West London chat - Spring into summer

[tillyfernackerpants]

Time for a new thread!!

Mellow, congratulations!

Dusty, ds2 would look so cool with a Beatles haircut

Pc, sorry you've all been ill, glad you're on the mend. Can't believe ds will be 2

Vbus, well done on getting dh into the spare room, dh refuses to move from our bed when he's ill!! Hope he's all better for your holiday, where are you going?

We're also ready for a holiday, am waiting for The Sun cheapie deals to start up again!

SFX what is "normal"?

dolphin yes quite

and now it is sunny where as school run time was pissing down

did anyone else watch this year's child of our time? I was mostly keen to see how the little girl who lost her mum is doing
but as always ended up sitting in judgement of others I wonder if my failings as a parent are as evident

Back from hols in Dorset. Thatched cottage 2 minutes' walk from lovely sandy beach. And found fossil! Very exciting.

Seclusion is over!! Spots clearing up so can go out and about once again.

Glad everyone has been having a nice time, am busy with studying atm! I've finally cleared out the dumping spare room so have a bit of office space which means I get far more done than before!

Sfx, good luck, am sure you'll do well!

vbus, how's the packing going?!

kew, how's the recovery going?

Ds1's sports day tomorrow, apparently they've been practicing running & dressing up

Hello all

Tilly - good news quarantine is over, you can now tick CP off your list

Sfx - good luck with study. Is Barbie something DD wanted for her b'day but didn't get?

Slng - v. exciting about fossil find! We went near there over Easter, lovely part of England

KC - how is recovery going?

Packing is going ok but knackering, we're moving stuff in stages. Last wk DH cleared out the loft to new place before heading to US again. I have my mum here this wk so I'm trying to pack everything apart from essential kitchen, clothes, some toys, pc and tv, moving all these boxes in at wkend. Next wkend is big Ikea shop for storage stuff/blinds, then following wkend (last in June) is the final move for all our furniture. PCW - you're right, we are v.organised but I guess we've had lots of practice, this is our 9th move in past 10yrs

hello sunny again, for now

lordcopper lovely sounding holiday we will be in Dorset for August bank holiday camping, can't wait

tilly good to hear I keep thinking when will we get hit with that, everyone else seems to have had it

vbus super organised move, fewer headaches, at least in theory hope it all goes well.
The Barbie, she did get a little doll with accessories and it said mini Barbie or something like it in the box, given by a friend, she looked at me and said - it is not the real big Barbie so its ok mummy isn't it?

then dh gave her Lelli Kelly shoes, much to her delight, but she asked daddy if he had checked with me first Bless!

SFX, good luck with study! Sounds as though your dd had a GREAT birthday!

Copper - your hol sounds perfect, you lucky thing - bet your dcs had a blast.

Vbus - glad to hear all is going well, and so handy that you can move in gradually. Great that your mum is there to provide moral support, and you'll be glad to finally feel settled after all those moves!

Tilly - phew, you are back up and running then, post-spots! Good to get all that out of the way.

We had a lovely morning at Kew, checked out the new play area near to Queen Charlotte's cottage - it is sooo nice - nobody there, for a start as they are all over at the C&C playground! - and very shady, too. Much more creative, really - we'll be back there a lot.

pcW did not know there was a new play area near Queen Charlotte,must investigate

we like it there with the Badger set and look and bird feeder tree, a lovely place in the middle of Winter

thanks all for study best wishes, had a nice message from tutor with last essay mark, I feel like I must do well at exam and I am starting to feel the pressure

SFX, am sure you will do brilliantly in exam.

Re: new play area - it is really lovely, piles of logs to climb on, poles to climb on, mostly all natural wood and nothing too obvious really so encourages creative play. Is v shady, too. You have to follow the path past Queen Charlotte's Cottage (don't turn down towards the cottage and then at the next crossroads take a left and it is there. I do wish that Kew hadn't revamped their catering, there is far too much temptation what with all the fantastic cakes ...

pc, thanks for tip re Kew. I wasn't so happy with revamped food, not so much for dc's I thought!

vbus, v organised moving, well done! Hope it all goes smoothly

Boast alert now - ds1's first sports day & he won all of his races

I was wondering what new play area was like = but can;t really walk that far at the moment.

Kew fair is on June 18th if anyone fancies it and weather is fine.

Excuse me for cheekily barging in (I am a regular but don't want to out myself) but just wanted to make sure you'd all seen the Cheeky Monkeys Tea Party that's happening in Kew on Sunday 4th July?

There will be activities to keep the kids busy so you can enjoy your Pimms and cake in peace and lots of fabulous things to bid on at our silent auction. And it's for charity of course.

Please come along - it's open to everyone and there's a listing in local events.

Thanks, Richmond NCT - if we're still here then we might go to this.

I wonder if we will still be here - negotiations on our house are not going very well, we are considering walking away! Boo hoo!!!!

oh bugger pcW hope the prospects improves

tilly way to go DS1

R/NCT thanks for tip

hope everyone else is well

where in Kew is cheeky monkeys tea party?

Barn Church KewC info to right of chat

LOL Kewcumber - perhaps we should all go in disguise

Sorry, Tilly - forgot to say "well done" to ds, how fabulous - although you didn't mention how well you did in the mums' race ... ?

SFX - feeling fairly zen-like. Although tis certainly a rather draining experience and at this point I do just want to either stay or go as summer is coming up and I would like it to be a good one for the dcs - at the moment I have absolutely zilch organised for them due to impending (or not) move !

pcw, how annoying, hope it all works out either way. I think its being in limbo that's most frustrating!

Btw, they didn't have a mums race (phew) but apparently last year a couple of the dads had to go to hospital for being a bit competitive & crashing into a wall

RNCT, thanks for the tip!

Sfx, how's the revision going?

Tilly - Well done to DS1!! LOL at crash, how raucus can these events get?

PCW - that is so stressful. Hope you have wine on standby and are keeping your cool, fingers crossed things work out for you

Thanks for tip on new playground, didn't know about it either.
Might be on for tea party too as DH away that wkend.

What plans do you all have for summer? Last yr DS1 was able to go to preschool in the holidays which was a godsend. How to fill in 6wks this yr Kew Gardens anyone?

vbus, no doubt we'll be in Kew Gardens a lot this summer! I'm going to sign ds1 up for more swimming lessons but that's only once a week for 5 weeks. Tbh, I'm going to try & make the most of it, it will seem like they're hardly with us come Sept

hello all

tilly trust dads to go mental over sports, our sports day is toward the end of the month we are expected to take part

vbus regarding Summer we are mostly staying in London, have plans to swap babysitting with neighbour to keep up running, think will mostly stay around Kew / marble Hill with the odd trip further afield, we shall see
I hope to get a job by September so this may be the last 'free' Summer who knows?!

pcW keep up the Zen, best way really

Our school fair/ fayre is this Saturday, do pop along if you fell like it, apparently brass band promised and assorted goodies and surprises I shall be doing by bit manning stall etc

btw tilly revising going well thanks but I am getting sidetracked by some of the subject matter and looking at further reading, possibly not the best strategy at the moment as no value added just personal interest

Tilly - lol at dads race - love it !!

vbus - am a bit het up about summer in that nothing planned as we don't know what we are doing. Although having said that, last summer we were here for 7 weeks and I managed to fill it just fine with occasional trips to Marble Hill/Kew etc as others have said - and it was lovely!

Am seriously fretting now over house. It is lovely / budget wise works out well etc ... but I think we probably do have some misgivings - AND now the vendor is refusing to budge on price OR even to try and meet us half-way with regard to some work that needs doing. We are wondering about selling and renting for 6 months while we continue looking. Part of me thinks that this could be the way forward. Ho hum. We have until Monday to think it through - will let our vendors sweat for a while! And of course the other potential problem is that our buyers may have a problem with their mortgage! In which case forget the whole thing! In this scenario I head to Majestic and purchase a case of the finest Rioja money can buy and we have a lost weekend.

Tilly - lol at dads race - love it !!

vbus - am a bit het up about summer in that nothing planned as we don't know what we are doing. Although having said that, last summer we were here for 7 weeks and I managed to fill it just fine with occasional trips to Marble Hill/Kew etc as others have said - and it was lovely!

Am seriously fretting now over house. It is lovely / budget wise works out well etc ... but I think we probably do have some misgivings - AND now the vendor is refusing to budge on price OR even to try and meet us half-way with regard to some work that needs doing. We are wondering about selling and renting for 6 months while we continue looking. Part of me thinks that this could be the way forward. Ho hum. We have until Monday to think it through - will let our vendors sweat for a while! And of course the other potential problem is that our buyers may have a problem with their mortgage! In which case forget the whole thing! In this scenario I head to Majestic and purchase a case of the finest Rioja money can buy and we have a lost weekend.

Hello!

pc - hope all goes well with move but if not Rioja plan sounds good. LOTS of cases of Rioja for the price of a move, I think.

Finally cleared up misunderstanding and DS2 has a class allocation and is in with some old friends.

Now must go to supermarket and get supplies and will miss delivery of package and will have to go to the depot in the sticks to collect it. Perhaps I'll stick a note on the door to inform all and sundry that I'm not in and please feel free to plunder the house.

So dopey from anti-histamine tablet zzzzzzzzz

Aww you are all so lovely Only name changed cos I had to add some comments to my listing and didn't want my rl friends to know my posting name... because sometimes I like to post my shameful secrets on MN

Hope to see some of you on 4th