West London chat into Autumn

[sfxmum]

let us see if anyone finds their way here

Slng that's a big issue too - its closer and I could work from home sometimes and do school run. Have been thinking that in terms of my CV it might be better too, in terms of what the job actually is

Dusty - yep - £15k extra plus work from home would do it for me! Must be a v difficult decision, but how wonderful to have two good job offers on the plate in this climate

Had a good weekend, the dcs really enjoyed the Ravenscourt Fireworks and yesterday we took it easy with swimming etc. Had my mega-blood test done this morning, about 2 pints later ...! Glad that it is over, have never been good with needles.

It looks as though my family may be over here for Christmas, so fancy lunch in plush hotel beckons

vbus, am now intrigued by the latest cake theme

dolphin just goes to show that 'dream' anything is a relative concept only loosely based on reality

and btw nephew is 16 and is now taller than dh
and he is very funny

pcW forgot that I bumped into you on Saturday, must be old age, hope all well re bloods, Have zero probs with needles as I never tire of saying

now must study I think, just as son as dd stops making me play her game

Yes SFX totally agree - unfortunately dream job must be accompanied by lottery win to make it feasible. Not sure I want to know about men's dreams though

In my "dream" the employers would match the other pay offer of other post

dusty, I was going to actually ask if the dream job would increase the pay offer? If not to match the other, at least to bring it more into a possibility. Does that make any sense?!

pcw, hope blood tests are ok. I'm not good with needles either! Btw, I realised I didn't reply to your email, will do so

vbus, any further on cake theme?

I've been trying to organise ds1's birthday party. Looking at entertainers, bloody hell, that's the career path I should've taken . Think its going to be the church hall with lots of running around & party games instead, unless we can find a decent softplay.

Tilly just waiting for the 2nd lot to confirm they are happy with references, then I will try and negotiate with 1st lot

I totally agree about the career - what other profession, apart from solicitors and children's entertainers in west London, commands £200 per. hr?

...

£200 per. hr!?

Child entertainer = lucrative business

Tilly - their prices are

btw I have found cheat's solution to cakes , to be made for Fri

Dusty - good luck with negotiations, may bring some joy. When are jobs due to start?

slng - [shock at gulab jamun, it is my fave dessert and had it at our wedding

It is DS2 1st birthday today
Ds1 spied the big cake I made for him and then said 'mummy please can you save a piece for me', not sure who else he thinks is going to eat it!

good morning all

tilly the flip side is that I would probably go mental entertaining children everyday and would be rubbish at it
still they like home made games does not have to be perfect to be enjoyed

vbus/slng dh can't stand with rosewater and just about manages cardamom weird

I think I dislike my tutor, that was my first impression at the tutorial that is my second impression following comments on last essay
'you used a very personal example it would have been best to use a more abstract one' after telling me to use a personal example
reminds me of my last boss
but got my lowest mark in ages 62%

deep breaths

helped at school this morning struggling to study now looking forward to gig on Thursday
well sort of

Happy birthday to little vbus - is it really a year?

To be fair to childrens entertainers they probably only get about 3 parties a week...

Or am I mistaken?

Kc - you're dead right. My neighbour is an entertainer and I've been to a few of her parties, she is fab, a real extrovert and all the kids love her.
She says she gets a lot of interested mums and they like what she does but as soon as she tells them the price she doesn't tend to hear back from many of them. But she only has to do a few bookings each month and has earned £1000

Like Dolphin, must think about 2nd career as entertainer!

kew, a couple I spoke to are fully booked until Feb now! They told me they do 6 parties over the weekend plus weekday parties as well.

vbus, am intrigued on the cheat?! Happy birthday to ds2 . Ds1 has picked out ds2's birthday present, I suspect its because its something he'd quite like to play with!

dusty, fingers crossed they come back with an offer!

sfx, breathe re essay and try not to fret about it. Ikwym though about tutors, mine keeps telling me to ring/email if I need anything, I can always pop round etc but she never replies or rings me back . And breathe....

Tilly - LOL re: pressie, I think DS1 did the same Initially he wanted to buy him a Friends magazine, I talked him out of that

Cheat thing is I found some edible ink pens from Tesco so in theory once I've iced all the cup cakes I should be able to draw said items that you suggested. Will probably still look naff but it will do the job!

Sfx - as Tilly says, put it behind you and just concentrate on next essay. Can you discuss tutor's comments with him/her? Btw which gig are you going to?

tilly/vbus thanks I d move on but she still annoys me

vbus happy birthday to DS2

gig Biffy clyro daft I know

watching a bit of the repatriation of the soldiers killed in Afghanistan would like to throttle reporter for the inanities in his report

Hello!

We did a cheese-and-carrot eggy rice cakes and dinner was eaten in 15 minutes. That is to make up for spending nearly one whole hour at the supermarket telling off children and not buying many things ... But had influenced me and we bought jammie dodgers.

vbus - I was shocked too at rejection of gulab jamun. The few times we managed to get to our local curry house they always ran out of gulab jamun and they always bribed us with baileys instead . But kids may have overheard us hoping they didn't like it so we could have it all , which we did. Yum.

Happy birthday to minivbus2 too.

sfx - most people have memory like sieve and cannot be expected to remember anything they have said. They'd forget their heads if they weren't screwed on. And sometimes they weren't.

We have a small violin at home . Pity our neighbours.

slng LOL at jammy dodger subliminal advertising, do you think MN have bought share in the biscuit company?

spent ages stuffing tubes just because they both love cannelloni I am a fool

btw the casting for the Nativity play has been done, dd will be a lovely sheep
now must tell her about Jesus and the whole story and perhaps all the geopolitical implications of belief

sfx- talking of geopolitical implication of belief, I heard Shlomo Sand on radio 4 about his book on the invention of the Jewish people. Pretty interesting stuff ...

We didn't explain Jesus and the whole story last year for the nativity play. I leave that to school and the very best of luck to them. My agenda is immunisation by mythologies. We are doing Chinese mythology ATM. If anyone knows a good children's book on Greek and Roman mythology (NOT Asterix) let me know.

DS is going to be a King and nursery have explained about Baby Jesus.. not sure he's entirely got it straight though as yesterday he was playing when baby jesus got killed by the horrible witch so met with a horrible end. Sort of short-cicuits 2000 years of christianity.

Interesting juxtaposition of Christian and pagan though I thought!

Good synopsis.

I don't actually know what they are taught about Christianity in school. Since I know the story I'm not that interested to find out... I did learn the story of diwali from DS1 though.

Good morning all.

Happy birthday minivsbus2!

Does anyone know much about Stxxxxr schools (the hippie ones). Are they as bad as some suggest on MN? It's just my friend started sending her DD to one and so far she is very happy there.

sushi I think some are very happy there and some very unhappy. It seems to polarise people doesn't seem to be many people who sit in the middle.

Like many schools I think it comes down to the teachers and the Head and how closely they stick to the original Stnr philosophy which is a bit flaky and how much they interpret it.

Some people consider Montessori to be Stnr Lite and DS's nursery is pretty normal.

Good morning!

Sushi - I don't know much about the schools, but the ideology does seem to be on the scary side. Perhaps it's down to individual schools to implement the ideas. If that is the case then perhaps some schools might be better than others. Personally I won't. I think it is dangerous to be dogmatic when it comes to people because people don't tend to conform to theories. And we all know that most children are mad as a million bags of monkeys and snakes and all things wriggly so it's best not to choose care/education that follows particular ideology too dogmatically.

That is my considered opinion.

Just to add I think that most of the problmes come if you dissent in any way - they don't deal with conflict well!

Oh so [bisuit] is now "no comment" rather than "I have no more to say on this matter"! All this changing of minds is very appropriate. MN is a master of social and political commentary.