WEST LONDONTHREAD - JULY/AUG 2007 (when we finally get a summer?)

[ComeOVeneer]

Just thought I would get this up and running before the old one is full.

Hi grrls

How was the mela then?

My bookclub was fabby - loads of nice grub and for pudding we had scottish organic vanilla ice cream and pavlova [ymum]

DS2 is the token male member and he enjoyed his first ice cream. In fact he enjoyed it so much he cried when it was finished.

Morning everyone

OK where is everyone?

Kew - have e-mailed you

Hello,

We had some nice food at the Mela but didn't see much going on as we got there around 6.30 pm.

Ele is asking if someone else can take over organising Nanou's leaving do as she can't make it on the 7th Sept, the most popular date so far. I don't think I can make it on the 7th either.

Nanou's leaving do

this book club seems like a drinking and stuffing your face full of treats shop, never a mention of books discussed

good morning all

mellow/ele - i doubt i will be able to make it to any eve meet ups in the near future, sorry.

dd still coughing but there is an overall improvement and we all managed to get some sleep. yesterday dd&dh made some lovely sultana scones yum, i like it when they are in a baking mood.

i think i will stay close to home today
hope you are all well

Well we just did Attonement by Iain McEwan and I can't remember the name of the new one (hungover) but will check in a moment.

Normally its an orgy of Cava and Ice Cream, topped with lashings of juicy gossip

OK I have e-mailed nanou to tell her its 7 Sept and ask whwre she's like to go.

Who hasn't signed up yet then?????

Morning all.

sfx, glad to hear DD is on the mend.

I fear the terrible two's starting with DS. Since this weekend, his favourite word is 'no' and if he doesn't get anything he wants he throws big tantrums with punching and kicking. He even started to assault the cats by throwing toys at them. This morning, it took twice as long to get ready to go to nursery as he didn't want to wear sock/shoes/coat, didn't want to be in the buggie and he cried all the way. So this is it? Downhill from now? Where's my little angelic boy gone? [big sigh]

foxie - that sounds great, have Atonement on my 'to read next' pile, but at the rate i am going it could be sometime

sushi - that can be trying. dd does similar, ,minus attacking cats, maybe because we don't have them.
i think the trick is to keep calm and avoid all your interaction becoming confrontations/ battle of wills. that is too stressful for both and really counterproductive.

dd also seems to have NO as the default position but instead of engaging with the no i avoid direct questions and suggest things in positive 'what do we do before dinner' (cheery voice) 'wash our hands' (hey much clapping)

about getting dressed she did go through this we would just take the focus out of getting dressed and start telling stories she likes and which required her being engaged, while dressing but making sure there were no other distractions.

please feel free to ignore and sorry about long post. it is actually quite stressful at times

Sushi - the angelic side to him will re-appear in no time but so will the other side! Word of warning, after the "no" phase comes the "why" phase where you will be questioned on EVERYTHING!

Mellow - We overlapped by half hour as we were at the Mela until 7pm. They started packing things up 6 onwards as most ppl were at the main stage where Sukshinder Shinda (a famous Bhangra singer) was playing. DH hates these sorts of things because there's usually a fight that goes on but I always take DS so he can see punjabi culture. All was fine until we almost got knocked over as ppl were running because someone in the crowd pulled out a weapon. Some British Asian kids use events like these as an excuse for Muslims vs Sikhs/Hindus fights. Loooong story so I won't bore you with the details.

Anyways, we're probably heading to Bushy Park in about half hour or so if any1 fancies meeting up.

OMG! Weapons at the Mela?! These things make me and .

Thanks for the advice, sfx. It's very trying indeed. Well, at least it's not going to last forever, is it?

The police dealt with it really well, they controlled the situation immediately stopping any full on fight. It only takes one idiot to cause a problem and unfortunately we get idiots everywhere nowadays God almighty, I sound like my ma!

Right, off to Bushy....

Sushi I always use distractions to head of tantrums

Like "ooh look shall we do this instead" or "well, would you like some yummy breakfast? Well, you get dressed now and then you can have some nice breakfast"

seems to work. Children seem to have the attention span of goldfish and soon forget whatever it was they felt so passionate about 30 seconds ago

Paddle - heavy rain forecast all day tomorrow, so Kew Beach may not be very enticing tomorrow morning

bloody typical!

any suggestions on an alternative that's local and suitable for 2 pg mamas, 1 not pg mama and 2 21 month olds!

QC, great to see you yesterday. i think the LOs played pretty well together considering they're both in a bit of a challenging phase at the mo.

dd had a rotten night tho, no idea why but i really can't cope with it now i'm used to a solid 11 hours of uneventful sleep!

btw, here's a money management tip. i just did a credit card balance transfer onto Virgin Money who are offering 0% for 15months on balance transfers.

there's a transfer fee but even taking that into account i should save a few hundred quid and my monthly payments will actually reduce the balance rather than 2/3rds going on interest.

oh and i got my mortgage offer thru on Saturday morning so that's good news. just need to light a fire under my buyer now!

Congratulations on the mortgage, pc.

Now there's at least one thing less to stress about.

lol mellow, very true. until i have to start making the payments!

but actually, it is great as current outgoings on the flat that i am selling are circa £900 and my new mortgage payment will be a bit lower. only drawback is it's interest only on this mortgage but hopefully only for a couple of years and the rate is fixed.

so, hopefully i'm protected from the BofE going on a rampage and finger's x'd there won't be a massive house price crash!

congrats paddle

i could really do with moving credit to give us some breathing space.
also we re negotiated our mortgage just before the hikes, the only possible drawback is that it is for a long period so if interest rates go really low soon we will be paying over the odds.

ta ;-)

i use www.fool.co.uk/ for info on all sorts of financial stuff.

i very much doubt interest rates are going to come down any time soon so i'm sure you'll be okay.

it really is a question of robbing peter to pay paul most of the time eh!

indeed it is paddle, and thanks for info.

wonder how lemonaid is getting on?

this ttc business is rather trying, i had forgotten how twitchy i get waiting for AF. best be off to one of those ttc threads and obsess with them

Hi all. I haven't had time to get on here for a few days. Been frabtically cleaning the house and catching up with laundry after the builders left. We are off on holiday on Thursday and for some dumb reason I have to leave the house spotless in case something happens to us and people come into my house and find a mess .

DS is sleeping like the dead these days. Saturday he had a 3.5 hour nap, went to bed at 7pm then slept until 11.30am. No nap but again went to bed at 7pm and woke this morning at 10.45am . He isn't ill, eating fine, perfectly happy. Shame he is sharing a room with dd on holiday otherwise if he continued, it would make for very relaxing mornings .

I am up for Nanou's do on the 7th, but can't help with the organiseing, as we are away from this thursday until the 3rd of september. So will check in when i return to see where the venue is.

Hope everyones LO's are on the mend (those that were ill)

Sfx,

I highly recommend www.moneysupermarket.com as the best place to find the cheapest deals.

Moneysupermarket is fab, I've used it loads in the past 8yrs or so.

Hope you all enjoyed the weekend. Mine was great although we managed to miss the christening up in Leeds due to traffic but made it in time for the do afterwards . It was good to catch up with old friends. They loved the Peter Pan book I got them, thanks again ladies, I wouldn't gone down the book route otherwise

Is anyone going to ELC tomorrow morning?

yes we might be now that the weather forecast is so terrible.

what's the details?