Turkish Tearoom? Turkish Bath? Anyway, a Turkish delight awaits...

[MaryBS]

Picture the scene...

From the edge of every terrace and every step hang brilliantly white stalactites, and you can hear the joyful splashing of the waters of the hot springs as they cascade down over slopes where their flow is impeded only by clumps of oleanders.

Nearby is an oasis of refreshments, in our Pamukkale residence, air conditioned and with white washed generously proportioned rooms, with Mellors at the ready, to offer Turkish Massage to anyone who wishes.

The NMBs are in their element, whereas the bishops seem to have found their speedoes again.

Priest's hole is at the back, in a quiet shaded area, stocked with What Car magazines, Turkish rugs and Turkish delight

It's the symbolism of it, too, not just the hours away from you.

Well, LittleO had a great time! We stayed in the morning for a bit to settle him in and when we said goodbye he barely looked up he was so busy playing. When I picked him up today he was in the middle of an elaborate game with 7 other kids in which they were witches having a party. I had a really hard time getting him to leave!!! I had to promise he could go back to school again tomorrow!

That's it serpent. I also felt that way that way MT, although LittleO has been in preschool for 2 years, and has been at a childminders since he was 11 months. Dh was esctatic though, and we got the papers and went for tea and scones for the morning, it was bliss!

LittleO doesn't have a uniform but is required to wear rainwear (dungarees that go over his trousers, and a jacket), wellies and then slippers for inside the classroom. My mom bought the wellies and slippers, and mil bought the rainwear. We were delighted! He was supposed to bring in a cotton bag with his name embroidered on it with spare clothes in it to leave in school. I got a 2 euro cotton shopper (lovely rainbow colours) from dunnes, then I cut out his name using odd fabric and superglued it on to the shopper bag.

Catita - Good luck. Sounds crazy busy!

I went into hospital at about 5pm on the sat, had littleo at 1am late sat night/early sun morning, then left the hospital at lunchtime on Monday. They had no veggie food and there were 8 beds in my ward, I just wanted to get home.

How cool is little Os school! no uniform beyond waterproof dungarees and wellies. FAB.

Boy and I had another day out in big city today. He wanted to go and have lunch with daddy in teh office canteen. So around that I wrapped a trip to library, a guided walk on city history, a trip to a park paddling pool and the supermarket for a BIG BIG shop.

Back to school on monday here.

Hi all. Sorry not been around here's how my day's been...

Serpent you are so right. It felt like a symbolic moment as we walked into the classroom together and it unexpectedly brought a huge lump to my throat. I was both happy, sad and overwhelmed. Littlestick however, was simply excited.

I have never heard of waterproofs being a key part if a uniform. It is a brilliant idea and presumably indicates the school places a high priority on outdoor play in all weathers- brilliant.

Littlestick appears to have settled well. A part of me still wishes he was not being subjected to the 'formality' of school yet though.

Hello all! Peering head around door to see what is happening!

UniS clasps PKM to her bossssssssom and says

I thought of you today, I took a book of weird and wonderful knitting projects out from the library.

UniS unclasps PKM and apologises for unseemly hugging.

Hi, nice to see you again.

How scary Tee ! Similar happened to friends of ours.

DS has compulsory waterproofs and wellies too. Reminds me that I need to get new wellies tomorrow as his others are falling apart from too much playing in them.

DH is complaining as only a man can about his finger which he whacked with a hammer earlier in the process of nailing our giant deck together

Oh Tee, how scary! I hope he feels better tomorrow. Good idea having pizza, wine and Ben & Jerrys, you need something to ease the stress of the day .

UniS - I know!

CMOT - I thought it was just our school, I've never met anyone else with a waterproof requirement.

Stick - It is not a state school, half of the kids were up a tree when I picked LittleO up from school today .

Hi PKM

I was thinking of booking a trip to Rome, although we can't afford it . What do you think? If I book now for early march the flights are only ?200. I could afford that now. Then if we stay in a private room in a hostel I can get 6 nights accomodation for ?260. I can pay for that in a month or two. So when we actually go the only cost at the time will be eating and sightseeing. Plus hostels have kitchens so we could have big brekkies in the morning there, then eat in say 2 or 3 of the nights. We would go without LittleO.

Do any of you lovely tearoomers go on trips without kids?

Thanks Unis I think! What sort of stuff is in the book? I got myself a crochet book last Saturday, I am pretty new to it but want to do about 5 of the things in it!

Hope he is better soon Tee!

well back to school on Monday for my daughter! Everything bought, oh well, actually I think she needs a new pair of trainers, will see if we can get them on Sat, need to take her to somewhere for a bra measurement, she thinks she is going up again!

The children at ds's school spend a lot of time in trees too - part of their forest school is learning to risk assess trees and work out which can be climbed etc. Its lovely to see kids hanging upside down in trees and running around chasing the chickens

Wriggle's propective school (small state primary) has asked for waterproof coat and wellingtons to be kept in school. Trying to remember about trousers. Also asked for spare clothes - was going to send then in carrier bag, but named fabric bag sounds far nicer!

We've always taken some breaks without FineLad, but have always had my dsis living with us who's been there for him.
Hoping all goes ok for those starting new schools etc - very exciting stuff! I was having lunch today with a head teacher friend of mine (primary school) and talking about how we're going to be helping the new ones in foundation stage...seems a long time ago now. Surreal that FineLad won't be at school this term as he's finished it all

Aha. . Ideal.

So what is fine lad up to this term? is he uni/ college/ job bound or going to see what life throws at him first?

We've never been on a break without Girl but she's now at the age for sleepovers so we have nights a deux that way.

Rome is beautiful in the spring but is always expensive.

Evening all!

for all of those in need...

Tee - how frightening, hope that you are all ok and that LCT recovers quickly.

AandO and Stick - glad that the first days went well - it seems like such a milestone.

We have never had a holiday without Small Bean. I love the idea and I'm sure that if I asked them my parents would look after him; but we both work full time and it feels a bit mean using our holidays and not including him. Rome sounds lovely though - it is on my list of places to visit - and I would say to go for it if you have a chance!

FineLad is contemplating his options. He fancies going into estate agency, which is related to our business so could work. First, driving test needs to be passed. Meantime, the usual harem of young ladies and a bit of pre-rugby-season fitness training. Occasional work as a bouncer for poetry evenings (no, I still don't know why...)

Rome is indeed a beautiful place, but very busy. Florence was arguably more beautiful.

hmm, it's more like ?350 than ?250. All the same, it's about 80 to 100 a night in Dublin so it's not bad really.

We have been away a few times without LittleO, we went away for one night while in India, while my parents visited. We went away for 4 nights to prague the year before. And also apart a few times to work on our house in Dublin while LittleO stayed with grandparents.

Maud - Is it the restuarants that are expensive? Or seeing the sights? Or both . Did you go with Girl? I thought LittleO would be bored stiff and didn't consider it a child friendly place.

Amber - How handy!!

Cannot imagine a holiday without Wriggle. Cannot imagine DH wanting to spend time a deux.

AandO - I have a friend who lives in Rome so we go quite often. Girl always comes with us - she first went when she was about 18 months. As we go so often, there isn't the same sense of having to get around all the main sites, so we spend some of the time just mooching about. These days, Girl's very interested in the Romans - by coincidence, she was saying the other day that she wants to go back to Ostia Antica - but when she was younger she tootled quite happily around the Forum. The Italians have always made a great fuss of her - it really is true that they love children.

Because we stay with my friend I don't know how costly Roman hotels are, but the restaurants in the city centre seem expensive (especially as the food is sometimes rather mediocre). The Romans themselves go to Trastevere to eat. The historical sites, though, are probably less expensive to get into than things in the UK, but it's important to have your passport with you as some charge differential admission for EU and other citizens - on our last visit, one place wouldn't give us EU tickets without our passports, even though we had plenty of other documents, on the grounds we might be American. The exchange rate doesn't help us either!

I agree that Florence is probably more beautiful, but in my experience the crowds are even worse there. And it was in a Florentine trattoria that we were told that the vegetarian option was a ham pizza!

Lovely to see you, PKM!

Thanks for the welcome! I come in here a bit rarely, then I feel almost embarrassed to come in and leave it longer!

Nah, it doesn't work like that, PKM. People drop in as much or as little as they choose (or can manage). There's no reason to be embarrassed.

Have some .