November 2012 - Halloween costumes anyone?

[StuntNun]

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/postnatal_clubs/2179741-November-2012-The-nights-are-drawing-in-again

Evening everyone :) Hope you've all had a good weekend :)

goshes it's been quiet!

I am totally not prepared for xmas, but I do have good excuses for this (have been very busy)! However, I LOVE wrapping, love love love it! I like to park myself on the floor with all of my bows and ribbons and paper all around me and I stick on a christmas film or a christmas cd and i wrap until my merry little heart is content. I LOVE it.

Ahem, as you were

I love wrapping. Send it all here!

That is just what I do kyz come to my place we can wrap away together!

Today I bought a "don't open until the 25th" ink stamp to make handmade gift tags. My only problem, a minor minor one, is that i don't really have any presents to wrap at the mo

In other news, we ate out today. Me, dh and F. In a cafe, an actual cafe, that catered for my freaky eater. My beautiful girl did me proud, she guzzled all her soup like a proper little lady, with no mess, and a solemn little expression on her face. She has been thoroughly spoiled today, cannot believe how 2 years has flown by!

What a lovely thing bp! Eating out is such a massive part of our lives that it actually makes me a bit wet eyed to think of little F having her first bowl of eating out soup.

Thanks for all your thoughts. zamboni you're spot on, I feel a massive responsibility to progress my career to the point I am earning enough to cover essentially two salaries. I think I'm going to apply for it not because I fancy the fit guy who is coming round tomorrow to help me with my app and then reassess in the highly unlikely chance I get offered it. Very unlikely.

Hope F has had a lovely birthday BPLP

I need some more advice - sorry. I might be totally flamed for this, but what are your views on withholding my last months rent? I did this once years ago with a nightmare landlord who told me I wouldn't be getting it back, but every other landlord I've had has kept my deposit despite every property being handed back in better condition than when I got it. My deposit is not in a tenancy deposit scheme and I do not need a reference. What I do need is the £800 to put towards renovations on the new house. Would you withhold the final month's rent in lieu of deposit in my shoes?

Pass, you won't be the only one with wet eyes - dh and I had proper glisteny moments lol.

Awww lovely stuff - the team pig lunch out made me .

PR get well soon! It sounds utterly horrible.

Our Christmas plans are my sis and the kids staying over from Christmas eve to Boxing Day - her XH isn't bothered about having the kids over Christmas as "its just another day" (!!). Miserable sod. We're having a proper Polish Wigilja (Lily did I spell that right?) feast on Christmas Eve. All the kids will open their pressies together, then I've got the kids a cardboard 'Wendy' fortress for the kids to paint on Christmas morn whilst we get dinner on. DH got me a gorgeous old piano for my birthday - Jonas loves it - my mission is to learn to play at least one Carol before Christmas. The kids have a steam train trip to see Santa too. We're determined to spoil the kids this year with "events" and trips (rather than toys) as Jonas has taken so well to being a brother and its my sister's kids first Christmas since the separation.

I hate wrapping too. I used to do it really well but I think my loathing shows as they look really scruffy when I do them now.

Isles why isn't the deposit in a protection scheme? I thought that was compulsory or is that just in England? I wouldn't personally withhold the rent as your LL seems to have been pretty OK and you've got the dog there so she might have some legitimate expenses to take from the deposit - did you promise carpet cleaning or am I thinking of someone else? If you withhold the rent would that damage your credit rating if she reported you to the credit reference agencies?

bplp how absolutely lovely. So glad F and you had a lovely day.

yw your Christmas plans sound perfect.

pr hope your throat feels better tomorrow. It's really dragging on now!

I've just been reading up on home births. I've swung from wanting an elcs to a homebirth. Bit of a difference. I do sort of know what they entail but I think a planned one would be such a different calmer experience to an unplanned one. Got midwife tomorrow so will discuss it with her.

YW I've just texted the last tenant and he said that he got it back, so I think I'll pay it. The dog was never in the house - just the conservatory - but I'm going to pay for it to be professionally cleaned anyway (even though it was really grubby when I moved in). The only issue she might have a gripe about is that my sofa has scratched the wooden floor and M/my heels have added a few dents. Grr. The fact it's not in a deposit scheme means I can take her to small claims court for 3x the amount should she not pay up, it was a bit of a tactical move on my part not to question it when I moved in. Realistically I can afford to lose it, but would obviously much rather not. She has been a good landlord as far as they go.

Christmas. I'm going to stay at my mums christmas eve to boxing day. It will be the first time ever all four of us (my step bro and 2 sisters) have been at home together, and the first time in 3 years me and my sisters have spent it together. I have a hilarious memory of waking up on my mum's lounge floor with an incredibly fit guy christmas 2011 and thinking I'd managed to sneak him out until my mum found his watch under the xmas tree After that I vowed never to spend christmas with a hangover again.

YW I've just texted the last tenant and he said that he got it back, so I think I'll pay it. The dog was never in the house - just the conservatory - but I'm going to pay for it to be professionally cleaned anyway (even though it was really grubby when I moved in). The only issue she might have a gripe about is that my sofa has scratched the wooden floor and M/my heels have added a few dents. Grr. The fact it's not in a deposit scheme means I can take her to small claims court for 3x the amount should she not pay up, it was a bit of a tactical move on my part not to question it when I moved in. Realistically I can afford to lose it, but would obviously much rather not. She has been a good landlord as far as they go.

Christmas. I'm going to stay at my mums christmas eve to boxing day. It will be the first time ever all four of us (my step bro and 2 sisters) have been at home together, and the first time in 3 years me and my sisters have spent it together. I have a hilarious memory of waking up on my mum's lounge floor with an incredibly fit guy christmas 2011 and thinking I'd managed to sneak him out until my mum found his watch under the xmas tree After that I vowed never to spend christmas with a hangover again.

Isles about the watch guy - brilliant! Ah so its the same as England then, 3x deposit for not lodging a tenant's deposit in a protection scheme - I'd guess if she didn't do that she probably isn't declaring she's renting the house out, or declaring the income to HMRC.

isles as a landlord, no, don't withhold the last rent. Not sure why it is not in a scheme and frankly if you did some damage to the house than she is right to deduct from it. Renting out a house is a business, it would have a huge impact on me not receiving one month rent especially if you give her only one month notice. Pls don't do it.

I have once not paid the last month rent in lieu of receiving deposit back, in arragement with the landlord. He wasn't declaring me and didn't want a load of transactions on his account.

Other than that I have sometimes got deposit back, sometimes not. Once partially due to a bit of damage. Last time was utterly ripped off (have since found out they did the same to my lovely ndn) another time the landlady kept the deposit because she knew I had no proof of giving it to her in the first place. She was a bitch, and again this was an undeclared rental.

However most landlords are pretty fair, IME, and I have rented a LOT of flats/houses. I would frown upon not paying the last month just in case tbh. You're always in a much better position if you play by the rules.

Morning all

Morning all.

Excited much, just sorting out Os passport.

Also I didn't tell you about my moment last week. I met up with a local MNer in town, in my fave cafe, last Wednesday. I had both boys and she had a gorgeous 7 month old. DS1 was brill, but after lunch and a lot of chat O was getting v fed up with being ignored.

Unbeknownst to me he took off his shoes and flung one across the really busy cafe. It landed right next to a mans plate. Very nearly in his food

Talk about mortified.

I think he was ok about it. He wasn't laughing, but then he was 't grumpy either.

O will get me banned.

Morning.

I have been back to the Dr. She says it can't be hf&m, or herpangina as they would have shown signs of clearing up. She looked at it again and confirmed that clinically it is worse than it was the last two visits, so it's not just me feeling sorry for myself and getting fed up.

She has phoned an ORL who says the most likely bet is primary infection of coldsores aka herpes, which is what we suspected last week. The antivirals should be working but looks like we got to it too late, and maybe would be worse without them who knows and I'm not going to stop taking them to find out

ORL says if not better or improving by end of the week he will fit me in Friday or Monday, I'm just to email my GP and she will get me an appointment.

:o Wanda that's funny. I would have been too but it's a story you'll be able to dine out on with every one of his future girlfriends, at his wedding day, etc etc.

Good that you are meeting people :)

Ouch, pr

Wanda sorry but that made me chuckle too!

Just about to make my Christmas cake, v v late indeed. Just blame the pox. And the bad chest etc etc.

Dropped F to nursery, the next group up. Poor soul cried her eyes out, so much so that the girls who looked after her in the baby group were as she never ever cries normally. Luckily her beloved key worker was close at hand and saved the day.

It's cold here. Have drawn all upstairs curtains, popped the radiators on - what else can i do to warm our chilly house??

Oh pr. hope it clears up soon. I seem to have been saying that for days.

Re cold house bplp I'm notoriously bad for having the heating on a lot. I hate a cold house so I'm probably not the best person to answer.

Quiet day today. been pottering around the house with E and went to midwife. Baby appears to be head down now. Going to pick DD1 up from school and then wander up to the library.

Put a jumper on bp shut all the doors too and get some draft excluders. Turn the rads off in the rooms you don't use. Run about doing cleaning always helps for me!!

Thanks Wanda

Eliza, our thermostat reckons it was 13.5°C...didn't feel far from that.
Have made a v mini trial run cake in the end - dairy and egg free. If it is yummy, and F likes it too, then shall make a full scale version. Nobody else in the house likes Christmas cake heathens

Glad to hear baby is behaving now, Eliza. Did you decide re: home birth/elcs?

I feel a cold coming on. Fourth in two months. Just what I need right now

No Xmas cake here (ugh) we get the baker to make us an Xmas log. It is always amazing. Far better than anything I could make myself.

pr do you take a good multivit? If not I think you should, you are v run Down I think which is why you get something on Something else. If you were mine I would be giving you a multivit and lots of dark greens, blueberries, kiwis and water. As well as very early nights. You would have chilli chicken noodle broth for supper and a superfood smoothie for breakfast. (I will pm you a good concoction).

13.5 is cold bp has it warned up yet?

I go into a panic if the thermostat drops below 18. it was 16 this morning and I was cold and grumpy!

Yep. I'm going for a homebirth. I just hope it turns out as I want. ie at least one qualified midwife with me. But what will be will be. Just mainly praying it doesn't come on Christmas day. I've given it strict instructions to come between either 18th - 22nd or 29th onwards