Jan/Feb locals chat

[SJ99]

How exciting to be starting thread

Yay, thanks Sfx, am already looking forward to banana bread, mmmm!

In Sweden they had Noise Police (everything is so formally governed over there) but what a great idea, they used to go and put a stop the noise polluters, no messing.

good morning all

bunyan glad to hear stuff is moving along. my plans for next week are very much like Ros' and it depends on the weather, might squeeze in a visit to the pool.

KC little Houdini's achievements are impressive - and here comes another grey hair.

SJ - have fun, do try to enjoy your time away from your boys, they will be fine. week in Wales sounds great.

mrsR shame about your dh, hope he feels better.

hope everyone else ok too

here just recovering from a night of indulgence and sensual delights, as you do
anyway dh was asleep at least 1hr before I got to bed.
at about 1am some drunken girl stood across from my bedroom window loudly recounting to someone on the phone the ins and outs of her bad Valentine's night, all liberally sprinkled with expletives and a few 'yeah no' buh..now whaa I mean'
apparently she was waiting for a cab which took 45 minutes to arrive by which time she had informed her entire phonebook of her misadventures

Lucky you Sfx getting to witness that girl's love trauma, bet you were tempted to chuck a bucket of water out of your window to help her drown her sorrows

QC - DH might be going to art class that day. Gherkin must've given you a fright with car door trick DS attempted the same a while back, luckily I spied him out of wing mirror before anything happened, we pulled over and put door lock on

Ros - Your Dh is such a romantic, were you expecting robomop instead?!

Mrs R - pity you Dh not well, hope you enejoyed your evening anyway. Any news on caravan?

Bunyan - you could try bunny farm, maybe it won't be too busy...? LOL at Beebies weaning, will leave that for a later date, I'm finding it far too useful atm

DS full of cold so no swimming today, pity as it's the last lesson. Will head to library instead. Parents descend this afternoon, sort of got the house looking tidy

he's still really ill so I'm having to deal with 5 kids at the moment (AP is a struggle as well). I'm shattered.

SJ - I'll give the site a call today and let you know if it's on for the 9th and will mail you.

sfx - sorry I would have shouted something out the window at her - you were very calm considering.

despite my annoyance I kept thinking it was not safe to go in a cab by herself in that state, in the end it was a proper black cab, am clearly going soft.

thank it's friday
thank dh is back at the weekend

hope you're all well

what a pain, sfx. it's like when people insist on having very LOUD self-important conversations on the mobiles on the train.
you end up knowing more about their lives than your own.

mrs r ..hope dh gets better soon. enjoy the toy museum next week.

typing with a big fat sausage finger (more so than usual, that is) was running to school as late - not a good idea for a clumsy person in ugg boots - tripped, put my hand out to stop myself falling and crunched my half-bent finger into a lampost!

it really hurt but you know when you're so you just pretend nothing's happnened and you're FINE, THANKYOU?!

got my mate coming round soon to regale me with tales about her love-life and dates galore..sigh..those were the days, eh?
have a fab evening, all
toodlepip

evening all, just checking in before my pizza arrives!

getting a bit of regular occurance but it is yum!

kew, thanks for tea earlier. was good to catch up.

dd got an excellent settling in report but i have to say that she is certainly becoming more "physical" with other kids now she's at pre-school.

congrats to all the babies that have been born.

my sinus head still throbbing ;-(

vino helps

neighbours very noisy last night. resorted to thumping heel on bedroom floor. dd bag of beans this am so she was doing her best to re-dress the balance. i admit to becoming weary of trying to keep her quiet in the mornings..........

oh no steppie your poor finger, I bet you're in agony at the moment. Why do we women always try and be brave and act like nothings happened and we're all ok eh? Well as the saying go, pride goes before a fall (or something like that).

Have a nice evening with your mate - I love a good gossip every now and then.

dh is feeling a bit better - he's vegged out on the sofa so has managed to venture downstairs.

sfx - I heard this morning that there was a black cab rapist prowling Oxford circus and 5 girls have been attacked so you were right to worry.

aww, thanks mrs r.

have been trying to get my wedding ring off as torturing myself with paranoid thoiughts will swell more and cut my blood supply off..(alarmist, moi? ) but it ain't budging.
glad dh is feeling better..

yes, did have a good goss with my mate who was off on a blind date. wanted me to come and spy - would have done if dh was at home.

really funny as dd was with us listening to some very inappropriate stories for a toddler (above her head obviously) but she kept doing that really loud, false laughter as we were cackling away.

paddle - pizza, yum! friday night is pizza and movie night in the steppie household. fab dd is settling in so well.

kew, nice to see you briefly as i was bidding aforementioned friend farewell. sorry, should have asked you in, but was distracted by dd locking me out!
hope everyone's having a good evening
toodlepip

hello all lovely sunshine but really freezing cold out

paddle hope your head is better, was the 6am toddler alarm clock today? much sympathy that is rough.

steppie hope your finger is better, well done for not swearing loudly - excellent mummy skills

mrsR thing is I thought she would be safe in the black cab, then I heard the news, well there is always a way I guess

Ros hope teething troubles ease a bit, I wonder if it is the same for the permanent set

hope everyone has a good weekend

couldn;t have come in anyway steppie I was dropping DS off on my way to my acqua class.

We went to bunny park this mornng. Had a nice time (first time I've been) but where exactly are the bunnies? We couldn't a single bleedin' one!

KC - would have loved to come - I love it there. Still having to nurse a sick dh so I've been stuck indoors all day. At least my washing dried.

Off to Eastbourne tomorrow, to drop off LOs for a few days with ILs. But we are going in our new car so I'm looking forward to the trip, for a change.

HI all. Quick catch up. LO's are finishing a very late supper. DH has gone into London to play poker at the casino. I have just devoured a plate of peri-peri chicken livers, chips and salad. Well my first fundraiser as chair of pta was a sucess. We did a valentines cake sale and raised £350! I made these, at dd's insistence and spent a couple of hours making 3 shades of sugar roses. (next time I will choose the cakes!)

Kew - bunny park a bit sad in winter isn't it?
Did you see the peacocks? Ds1 once panicked because he thought the peacocks were going to eat up ds2 ... We went to Walpole park this morning. Saw foxes and an owl... We used to live next to it a few years ago when Bunny Park poached "our" pygmy goats which it still has.

slng lickily the weather was good which made it quite pleasant - the little green lovebirds were a big hit with DS as he thought they were talking to him! He's still a bt scared of some of the anmals though - so probably just as well that there weren't many around. SO where are the rabbits then?

advice on salmon needed! CoV, where are you?

bought half a side of salmon on special yesterday for half price (less than a fiver!).

carved up 10 good fillets from it this morning but found that it hasn't been de-scaled

i tried to take the skin off but in a bit of a rush and it was pretty tricky!

so i've frozen the 10 pieces as is and will have to deal with it when i want to de-frost/cook.

how?!?!?!?!!?

rang my mum (who is a fab cook) but she's gone to church, bloody cheek!

When you cook it it will peel of the skin easily. I like to top it with fresh breadcumbs mixed with parmesan herbs and a little butter, then pop it in the oven (on tinfoil otherwise the skin welds itself to the baking sheet.

Or just mocrowave it (covered) with a squeeze of lemon juice, salt and pepper, and serve it with boiled new potatoes, cucmber slices with white wine vinegar and a dash of sugar, and yoghurt with finely diced cucmber and mint.

Or make a marinade with olive oil, honey, lime zest and juice, soy sauce and fresh ginger. Leave in fridge for an hour or so then grill. Top with deep fried spring onoins, and serve with noodles and sugar snap peas.

Thanks CoV. I know how to cook it, but I normally buy it de-scaled so it's getting rid of the scales advice that I need.

can I just add that Clapham Common has a very high standard of attractive Dad.

One even smiled at me twice [swoon]

Ah sorry. Well you can leave the scales on as the whole skin comes of very easily once cooked, but if you want to the easy way is to take a
good sharp knife, and holding the blade perpendicular to the surface of the fish,
drag it across the scales, against the grain. You need to use the knife as a
scraper, so don't drag in the direction of the blade. HTH

brilliant. Thanks!

I think it'll prob end up with removing the skin before/after cooking.

I remember a perfectly good red snapper dish being utterly ruined as the chef clearly hadn't de-scaled it.

yerch!

Kew - My "Ealing Hanwell and Greenford" edition of "Britain in old photographs" (a riveting read, I assure you) does not cast any light upon the name of Brent Lodge Animal Park. According to the Ealing community forum, someone said that Brent Lodge was already called bunny park in 1927, and the reason was that rabbits were kept there... Very imaginative. There were rabbits most of the time until this winter. I don't know if they have just been moved temporarily (like the kookaburra who is apparently lent (rented?) out as a stud!?) or whether the place is downsizing because of the cut in the funding for the park rangers, which would be really sad.

Meant to add - has anyone tried the Viaduct Pub next to Bunny Park? Nice food, friendly and child-friendly - even has a little play corner with toys for the kids.

good morning all

beautiful day I think it will be swimming for us this morning

slng The Viaduct must have changed I remember it as being friendly but very studenty with live bands quiz nights etc.
but Hanwell has been gentrified

hope everyone is ok

Morning all, am trying to decide what to do as its a nice day but the start of half-term!

Hope everyone's ok

The teething still goes on, ds seems to be ok but then really little things upset him and his cheeks are bright red! Fortunately, no explosive nappies!