actually have nowhere to go back to if we decided to leave the States. In reality we would have to go wherever dh got a job, though he did say the other day he would go wherever I got one!

Hope you're still enjoying the peace and quiet jenny; it sounds like you had an exhausting night/start to the day. I've given up with DS (4) and put him back in nappies at night, as I just couldn't cope with all the washing! He was dry for a while after he'd just been potty trained, but it didn't last unfortunately.

Do you think you'll end up moving back to the UK eventually? What did you do with all your furniture when you sold your house? Luckily my ILs have plenty of storage space so we left everything there and virtually all of our furniture is from Ikea, so we were able to take it apart to store it. We knew when we left that we were only going to be in the States for two years, so kept as much as possible for when we came back.

They weren't actually authentic jaffa cakes but the Austrian/German version known (for some reason) as "soft cakes". I think that Austrian companies should translate their English product names/slogans back into German to realise how silly some of them sound. I keep hearing "Austrian Airlines - we fly for your smile" on the radio and thinking nooooo!

During my degree I found out something about jaffa cakes - in Europe, they add an extra additive to stop jaffa cakes going crispy after a while, so they are always soft (to accord with the name jaffa cake). They tried the same in the UK and there was an outcry!! Bring back our crisping jaffa cakes, people said - so they had to. Consequently there are different recipes for jaffa cakes in the UK and Europe. :)

jenny - I know it's trite but I guess it helps to remember that these phases do pass, even if they seem to be taking a while. I think I agree with Linzer re. bedwetting though - can you get those "night pants"? Basically pull up nappies, but for bigger DC.

Linzer - not trying to worry you but your DH should probably nip to the GP and mention it. Was he sick with it, or did he just feel sick with being dizzy? It could be something really simple, like a stiff neck; not an inner ear infection if he's ok this morning (they usually last ~4-5 days); but could be a blood pressure issue.

Stranded - - I still have a house in the UK but even if I could ever persuade DH to move back there, we wouldn't live in that house (well, not for long anyway) because it simply isn't big enough. The house itself isn't too bad but there is only enough room to park one medium car on the front, and the back garden is teeny. So DH and DS would probably feel terribly claustrophobic after all the open space here. It's not going to happen anyway - can't see why it would at this stage. But I'm not going to sell the house just yet.

firefrakkers - nice to see you back here again! :)

Ok thumb - what was your degree in - cake making?

sort of! Food Science. :) Nothing to do with actual proper cooking, you understand, all about industrial production of foodstuffs. It was verrrrry interesting - and it taught me lots of biochemistry and microbiology and chemical analysis - a very comprehensive scientific degree.

My "careers teacher" at school suggested I should take hotel management with it when I told her what I was doing... she obviously thought it was home ec.

Sorry frakkers - hello, totally brain dead at the mo!

They do have something called underjams here which I might try for a while. I think we've decided that it's because there is a new baby on the way and she wants to be looked after like that. I probably expect too much of her - she isn't 5 yet, just likes to think she's 15!

Who says a university education isn't useful thumb? I know what you mean about the houses seeming small after living abroad. The job opportunities would have to be great for us to make the move worthwhile. I love my enormous en-suite bathroom - I'm so lucky!

We took some of our furniture with us and as the dcs were very small it was an ideal time to pick up new stuff. Dh's job is as permanent as the States manages so we just don't know. I guess it depends on family too. It's a long way to go if one of the parents is ill.

That degree sounds really interesting thumb.

oh it was! I wanted to do something that was chemistry-based, but not pure chemistry - I actually applied to do chemical engineering to the same place, and saw this degree in the prospectus - applied for that too and ended up with a place on both courses! So right up until the day I registered I could hae chosen either. I only formally accepted the Food Sci one and only realised when I turned up and was on two lists!

It was a great degree, I'll never regret doing it - even if it made me realise how corrupt the food industry is and that I could never work within it!

hi all

Linzer DH has not been ill since we had DD (so kid excuse) but I always end up angry with him when he's ill. Think it's the way that he mopes around, it's totally uncalled for and completely irrational, but there it is.

stranded hope things start to resemble normality for you again soon. How come you moved abroad originally.

I'm going to do another run tomorrow, starting to realise just how long 26 miles is , but at least I have a year.

whatever happened to 14hrs and thebossofme