Elevenses !!!!!!

[MaryAnnSingleton]

ah, we can only do 1000, so here's the new one, hope you find it !

never been there either..and yes,Waitrose car park is handy, plus P Express not far away..

Argh, but I don't know Farnham and am worried about driving there (only just survived Alice Holt last year...)

Looks like we may have to think about this one a bit more...

Sorry to hear your skin is sore - hope it clears up soon mas

Hippi- I am good at drawing maps and can do one for you,it's before you get to Alice Holt anyway and very straightforward,trust me !

But I could do one for you to come to Guildford?

Actually, ignor me, it does not matter. I have just had an email from the lady running the tennis course O is on 10th - 13th of August. They don't have access to the indoor courts due to building works so will be playing outdoors all week. She said to keep the Friday free because if one of the session has to be cancelled due to the weather then they will use the Friday to make up for it. So I won't know until Thursday morning if I am even going to be free on that Friday.
Add to that the fact that O needs to be at the pool for 4pm it seems a bit silly for me to traipse all the way to Farnham and back for what will be a short meet-up.
So you guys go ahead, I may dip out of this one.

On that note, I have to go and collect E from school. Summer holidays start here yippee!!!!

we can't meet without you hippi ! let's leave it this time and we could meet early Sept. for a Packhouse morning !

but Packhouse definitely sounds a good idea. Should we arrange a date now???

I think we all have each other's home numbers, so if we happen to be going near each other's neck of the woods over the holidays, we could always ring on the offchance of a quick coffee?

Am hurtling around dusting. Was supposed to be seeing a friend this morning, but her children are tired and grumpy, so we're postponing. At least it means I stand a chance of getting the shopping done too!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Oh no, I don't want to stop you two from meeting on the 14th.... But the chances of there being tennis on that day is high now we don't have access to the indoor courts (unless we suddenly get a rain-free week but how likely is that ) and then with swimming too.....[fret]

But I am very very much up for a Packhouse meet-up once the urchins are back at school

We are having a boring day today. I am on here, O is on teh playstation, E is doing colouring. Really need to go and walk the dog but it is getting very grey outside and am not hopeful it will stay dry.... Need to pop into Wokign too as E has 3 birthday parties to attend, one this Sunday and the others at the end of the holidays so need to get some presents. And E needs trainers.... (and new school shoes but dare I buy them so earl???)
And the house needs dusting and hoovering....

no,really..we can't meet without Hippi , so let's fix a date for the Packhouse if we can !
Have had a good meeting with bcn today - she gave me dressings and it should start to heal up soon. We discussed tamoxifen at length and she has put some perspective on it for me..plus she is asking the oncologist for stats and percentages so I can gauge my benefit from taking it.
She suggested trying it for 4 weeks and if I find it is causing problems then to stop. If not,then to keep on. But she did suggest that I need time to rest and recover and that to start after the hols -preferably when I have a new project/work to do,so that I'm not just thinking of tamox.
Seems like sound advice - she is very,very nice.
Will be seeing the surgeon every 6 months I gather and a yearly mammogram. The breast care nurses never discharge you from their care which is a nice thought !
It sounds as though you're going to be busy Hippi
I am hoovering and am going to wash the floor

Breast care nurse sounds great - and very sensible
I hope you start to heal up soon!

Well, we have walked the dog and gone to Woking. Birthday presents duly bought - a model bendy bus for boy W, an around the world game for girl E and I had remembered E was bought two tamagotchis for her birthday so one is still unwrapped and put aside which we will give to other girl E.
Popped into TKMaxx and managed to buy a nice rainjacket for O (like a posh PacaMac but for only £9.99!) and a nice dark pink / cerise fleece jumper for E for only £6.99 which we wil put aside for the winter. I do love a bargain!!
Had a look in Clarks but recoiled in horror. All their school shoes and trainers have that crappy toy in the heel. E finds those really uncomfortable (the heel bit is less padded I find) and can't wear them. Very little in the way of normal-toy-free school shoes. and all the trainers were glittery things. Shudder.
I have fallen in love with some school shoes for E on the Startrite website but am not sure I trust my own foot-measuring.....

arf, it is confusing with all those E's. The second E mentioned is my E. There are 4 girls with the initial E in E's class, Ella, Ellie,Emma and Emily. Confusing, no?

and the second tamagotchi is still wrapped not unwrapped!

!! I like Start Rite, T usually has them, nice plain black shoes,nothing vulgar..I love the girls ones. Must get his feet measured soon and probably need to buy new school trousers...

I love startrite too, but the startrite shop in Woking closed down years ago...
Nowhere local to get them.
The startrite website looks great, and tells you exaclty how to measure your child's feet, but I just feel slightly odd about buying shoes this way.
But if the only other alternative is vulgar clarks then...

there is a very nice shoe shop here which is independent and usually stocks Start Rite,though not always in T';s size (3) so he has some fancy Italian shoes,bit more expensive but nice and plain. They measure and check his existing shoes so I never feel obliged to buy if he is still fitting ok

That sounds great - independent is the way to go! In fact, my friend has told me about a fab independent shoe shop in Walton, they stock startrite, ecco, kickers, ricosta, elefanten and clarks. Have persuaded dh to take me there on Saturday so we can get E's feet checked.

Hello Ihope you are both having a good weekend. We have been out all day. E had her swimming lesson, so O went for a free swim whislt we were there. Before E's lesson started he took her to the 3m deep bit and taught her how to dive. It did not take her long to get the hang of it and she spent 15 minutes happily diving. Am happy, I know now she will be just fine in her deep-pool swimmin glessons come August

Then we went to Walton to a fab independent shoe shop. Got E some lovely startrites for school. I decided to get them now, it is only 5 weeks till school starts, we are away the last two weeks so why wait 3 weeks to get them? They have fitted them with plenty of growing room so I am happy. (am mostly happy that they are not Clarks )
She has these

We rounded off the day with a late lunch in Nandos - yum yum!

Hope you are both okay

HELLO! Happy holidays! Hope you're both having a great time and WAAY too busy for MN

MIL has just left so I can finally relax and begin to feel like we're on holiday... We've had a lovely few days, been to Hollycombe which was nice, Dapdune Wharf, out for lunch, doggy walks etc and today we're meetiung friends. Don't know where yet - depends on the weather. Have just heard the forecast and they're now predicting more rain this summer We're supposed to be camping next week....

Will pop on here later, but must go and play Monopoly with B!

Hello my lovely, I am here

Have just come back from lunch with a friend and her dc. 'Twas fun
Having a quiet holiday so far, just catching up with friends. Drove to East Sussex to a little village called Plumpton Green to visit a friend who moved there recently (whose dd L was a good friend of E's at school)
Hairy journey both ways - rain on the motorway, getting lost in Haywards Heath, a deer crossing the road 12 ft in front of the car etc - but worth it. Had a lovely lovely day with J and E and L were delighted to see each toher

I have a job interview tomorrow for the (not so glamorous) job of catering assistant in the kitchen at E's school. It is completely not what I want to do, but the hours are 12 - 2 every school day, so I get all of E's inset days and holidays off, and it will earn me just over £200 a month which is not to be sniffed at! Part of me feels I am really 'dumbing down' if I take the job but part of me feels that it is worth it for the convenience and money.
Arrrrgh.

I hope the weather picks up for your camping trip next week!!

GOOD LUCK Hippi! I'd wait til they offer the job to you first before worrying if it's a good idea or not. You might feel differently? TBH £200 would help us enormously, and considering the amount of work I was doing preparing for tutoring, probably a much better rate for a job you just turn up and do... I got £20 an hour, but spent probably about 5 hours preparing, so not a fantastic return

Well done for making it to your friends - very brave!

Had a lovely day with friend C and her dd H yesterday. B really enjoyed playing with H while it tipped it down outside. A better day so far today, but we're off to friend J's, with dds A and S, hope they get to play outside for a bit before the next downpours!

Am about camping and trying to think of alternative plan if rained off. Perhaps we'll stay with my sister instead, staying in a Travelodge or similar on way up and down. Typical!

Thank you I hope I will feel differently after the interview. Right now I am just absolutely dreading it
But we will see. Like you say, £200 a month will help enormously so I would be a fool to be too 'proud' to turn it down.

Will be happy once today is over.

O and E are going to my friend L's this afternoon. She has a ds J in O's year (but not class but they are in the same maths and literacy groups and work/sit together then) and a dd L in E's class. Both are lovely children and my two get on well with them

Have a nice day today - I will report back on the interview tonight. [fret]

The rain Just made it home before the heavens opened!

The rain is incredible!
Well, the interview was fine. They are interviewing 3 people but have two vacancies - one in the junior school and one in the infant school. I have said I would be happy to do either one.
Am still not 100% convinced it is what I want to do, but I think I am just nervous of change. Once I am in the swing of it I think it will be just fine.
(but have a heavy heart about it all - stupid no?)

Anyway, I may not even get offered either of the two positions!!

Hello! Gosh, you don't get much time for computering with little people around, do you???! B has had me on the go constantly. Lots of playing board games, making things etc etc. She's curled up watching tv now, so thought I'd grab the opportunity to hop on here quickly!

Glad interview was OK Hippi, but sorry you're still not sure. Would it be a permanent contract? There's nothing worse than doing a job you really hate....but if you can get out of it fairly easily then it might be worth having a go...

One hour later....

Have just lost B to a house down the road for a play. Hooray! I can sit down for a few moments without being chivvied to play Have to say though, I'm thoroughly enjoying the holidays so far

Hello
Spoke to lady in charge of job today. It has gone to someone else. I am relieved and a teeny bit disappointed. But mostly relieved.
It sounded like it was going to be doing mainly dishwashing and floor sweeping and to be honest it would be majorly eating into my day.
I have decided I would rather take my chances in front of 30 teenagers at the secondary school as a cover supervisor [shudder] and wait for a TA job to come up.

However, I was talking to the manager of the swiming school at the pool yesterday about my longstanding dream to become a swimming teacher. We talked about my swimming ability and he recommended some short courses to get my ability up to the required standard. The pool run swimming-teacher training courses. I think it would take at least a year to qualify as the courses are not run all the time. But that would be fine. I would be working mainly afternoons and weekends so my children need to be big enough to be left - so another 3 years or so.
So plenty of time to lose more weight, do a swimming course to become a better swimmer and then sign up for the 2 swimming-teacher courses. That is my plan

In the meantime a friend of mine has asked me to tutor her in German. She is going to pay. Will need to dust off my German but am very interested in doing it
As she is a friend, how much should I charge? [fret]