West London Thread August continued...

[Kewcumber]

shiny new thread to sully.

hellooooo everyone!

got back around noon. can someone give me a precis update on what you've all been up to this week?

the weather was fabulous, the house was amazing. the family meltdown we had on tuesday was horrific.

ma's ankle is on the mend and she soldiered on bravely. first few days was pretty exhausting doing everything but it eased off as she became more mobile.

echo steppie tho, i now need an all inclusive child free holiday!

we're around tomorrow then off for a few days again and back mid-week if anyone's up for meet.

dd's speach has gone thru the roof this week. new phrases are:

STOPPITMUMMY
DOITMUMMY
no like it
want it
go'way
change my nappy now mummy

pmsl, she really has had a fabulous time this week!

New on mumsnet - finally got round to checking out this thread. I live in Hanwell, ds1 3.5yr, ds2 1.5. Trying to bring them up bilingual. Would be nice to meet mums in same situation!

hello all - at last some son in the IOW! Having a nice time, though I had forgotten that it was the scooter rally this weeknd so the air is full of roaring (buzzing?) scooters and petrol fumes!

Will catch up with the gossip when I get back Paddle re family meltdown, sorry to hear about your mums ankle though.

Hi SLNG - is hanwell the one hear Ealing or Feltham I can never remember - which languages are you trying to be bilingual in?

we have a few bilingual families in West London... we are a cosmopolitan bunch!

Paddle is fluent is gibberish as well as English

Kewcumber - Hanwell near Ealing. The one near Feltham must be Hanworth? Are you near Kew!?

Ds1 bilingual in Mandarin and English (and pretend-Polish, and sometimes pretend-German, and lots of real gibberish too - the problem is that sometimes people who don't understand Chinese think he is speaking chinese when he is speaking Gibberish...) Ds2 not really talking yet, but understands both languages or neither, depending on circumstances...

We went to IOW last month when London was apparently soaked. We had lots of fine weather there too. Where did you go on IOW, Kewcumber?

I'm near Seaview at the moment.

I think Mellow is a Mandarin speaker (now she going to embarrass me by saying its Cantonese!)

Yes I'm a Kew-ite - how did you guess

hello all

hi paddle welcome back, hope meltdown did not leave irreparable damage.
and well done little paddle

hi sling welcome, i used to work in Hanwell, Laurel&York bu lingual here Portuguese/English.

waves to QC mighty sunny here too and Kew was so peaceful it felt like a week day minus busload of pensioners

Evening all.

Welcome back paddle!

Hi sling. I'm Japanese and have a 22mo old ds. My husband is English but he speaks fluent mandarin (lived in Shanghai)!

Mellow, thanks for the green tea this afternoon. We went to Kiraku tonight, it was excellent. Thanks!

Waves to QC.

Slng,
Hello, nice to see you on the West London thread.

You're welcome, sushi.

Welcome back, PC. My news is that I'm starting a contract next week.

QC,
You're right on both counts.

I speak both Mandarin and Cantonese.

Sfx,
I've got a mother's help two days a week and dh and I are both going to work from home 3 days every 2 weeks. We'll try it out for 2 weeks and see how that goes.

mellow - dropped you a text! Sorry, I did realise and planned to say something on here but then of course I promptly forgot! It is currently in my cupboard! Good luck with the contract.

Sing - welcome, I am chinese and my hubby english. I speak cantonese but my children don't really, I think they understand a bit though. And for some reason my dd1 likes to watch programmes in french and until recently thought her dad might be french, much to the shock of my in-laws when she told them!!!!

foxie - my dd has to go full days right from the start, which I think is a bit much but then again what do I expect having gone over to the dark side by agreeing to allow my in-laws to fund a private education for her!

Have a good bank holiday weekend all, am off to newbury on Monday for a short break! Hopefully weather will stay good!

Hi just popping by and will catch up properly tomorow.

DS2 was baptised today and family came up. Was a lovely gathering but very stressful morning and as we were leaving to drive to church we couldn't get the car started

We had to call the godparents who very kindly took two of us in their car, while my next door neighbours (who had literally just got back from Cyprus) very, very kindly took the rest of us (even though they hadn't been invited themselves!) - we were so please to see them when they pulled up in their car!!!

What a palava, but DS2 has now been welcomed into the church and behaved very well throughout the ceremony and really enjoyed the water on his head as it was a hot hot day!

Will pop back tomorrow to catch up with everyone's news [waves and runs]

hey foxie, did ds2 fit into his gown?

glad it all went okay, hopefully catch up with you soon.

QC, glad to hear the sun finally reached you. thank goodness the weather in devon was gorgeous! teens are excellent at entertaining toddlers eh!

morning, all
welcome back, paddle

hmm, family meltdown, eh? sorry, for some warped reason, keep singing it to the tune of "final countdown" by bon jovi...?! hope it's been resolved (your meltdown, not my warped mind..)

welcome, sing

been a social whirl this weekend - including a leaving dinner for my lovely cm who is leaving to live on guernsey. sob.

got dd a nursery ploace but seems very "grown-up" and business like with direct debits, lateness fines and such like. also, having always liked nurseries, am now questioning myself whether a cm is better for her.

she's got settling in next week so think i'll see how well she, er, settles and take my cue from her

of to a barbi this arvo to see a mate's new place in cobham. that's posh, isn't it?

enjoy the sunshine all!
toodlepip

Hi!

Mellow - I only speak Mandarin and VERY VERY BAD hokkien/teochew ... What language(s) do you speak to dd?

Sushi - my husband is also English and doing mandarin classes. Speaks proper Mandarin rather than the mashed-up version I speak ...

Yingers - Saw in your profile you like theatre. Have you been lately?

Kew - we were in Bembridge. Nice pubs there.

Stepfordwife - ds1 went to cm when little and started nursery when 3. I thought it was the right thing to do. But ds2 started nursery at 9 months and also seems quite happy! Good luck!

I work part-time - all mornings, so most afternoon free from 3 (ds2 naps till then usually). Would be nice to meet but no good ideas at the moment ... Anyone tried bunny park in Hanwell?

Hi everyone - Steppie I think I have one of your boys sun hats? Lovely to see you all yesterday - you know our CM has a vacancy coming up - if you decide you don't like the nursery option. It'll be a vacancy for up to 4 days a week (we're nabbing one of the days for DS2)

Paddle - Hope you enjoyed Devon then - can't wait to hear all the goss [rubs hands with unhealthy glee]. We can swap family goss if you like, as there are lots of shenanigans going on here too

Kew - So sorry about today - this blasted car is becoming a real problem. Am going to mrach round to Vauxhall dealer 8am Tues morning and femand they come and fix my car - I hope you are having a brilliant time. Are you tempted by the scooters at all? One of my work colleague has one, which she bought to avoid congestion charging!

Mellow - I have found the pink belly dancing torusers which go with the top you have - remind me to give it to you next time I see you!

Hiya Slng - welcome to the Wild West London bunch

Yingers - hope your DD enjoys her school! I bet she'll love it

We've spent a nice day doing "family" stuff - translated this means me eating all day and drinking cold beer and Dh putting up the children's playhouse, whilst children bicker in background. Actually DS1 was scooped up by another school Mum and taken swimming this morning and has just got back - so had a nice relxing day here

Sling - x posts!

I love Bunny Park and think it would be a great picnic opportunity for a meet up

morning, all
...and the sun is shining again..
yes, it was a lovely day, foxie. thankyou again. no worries about sun hat, just add it to my co9llection of forgotten stuff which i'll come and get this week some tiime.
yes, your cm does ouns brill, but se hasn't got any vacancies until november, right? tbh, think dd will love nursery - or whereever she is really - itr's just us paremnts that worry, eh?

thanks, sing - yep, she'll be fine i'm sure. soumnds like childcare has gone ok for you so far. do you work full or part-time?

went to a friend's fab babrbi yeterday - i've spent the whole weekend drinking bubbly and the kids have spent the whole weekend eating crisps - oh well, their equivalent of alcohol, eh?
have a fab day
toodlepip

good morning all

I took dd to Hyde Park yesterday for picnic in honour of her cousins birthday. she loved every minute of it.

today I was inspired to go jogging which put me in a good mood, at least good enough to deal with dh's very obsessive computer project which has lasted all weekend that we have barely seen him

mellow - I am sure you will find a way to make it work, but first day with trek up to Glasgow sounds rough, best of luck

hope everyone else is having a nice weekend

Morning all

Steppy - LOL! I think salt is children's equivalent of cocaine! i.e. seen as being "evil" - DS1 spends half his life trying to persuade adults to let him put salt on his food - generally to no avail.

He kind of whispers in a furtive manner "have you got any salt ?"

Oh the temptations of forbidden fruit!

Hi Yingers,
I meant to get back to you before my broadband broke down again. We're only at dh's office for a little while as I needed to download files for tomorrow's meeting.

I didn't get your text. I've sent my mobile number to your email addy. Can you text me again please?

Slng,
I speak Mandarin, Cantonese, a bit of Hakka and very bad Teochew.

Thanks sfx. I agreed before I realised it was all day meeting.

Oh well, I normally enjoy being thrown in at the deep end when it comes to work as otherwise work would be far too boring.

Hello all, nice to see summer's back with us
Back from Geordie land, the wedding was so much fun, DS loved it - there were bouncy castles and space hoppers for the kids and an ice cream van showed up so everyone had flake 99's for dessert [yum]!
Had a nice family day out at Hampton court festival today which was good fun - did anyone else go?

Welcome back Paddle and Steppie!

Welcome to Slng! Not tried bunny park, would be up for a meet. My DS is 20mths.

Mellow - good luck for Glasgow trip, hope all goes well for you & DD

Foxie glad baptism went well even if journery was problematic

good morning all

foxie glad baptism went well despite the uncooperative car

SJ that sounds like a chilled out child friendly wedding, very rare these days

I am off to kew soon to meet a friend and her baby dd is being a fairy princess today fluffy pink dress and wings

Hi all, very quick one as I need to take ds out, he seems to have gone a bit stir crazy!

Been away at my parent's over the weekend which is why I haven't been on so will catch up with everything later.

Does anyone want to meet up this week?

sfx - so you have a pink fairy now do you?

hee hee