West London chat winter & beyond

[tillyfernackerpants]

Hadn't realised we were so close to filling up the last thread, hope you all find it!!

Who is the emoticon with the beret and red hair, around January 25/26???

Steppie didn't know you were in Ireland, sorry to hear about your uncle passing.

Be sure to visit us this year with your surfy doody kids!

We have lost dream house as it required a mortgage - virtually impossible to get a mortgage ATM in Ireland :(

We are now in dispute with dodgy mortgage broker....

However, due to property prices here plummeting even further in the past 6 months, and more in the past few weeks as the Irish budget tax hikes have reduced everyone's payslips, we have realised that the deposit we had set aside for the dream house could now in fact now get us a decent family house over here with no mortgage. Plus maybe even a 'lil bolthole flat in the UK!(not west London, alas)

Oh the benefits of having paid mortgages in the UK for flippin' 20 years and all those years of gradually building up London equity!

Am starting to feel like one of those people on "Relocation, Relocation, Relocation", albeit on a somewhat more modest budget than most of the people featured on TV (they normally seem to have about 800k to spend and I have very little sympathy for them in their lengthy and fussy quests )

SFX I hope DD's teeth are OK and not damaged by the accident!!!

Copper, the London outing sounds lovely, did you eat in Chinatown?

Good morning!

Went out last night to teppanyaki place. Yummy food. Great company. Poor DS2 was terrified though. Had to be shipped home early.

dusty - hope you find a nice mortgage-free family house! Bet you could afford a pied-à-terre round our way. Not where the fashionable lives but we like it. We did go to China town. And that beret-emoticon was probably in honour of Burns night. Perhaps we should demand chinese new year ones too. Not sure what they should look like.

Kids busy making fossil.

hello

dolphin how lovely to be mortgage free, hope you find something suitable
dd seems ok the bruising around the teeth had faded quickly and so has the swelling, the dentist said there is some give in both front teeth but he does does think it will be bad
and that was Burns Night

copper what scared him?

had family over yesterday, so mostly baked and cooked, still looking for quiet weekend, dd went horse riding and has party later, dh will be busy too, not quite sure what I should do yet

Dusty - good luck in house hunt, being mortgage free is such a dream in itself!

Sfx - glad to hear swelling has gone down, enjoy your time off

copper - celebrations sound good. what happened to DS2?

Dh off to NY today, he was only back home 2days. I had big gym sesh yesterday which was great but I'm aching today. Had neighbour over to discuss prospective kitchen plans, mostly she's ok with it
Been to playground all morning, nice to see one of DS1 friend's there, they all had fun. So DVD this afternoon and doing v. little else!

I am a chicken mum, direct translation from Portuguese mae galinha, there I have said it

took dd and friend to meet the birthday party at the cinema, we meet the group on the bus, just how on earth they are going to manage to heard them all home from the cinema is turning my hair white just thinking about it ,shakes in boots at the thought of not controlling what is going on.

vbus you are awesome, hope you have treats lined up

I miss the gym, last two weeks I have drunk and eaten too much and not done enough exercise, jeans feel tight

vbus sometimes I think having no DH is easier than having one that keeps travelling - at least I get used to it (though not feeling that way at the moment with DS and I both coughing like drains and Ma just out of hospital and needing shopping etc) Is there a feeling sorry for yourself emoticon?

can drains cough?

KewC can I help tomorrow morning? think all a closing now

no but thanks - I'm just being pathetic. Its only a cold.

it is ok to feel sorry for yourself once in a while, and ask if you need

now I am pondering fitting dd with GPS chip

something like this? perhaps

Hello!

Been to birthday party - DS1 made pizza, DS2 too scared to make pizza. DS2 scared of noises and potential loud noises. Did not like teppanyaki chef setting fire to hotplate and making a noise juggling his utensils. Kept asking when chef was going to go away ... And did not like parties involving balloons since they are too loud when they pop. And they do pop. Must say I'm with him on that one. Most of the parents were not there at the party but we were. Lovely Italian restaurant in Kingston. Very nice food, very good service and friendly staff. Kids made pizza while we ate in the restaurants. Don't know why other parents didn't stay. It was lunch time and it was probably better food there than most places in Kingston.

Have heard about GPS watch. I can imagine wishing for one of them when they are teenagers ...

Kew - drains do cough. When are you going to come to visit again?

No more birthday parties for a few weeks at least, please.

Gutted - south bank has 12-cello performance at half-term and all sold out.

Just downing a G&T so previous post may not make sense.

Vbus how exciting planning a new kitchen :):):)

SFX I have felt like that for months (jeans won't fit and everything is tight around the tum) :( We should do more excercise shouldn't we...........my body wants to but my brain won't co-operate

Kew I thought drains laughed, not coughed - hope you are OK

Copper we have extremely limited budget for Engliahs bolt hole, maybe £100-130k. Anyone have any ideas as regards to location. We will consider anything in the south east/south west/south of England.

Location is more important than size, as it will just be somewhere to sleep for visits, so studio flats considered...

Currently under consideration are: Wiltshire, Someset, Hove, Twickenham, Whitton but any suggestions very welcome

Copper which restaurant was it? Sounds worth a visit

Dusty - v.exciting to be looking at boltholes! I would consider any of those locations. Depends on what you want to do when staying in 2nd property. Do you just want to chill out or be near friends/family? I would also think about access to location. you don't want to spend a large proportion of your wkend travelling to/from location, pick somewhere close to airport/trains/motorway.

Copper - yes do tell which restaurant you visited, always on the look out for new places to go to

KEw - what happened to your mum, is she ok? Hope you and Ds feel better soon. I'm used to Dh being away weekdays as I don't get any help from him re:kids as he tends to be back after they've gone to bed even if he's in London, but I do find it hard when he's away at wkends. Sometimes I feel I'm about to spontaneously combust by the time it gets to Fri night as I'm exhausted by then!

Sfx - GPS feels v. space age. Yes to treats, Ben & Jerry's choc fudge brownie ice cream downstairs

I like this too

Vbus, good point about access - you are right, we wouldn't want to spend all our hols time on the M4 or in traffic

This one looks nice:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-29960264.html?premiumA=true

and this too:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-32274248.html

vbus - mum hasn't been well for a few weeks they are investigating the possibility of her cancer returning but her GP sent her to hospital on Tuesday afternoon with an unexplained high temp presumed to be an infection. Intravenous ab's helped but they can;t find infection. They know she has one becasue her inflammatory markers are up but can;t find it so are just treating her with a broad spectrum AB.

Its a bit concerning as this was how her cancer started (or at least the diagnosis of it - I don't think infections give you cancer but the other way around!).

However she is home and although not well isn't at deaths door, she has same cough as us which doesn't help

Bruschetta restaurant KT2 6NH. (First pic is wrong though...) Doesn't look very attractive but it was nice.

Kew - hope your mum recovers soon and it's nothing serious.

Good morning!

vbus - thanks for booking restaurant. Also can I have recipe for polenta cookies? We are running low on cake/cookies stock.

Morning

Kew - that must be very worrying, hope your mum feels better soon and its not anything serious

Copper - will email recipe later, the bics were delicious. Need to make bics for kids to ice. DS1 got friends over this week and thought it would keep them busy for while

Dusty - both properties look nice

Watched Fish Tank last night, pretty random but pretty good too

hello

KewC I hope your mum is holding up

vbus I really like Andrea Arnold - Fish Tank, she does not do fluffy easy viewing but all the performances are great
I am quite a big Fassbender fan, shame he is such a horrible person in that film but does it well, have you seen Hunger? V impressive