West London Chat Summer/Autumn

[vbus]

ooh the excitement of starting a new thread

Hello!

Just a quick good-morning!

Must go and supervise getting ready for school. Why can't they just brush their teeth without pretending to be dancing cheddars!?

Hello

Thanks all for support, that helps.

Island - you did make me laugh, please go and visit my neighbour [hgrin] she is 60 and has lost the ability to have rational thought, she has too many other stresses going on in her life and I think she's not coping well with any of them. Pervious owner did warn us about her when we bought this house, she is known menace on the street [hhmm] Now I'm pursuing last line of defence with Council, don't know if our plan will work but worth a try to avoid having costly change of design plans, wish me luck.

Island - that is excellent news that Dd has settled well and making such great progress, you must be proud

Sfx/Copper - I had no idea you could buy toffee in a bottle [hshock] easy to make your own

Looking forward to next Tues

Was watching Portuguese news thus afternoon when the Gaddafi news broke they are a hell of a lot more graphic with the content. If he us not dead he certainly looked pretty beaten up.

On way home for pick up tired and sleepy it is a theme, have spent some time at the peri menopausal thread oh dear

Vbus it is not really toffee more toffee sauce some better than others but true easy to make
Good luck with council

But how does one make toffee or toffee sauce? Stop being cryptic! Tell me!!!

120g butter
120g brown sugar
140ml double cream

Melt butter in pan, add sugar and cream, simmer for about 5mins til sugar dissolved and brown toffee sauce appears

Easy peasy [hsmile]

Sfx - they hadn't confirmed capture on news earlier, will check out latest

Gaddafi news?!

More importantly I have had an offer on the house not brilliant but not terrible either. But have told agent that only an idiot would take an offer £25k below asking price 4 days after their house goes on the market. But its a good start and an offer which woulld put me in the right area to buy a big 2 bed flat with garden locally.

So now stressed about finding somewhere and have spent the day looking at overpriced crap lovely flats. Need to lie down in a darkened room now.

Work has gone CV mad. Every single f*king department wants a f*king CV from you with ever so slightly different emphasis. I am so depressed. Why can't one be left alone to do one's job? >

But thank you vbus for toffee recipe. That's the only real thing in the world. Food. And playing with the kids. All the rest is vanity, a chasing after f**king wind. (You won't see that written in the King James Bible, but I assure you it is in the spirit of things.)

And good news on offers Kew - good start, at least. But I will join you in this darkened room. If you can find one which is also quiet.

kewC that sounds promising, I do hope you find 'the one' soon ans it all gets sorted without too much trouble

copper politics, all work places are full of them, even more so at recession times it is madness

but I was watching the news earlier as mentioned and the economic situation in Portugal is even more dire, far fewer resources and far fewer support structures and it is about to get even worst.

Had chat with teacher today regarding dd getting all negative and apparent loss of confidence, was assured she is doing extremely well academically and was making a visible effort to participate in group activities and join in with the other girls, she said
'I noticed her getting giggly with the others over the last couple of weeks and joining in with giggly games' maybe it is the stress of fitting in
oh well half term next week

sfx- it seems that the fewer the resources the more we all panic and embark on some madcap exercise which entails using the meagre resources we have to chase our own tail. For all his faults Evelyn Waugh described this situation very aptly in his war novels and life seems to more and more imitating art ...

It makes you want to write FFS and WTF everywhere in these documents you have to produce. Perhaps I'll do that using invisible ink.

hello another pretty day but head stuck in study books

Hello sfx!

Can we be bored together?

One CV down, some more bumf to get out, and then another CV. FFS.

We are going to library - sandy park - pub after school. Though I have been warned that one of the little friends coming along is being particularly giddy today. I expect they will all be pretty giddy.

I'm starving.

KewC are you about? live phone in on LBC regarding school 08456060973 if you fancy it

although they are very Ukip at the moment

I'll join you in being bored today, I can't seem to motivate myself. Have a long article to edit, which is perfect to do on my at home day, but my brain seems to have finally keeled over... Maybe I'll have a cop of tea and put a record on (as elastica once said). Sadly record player has been put out to pasture, but Last.fm will do fine.

Sfx - hope you will better after meeting with teacher, maybe restful half-term will help as you say. Good luck with race (is it this weekend? I'm easily confused)

Kew - have a great holiday! Congrats on offer and good luck house hunting.

Vbus - with Island's effective dispute management at your side you can't go wrong. Love it. Seriously though, fingers crossed it works out.

Copper - sympathise with CV writing. It's "write a business case" if I want a new biro round my way sometimes.

cup of tea

hello all

Kew - that is good news, fingers crossed they up their offer

Copper - hope you enjoy the pub and forget about the bureaucracy

Sfx - glad Dd is participating more at school, must be reassuring for you to hear that from teacher. Good luck for race!

Kora - hope you enjoyed your and got your article finished!

Went to DS1 assembly this morning which was lovely but then back to reality at home. Feel like I've jumped through hurdles the past few days to get council's approval only to feel like we've gone backwards with neighbour who is still refusing to accept council's approval and refusing builders access to finish the wall on her side Next step is the legal route which we obviously would like to avoid as it will be costly and messy but we don't have much choice if she carries on like this

Hope everyone has a nice weekend

hello people, many thanks for the good wishes, race went ok I hesitated at the half way mark and it cost me in breaking my pace, but I am happy

Kora I hope you managed to finish and get some rest

vbus I hope the stresses are not getting the better of you, clearly she has other issues not related to building work

regarding dd, when I talked to the teacher I mentioned that I felt dd was loosing confidence in her abilities, the teacher said that she must know she did well in her test last week but I said I didn't actually think she does
well apparently she got 20 out of 20 on her first spelling test and 7 out of 7 on her extra spelling test , she did well in maths but not as well, which is fine, I also mentioned that dd was able to read above the level they put her at, they did an individual (groups are difficult for her I feel) assessment and she is now a few levels up from where she was and was also given the Golden certificate for the week, and got the bring the class mascote home, I feel like the pushy parent but it was worth it as dd was absolutely delighted and I could see a definite bounce in her step, delighted with the teacher's recognition
so that is ok with me

Well done sfx. On recognition of DD's ability in school and on race.

We went to visit friends. Drove through Richmond Park. Saw deer. Queue of traffic waiting for stag to cross the road. Kids agog.

Made the microwave bramley apple sticky toffee pudding with vbus' toffee sauce. It was a great hit with the people!

much to the amazement of everyone I know we do not own a microwave, sometimes I feel like getting one but don't bother as dh is so terminally against them

far too lazy a day this was, making lasagne for dinner, looking forward to half term week just hope dh not planning on working from home

copper some of the runners were stopping to take pictures of the deer during the race obviously not local
I walked very closed to a few of them when I took a shortcut on a path, but they were relatively young ones

sfx - a few of the young runners or young deer?

We use microwave for defrost and heating up. This is the first time we use it to actually cook something!

We are watching Toy Story 2.

Sfx - congrats on the race, what an achievement! good news for DD too, she must be really chuffed

Copper - the toffee sauce is soooo easy but tastes delicious. Might have to try that recipe seeing as microwave getting quite a lot of use lately. Didn't know Toy story was on, would've watched it. Don't like watching films half way through!

The saga with neighbour has reached farcical heights, I am nearing my limit but have to just somehow carry on. DH & I had a good laugh about it as it's getting beyond belief. We shall see what tomorrow brings

copper are you suggesting I took a short cut during race

unlike this fake runner

vbus sorry about the neighbour troubles but I guess laughing about it is a good stress reliever

re microwave it is exactly the defrosting that would be most useful